Catlepuck Chapter 2 Kyle, lonely but not alone.

Chapter 2
Kyle, fancy loner, the cool loner, lonely accompanied.
Attack in the Park.


In a little town called Mystery Rock, a long time ago or perhaps not so long, there lived a boy named Kyle.  He was 14 years old.  He had blonde, bristly hair, tanned skinned, and, under his brown eyebrows, stormy blue eyes.  He always wore pants that wee too short to be pants but too long to be shorts with vivid-colored shirts and bulky tennis shoes.

He was a happy and very funny boy who ate a lot. When he was not helping others, he was watching the waves accompanied by the seagulls of the artificial beach of Mistery Rock just relaxing. He was noble, a bit vague but surely the best friend you could have in that strange place.

Kyle was the most popular kid at the "Instituto Mystery Rock" because he played lots of sports and always got good grades without studying. Of course, all of the girls were in awe of him because of his beautiful white smile. Everything in his life appeared to be perfect, but in reality, Kyle had been bored with life for many months.  Everything just seemed dry and dull to him. Nothing seemed interesting. He was bored when he visited his friends, when he worked in the café in the Parque Profundo, when he watched television--there was never anything interesting to see or do and he never stopped asking himself why this was.  

Although he had many friends, he knew that none of them really cared about him and really they were never around to help him if it caused them the slightest trouble.  For some reason he didn't feel that he belonged in the group.  They seemed so different, but he didn't understand why.  Maybe he just felt alone, but deep inside he felt something was missing, something that he'd forgotten—the only clues came from the strange dreams he'd been having lately.  

His dreams were a confusing storm of people, places, and events that he could only appreciate for a few seconds.  He'd just arrive to one place before he appeared in another.  There were so many sensations, colors that were so real, but he could only remember a few details clearly.  There had been 2 people—a boy dressed in black and a redheaded girl with a bandana on her head.  There was a temple buried in the snow, a modern city of ugly death, a green-eyed shadow, and a white spider.  

These dreams were not like the ones he used to have.  They were more realistic, as if they were trying to tell him something.  Still, he knew it was useless to get a headache thinking about them, and in time he would understand them.  Theses dreams were the only interesting thing that had happened to him lately and he didn't want to stop having them.

It was a boring day like any other in classroom 31, one of the four classrooms used by the students in his grade.  Everyone was in his place and Mr. Jake had just called the roll.  His friends Brandon and Sennd played videogames on their Bi Yei Do's (Kyle had wanted one for a long time, but with his pay as a waiter it would take years to have one).  Xixipedia studied for next month's exam, Zafira and Cristal chatted, and Ailion slept deeply.  All of a sudden there was an interruption.  A strange boy walked through the door.  He had black hair, brown eyes, and he was dressed completely in black.  He wore studded wristbands and a striped scarf.  "Good morning!  I'm new here and…" said the new boy just inside the room.  The boy looked at Mr. Jake and the expression on his face changed.

"Is this your big surprise?" the boy asked with disdain.

"Yes!  Don't you love it?  I'll be your teacher," responded Mr. Jake, smiling.

"You're pathetic," said the boy in black, crossing his arms.

"Ha ha ha ha!  You're always the joker,"  Mr. Jake laughed.

It seemed strange to him that he was treating Mr. Jake that way, that he knew him, but the others weren't noticing.  They were all deeply absorbed in their own activities.  

Mr. Jake stood up in front of the class.  "Hello kids!  Today we've just got a new student—he's from the prestigious boarding school Fredrick Williams.  His name is Anth…"the boy pushed ahead, took his place, and presented himself.  "My name is Alexander Black Holsey.  It's a pleasure to meet you all.  I think…"  The push had caused Jake to fall on the floor on one side of Alexander, but he didn't mind and only said "I hope that everyone will be nice to him and help him join the class.  Why don't you sit in the desk over there?"

The boy sat down in the vacant desk that was on the side of the door as Mr. Jake got up.

Kyle gazed at the boy with great interest.  He had a strange sensation—he felt like he knew this boy from somewhere.  In fact he looked just like a person from his confusing dreams, which fascinated him.  I want to know more about him:  why had he moved here?  Would he be a good friend?  Maybe he could understand his thoughts and would listen to him since he seemed different from any other kid in the school.  He decided to be friends with this boy no matter what, forgetting that he had nothing more interesting to do anyway.

