Before you read this story, here are some things you should know: 1. This starts off as a reality story, but it isn't. 2. Every character in this book is fictional. 3. There is no implied symbolism. I hate symbolism. Absolutely. You may take it into your own head that "such and such" symbolizes "so and so", but know this: I didn't try to make it that way. 4. Post feedback on the feedback thread. Not here. On the feedback thread. 5. I needed this so it could be an even five. And thus, I hope you enjoy reading Taking Flight. Icarus woke up, and wearily opened his crusty eyes. The morning felt cold and unforgiving, so he decided to stay in bed a few more minutes. He woke up to his next alarm thirty minutes later, then jumped out of bed, startled. "Thank the heavens.." he muttered to himself as he stumbled across the hallway to turn his shower on, wiping the sleep from his eyes. Five minutes later he woke up due to the fact that his body had begun to sweat, and the steam of the shower was creating a thin layer of water over his body. Icarus, after taking his overly long shower, threw on some clothes, grabbed his backpack, then ran downstairs. Icarus ate some blueberry bread as he grabbed a pair of shoes, then yelled goodbye to his family with a mouthful of breakfast. He ran out the door, hopping to immerse his feet in his shoes. Once fully clothed, he started jogging to school as fast as he could. Icarus was thirteen years old. He had wavy brown hair that grew out of control quickly. Icarus was about five feet and four inches tall, but growing, however slowly. He wasn't the most muscular pre-teen, but he certainly wasn't the least. He enjoyed running a little bit more than the average kid his age, however. Icarus enjoyed a lot of sports as well, Lacrosse, Baseball, Basketball, and sometimes Volleyball. But the game he excelled at, and everyone knew, was dodgeball. He could dodge absolutely anything thrown at him. Mostly, anyways. Icarus arrived at his school at precisely 7:46, fourteen minutes before school started, the average time he got to school at. It was still relatively cool outside, so he flipped his hood up after placing his ear buds in his ears, listening to all the songs from the 2000's he had collected and memorized. He recognized a few of his classmates and nodded to them as they took their respective seats. Icarus waved to a few of them and they waved back. "Now where is Logan....?" Icarus asked himself as he stared off into space as the music playing in his ears completely enveloped his attention. The classroom he sat in had one entrance, which was a door, when facing the exit, was on the left. It led to a hallway. All the desks faced that wall, which had a few whiteboards on it. The teacher's actual desk was in the right corner of the classroom opposite of the door. There were many windows in the room, which were too high to reach for most of the students. This was the main classroom of the 8th grade class. Teachers came to them, except for P.E., because it was such a small school. Icarus went to a private school. No, he was not mentally handicapped nor did he have absolutely anything wrong with him. Neither did a handful of his classmates. His family just had a connection to the founder of the school and his parents figured it'd be good to be in a smaller sized classroom, and the teachers could know the students well. His English teacher had the most amazing personality. She cracked jokes, hilarious ones at that, in the middle of a lesson, and had the best personality ever. His math teacher was mediocre, not great, not horrible. The principal, on the other hand, was terrifying. Something about her just kept the students in line whenever she walked into the room. She wasn't particularly scary, and she was a very nice person, but she just had that... aura. The students that he knew and was acquaintances with typically had funny personalities. His eyes drifted over everyone in the room, and Icarus locked eyes with a short blonde boy. Brutus had the astonishing height of 5'1, for an eighth grader. His hair was blonde hair and his eyes were almost an ice blue. He was experienced in the game of Basketball, however, which was surprising. Brutus had quite an athletic talent, but only beat Icarus in Basketball. Brutus also had a good friend, stocky but muscular. Opposites attract. Levin was a bit of a brute. Not a horribly idiotic one, just solid. He was 5'5, and he weighed one hundred and eighty pounds. Not fat, mostly muscle. His hair was dark brown, and his eyes were dark green. His specialty was football or soccer, although he and Icarus were quite close in soccer. What Icarus, and all his other classmates, never failed to be surprised by, was Levin's brain for Geography. He knew where every single country on the map was, knew it's climate, it's capital, and who was the current leader. Icarus glanced at Levin, then the girl with raven black hair next to him who bit her pencil roughly. Joanna had black hair, down to her shoulders, and her height was about 5'4. Average on the scale of an eighth grader. She was nice, sometimes quiet, but she was slowly coming out of her shell. Icarus was friends with her, and she could be fairly funny at times. She also had a great skill at writing. A boy in the room coughed, and Icarus's eyes flew to him. Nicoli had some trouble speaking English, and it was frustrating to talk to him sometimes, between his heavy accent and broken sentences. Icarus and Logan helped him make friends and helped him get rid of his accent. Nicoli could be really annoying and he was quite clingy. When he got angry, he got pissed, though. He would rage. Luckily that was rare. Nicoli was of that rare breed of pre-teenage boy that was short but built. 