The Awakening of a Soul Reaper

Chapter 18 Old Town

The next morning Clarise, Willow and Tyler walks to school, when as they get closer to the school, they can see police vehicles and police officers blocking of the school yard.  Just outside there are some people trying to construct a makeshift podium.   All the students are instructed to stand in neatly formed rows in front of the podium, while everyone waits for Mrs. Hill.  Everyone whispers between each other wondering what this can be all about.

A couple of minutes later she makes her entrance followed by teachers and then the student body.

“Ahem” she taps the microphone to make sure it’s on.

“Students, teachers and student body, I regret to inform you that our lovely school have been vandalized by vandals.  Someone blew up a wall in our gymnasium it caused damages that first needs to be prepared.  The police is busy going through all classrooms searching for explosives and making sure that it saves for everyone, before anyone can enter.  Due to this disturbance school will open an hour later than normal and will also close an hour later today.

Further, no student will be allowed on school premises after school hours unless they have an appointment with a teacher, coach or with a member of the student council.  Any afterhours activities need to be reported, scheduled, and approved by the principal's offices before it will be accepted…

The school gym will now only be open if a coach, teacher or a member of student council is available to supervise, training sessions.  Any person or student that is caught after hours on school premises without proper authorization will be arrested by the police, no exceptions will be made.  A reward has been made available for information that will lead to the apprehension of the perpetrators that caused this damage.  The commander of the police force told us they will be busy for another hour, after that school will start as normal, with homeroom and then first period”

All the student stands around talking and wondering who could have done the damages and what it looked like.  “So, what do you think?” asks Tyler looking over at Clarise taking her hand in his.

“I have no idea”

James leaning forward “Well I heard that it might be someone who has a grudge against Mr. Philips the coach” pushing up his glasses with his index finger.

Willow leans over James pushing him even more forward “No Mr. Philips is a cutie.  He always goes out of his way to help athletes he helped me a lot with my training”

“Then what do you suggest this is all about?” asks Tyler.

“Hmmm, why would anyone blow up a gym, maybe someone accidentally blew it up” replies Clarise from the side.

The four of them sit and think about that and then start to talk about other things, till the bell rings.  During recess almost everyone rushes over to the gymnasium to try and see what the fuss is all about.

Looking around and in front of him Tyler notice pieces of brick and plaster lying in front of his feet “That is weird!” and scanning the aria.

“What is?” asks Willow.

“If it was a bomb then they would have planted the bomb on the outside of building, which means the force would cause more of the debris to go flying inside, but look here,” he points with the tip of his shoe to a piece of brick lying in front of him.  Also look at the whole hole, if it was explosives then it would have been a much rounder type of explosion, when a bomb explodes it pushes a force out in all directions evenly leaving the placement of the bomb as the center point or point of detonation.  When taking the point of detonation into consideration and you look at this hole then it almost looks like someone ripped through the wall from the inside with something. “He shows them with his fingers at the narrow cut line at the top of the hole.

“But what can go through four or five layers of bricks” asks James.

“Something very sharp, and very strong! And something that has been driven through with force” replies Tyler.

“Okay kids, back off” says a construction worker moving in with a big s***h hammer and another one with a wheelbarrow, and another one starts placing cones to mark of the aria where they are going to work.  They also place a small wooden barricade at all 3 sides with a sign on them reading No unhurried personnel behind this point “well this is school so I hope everyone can read!” the construction worker says with a deep loud voice.

All the students’ starts to back off except for Clarise, she stands there looking at the damage.  Could I have really done all this damage? She stands and thinks. 

“Why do you look so worried?  I won’t let anything happen to you” Tyler says, spinning her around facing him.

Oh boy, if you only knew she thought putting on a smile.  “Well thank you my hero” she says teasing him.

The two of them walk off as the bell rings for the end of recess.  The rest of the day is pretty straight forward no much happens. 

“Tomorrow is Friday, do you guys want to do something after school” asks James

Clarise wonders what she is going to do now that her training aria have been compromised where is she going to train now without being noticed.

“Is there any abandoned playgrounds, warehouses or parks in the aria, that we can go explore” Clarise asks.

James and Willow looks at her with big frowns on their faces.

“Why do you want to go and do that” asks Tyler, “I didn’t take you as an adventurer” he teaches while playfully bumping her with his shoulder.

“I just want to see a bit more of the city, without being between lots of people” replies Clarise, “in Norbury I used to go and walk and explore forest outside of town, but here I don’t know where to go” she explains.

“Hmmm, there is the old train yard,” replies James, “but I don’t think it will be fun to explore there” he is quite intrigue by Clarisse’s suggestion.

Willow jumps forward turns around facing them and starts to walk backwards “What about the old Zoo?”

“That sounds like fun” replies Tyler.

“Okay then tomorrow after school we go and explore?” asks Clarise.

“Will there be something to eat?” Willow rubs her hands together.

