Eigen's Paradox

Chapter 1

Acloud of solid fog dissipated revealing absolute horror, the kind of horror that keeps monsters awake at night in their beds-which happens to be underneath the beds of little children where it is safest to sleep- Horror that penetrated every mind in the circle of hooded cultists. One, so scared that he could barely utter a sentence for fear of being devoured whole in an instant spoke almost in a whisper Wha...what j-j-just happened? he stammered. The circle all sighed in relief, after catching their breath their leader announced I don’t know about the rest of you, he said solemnly but this is the first and last time that I meddle with this nonsense. He said as he stared at the empty space within the circle while someone switched on a light, the room lit up and a fat cultist hobbled over to the fridge and eagerly opened it beers anyone? he squealed its Friday and this the first weekend that my boss- he was about to explain some thing when an elderly woman’s shrill voice called down to them from the first floor Billy! everyone froze I hope you and your friends aren’t trying to make a teleportation doo-hicky again! she shouted, Billy rolled his eyes as he closed the fridge behind him No Mom! he hollered.

Meanwhile in a Boys’ Hostel not too far away lay a slumbering boy, who couldn’t escape his dreams. Eigen, a fifteen year old with, dark hair and metallic grey eyes. He ran along endless hallways in a night terror. There was darkness everywhere and although he knew not what he was running from, he only knew that he was becoming increasingly self-aware in the nightmare. He passed endless doors, all closed, all locked. No amount of tugging would open them. He stopped to catch his breath and although he knew he was in a dream the vividness grew to the point where he could feel his foot prints carving in to his shoes from endless running. Sweat poured off of him and smell the rancid corridors filled his nose. His mind was growing weary and then...a door opened and as he hastily stepped through he was suddenly enveloped in water and found himself fighting against it, trying to swim up towards a faint light, he burst through the surface and his lungs opened up to receive oxygen. Then he was awake, his eyes shot open and he heaved for air as cold sweat dripped from his forehead. He wiped the sweat away and lay back, everything was fine, all a bad dream. He was about to drift back to sleep when it occurred to him that he had never seen the room before and thus he sat upright again. A deafening bell rang in his ears as the boys’ hostel came alive, it turned out that he had three roommates, who ran out in a hurry to get to the showers. Eigen sat there perplexed, somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind he coaxed out a little memory. He was Eigen Riven, a five teen year old who had recently joined Silverwood High. But surprisingly that was about it, he tried to remember more but nothing yielded. A sudden panic grabbed him as he realised that he had forgotten most of his life, he took deep breaths, and slowly came to the conclusion that he might remember as the day went by, hoping that it was only temporary, sudden amnesia. So he found which locker was his, got dressed, attended breakfast and then scurried off to school. Once there he vaguely remembered where his home room was and walked towards it, it was in the bustle of students that his vision began to smudge, his sense of balance buckled. As he stood still for a moment he watched with blurry eyes as the contorted shapes and faces of his peers strode by. He pushed on to his home room and by that time the bell rang for register. He took a seat, as did most of the class. He rubbed his eyes thoroughly and when he looked up he saw the blurry shapes clear up as though someone wiped his eyes clean. 