Day 1:  Failed

"Hi!  My name is Kyle," he introduced himself kindly, offering his hand.

"Uhh, nice to meet you," said Alexander without paying much attention and leaving him with an outstretched hand.

Kyle wasn't use to rejection but he thought the new boy was just shy.

"If you like, I can show you around the school, because it can be difficult to be the new kid…" proposed Kyle, laughing.

"No, thanks.  Mr. Jake already showed me around yesterday.  If you don't mind I'd like to finish my science work."

"Hey!  Is that a Bi Yei Do?  How cool!  I have wanted one since they first came out, but I haven't had enough money."

"Here, you can borrow it.  But leave me in peace!"  

Alexander put the Bi Yei Do in Kyle's hands. Kyle thought that wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind, but it was progress.

Day 2:  Terrible

"You know what?  I was thinking that one day we could go to the beach and surf a little bit.  You could use a suntan."

"I don't like the beach, and…I like my skin!" exclaimed Alexander, throwing him a serial killer look.

"Hmm…Well, how about we play hockey?" proposed Kyle.

"No!"

"And if we go to the amusement park?"

"No!"

"OK.  Well, want to ride bikes in the park?!"

"NOOOOO!!!" screamed Alexander, furious.

"Hmm…How about basketball?"

"When I say no, it's NOOOOOOO!!!!!" Alexander got up and left.

Day 3:  Worse

"Do you want to be my partner for the history assignment?"  asked Kyle, resigned to rejection.

"No," responded Alexander without taking his head out of the book he was reading.

"By that you mean to say that…?"

"I'd rather die," Alexander stared at him with his terrorizing brown eyes.

"Oh…"

"I don't like you," said Alexander, bothered.

Kyle was digesting the information since people outside his own house were never so aggressive with him.

"I don't know how to make it clearer," Alexander was frustrated.

In that moment the school bell rang and the two started running for the classroom to avoid arriving tardy.

"See?  It's your fault we arrived late," complained Alexander as the two ran.

"I'm sorry, it wasn't my intention," Kyle excused himself.

"No, now that I think about it, it was my fault, for not getting away from you quicker."  Alexander looked at him again with his assassin eyes.  

"Oh!  You arrived just in time.  I was just about to be worried," said Mr. Jake, writing names on the blackboard.  "Since everyone else in the class has chosen partners, I guess you two have decided to work together."

"This is going to cost you plenty!" said Alexander, furious.

Kyle laughed nervously because he had the feeling that those were not just words floating through the air.

The day passed by more or less normally, except for the fact that Alexander maintained his serial killer eyes, making Kyle a little nervous;  he didn't understand why no matter how hard he tried to be his friend the only thing he accomplished was his hating him even more—he was a very complicated person.  

"Don't think that just because we're on the same team means we'll be friends," said Alexander as they walked around the "Parque Profundo" to do the report about La Roca Misteriosa. "OK.  This is the Parque Profundo" said Kyle pointing out a green broken metal door, wide open.

The park is called Parque Profundo because it was 10 meters below the level of the city. Long time ago there was a hidden treasure nearby La Roca Misteriosa. A pot full of platinum coins. People digged a lot in order to find it. They made a big hole that over the years became a park. But no one ever found the treasure and if he did never said a word.

Kyle had always liked the Parque Profundo because there was always something interesting to do there, like playing with water balloons, eating ice cream, playing sports in the fields, or riding around on bikes.  Also people liked to go at night to see the lucerinas.

But the major attraction of the place was "La Roca Misteriosa", where people say wishes sometimes come true or strange things happen randomly, although he wasn't sure what they referred to. Kyle had thought many times about making a wish—he wanted his life to be different, but didn't know how to make it happen.  

He was copying some of the rock engravings to illustrate the report when Alexander reviewed his plan to be together for the shortest time possible.

"You draw very slowly.  This place is weird.  I've never seen a park that was sunken," said Alexander, noticing how deep it was.

"Why don't you like me?" asked Kyle, fed up, wondering if maybe he knew the reason everything would be better.

"OK.  Where should I start…?" but Alexander couldn't finish the sentence because they heard the voice of a girl desperately screaming.  "Help me, help me please!"