“I will try and arrange something” replies Clarise and everyone start laughing at Willow.

“Oh, just don’t tell your aunt where we are going, I don’t think she will like it” replies James.

She points her thumb in the air and splits of to go to her aunt’s bakery. 

The rest of the afternoon and night is quiet and the next day after school the four of them meet up at Aunt Belle’s bakery where they put some goodies in a backpack that Tyler is caring for safekeeping.  Walking to the old abandoned zoo takes them quite a while.  To reach it they need to walk through a more abandoned part of the city.  Most of the old office buildings they walked past lays in ruins and is broken down stripped of everything that could be reused, some just demolished by vandals.

“What happened here” asks Tyler walking looking at the ruins with graffiti all over them.

“What I have heard is that an earthquake twenty or so years ago caused most of the damage, it also caused a gas leak that toke flame and burned down most of these buildings.  Also, a lot of animals escaped.  So, they build a zoo on the other side of the city what they call now New Town.

Coming to the entrance of the zoo, the four students look at the big open parking aria that has a big crack running from inside the zoo right through it.  The four student’s walks over to the old abandoned ticket office the paint on the board above the office hardly visible burned away by the sun.  Before they can enter, they need to bend underneath a warning sign that reads, warning unstable structures inside Keep out!  On the inside of the office, they can see that a homeless person some time ago must have slept there.   Going into the zoo the first get small tear downed little shops.  The foot path leads to an overgrown fountain the board reads, wising fountain.

The path splits off into two directions the one on the left leads to what looks like big bird cages, and the one on the right leads to where they kept some sort of animal with water around.  The four friend’s takes the path on the right and start to walk through the overgrown enclosures that only holds overgrown vegetation now.   As they walk deeper into the zoo it feels more and more if they are walking into a forest.  The trees that is now growing free and wild has created a canopy over the foot path the four of them walks on, moss has taken over against the damp walls of the enclosures.

Tyler looks up and spins around while he looks at the sun that is peaking through the leaves of the trees, “It smells so fresh in here, it’s so refreshing” he says with a big smile.

“I never thought it would look like this” Willow says while looking at amazement at the enclosures where plants have crawled up against the walls concealing the manmade structures behind them.  Let take a break suggest James while sitting on a broken concrete bench.  They sit down and enjoy some of the treats that Clarise have packed, Willow the first one to reach in and grab a jam tart.  Everyone started laughing again at her.  While they sit there, they can hear wild birds in the trees, it feels so quiet and calming.

Clarse lies with her back against Tyler, he bends forward and give her a small peck kiss on her lips.  “You seem to really enjoy this?” he says pulling his hand through her long hair.

“Yea it feels like a person can think here, without the rush of being somewhere or doing something” she says.

“An escape” Willow says.

“Exactly!” Clarise smiles.

When Clarise gets to her feet she looks over to an enclosure the board reading, American Brown Bear when she looks inside of the enclosure, she can see what looks like a ghost inside the den where the bears used to sleep.  “I will come back for you!” she says softly.  “Come back for who?” asks Tyler who is standing behind her.  “For you, you!” she spins around tickling him around his belly laughing.  He laughs but as they walk away, he stops and looks in the direction that she was standing.  When Clarise stops and turns around she can see on his face that he doesn’t belief what she said earlier.

The four of them decides to go back home but to come back on another day to come and explore more.

At the bakery everyone splits, except for Tyler he walks Clarise back home still carrying the empty backpack.  “What did you see in that enclosure?” he asks her.

She looks at him startled did he see the ghost? She wonders.

“No, I, I didn’t see anything” she replies nodding her head no.

He doesn’t mention it again as they walk to her home.  She invites him in but he says he needs to get home it’s getting late; he kisses her goodbye and leaves.

She asks herself if she should have told him what she have seen in that den.  It feels to her that he doesn’t belief her and she feels worried that this will cause a problem between them.  But he wouldn’t understand he would think that she is a weirdo and that the feeling that he and she shares till disappear.

Inside she goes and sit down at the kitchen asking her aunt about her day and talking about school, she does not dare bring up the zoo afraid that her aunt will not allow her to go there again.  But she also wants to try and find out about what happened in that area, and if there are still some people living there, if not then she might have a new training place.

“Aunt Belle do you know anything about the district that is now abandoned, I think the people said something about an earthquake or gas explosions?” she asks her aunt.

Planting herself on the kitchen table leaning forward, “Well if I remember correctly, it was about eighteen or nineteen years ago it happened just before I moved to the city I remember.  Fun fact, my very first apartment was supposed to be that side of the city” she smiles.

“So, is there still any people living that side of the city?”

“Well, I don’t really know, I know the city manager and the major of that time condemned that part of the city, but we all know in harsh times people are going to stay where they can find a spot.  So, I think if there are any people living there it might be homeless or very poor people.”