5'2 was his height, but there was much packed into that short, short body. Nicoli absolutely loved soccer, and most of the class agreed he would go pro when he was older. He and a huge boy in the class who was a bit of a loner were great friends. Dolan was that big, huge teddy bear you could just hug. If it weren't for his stench. He was perhaps the nicest person Icarus had ever met, along with all his classmates, but the only thing was: he stank like no other. Nothing could put it to respect, that smell. Dolan, not only nice, was 6'0, as an eighth grader. He towered over everyone, and he was fairly muscular. He was friends with everyone, but Nicoli was the only one who could get past his smell. A flash of blonde hair caught Icarus's attention and he saw a girl just flip her hair over her shoulder. He growled a little in disgust as he realised she had probably done that just to catch everyone's attention and who the hair belonged to. Cassy was a wonderous evil. She was blonde, pretty pleasing to the eyes, but she had some serious flaws. Her personality, to put it nicely, needed some major improvements. She thought she was so cool, so hot, so whatever, she was cocky, to put it simply. When Icarus first met her, he fell in love for 5 minutes. He has thus realised she's mostly a whore. She thought she was amazing at soccer, but was only mediocre. Everyone tried their best to be nice to her, as much as they could. Sometimes, however, it was difficult. Cassy absolutely hated everyone in the class except Hailey, but she focused her hate on Dolan and Emily. Emily had a shy personality, a bit awkward. Good friends with Joanna, both are slowly coming out of their shells. Emily was talkative when you got to know her. She had brownish hair that just barely reached her back. Emily did have a bad habit of gossiping and was pretty gullible, however she was mostly friends with everyone, excluding Cassy and Hailey. Hailey and Cassy were friends. The only one who got along with Cassy was Hailey, and Hailey was pretty cool. She did think a lot like Cassy, but didn't display it nearly enough. Hailey was very funny, but a bit dirty in her jokes. Hailey had light brown hair that reached the bottom of her neck. She was likable, for most people. Icarus snapped back to reality right as the clock ticked eight o clock. He hid his earphones in his jacket and looked around for Logan. "Where is he....." he muttered. "Probably late, as usual." Just then Icarus saw the flash of a yellow shirt through a window and saw a hand knocking against it. Dolan, being the only one who could reach high enough to unlock the window, easily clicked the lock out of place. A mess of brown hair, a dark yellow shirt, and blue jeans tumbled through the window. Everyone stared at the figure as he got up and dusted himself off. With a toothy grin, Logan slyly asked, "What? The teacher isn't here yet." Icarus chuckled and winked at him and he winked back. Just then the science teacher walked in and they all took their seats quickly. It being Icarus's least favorite subject, he quickly zoned out and began attempting to find lines to songs in his mind.
Logan and Icarus were as close as two family members could ever be. They secretly loved each other and watched out for each other, but they joked and didn't acknowledge the fact that they were even more than best friends. They stayed at each other's houses and watched movies till two in the morning, never kept anything from the other, and had full trust in the other to keep their secret. Yet they were only cousins. Logan was a bit of a trouble maker, he didn't really care about anything his parents ever said, nor did he listen to any of the teachers. His only mentor was his older brother, and somewhat Icarus. Logan had had a bit of trouble in elementary school, beating up a more than just a few kids that had been picking on Icarus. His parents forced him to go to the private school, and Icarus forced his parents to enroll him there as well, to make sure Logan didn't feel alone and also to thank him. As the science teacher left the room, Icarus stood up and ran over to Logan. "Trouble leaving the house this morning?" He smiled. "You know it. Woke up early just to try to make it on time today." Logan