After that, they heard screams and noticed everyone was running.  Kyle and Alexander tried to find out what had happened or at least figure out in which direction they should run. But everybody was too frightened to pay them attention. Something strange happened.  It was exactly two o'clock in the afternoon, and the sun was shining.  But a gust of artic air froze their skin.

Alexander and Kyle walked, trying to discover the girl that had cried for help.  Finally they saw her.  She was about 20 years old and half of her body was smashed under the tree.

The girl saw them and desperately begged them to help her, since nobody else had stopped to help.  The two boys approached her and asked what had happened.  

She looked at them with terrified eyes and a traumatized voiced, barely able to murmur.  "This…appeared and…started destroying everything in front of it…"  a trembling roar was heard, not far from there.  This sound was not like anything that Kyle had ever heard before, causing a chill up and down his spine.  

Kyle and Alexander, with a lot of effort, were able to lift up the tree (maybe only because it wasn't extremely heavy).

"OK, young lady, now we have to get away from here.  Fast!" said Kyle.

They heard the roar again.  Alexander and Kyle looked up to find out where the scary sound was coming from.  When they looked back at the girl, she had disappeared.  

"What happened to her?" asked Kyle.

"Isn't it obvious?!"  This hag left us here for bait to save herself.  How I hate people!  We have to get out of here," said Alexander with disdain.  

However, they were unable to move themselves, because the ground had shook and made both of them stumble around.  In front of them appeared the most terrifying thing that anyone could ever imagine.  It had a human shape, so to speak.  It was like two and a half meters tall, dressed up a clown, with yellow eyes like a snake's, white skin, green hair and purple nose.  Its hands had sharp claws, but the most terrorizing thing was its macabre mouth, inhumanly opened fifty centimeters wide, adorned with sharp teeth like those of a shark.

The creature released a dismal mixture of a laugh and a roar and then said with a playful tone, "Look, I've found something to shred or take home with me—I always forget what I should do."

Kyle didn't know what to do.  He couldn't scream, couldn't move.  He couldn't react!  He was too terrorized to do anything.  But at that moment, he felt someone take hold of his arm.  It was Alexander, "Let's go, don't just stand there like a frozen idiot.  Run!"  He pushed Kyle and both ran down the path toward some trees, hoping  that since they were so large it would be difficult for this "thing" to move around.

Unfortunately, the beast-clown just stopped and looked at the tree, "This is even more fun when you run," as he began easily cutting down the trees with his sharp claws.

"We don't have much time.  How do we get out of here?" asked Alexander, almost out of breath.

"We're in the middle of the park, so the closest exit is by the cafeteria where I work," responded Kyle, pointing to the right.

So both began running as if there were no tomorrow.  They passed over a bridge and saw a waterfall, and when they finally arrived to the cafeteria, they found the beast comfortably resting in one of the cafeteria chairs, surrounded by some tables with centerpiece candles.  

"Oh, God!  You look exhausted.  Would you like a refreshing beverage?  I'm buying," said the beast-clown as he laughed.  A second later he jumped up and landed in front of them.  Alexander went flying from a punch, then it threw itself on top of Kyle throwing him to the floor—he looked at his face, letting saliva drip all over him.  Kyle could hardly look at him he was so gross.

"I wonder where I should start.  It's not interesting to finish my work before having a little fun," said the horrifying clown.  Then he stuck his sharp claws into one of Kyle's arms.

Kyle pushed him, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't free himself.  He was thinking that for sure Alex had run away.  He couldn't blame him though because they had just met and he knew there was nothing that he could have done anyway.  But still, a part of him would have liked him to stay; he would have liked to be important to someone, just one time in his life, because nobody ever did anything for him—not his school friends, not even his father.  It was the same with everyone he knew:  when it came time to choose between him and whatever little thing that came up, they always chose the other thing—he always lost.

The more he struggled the more excited he felt—something similar to the way he'd felt when he was surfing.  It was like a weird tingling in his chest—a refreshing, electrifying sensation.  He tried to push it away again with no luck.  But this time, blue rays of light came out of his arms, making the beast-clown twist and turn, even though it was still way too heavy to move off  of him.  Then Alexander appeared from behind the beast-clown with an enormous gas tank and hit it.  Seeing that it didn't move, he hit it again, and continued hitting it until it got off of Kyle—it was finally stunned by the hits and the blue rays.