The teachers’ plaque read Mrs. Noondance and while Eigen remembered that she was young and fair, he also remembered that she most certainly did not have long pointy ears and eyes like sapphires, with long hair like golden threads. She began to read from her roster, at first her words were like liquid sound but as he lent his ear they slowly became understandable. She was reading names of his class mates and waiting for them to reply  present or absent, names that were sometimes simple like Trever -who happened to be absent- but the majority of names were either strange like Slissiven Saang or had too many clicks and grunts. He took the opportunity to quickly sketch a rough portrait of the different kinds of changes he saw some had under gone. In some barely any change could be seen, one or two had eyes like lizards, but nearly all the class had gone green and sprouted two short tusks from their lower jaws- the girls tusks could barely be noticed- One girl had shrunk to about the size of a small child and couldn’t spare a breath to stop talking, he had just begun to get the last sketch right when silence dawned on him. He peeked up to find every one staring at him, Eigen, said Mrs. Noondance expectantly Eigen Riven, It’s your second day right? she smiled kindly at him, it took a moment for it to dawn on him that he had spaced out Yes! he jolted up he scratched the back of his head Sorry, I got a bit carried away. He apologised quickly as he closed the textbook that he had been drawing in. Normal class behaviour resumed, on the way to his first class he saw more oddities, more pupils like Mrs. Noondance, he spied a different kind that were just shorter than himself but as stout as could be and whose pointy ears lay horizontal along their heads. A Giant that loomed over everyone, lard piggish looking individuals that glared at him if he made eye contact. Normal humans were mixed with the strange and mysterious new beings that he saw, or so he thought. The first half of the day flew by as his wandering attention and thoughts drove him to scribble down notes of what he saw, the bell rang to indicate that break time had started, he approached the teacher that had given math and asked for directions to the library. The math teacher was tall and skinny, hand tusks too but instead of a leathery green complexion he had pale blue. It was also noted in Eigens’ journal that Mr. Xtho’Zyn had a secondary pair of tusks that were behind the first pair, were larger and curled out to the sides, giving him a menacing appearance. Eigen was cautious, but managed to muster enough courage to approach the math teacher who courteously received him and soon he had found his way to the library. Large doors swing open and when he stepped through a senior girl greeted him with a warm smile and showed him around Over here is the fiction, over there is practical theory as well as non-fiction, Ooh ever there are the encyclopaedias, dictionaries and thesauruses! she exclaimed breathlessly, it was clear that she was enthusiastic about his interest in books but unbeknownst to her he was even more desperate to find books about folklore and mythical creatures because of her bouncy personality. Eigens’ eyes struggled to stay at eye level with her, wandering down uncontrollably at the whim of her movement. A gentleman would have much to say about his lack of self-control but Eigen just couldn’t keep his eyes off of Chimersties’ whip like tail, it curled around her leg at some point and at its’ tip it was shaped like a heart. There too were two fleshy studs just under her fringe. Eigen had heard of these particular beings and had read about them online but ultimately he had never thought that he would have the misfortune of meeting one, wearily he thanked her and eagerly found some books that seemed intriguing. He quickly read over old tales of Trolls, Fairies, Dwarves, and Elves as well as many Fay creatures. Beyond a few foot notes there wasn’t any real indication that what he was seeing had much roots in myth-save for here and there of course-So he concluded that he might find something useful under the paranormal section, after carefully placing the first batch of books back in their proper places he found the biggest book he could find in the paranormal section Catalogue of the Strange and Mysterious was its title, the school bell rang. The fat book was placed back gleefully, Eigen turned to leave but his eye caught sight of the Librarian. Perched on a high chair behind an Oak counter sat she like an owl, her gaze slowly scanning the room. Large feathers cloaked her which grew into scales as they reached up her throat, becoming small spatters under her jaw. Her dark brown hair was neatly cut above the shoulders and casted a fair shadow on her face which highlighted her orangey, amber eyes that had a soft glow to them. Eigen waved her good bye as he passed and pretended not see her eyes narrowing as they locked on to him, the door closed behind him and he tried to shake the ominous feeling, but it clung to him well until the end of the school day. Mid-day was quite hot that day and the boys were eager to receive their lunch at the hostel, a neat line waited patiently at the back part of the building. Eigen wasn’t quite sure why he was standing in line, but the rest of the boys were so he stood anyway, as the line dragged forward he saw a hole in the side of the building. While in line he tried to see what was in it but it seemed to be only an empty chamber inside. He moved along, but took a second glance and for a moment, a shape was there and then in a second it was gone. He rubbed his eyes, the world oscillated around him as he tried to focus, his vision blurred and he fell to the side. His hand shot out just in time to push against the door post of the hostel. The Matrons shrivelled hands grabbed him and shook him vigorously Ay...ay, you’re not bleed’n, what’s wrong? she demanded to know, I-I feel dizzy. He squeaked, the Matron shook her head in annoyance and stomped off to the kitchens’ Pantry mumbling to herself loudly and shortly returned with a pain tablet Don’t think that you’re going to get a tablet every second day here, she grumbled and returned to her work. Eigen went upstairs to his dorm, changed his clothes and collapsed on his bead. He pulled his pillow over his face, sound echoed in his ear drums and it felt like his intestines were knotting inside him. His roommates-two of the green, tusked variety and another that looked like someone took the head of a childs’ baby doll and grafted it onto a skinny old man’s body with two crimped tubes coming out of the back of the head and leading into the base of his short fat neck. Eigen lay dead still in his daze and listened to the indecipherable clicks and grunts that seemed to be a language common among the tusked crowd, "that’s so rude, I don’t understand Ocrish and I was even going to share my chips. He whined while pulling out a party bag of chips from his locker, the two paused for a moment and then smiled. One slung an arm over the baby-faced ones shoulder and the other rummaged through his locker I can see we going to be good friends." they chuckled as they led him out of the room with his edibles. Eigen made a mental note of these happenings just before he drifted off to an uneasy slumber.