mused. "Yeah right, you were probably too busy gorging yourself with breakfast." "Now you got it!" The English teacher walked in the room, balancing two cups of coffee on her paperwork. "Heyo, look out!" She screeched as she almost tripped over Joanna's backpack. Dolan steadied her and she thanked him after cringing from the smell. "So how you all doing??" Miss Bessemer, the English teacher, asked in her crazy old woman voice. Of course, no one answered, although there were plenty of smiles throughout the room. She didn't act discouraged, she just waved it off. "Today I'll be teaching y'all about commas....." She trailed off, and Icarus hung onto every word she said as if they'd be the last he'd ever hear. Icarus's favorite period was over an hour later, and everyone walked to the locker rooms. At this particular private school, there were no locker rooms. There were just hooks on walls that the students used to hang their clothes on. Nothing fancy, just hooks in a bathroom and a poster over where someone had written some word of profane language. P.E. was possibly Icarus's second favorite class, since he was a little bit above average at each sport, and specifically great at a few. All the boys ran into the bathroom and quickly changed, being careful not to fall victim of another's tricks. They walked out to the field in their dumb looking uniforms and waited a few minutes for the girls to come out. Icarus was making small talk with Logan when he swore he saw an angel. Icarus had been so ignorant and obsessed that morning he hadn't even realised there was a new girl in his class. She had brown-streaked blonde hair that reached a little bit above her shoulders, not curly at all, and had the most astonishing eyes in the world. In short, Icarus was in love, at first sight. And he didn't even know her name. "Yo, Ic!" Logan proclaimed. Icarus turned around, "Uhm, er.. What..?" "What's going o- waiiiiiitttt! Do you like that girl???" Logan smiled mischievously. "What? No! I don't even know her, Log!" Icarus defended himself. "Watch and learn Ic." Logan strolled over to this girl. "He's gonna make a fool of himself." Announced Dolan. Logan cockily walked up to this girl and introduced himself as follows, "Hey baby, I don't know your name and you don't know mine-" She interrupted him, "Do you think I want to?" She winked at one of her newfound girlfriends and kicked Logan in the shin as hard as she could, then walked away. "WHAT THE- OW!" Logan cried out in pain. Icarus felt conflicted. On one hand, the girl he'd just fallen in love with, after one glance, had just kicked his best friend in the shin. On the other, the girl he'd just fallen in love with, after one glance, had just kicked his best friend in the shin. He decided to take action, no matter how drastic. Icarus walked up to this young teenager and tapped her on the shoulder. "Do you want more, littl-" she stopped mid-sentence. "Er.. Who're you...?" She asked politely. "My name's Icarus. Some of my friends call me Ic- anyways- you kinda just kicked my cousin in the shin. It'd make him feel a whole lot better if you let him apologize for trying to use whatever pick-up line he had in store." Icarus wisely advised as he began to drown in her eyes. "Oh, ok." She shyly averted her eyes downwards. Icarus started to walk away when he remembered something. "Oh, I didn't catch your name...." He smiled. "Its Amanda." She almost whispered to him. "Cya around." Icarus muttered back, not knowing much else to say. Logan had recovered enough to hear the last part of that conversation, and struggled to stand. A voice boomed, "8th graders! You know the drill!" And a whistle blew. Everyone made their way to the sore excuse for a track and began to run. Icarus trailed behind with Logan. "Who does that girl think she is..." grumbled Logan. "Coming in here and striding around like she owns the place." "Logan, I think she was just trying to impress her new friends, maybe she didn't really want to do that. And she obviously doesn't know that we're top of the food chain." Icarus suggested, hoped, and joked. "Whatever." Logan grunted. In Logan's head, he knew Icarus was probably right. But he didn't want to seem weak, nor did he feel like submitting to a girl. Everyone ran two laps, and Logan and Icarus were lapped by mostly everyone. When Amanda passed them, Icarus couldn't help but gaze at her. He swore he saw her glimpse at him from the corner of her eye. For Icarus and Logan, P.E. drug on as it does when they didn't play a game. Finally, with about 10 minutes left in class, the coach started up a game of soccer.