Kyle stood up.  He could not believe that Alexander had stayed and defended him.

"You stayed!" exclaimed Kyle, happy and surprised.

"Don't dream too much.  Just because we won't be friends does not mean that I'd leave you to die alone; on the other hand, if I were as miserable as everyone else, I wouldn't be able to criticize them as freely as I enjoy doing," said Alexander, hitting the creature again, just in case.

"OK, we've got a head start, we better get out of here before it wakes up," said an animated Kyle, getting up.  But he'd just spoken when the beast got up and swung Alexander against the cafeteria tables.

"So you want to play with me too.  WAAHAHAHAHA!  I thought you didn't know how to have fun," laughed the beast as Alexander lay indefensibly on the floor.

Kyle didn't know how, but suddenly he noticed that he was grabbing the beast around its neck and hitting it while shooting him with blue rays through his hands.

The beast-clown raised up his claws and attacked Alexander.  The only thing he could do to avoid being shredded was to use the tank of gas like a shield.  The tank broke, making a great explosion, sending Kyle flying at a square angle and all he could think about were the candles on the tables and the gas from the kitchen….poor Alex.  

When the smoke dissipated Kyle could see the clown lying several meters away. The cafeteria was destroyed.  But Alexander had stood up just before the tank exploded. He looked at the two flames on his hands and the fire, like black and purple, that had covered his body. He wasn't injured—his clothes were not even burned. He really didn't understand what was happening.

"What are you doing?" asked Kyle, confused.

"How would I know?" responded Alexander, shaking his hands with flames shooting out; one hit a table and destroyed it.  He shot another flame at the beast-clown.

"Hey!  That hurt a lot! Georfey has been hit in combat," said the clown before fainting.

Kyle was watching the clown. Part of his arm sleeve was ripped so the arm was visible. It was full of tattoos just like the engravings of La Roca Misteriosa.

"Look! The tattoos of the clown arm are the same as the engravings I was drawing" said Kyle stunned. That day was getting weird, but fascinating.

"Could be. Besides, he wanted to take us. Maybe it has to do with the disappearances in Dirall City".

Alexander put out the black flames of his cloth and returned to Kyle.  I wondered if all this had anything to do with the disappearances in Dirall City.  "Didn't it say something about taking us home?" Alexander asked, speaking aloud.

"There's no time to waste.  The exit is close," said Kyle as he continued watching the beast for fear that it might awaken again.

They had to take another path because the first one was covered in flames.  They ran until arriving to an enormous ravine.  

"Who in the devil digs a huge gully in the middle of a park?!" screamed Alexander, bothered.

"I think it's here because people were looking for treasure or something like that, but don't worry, there are some stairs over there," said Kyle, pointing out some black iron stairs.  But just when Alexander put his two feet on the stairs they caved in and collapsed into little pieces into the ravine.  Kyle grabbed his arm quickly and held on to the only thing that was around—a small bush.

"That outrageous thing cut the supports of the stairs," said Alexander, both mad and frightened.

"At least nobody got trapped," Kyle said, smiling.  But the smile quickly disappeared because the small bush started to give way due to the excess weight.

Alexander thought to himself for a few seconds then looked at Kyle in the eyes.  "You know we won't be able to save both of us.  Right?"

"What are you saying?!" He didn't want to hear anything about anyone dying.

"You know something?  All my whole life has been a truly disgusting mess.  I don't even know how it feels to be happy and I know even less about how you feel. I've always wanted to do things that I couldn't do.  And even though things were starting to get better, I'm not interested anymore to find out what might have been. At least I was able to know what exists outside.  I'm sorry I've been so ugly with you, because you were kind to me and everything.  Let me go.  You deserve to live more than I.  Surely, you will take more advantage of living than I would.  It's OK…just tell Gizel thank you for everything."

"Don't be an idiot!" screamed Kyle desperately.

"I'm sorry, but there's no other option," said Alexander, letting go.

Kyle threw himself quickly to the ground,  just able to grab Alexander's hand before he would have fallen.

"There's always another option.  Don't be stupid.  I will not leave any man behind" said Kyle, actually laughing.  "Who is Gizel?  As unapproachable as you are and you already have a girlfriend?" said Kyle, smiling.

