I laid out the covers of my bed and reflected on the day's events. My interaction with Fredrick was very insightful, I now know that he may be a dangerous person, and that he is quite intelligent. His shoulders were very tense from what I observed, and his movements were frantic, he was looking for something, but what? Whatever he is looking for, it's obviously something related to this school or town. Considering he started looking at the school, I started my research with school history.
The school history was quite interesting, I found really old news articles that detailed potential shady business such as drug trafficking and money laundering schemes my school had been in. Unfortunately, nothing there stuck out as anything interesting enough for Fredrick to come all this way, unless he was some undercover cop, which I doubted.
I continued research with the town's history, and this is where I found the big lead. Following an extensive search, I found an article that was supposedly written 1,400 years ago that detailed an ancient legend that had roots in the town. The legend described a watch that could freeze time, however the user can freely move at will. My heart raced as I read about the ancient legend. Could this be what Fredrick was after? Sadly, there wasn't much more information offered, luckily, it was plenty for me to deduce where the watch was located.
The article mentioned a certain person named John Robinson, who was supposedly an old wizard in town. He made several magic items that he told stories about, but none of them were recorded besides the watch. That wasn't important however, what was important was the name John Robinson. I remembered hearing that name in one of Ms. Smith's lectures about old historical teachers. In that lesson, Ms. Smith mentioned that he kept a diary. This diary would be the key to what I wanted to know. But, before I could confirm my theory, I had to make sure there was nothing else that Fredrick could possibly be looking for.
The research stage took another few hours, but for better or for worse, I found no other article that sounded out of the ordinary, which confirmed my theory. Whatever Fredrick was looking for, had to be something to do with the magic watch. Going back to John Robinson and his diary. Luckily for me, when Ms. Smith went through his diary entries, I was actually really interested in the lesson, so I paid attention. My photographic memory came in clutch as I recalled and visualized all 78 of his diary entries. Each entry was about a page and a half long, some short and some longer, all of which I was able to read in a matter of a few seconds. The important information in this diary was his word choice. He often made references to "silent guardians" and "the final destination" as he traveled and wrote about the world. Silent guardians obviously referred to tombstones, and the final destination was death. With all these clues, whatever was up with the watch, it was at John Robinson's grave.
I smirked, the research process had gone quite well, although it wasn't very challenging, and Fredrick easily could've done everything I did, yet I didn't see him at the graveyard. Maybe I had overestimated his abilities… Whatever the case, I now had this watch, and was itching to use it. But, I remembered what the creepy old dude said once I got it.
"Now, Jeffrey, there are some things I must tell you about the watch before you can use it."
"Well duh, you just gave me it, how am I supposed to use it?" I asked, moving my hand around the watch as it sat on my arm. I really wanted to speed this up, the awful stench of rotting flesh was filling my nose. TJ looked pale and was about to pass out as well.
"Patience, young one. First, let me tell you about how things will go from here on out." His voice dropped to a whisper, sending chills down my spine. "There is an evil organization out there that will now hunt down that watch, utilizing any means at their disposal. Let's just say, they've been genetically breeding humans for their own gain. They are also after the 3 other magic items. Once you gather all 4, you will know what to do. You must stop them, Jeffrey. You are the only one who can."
I was shocked. My jaw had dropped to the floor and I was glued in place. Me? Some kind of chosen one? What was this? I finally pulled my feet off the ground and took a few cautious steps forward.
"You've gotta be joking, old man. Why me?" I asked, trying to keep my resolve.
"Fufufu… you will learn in time, but for now… it will be my little secret. Anyway, the watch." The old man leaned forward, his voice lowered to a whisper. "To use the watch, press the small button on the side." He said and pointed to it. "Do not try to freeze time for too long, the organization gets pinged every time the watch is used, and they will send someone out to try and kill you. With that, I will take my leave." He said and turned towards the shadows.
"Wait!" I called and tried to follow after him, but it was too late. He had already vanished into the darkness. I turned towards TJ who was now leaning on the wall for support.
"What should we do, Jeffrey?" I paused, and began to think for a moment.
"Well, first off, we need to learn more about this mysterious organization, and I have a feeling Fredrick has some sort of involvement with it. But before that, I'm fucking exhausted man, I think it's time to hit the hay."
"Yeah, I agree." We both made our way back to the graveyard and parted paths on the way home.