"8th Graders!! Over here!" Coach roared. All the 8th graders walked over, chatting. They sat down when they reached Coach. "Here are the teams!" Coach informed them loudly. "Icarus, Levin, Nicoli, Hailey, and Emily against Logan, Amanda, Joann, Cassy, Dolan, Brutus." Icarus immediately calculated the teams and deemed his team the better one. They not only had Nicoli, the star soccer player, but they had Levin and Hailey, who were above average at soccer. Icarus himself didn't think he was great at soccer, but he was definitely good. Icarus's team let Logan's team start off with the ball. Brutus kept the ball in his control, then shot off a pass to Logan. Levin headed it right back to the other side of the field, near Dolan, their goalie. Icarus ran after the ball and found Amanda slowly making ground on him. He put on an extra burst of speed, kicked the ball off the back of his foot, then turned around to pass it to someone open. The ball rocketed off his foot to Nicoli. Nicoli stopped it with his chest, let it fall to the ground, then, off the bounce, went for the goal. The ball flew past Dolan's flailing arms, right into the net. "GOOAAAALLLL!" Celebrated Nicoli obnoxiously, as he ran circles around Brutus, leaping around. Luckily, no one from Logan's team got the chance to do any damage to Nicoli, as Coach sent us inside to get dressed. They dressed down, then proceeded to lazily walk back to class. Conversation of the game began: "Emily fouled me and Coach didn't call it." "Nicoli had a good kick." "Does Amanda play soccer?" Next period was Drawing/Painting. Icarus had no skill whatsoever drawing, nor sketching, nor anything to do with art. Other than writing. Logan was fine at it, but Icarus was still drawing stick figures. Icarus was obsessed with one thing since he had been born: Flight. The idea that one human being could control the air. Not in a machine, nor from the power of one, but through something like levitation or wings. He dreamt that he had mottled feathers that were blue and black. Icarus had drawn wings so much that they were the only thing he was good at drawing. They were left to fend for themselves in Drawing/Painting, and Amanda walked over to where Logan and Icarus sat. "Hey," she began to Logan, blowing a strand of hair from her eyes. "Sorry 'bout kicking you in the shin. Didn't mean it to be hard as it was. But you were being weird. And perverted. I can only imagine what you were gonna say." "Well, I was gonna say-" Logan started, then shut up as Icarus gave him the evil eye. "Thanks. Sorry for trying to use some weird pickup line on you." Amanda seemed suspicious, but she turned to Icarus and started making small talk. The two of them talked through the period, awkward at first,.but making progress. By the end of Drawing/Painting, the two of them were good friends, and Icarus thought he was in love. There were no more classes after Drawing/Painting, it was now a weekend, and Icarus ran home, so he decided to stay and hang out with Logan a bit. They talked, mostly about what they'd do when they got home. Icarus waved to Logan as he left. That day, Icarus's mind was so cluttered, messed up, and somewhat stressed from talking to Amanda, he paid no attention whatsoever to what he was doing when he ran home. The run home was usually ten minutes, but Icarus ran for an hour that day. Needless to say, Icarus had no idea where he was when his mind finally fully awakened from whatever he was doing.
It was foggy. So foggy, Icarus could barely see his own feet. He had no idea whatsoever how he had gotten to wherever he was. He walked around a bit, calling out to see if anyone was there. He closed his eyes and wondered, "What am I going to do?" Icarus reached in his pocket to grab his phone, and his wallet came with it. "You dropped this." a voice rang out from somewhere in front of Icarus. "What-where are you?" Asked Icarus, bewildered. Icarus caught a glimpse of fabric directly in front of him. A black homeless man, it looked like, had picked up his wallet and was offering it to him. He had white hair and thin glasses that were as wiry as him. The man was wearing tattered clothes and a golfing hat with a few holes in it. "Do you want it or not, kid?" Icarus felt like he was in a moral dilemma. He needed his wallet, especially if he wanted to get back home, who knows where he is. But this man looked like he needed it. "Keep it, you need it more than me." Icarus offered. He turned around and all of a sudden was knocked out, cold. The man was standing over him, smiling warmly. Icarus woke up to the smell of his house, and the disgusting taste of morning in his mouth. It was as if nothing had happened the day before. Today was Saturday morning for Icarus, he knew that much. He remembered finding himself in that foggy place, but he also remembered walking home. Something didn't feel right about it, though. Something felt wrong. Icarus spent the whole entire weekend trying to find out what made that Friday feel so strange. He tried to take the same route he thought he took and retrace his steps. Icarus didn't tell anyone about it, though. He contemplated telling Logan, but decided not to. When he got back to school, things were as always routine, boring, etcetera. He was beginning to make good friends with Amanda and her friends, and he forced Logan to, as well. Time passes and two months down the road, in