Alexander laught and said, "You're a hopeless case."  It was the first time he'd seen Alexander smile, but unfortunately the bush couldn't hold any longer and both fell into the ravine.  Kyle wasn't complaining, maybe his life had not been perfect, and obviously not very long, but it had been good and at least at the end of it had been exciting.  He would have liked it to end better but just when they were about to crash Kyle shut his eyes but he didn't feel the impact—they were floating—he opened his eyes, but could see nothing.  It was like being in an infinite darkness then the fog disappeared and then both hit the ground.

Kyle looked around,  They weren't at the bottom of the ravine as he expected.  They were in front of the school door.  It was dark and the moon began to glow.

"But, how?" asked Kyle, confused.

"I don't know.  It's unusual that things turn out good and even better than you hope for.  So don't ask questions and just be thankful," responded Alexander, who had landed in his mouth

"Kyle!!" yelled a man's voice from afar.

"That's my father.  It's very late—he's going to kill me.  Sorry, I have to go.  See you tomorrow, right?" Kyle left running.

Alexander was alone in the door of the school. So many things had happened during this day that he was just starting to assimilate it all.  It was impressive to be to the point of dying three times and still escape unharmed.  He felt strongly curious and scared and wondered what might be next after all that had happened.  He didn't know much about what happened to kids his own age, but he was sure that what had happened to them must not be common—and above all, he could not stop thinking about Kyle.

The next morning Mr. Jake was absent from school for unknown reasons.  So their homework didn't have to be turned in.  But, on the other hand, the substitute, Miss Perciball, gave them a surprise exam on integrated calculus.  

"But I've only been here 4 days.  I don't  understand calculus yet," complained Alexander to Miss Perciball.

"That's not my problem," she replied, putting an exam on his desk.

"Jeez!"  Alexander saw the exam and didn't understand anything.

Kyle changed places with the person seated in front of Alexander, took a quick glance at Miss Perciball to make sure her back was turned, and snatched the exam from his teammate.

"What are you doing?" asked Alexander.

"Trust me," responded Kyle while writing at an impressive speed.

In 2 minutes he returned the exam completely answered, including the extra free questions. Half an hour later, the professor graded the exams and gave them back.

"Very good, Mr. Holsey.  And you didn't know anything about calculus," the professor laughed and returned his test.  He'd scored a perfect 100 with 2 extra points (for the extra questions).

She returned Kyle's exam too.  He'd scored 80, but Alexander couldn't understand why.

"Why did you do that?" asked Alexander, confused.

"Because we're friends," responded Kyle, changing places again.

What he said made Alexander feel nauseous—but there was another reason he felt bad.  He wanted to talk with Kyle, but when it was finally time to leave, he wasn't there.  He had been one of the only people in his life that had been nice to him, the only person that had tried to be his friend.  He'd treated Kyle very ugly just because he remembered the boys in the boarding school.  But he was different and he had to do something to fix everything.

He looked for him all afternoon.  He went to the cafeteria in the Parque Profundo, but it was under reconstruction.  He went to the school basketball courts and to the beach but he couldn't find him anywhere.  He had given up when, walking around the mansion, he saw him coming out of the market, carrying enormous paper bags.

"Eureka!" Alexander walked toward him, "Hey!"

"Hi!"

"Listen, I was looking for you.  I want to tell you that I feel bad—I'm not so good with people, but I wanted to give you this," Alexander put one of Jake's gifts in his hand, the blue Bi Yei Do.

"But it's yours.  Why would you give it to me?" asked Kyle, taking it.

"Well, because…OK, honestly, I have two, but also because…because…because…we are friends….Oh, I'm nauseous again."

"Woooooow that's so cool, Al!!!" Kyle jumped in the air.

"Don't call me Al," replied Alexander, seriously.

"You'll see that we're going to have a lot of fun.  I have tickets for the hockey game:  the Soul Eaters vs. the Vampires of Dirall City.  I can teach you to play basketball, surf, I can sleep over at your house and…"

"Enough, calm down……"

Without their knowing, Mr. Jake was watching them with interest from behind a tree close by.  El laughed with an evil expression and said "Maybe they will be the ones we're looking for."