Chapter 2

The air was stale in the full class room from the combined breath of twenty students and one teacher. Eigen sat quietly in his chair trying not to let the noise of the class get to him, his attention snatched away by the slightest deviation in sound, the most subtle movement. He had given up on reading ahead in his study book and had since developed a nasty head ache, in-between that, a group of boys chatting about sport, and the person behind him kicking his chair. He distinctly heard a girl talking in an undertone That new guy...yeah, did you see how weird he writes, it’s so creepy. She said, Eigen dared not look back. Instead he sunk into his chair in shame. He knew that the majority of his peers didn’t write in cursive like he did but he didn’t know that his hand writing was that bad. He closed his eyes, half wishing the day would end and half wanting to run away from the crowd he was in. he focused on breathing slowly and counted to ten, breathed out, ‘ what do you feel?’ He asked himself, eyes closed, he spread his fingers out on the table ‘ I feel wood...old, lots of grooves etched into it,’ he thought to himself as his index finger traced the curve of a particularly large groove ‘Number Eight’ he thought and opened his eyes slowly to find that he was correct. He closed his eyes again and let his fingers wander over the grooves of the desk again but this time just as a will full distraction, subjugating the rest of his attention. A memory flickered, that of the previous night’s dream where everyone had turned in to monsters, he smiled as he vaguely remembered strange names and faces, scribbling in a textbook about everything he saw. He folded his arms on the table and was just getting comfortable when the sharp ringing of the school bell pierced his ear drums. After some snooping around the school Eigen found his English class, the plaque above the door read Mrs. Gillard Eigen entered just in the nick of time and found seat near the window. Now class, I want you all to go over the work you’ve done yesterday. She said and strolled down the lines of desks. Eigen dutifully opened his book and paged to where he had started working, a strange yet familiar sight greeted him. A sketch of a plump woman bearing the likeness of Mrs. Gillard save for horizontal, pointy ears. Lines of loopy characters were written neatly around the sketch and flowed over on to the pages that followed, accompanied by more sketches. He sat back in his chair in dismay, ‘No way,’ he thought as he went through the pages again, certain characters occurred frequently and even the odd ones recurred enough to give the impression that it was a kind of written language. Eigen looked about to see if he was being watched, he wasn’t, so returned to his odd language. After staring at the fluid lines for a minute or two they started to move, shifting and rearranging themselves in to a new order, then unfolded into English letters. His eyes were dry from forgetting to blink, he screw them shut and wiped them vigorously ‘this isn’t real, this isn’t real.’  Swirled in his mind, he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He was once again surrounded by the strange beings he thought that he had dreamt of, he shut his eyes again and managed to supress the urge to cradle himself. Again he took a deep breath and slowly exhaled, this time he took the work book out as well and tried to do as he was instructed, but like the day before his attention went astray as his mind fired off possible explanations ‘Something in the water...no, no one else is being affected which also eliminates the hostel food. Could I have developed an allergy to something? I doubt, never heard of an allergy that makes you hallucinate,’ he scratched the back of his head as his grey-matter worked over time to find a plausible explanation ‘I hope I’m not going mad...’ he clenched his jaw at the thought of having to go to a mental institution, his imagination running away with him being grey, insane and locked in a small safety room. A tear took root in his eye, mental pictures of him making friends, getting a girlfriend, marrying one day and having a job all started to melt away at the thought of insanity. He quickly wiped the tear away so that no one would see him crying ‘No.’ his inner voice resounded, he looked ahead of him at a yellowy, green skinned classmate and focussed hard on their appearance at first nothing happened but gradually their skin turned normal and their thick, oily hair turned fuzzy and short again. He blinked twice and rubbed his eyes, everyone was back to normal and he sighed with relief. He quickly got back to his school work and tried to apply all his attention to his tasks. It was only until after he had finished when he realised that some of the other students were clucking in the grunting and clicking language, something still wasn’t right and a memory returned to him of the day before when his roommates were talking ‘what did the one call it?...Ocrish.’ he tried his ear at listening in on it, but he could not make sense of it. Veering back to his open book he saw his writing shiver rapidly into the loopy characters as before and stayed like that for a few seconds, just long enough for him to recognise it and then it quivered back into English. Time stalled for him and when he looked up the class had reverted back to their stranger state, his heartbeat pulsed at a quarter of its normal pace. When break started Eigen made haste to the library, the large doors slowly opened and the archaic air was a pleasant smell. He lost no time to hesitation and passed into the sanctum, the quietness was all encompassing and a welcoming release. Chimerstie gave a cheerful wave to which he nodded in kind, there were few in the library, only the library prefects, the Librarian and himself. As he surveyed the book shelves something shiny caught his eye, a book, only the book had a metallic, blue shine to it which he could see clearly from the other side of the building. Once he had sat down with the book he saw nothing out of the ordinary accept that the book had no title and the metallic shine was coming of off the books’ leather binding. He opened the tome and to his delight within the pages were obscene writings of the historical nature, but depicting a vastly contrary history to what he had learnt about all his life. From what he could peace together Mrs. Noondance was an Elf, as his previous notes eluded to. He also found information on the Ocren, who were the green skinned, tusked crowd. The history book listed many battles, wars and skirmishes that were caused by the Ocren, depicting their society as crude and violent. Mrs. Gillard and the hostel Matron were what the book hinted to as Dwarrow Tough, stout and half the height of a man, they were remarkably similar to the Dwarves of myth and Eigen was noting all this in a separate note book when someone lifted their voice behind him You sure do like Butterflies. Remarked Chimerstie, Eigen nearly jumped out of his skin Uh... he stammered in confusion Yea...its’...a project. He lied, Chimerstie smiled and returned to her duties as library prefect. ‘She couldn’t see what was in the book, I wander if it’s magic.’ He thought, break was nearly over and the librarian hadn’t shown up so the book would have to stay in the library, but Eigen made sure to try and identify as many races as he could in the time he had left. A short while later break was over, he gathered his school bag and made way for his next class, and joined the dese stream of students. A wave of cluster phobia came over him and in his haste to reach one of the sides someone pushed him hard, causing him to bump in to the person in front of him. A tallish senior student spun around and grabbed him by the shirt, pushing him up against the wall. At first glance he looked normal, but his eyes were slits and yellow like a snakes You wan’na fight, eh? he spat, his forked tongue flickering for a second before he let go of Eigen and stepped back, sizing him up. The students moved around them while one or two stopped to spectate, Eigen had never been in a fight and he almost just ran away but a smidge of courage sparked inside him as the older boy puffed out his chest Come on, fight me! he fumed, Eigen clenched his fists but kept them at his sides, stepped forward one pace and announced No. calmly, the older boy lurched forward but a grubby hand grabbed his shoulder from behind, another senior boy but larger and rounder whispered something into his ear and gave a sly look at Eigen with reptilian eyes. The first one nodded and they both slipped back into the crowd, leaving Eigen terrified of what laid in stall for him. He breathed in and out slowly, under no illusion that he could have won if he tried to fight but that ounce of bravery it took to face trouble head on was something he hadn’t experienced before and he was glad that he chose not to run.