May, the 8th graders are preparing to graduate. The same morning routine occurs, but right after English, the principal walks in the door. "Hello, everyone, as you all know you're almost done here, with middle school." She smiled. "And as you may have guessed, it's time for the school play." Icarus and Logan dreaded the school play. They always had to be main roles because all the other guys absolutely hated anything to do with the stage. "Your play will be.... Phantom of the Opera." Groans arose from the boys side of the classroom. Mumbles came from the girls. "Who has to be Christine?" "You will all audition after P.E. Be sure to bring good attitudes and your best voices." The principal left the room as Logan ran to Icarus. "We may as well figure this out now, do you want to be the Phantom?" Logan asked. "Sure. You'll be Raoul. Who do you think will be Christine?" Icarus sarcastically asked. "Ugh. Cassy for sure." Cassy was known to take ownership of the star role in any play. "Hope you're not right about that. Good luck auditioning. Like we'll need it." The other guys always threw their auditions. The 8th graders traversed to the locker rooms and changed. Icarus and Logan were the first out, and they asked Coach what they would play today. "Dodgeball, kids!" Coach bellowed. Icarus rose his fist in victory. He absolutely destroyed at dodgeball. "Better watch out, everyone." Announced Logan as people began appearing from the locker rooms. "We're playing dodgeball!!!" The dodgeball court was already set up, with ten balls in the middle of a basketball court. Coach pulled sticks out of a cup, Icarus didn't hear what team he was in. All he knew was that it didn't matter. Icarus and his team took their side as the other team took theirs. Icarus closed his eyes, letting all sound fade away as he waited for the whistle. Time stood still for a few moments, and Icarus was calm, calm as he ever was. The whistle blew and he flew towards the dodgeballs in the middle of the court. Someone was off to his right, on the other side of the court so he grabbed a ball and hurled it in a fluid motion. Without waiting to hear if there was contact, Icarus saw a ball speeding towards his shoulder out of the corner of his eye. He dropped to the ground, waited a second, then jumped up. Icarus grabbed a ball and saw Logan on his team, and finally started seeing details again, losing the overwhelming, childish 'blood lust'. Icarus found that Coach chose the game to be girls vs. boys, and he had hit Hailey. Levin chucked a ball, hard, at Cassy and it hit her legs. Emily, Amanda, and Joann all threw balls at Icarus. Time slowed down as he noted each's speed and trajectory. Icarus bent his body at an odd angle to dodge two of them, and the other soared past his head. The two balls Icarus dodged hit Dolan and Logan. The third, Brutus caught and passed to Icarus. Joann and Emily were standing fairly close, so the second Icarus got the ball from Brutus, he threw it at Emily and hit her square on. Amanda threw another ball at Levin, and he made to catch it but the ball slipped out of his fingers, and was called out. Joann picked up the ball that hit Emily right as Brutus got the ball that Levin dropped. They simultaneously threw the dodgeballs at each other and were hit. It was a showdown between Amanda and Icarus, both with a ball. Amanda faked a throw and Icarus didn't even flinch. He, underhanded, threw it right at her legs. She purposely kicked it high in the air, ready to catch it. Icarus grabbed another ball right as the one he had just thrown reached it's highest altitude. Icarus threw his ball straight to hit Amanda in the chest, and it did. She was so shocked she was also hit by the ball coming down. "End game!" Coach warned. "Everyone, back to your teams. One game more." Everyone got back into their positions, and Coach started the game. As soon as the whistle blew, Icarus and Logan flew to the dodgeballs. They each picked up two, and Logan threw one at Joann. Icarus held onto his. Joann caught Logan's ball, sending him out. Dolan picked up Logan's other ball, and hurled it at Cassy. It hit her square in the stomach and all the guys chuckled under their breaths. Amanda and Emily threw balls at Levin and Brutus, hitting them each. Hailey threw one at Dolan's legs, and he dropped. It was Icarus versus all the girls except Cassy, but Logan still felt confident Icarus would make it out winning. Hailey threw a ball at Icarus, and he dropped his other two as he caught it. Once his finger had a firm grip on the ball, he hit Joann in the shoulder. He picked up his other two and waited to dodge. Emily and Amanda threw simultaneously at Icarus, and he easily dodged both by jumping and turning. His feet on the ground, he stepped forward to give his throw more power as he threw a ball at Emily. She panicked, put her arms out to catch it, and it hit her hands. Once again, it was Amanda and Icarus.
