The Unremarkable Times of Lanson Gate, Chapter 2

I Play Extreme Chess
I was minding my own business, oblivious to the world, when I felt two very cold hands wrap themselves around my eyes. They smelled of peppermint.

“Guess who?” said a familiar female voice. I smirked, and then turned around to look into the icy blue eyes of Marie.

Maries has always been my oldest and closest friend since we were little. We met in Kindergarten when a 2nd Grade bully stole her only cupcake and I gave her my piece of homemade strawberry pie (the only one I ever had, actually. My grandmother never baked another one). Been friends ever since.

We were almost exactly alike. We both had short black hair, and a skinny build. She however, was shorter than I. She wore a light purple shirt and black jeans.

“What are you doing out of class, Jack Frost?” I asked her. The nickname comes from the fact that Marie’s skin was always cold, so I started calling her Jack Frost in 3rd Grade. She counters it by calling me Lance, which isn’t as bad as Porcupine.

Marie ran a hand through her hair, and smiled. Her teeth glittered like freshly fallen snow. “I’m going to the Isolation Room.”

I frowned. Marie has never been sent out of class before. “Mr. Clark made you leave?”

She nodded. “I tried to tell him the truth about what really happened, but he must’ve been really heated up, because he sent me out too.”

I immediately felt guilty. “I’m sorry I’ve gotten your perfect record tarnished.”

She punched me playfully in the shoulder and grinned. “Don’t think about it. It was totally worth it. Sadie looked so angry when I got up to leave, but she also had a mischievous gleam in her eye. And you know she’s the Queen of Gossip. We might have rumors starting now that you and me are, um, together.”

Marie blushed and I turned away, hoping she hadn’t noticed that my face had decided to take on the shade of deep crimson.

We walked in silence for a while, until I remembered what Sadie had said about the Winter Formal.

“Marie?” We were almost at the Isolation Room door.

She looked at me, and smiled. We had grown really close during our walk. I hadn’t really noticed. “Yes, Lance?”

I opened my mouth. “Would y-you, um, like t-to, um,” Calm down, Lanson boy. I signed, and decided to just let it out. “Would you like to be my date for the Winter Formal?” I went quiet, and stared down at the floor.

Marie went quiet for a while, and then I suddenly felt her cold hand wrap itself in mine. It felt extremely pleasant.

“Lanson, I would love to be your date.” She was smiling and I realized I was supposed to be doing something, but couldn’t realize what.

Suddenly, I heard a door slam open and Marie and I immediately spread apart (Third Rule at Saint John’s: No Public Display of Affection). We had reached the Isolation Room without realizing it. Standing in the door was a bizarre senior classman I had never seen before. He was super tall and had a full beard and burly body building arms. He smelled like a sewer (how I know what a sewer smells like, don’t ask). And his teeth were so yellow and shiny that they should’ve come with a sign reading: DON’T STARE DIRECTLY AT TEETH. MAY MISINTEREPRET FOR THE SUN.

“Fresh meat!” he yelled in a very gruff voice. Then he extended his hand that I shook reluctantly. He had a killer grip. “I’m Babar, the new Isolation Room Supervisor”

Marie looked at me and I looked at her. Every instinct in my body screamed ‘Run like heck!’, but I didn’t want to get in trouble again so we walked into the room, thinking everything was going to be okay.

I couldn’t believe how wrong I was.

The Isolation Room isn’t a very big place. It’s about the size of a small office room, and housed four circle tables and a book shelf full of books no one wanted to leave. But the three other guys inside of it made it even more crowded than usual.

They all looked like Babar. Similar physical appearance, similar voice. They even had the same sewer smell, which made Marie wrinkle her nose and caused me to sneeze.

His buddies had names too. They were Luney, Growl, and Colgate (Seriously, were their mom’s on the sane side when they named them?). I had been inside the Isolation Room before, and there had only been one supervisor (a rather grumpy one, if I may add). I discussed this to Babar, who frowned at me like I was stupid.

“We work as a team! We think, speak, and kill- I mean teach better together!” he told me.

I noticed he said kill. I hope that was a mistake. As I walked back over to where Marie was sitting down, the one called Growl pulled me aside.

“Want to play a game of chess?” he asked me.

Okay, now I knew something weird was going on. Out of all the times I’ve been in here before, the Supervisors have never acted like this. But my record was already bad enough. I didn’t want “Excessive Brutality to Teacher Assistants” added to the list. So I said sure, and walked over to a table that Growl pointed to in the corner. Marie followed us as well.