School was over and everyone was going home or going to the hostels, Eigen was relieved and walked briskly, eager to have a change of clothes and to hide somewhere quiet to study. He was barely out of the schools premises when a meaty arm was slung over his shoulders Hay, new guy, said the fatter senior that averted Eigens’ fight after break barely three days in our territory and your already causing friction. He said, Eigen gulped I wasn’t looking for trouble, it was just an accident. That’s all. he said while trying not to sound distressed. Hay man, it’s all cool. Don’t stress about it, he replied and waved a tiny bank packet full of white powder to catch Eigens’ attention just take this to that tree over there and wait for a guy with an orange jacket and we’ll forget all about today. He smirked Who knows, maybe by the end of school you’ll be all set financially for collage. he hinted deviously and slipped the tiny bag into Eigens’ pocket, Eigen was sweating now ‘Does he mean sell drugs? No, I can’t do that. I’m in a pinch now but if I do that I’ll go to jail’ his gears rattled, he took the pouch and shoved it back into the oafs hands No, I’m not doing that. He said with a bit more conviction than he intended to and walked away, to his delight nothing happened. He got his lunch, changed and took his dirty clothes down to the laundry room. Hot water was not available, Eigen scoffed under his breath, the laundry needed to be done so he simply did it with cold water. Luckily there wasn’t much to wash ‘nearly done.’, an older boy came into the laundry but Eigen didn’t give much notice until he was standing right next to him Hot or cold? the stranger asked with his hands behind his back, Eigen stopped what he was doing Pardon? he asked politely ‘what’s up with this guy?’ he thought, the older boy grimaced, his pupils thinning into slits, his hand shot out and grabbed Eigens’ right hand and with his left he pressed a piece of hot iron down on Eigens’ forearm. Eigen shrieked in pain and tried to break free but the strangers grip was strong, a moment later he was gone and Eigen was left alone. You shit head! he screamed as the brand swelled up and his skin reddened around it. He clenched his jaw and groaned in pain for a few moments, He collected himself and his laundry and wearily went behind the hostel to hang up his clothing.