They each had two dodgeballs in their hands, ready to throw at any moment. Icarus faked a throw to the right and threw with his left arm. Amanda jerked to the right but managed to dodge the ball, barely. As she recovered from the throw, Icarus dove for another ball. Amanda glimpsed him out of the corner of her eye and threw. The dodgeball sailed through the air, and Icarus saw it all happen in slow motion. It lazily spun, as it floated through the air. Amanda had one leg up in the air, her hair defying gravity. He realised what was about to happen too late. Icarus brought his ball up to defend himself, but to no avail. As he hit the ground, Amanda's ball hit him in the elbow. Logan was completely taken by surprise, to his memory Icarus had been hit in dodgeball, possibly, twice. This NEVER happened, unless someone got super lucky. Icarus himself was aghast as well, he knew he could have dodged that ball if he hadn't been distracted. He did feel impressed, however. Fairly impressed. Not only that she hit him, but that she'd distracted him and beat him at his own game. Logan stared at Amanda and for the first time, admired her. He couldn't believe he had hated her at one point. Icarus stood up to shake hands with Amanda, they shook and Coach yelled at everyone to go change. The rehearsals were held and, as expected, Icarus and Logan were forced into the two main roles. They had separated the boys auditions from the girls, so the guys had to wait for them. All of the guys mumbled, made small talk. They all agreed Cassy would be Christine. Fifteen minutes or so later, the girls finally arrived from the stage. Icarus and Logan exchanged a glance when they saw Cassy with tears in her eyes. Cassy, the unfeeling wench. Crying. This never happened. Not ever. She was human alright, but she would never show weakness. After Cassy ran off, into the bathroom, Icarus and Logan started asking questions. "What the- why- what happened?? Cassy crying?" Icarus stammered. Amanda spoke up. "We were competing against each other to play Christine. I didn't know she'd take it this hard." Icarus and Logan, again, exchanged glances. "You mean....." Logan trailed off. "Yeah. I took the role of Christine." Icarus and Logan were so happy they could almost hug her. Almost. A few hours later, after school, Logan and Icarus were talking in the gym. The gym was basically a basketball court in the middle of the school. It had 3 entrances, one coming from the parking lot, one on the middle school side of the school, and one on the grade school side. The theater was shut out by a large curtain. "See? I told you she wasn't so bad!" Icarus poked Logan. "Eh." Was all Logan had to say. "'Eh'? 'Eh'? Log, if Amanda hadn't auditioned to be Christine, we would be kissing Cassy. We would be fake falling in love, with Cassy." "Yeah, your right. She's pretty cool." "Why'd you ever doubt me, bro?" Icarus joked. "Well, I dunno, she did kinda.... KICK ME IN THE SHIN!!" Logan's words echoed off the gym walls. Both of them were quiet for a few minutes. "I think I like her." Both of them announced at the same time, then winced. Silence again. "I hate it when we do that." Logan murmured. "It's kinda cute." A feminine voice came from behind the middle school entrance to the gym. Both of the guys froze solid. Amanda walked into the gym, up to Logan and Icarus. They had no idea what to say, and it seemed like it took an eternity for her to stand near them. "Gotta go, see you two later." She winked at nudged them both. Rehearsals for the play continued for a while. Icarus and Logan both already knew the lyrics so they mostly tried to make sense of what happened. Amanda wouldn't talk to them about it. "She heard us admit we liked her, right?" Logan would ask. "Yeah. Why would she have said it was cute???" Icarus would backfire. "I dunno..." And then the conversation would end, only to restart again later. As the practices drew on, both Icarus and Logan knew it was soon time for the big rehearsal they were dreading. When they would have to legitimately kiss Amanda. *Phantom of the Opera is a play about this Opera house a 'spectre' resides in. He sabotages the house in every way imaginable, from dropping the chandelier to hanging men. The phantom kinda falls for this actress who plays minor roles named Christine. The Phantom has a mask on one side of his face. He gives her voice lessons and she becomes an amazing singer, and she is hypnotized by him. Her childhood friend, Rauol, recognizes her and falls for her instantly. One confusing love triangle later, the Phantom allows Raoul and Christine to escape through his system of tunnels that lie beneath the opera house. He escapes by means unknown. In the play, Christine kisses both of them. At different times of course, but still. Logan and Icarus would be kissing the same girl on the same day(s). And they didn't know which one of them she liked, if she even liked one of them. Icarus concluded that teenage, 'love' was not only overrated, but over complicated. * This is just FYI, if you don't know what Phantom of the Opera is.
