Death March of The Circus

Just an ordinary life for me here inside the classroom. Listening to the professor seems to be the only thing I can do apart from taking a nap during discussions. Nothing unusual... It's the same old situation given that the rain seems to be agreeing with my boredom. My classmates are busy taking notes while I, on the other hand, am busy looking outside the windows, quietly thinking about what to do when I get home.  To introduce myself my name is Atroquine Garcia, 18 years of age and currently I am literally feeling sleepy because of this stupid atmosphere. There hasn’t been much to do recently thanks to the rain and the sloppy weather forecasts these past days. From what I’ve seen on the news, a few low-pressure areas are seen and the percentages of each area in terms of their rainfall vary. “That’s it for today's class.” Our professor said, signifying the rest of us to stand and leave the room immediately. In my situation, I don’t know what else to do at home nor what to achieve in the next series of days that I would be encountering. Tests already came upon us and we are just having a bit of a wrap up on what went wrong with the results. As I went outside the school premises, the rain started to fall. The rest of us had to rush outside the gate and go to different places to take shelter. I just casually went onward with my pace since the place where I stay isn’t far from here. A few hundred meters from the school, there’s a street full of apartments for rent which happens to be student-friendly. Various working students find good deals in this area, not to mention that the neighborhood is also fine and the place is close to the school. I myself happen to be one of the fortunate few to acquire a decent space. Thanks to the part-time job that I have as a writer, I have enough money to pay the rent at my leisure. However, I still spend most of my money buying reference books on geography, physics/chemistry, philosophy and a great variety of art materials for my past time. Just like what I did a while ago in class, I tend to draw whenever ideas start to pop out of my head.  I also have a bad reputation during my high school days since I often get myself involved in fights. I literally trained myself every single day to the point that I had to cut classes just to get my body to the right conditions in fighting people. By doing so I get some money and people get to befriend me even though it’s obvious that they do that out of fear. That’s why from pencils, paintbrushes, paint and literature books, I chose to have a lot of stuff to keep me company after school. I don’t give a damn about the people around me since I can sense all generic intentions. Reaching the front of my apartment, I opened the gate with my keys. As soon as I open the door, I removed my shoes and clothes, hurriedly went to my room to get my towel, and finally took a nice bath. Even though the water is cold, it doesn’t make much of a difference since the rain outside is as cold as this one. Heating water would only spend much gas and I still have no fixed budget for buying a new tank for now. I would definitely want to use the stone stove but I can’t burn coals inside. That was part of the agreement in living in this place – its either you use an electric stove or gas stove. Finishing my bath, I got outside, picked up my wet clothes, hanged it near the windows, and went to my room. I laid down on my bed, stared at the walls of my room while looking at the different creatures I’ve drawn these past few years. It’s the story of my life engraved on each paper. From humanoid monsters with clothes up to various kinds of races like elves and dwarves, every single one of them is my companion. My inspiration comes out randomly especially on occasions that I encounter new stuff whenever I’m reading books or watching shows about nature. I’ve been constantly trying to draw to improve my skills, establishing my own little world that I can consider as my safe haven. It’s been quite some time since I’ve reminisced this much about myself. What can I say, I’ve been living alone for almost my entire life, with no real identity, no relative, and no place to call home. I’m not sure why this happened but everything seems normal for everybody. My classmates have all the things they need in such as affection and a sense of security. However, I cannot fully understand why can’t I have those things like a normal person? When I became conscious in this world, I was an orphan. My adoptive mother, a nun told me that they found me lying on the street beside a car crash. The driver and what the crowd assumes would be my parents were both dead on the spot. The only things that I had that time were a pair of weird clothes and a piece of paper containing the words “Atroquine”, which according to the authorities that responded appear like it had been written by someone without any experience with the alphabet. Nobody knew who I was except for that name. Even my parents’ identity was also unknown which is something that bothers me. The most disheartening part of it all was that after all these years I can’t remember anything about them no matter how hard I try, not… one… bit. Tears fell on my eyes as I grit my teeth from those vague but despicable memories. Trying to redirect my focus on a different topic, I stood up and went to my chair to draw something out of my depression. Grabbing a pencil, I started doing scribbles, getting a firm grip on what I want to outline. I started doing circles for the body followed up by a square for the head. Bit by bit, images of a humanoid frog came into fruition after several minutes of doing random lines. I immediately stood up and opened my left side drawer, pulling one of the reference books I use for clothing. This is just a list of fashion styles ranging from medieval Europe up to the current trend. I also have several more regarding military gear but I don’t think it would suit well in this particular drawing. The Victorian-style caught my eye. I grabbed a separate piece of paper and drew my own version of the clothing. After that, I applied the design on the frog and used my coloring pens to give life to this masterpiece. “A king frog,” I said to myself as I held it in front of the windows, the light coming from outside emphasized each detail I’ve drawn after the finishing touches. I cleared my tables and returned the book inside the drawers. I grabbed a scotch tape in my supplies and stuck the frog on an empty space on the walls. With that added to my collection, I decided to take a break. I forgot that I haven’t been able to consume most of the stuff I have in the kitchen. Since I don’t have a fridge, most of the food I buy are all instant if not something I am bound to eat within four hours. For this afternoon’s menu, I still have some leftover Danggit and several cup noodles. I could probably just fry the fish and then add it together with the noodles for additional munching. These past few days I’ve been able to buy multiple stacks of these things because of the sale present at a local supermarket near my place. Even though I have more than enough money to get some ingredients to do home-cooked meals, I don’t have that much time on my hands to prepare. After boiling some water for my noodles, I remembered something “I probably need some refreshments.” Pulling the wallet out of my bag, I took an umbrella behind my bedroom door and went outside to buy some soft drinks at the nearest store that I can find. Since I haven’t eaten any decent lunch, I might as well have a blast with the things that I can buy there. It’s just three o clock yet the place looks like dusk already. I started walking towards the sari-sari store just a few meters away. The skies started to grumble apart from the increase of the rainfall. “Don’t tell me the weather forecast is still nuts.” I find it unbelievable that these changes happen outside of meteorology. Halfway through, I heard a weird noise coming from the sky. As soon as I looked up, a bright flash blinded me and I suddenly became numb. “I’m probably dead…” I said to myself as I faded into nothingness. (End of Chapter)