Growl took the seat opposite the corner, while I took the one directly in the crook of the wall. He pulled out one of those neat foldable chessboards, green and black in color, and set it on the table.

“Which pieces do you want to you use?” Growl asked me. I decided on green, so he took the black ones. As soon I touched the pieces, I felt weird, like I had sealed a bargain or something. But I ignored it, and began setting up my pieces. Marie came over to stand by me.

“I have a really bad feeling, Lance…” she murmured. She touched my arm, making me shiver slightly. I looked up at her and gave her a reassuring grin.

“It’s okay. I mean, it’s just chess, right?” I told her, and then I looked at Growl with my game face on. “Make your move”

Growl grinned as he moved his pawn forward. I moved one of my own pawns forward until I realized I had fallen into Growl’s trap. His bishop came zooming over from across the board and knocked over my pawn. However, instead of falling over, it disintegrated.

Immediately I felt drained, like my life force had abandoned me. I slumped forward and almost hit my head on the table, and tried to struggle back up.

Marie cried out, and tried to help me up, but Colgate and Luney restrained her. “What did you do to him?! Why did that piece turn to dust?” Growl looked surprised, and licked his lips.

“You saw that? Your one of them too?” he demanded. “And we thought that he was the only one here. But the more meat the merrier”

And then he grinned, showing off his fangs…wait, his fangs?

I struggled to my seating position. “What are you?” I croaked.

Colgate looked shocked. “You’re alive! Usually one move kills demigods, but you’re a strong one. You will make good eating”

My mind was racing. Demigod? Demi meant half so…

“Are you saying I’m half god?” I said tiredly, still pretty drained from the chess move.

Babar smiled. “It’s seems you haven’t been claimed yet. Good, you have no one to pray to before we eat you. But until then, you play chess!”

I looked more closely at Babar and realized that he was growing. He was now at least eight feet tall and his eyes were bloodshot red. He had huge fangs. One quick observation told me Luney, Growl, and Colgate looked like this too.

“No, I won’t play anymore you- whatever you are!” I gasped angrily, but that outburst was a little to energy taxing, and I almost slumped forward again.

Then Luney gripped Marie’s arm tighter, making her cry out in pain. “You will. Unless, of course, you want to watch as we eat your girlfriend.”

I knew I shouldn’t play the Evil Chess Game from Hell, but I couldn’t risk putting Marie’s life in danger. And besides, an insane plan was brewing inside my head. If my pieces take small chunks of my life force, does that mean…

I called on some unknown strength and struggled upward in my seat and grinned. “Fine, let’s play some chess. And if remember, it’s my move.”

In order to test out my theory, I had to sacrifice another pawn. Which meant I would have to lose some more energy. I grimaced, and then played my ploy. Growl immediately used his bishop to take out the pawn, and I blacked out. I kept seeing this hooded guy with wings, staring at me.

Your time is up, Lanson Gate. The man reached out a hand. I reached out my hand too, a strange urge to touch the man manifested in me…

“LANSON!” The sound of Marie crying out my name woke me back up, and the monsters stared at me in disbelief.

“No way you should still be alive” growled Colgate. But I wasn’t listening; I used the last ounce of my strength to make my rook take out Growl’s bishop. His piece disintegrated, and he began to look tired. I on the other hand, felt strength flow through my body. I was still weak, but at least I could sit up properly.

YES!! So it does work. And it looks like if I destroy his pieces, I gain strength. Now if I only had something heavy…

Growled snarled at me and licked his fangs. “You got in lucky move. Others not be so lucky” He prepared to move his bishop…

…When I grabbed his head and smashed it into his chess pieces, disintegrating them all. Everyone didn’t breathe for a moment and Growl looked at me in surprise. I was a little surprised myself. I mean, I slammed him into the table so hard that the wood cracked down the middle. I’ve never been that strong. Then the monster collapsed into a big pile of dust.

At the same time, a flood of strength coursed through my limbs and mixed with my newfound strength. Man, did I feel good! It felt like I had been given one of those five hour energy shots or something.

“You killed our brother!” yelled Luney. “Now we eat you!!” He and Colgate released Marie, and threw her over to Babar, who caught her in his massive hands. Then they began moving over to me.

I grabbed the chessboard. Not the best weapon, I know, but still better than nothing.

The cannibals jumped toward me and I braced myself for becoming the world’s biggest happy meal, when the door slammed open.

And I got to see the craziest cavalry ever.

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