Time drew nearer and nearer to the play, and Icarus and Logan still had yet to kiss Amanda in a rehearsal. It may seem like an insignificant thing, but it was quite significant to them. Neither Icarus nor Logan had ever kissed a girl, not even for a dare or a play, other than those in their families. The first day of dress rehearsals was the day of reckoning for both of them. They would have to kiss Amanda. Logan kissed her before Icarus, and Icarus kissed her at the very end of the musical. All the scenes up to Logan's kiss ran smoothly, and Icarus didn't know if he should be jealous or not, of Logan. He decided not to, since he would kiss her as well. Even though he doesn't get the girl, he gets the girl's love, in the play. Logan anxiously waited for his scene with Amanda in a hall backstage. He didn't know what to feel, angry, excited, nervous, happy, or confused. He didn't even know how to hold a girl's hand, let alone kiss a girl's lips. The cue he knew sounded, so Logan took a deep breath and stepped onto the stage. The scene seemed to speed up and slow down at the same time. His mind was moving a thousand miles an hour, so everything seemed like it moved at a sluggish pace. Logan's mind slowed down right as he was leaning in to kiss Amanda. Their lips brushed and Logan tried to capture that moment forever in his mind, his first kiss. It wasn't even a real kiss, but he felt like he needed to remember it. Logan felt sparks fly and was dazzled, for that fraction of a second he kissed Amanda, he was giddily drunk on joy. The rehearsal went smoothly, and Icarus paced backstage for the last scene, where he had to kiss Amanda. His mind felt so cluttered. Icarus was thinking of when Amanda and Logan kissed, trying to imagine what it felt like, thinking of how he would kiss her, if he would sing the right words, if he'd embarrass himself in front of her, and a million other things. After what seemed like an eternity, it was time for Icarus to come on stage. He ran through all of his lines and songs flawlessly, and they flew through the scene. When Icarus had to kiss Amanda, he leaned in for her lips. When Icarus's lips brushed hers, Icarus didn't feel right. He didn't know why, but it felt completely and utterly wrong. He almost felt sick. Icarus almost stopped and ran away, but he thought that it would be rude if he did. He managed to hold himself for the remainder of the scene/play rehearsal. School ended when rehearsal ended, and Icarus didn't talk much to Logan. The two of them were still trying to make sense of their kiss with Amanda. Icarus left quickly that day, and when he got home he rehearsed his lines, homework, etc. Icarus had laid down quietly in bed and for one of the first times in his life, fell asleep instantly. He opened his eyes and saw dark flames and black speckled red feathers flying through the air. Icarus felt powerful, and he was looking down at somebody, looming over him. His vision was blurry only if he looked down, as if he wasn't meant to see all that was happening. Icarus could see light blue and white when he looked down, but that was it. Rage, complete and powerful rage was all that Icarus felt. Rage, malice, and horrible, horrible thoughts flew in Icarus's mind. All he could think about was ways to kill, how many gruesome scene he could act out on the stage that was reality. Ways to inflict the most pain, ways to kill the fastest, ways to strike fear into hearts the most. He felt a smooth handle in his right hand, the handle to some kind of weapon. In Icarus's left hand there was what he could only explain as a cold warmth. Icarus swung his right arm and heard a loud thud, then thrust forward with his left- In a cold sweat, Icarus jumped out of his bed, out of breath and scared out of his wits. He began panting roughly and ran a hand through his hair. Icarus got to his feet, not knowing what to make out of the dream. He checked his phone. It read 1:17, a.m. Icarus didn't try to go back to sleep, knowing it would be useless. Instead, he decided to run. The same empty mindedness overcame Icarus as the time he met the old man in the fog, and soon he found himself in that place. Suddenly, that memory rushed into his mind and that's all he thought about. That day when he lost his wallet. Icarus came to his senses and stopped running, once again, he found himself in that place of rolling fog.
Icarus looked around, seeing nothing but a dim, misty light in the distance, and ran towards it. He felt crushed underneath the old memory of this place, and didn't know what to think. He had questions he kept repeating in the back of his mind. "Who was the man who knocked me out? "Why did I forget what happened?" "Why did I remember it, just now?" Chaos erupted in his mind when he saw the building in front of him. It wasn't that the building was made to look somewhat like a medieval shop that blew Icarus's mind, it was simply the fact that it was there and he hadn't noticed it the first time he was there. The building was made entirely of a dark wood, with small windows emitting varying amounts of light, some shining bright and others dimly glowing into the swirling fog. The roof was triangular, tall, and had a stone chimney. The whole shop looked fairly big, the other side of it hidden by the mist. Icarus found a door and what looked like a small bell on a pedestal outside of the shop. He picked it up and rang it. Nothing happened. He tried again, twice. On the third time he rang the bell the door opened. For the third time that day, Icarus's couldn't think. The first thing he saw was rows and rows of shelves with the most random things on them. Things like toy trains, an old style camera, a mini golden trident, a grey fedora, and other totally random, unrelated items. Icarus didn't even know what to focus on. He wandered through the aisles of shelves, eyes shifting aimlessly, trying to make sense of this place. It seemed like the shop never ended. The ceiling was about fifteen feet above him, and he could see light fixtures ranging from floating fire to LED light bulbs to Christmas tree lights hanging from the ceiling. Icarus looked back down and his eyes just managed to glance something glowing from inside an old, dusty Mad Hatter cup before he passed it. Icarus stopped and stared at the cup. A faint blue tinted glow was emitting from the cup, radiating. Beckoning him to come closer. He reached his hand inside and felt the softest, most comfortable touch he had ever felt. His fingers rubbed smoothly over the item and Icarus closed his eyes. Time stopped and everything made sense, Icarus had no worries, no cares, nothing at all in the world. Just him and the strange blue glow. For who knows how long, Icarus stood there, admiring the blue glow. He finally snapped out of the trance and jumped up as he heard someone clearing their throat fairly loudly. Icarus stuffed the blue glow into his pocket not bothering to look at it. "And who might you be?" asked a voice that just barely sounded familiar. "My name is Icarus?" Icarus nervously spoke as he slowly spun on his heel. "Are you telling me or are you asking me, buddy?" The man's face came into full view as Icarus turned around. At first he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he quickly realised who he was speaking to. "Hey! You're the guy who took my wallet when I was here before!" Icarus accused, pointing a finger at his chest. "Woah there, buddy," the man reminded with a smile, swatting Icarus's finger away. "I didn't take it, you gave it to me." "That doesn't make a difference. I thought you were homeless, I thought you were poor. What even is this place?" Icarus queried. "All I have to say is, don't judge, buddy." The man's smile vanished and he walked away. "Wait- where are you going? What am I supposed to do??? How did I end up here?" Icarus followed. The man briskly walked through the maze of shelves as if he didn't hear nor remember Icarus. He zigzagged here and there, making it hard for Icarus's to keep up. Finally, they made it to what looked like an old register that would be in a thrift shop. "Ok, what's in your pocket?" The man sternly asked as he walked behind the counter, as if to ring up an order in the register. "What-" Icarus stammered. "Don't mess with me, buddy. I saw you put something in your pocket, hand it over." The man demanded with a voice of authority that rang through the shop as he extended his arm towards Icarus. Icarus bit his lip and took the blue glow our of his pocket. He didn't even look at it as he gently rested it into the man's hand. "Be careful with it, please." Icarus muttered, looking down at his feet. "I'm not even sure what it is, I didn't look at it. I'm sorry, I probably would have stolen it if you hadn't shown up." "It's alright, buddy." The man encouraged, flashing a blinding smile. "We all make mistakes. You know what? You can keep this. Just promise me something?" "What?" Icarus asked, a little afraid. "Don't look at it till you get outside." The man grinned again, this time bigger than before. "I promise?" Icarus was flustered, it was a ridiculous request. "Are you telling me or are you asking me, buddy?" The man repeated, obviously delighted at his own wit. "I promise." "Well one second, there." The man ducked under the counter and pulled out an old wooden chest the size of a hand and a blood red handkerchief. He layed the handkerchief gently down in the miniature chest, then softly placed the glow on the handkerchief, closing the chest and locking it with a key. "Here you go, all locked up and safe for you, bud." He handed the little chest over to Icarus. "Thanks, sir." "On your way now, scat." The man joked, shooing him out of the shop. Icarus began to walk out the door, holding the chest like a baby. Suddenly he became curious. "What's your name, sir?" The man's face went stone cold from behind the counter. Him and Icarus store at each other for a solid ten seconds. Then the door shut in Icarus's face.