…
The bell rang at 7am, signaling the start of the school day. As I pulled up to Ms. Smith's classroom, I noticed an eerie stillness that felt out of place. Ms. Smith, who was usually punctual and reliable, was absent today. It struck me as odd since she rarely missed a day of school. I took a seat and scanned the room, noticing a few other students exchanging puzzled glances. Just then, a tall man entered the room. The man had short, brown hair, a thick, bushy mustache, and was extremely muscular. He wore black jeans and a brown tank top with a large jacket on top, but his muscles still showed through all of that. The aura this man radiated immediately told me he was a former soldier, and he would be our sub, great.
"Good morning, class. I am Mr. Thorne" He said in a thick southern accent. "I regret to inform you that Ms. Smith will no longer be your teacher. I am here to take her place, and I am here to stay. Any questions?" The atmosphere turned icy. I, among many others, were speechless. While kids were raising their hands and asking questions, I sat, frozen in place, thinking. What happened to her? The way he worded it and his tone made me believe she was dead, but there's a chance that was a psychological trick. By using words like "no longer teacher" and "here to stay" makes us think of death, which will make us accept him more easily. Just a theory, but always a possibility.
"You sir!" He yelled which made me jump. I raised my eyes from my desk and looked towards him to find a death stare. "What is your name, young man?" I shook off all my thoughts and regained composure.
"Uhh, my name is Jeffrey Thompson, sir."
"Jeffrey! Why are you staring off into space in MY classroom?" He yelled. All eyes had fallen on me. Maintaining my cool, I formulated a response that should yield a favorable result.
"My apologies, sir. I was simply pondering what could've possibly made Ms. Smith leave. She was not expecting a baby, her husband died years ago and she made it abundantly clear how loyal she is to him, she did not tell us about any family, and if she did, there is no reason for her to take a permanent leave. If it's not too much to ask, do you happen to know what happened to her?" I completely flipped the tables. It was already made clear this man was after me, since TJ was also staring off into space during my lecture, since I asked him to through our message system. This would put him into a state of panic, since I guessed all of his potential responses and rebutted them. There is a good chance that he would feign ignorance here, but if he does it will confirm my theory. I turned to TJ to see if he saw my brilliant trap, but he responded with a look of confusion, so I turned to the rest of the class and was still met with looks of confusion.
"Uhh, Jeffrey…" Mr. Thorne began. "Did you not receive the school's text? Ms. Smith had to take a leave for the rest of the year because her sister died. She wants time to help her sister's family."
I froze. I did not receive any text of the sort. Somehow, I know that for a fact, when I reach into my pocket, and pull out my phone, there would be a read notification about Ms. Smith's leave of absence. I slowly reached down into my pocket and pulled my phone out with shaking hands. Sure enough, right there, clear as day, could not miss it was a notification reading, Ms. Smith will be taking a break for the rest of the year due to personal reasons. Feel free to ask your new teacher, Mr. Malachi Thorne about any specifics.
"My apologies, Mr. Thorne. I must've missed the text somehow." This was wrong, I knew for sure that I had not received that text, someone was testing me, and I had fallen right into their trap, hook, line and sinker. This was infuriating.
"It is alright, however I expect everyone, especially you Jeffrey, to remain focussed and informed as long as you are in my classroom. Ms. Smith spoke quite highly of you. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes, sir." I responded nonchalantly.
"Good, now, let us begin with the lesson if there are no more questions." No hands were raised, so he turned to the whiteboard and began the lesson.
I did not pay attention to the lesson, I was too busy thinking about what I should do. First order of business, I need to find out who Ms. Smith's sister was, and find out if she actually died. Based on what I find, I will continue from there. If I can find her sister and she is actually dead, I need to figure out if the source is legit or not. If her sister did actually die, then that would mean that I'm overthinking things and no one is out to get me. However, I'm 100% confident that I did not receive that text message, meaning someone set this trap up for me specifically. O needed to set up a plan, luckily, I already had one in mind.
First, to verify the legitimacy of Ms. Smith's leave. I need to find out if her sister had actually died. To do this, I simply went to the town's library with TJ after school, and looked up Ms. Smith's profile on a website made to track high school teachers to find out her real name. I couldn't do this on my phone since Fredrick clearly had already gained access to it somehow, likely through the school network, so the library should be safe for now, but I had to act fast. I looked up on a government site to find out that her sister, Eleanor Smith, had in fact passed away recently. This stumped me, but didn't put an immediate end to my plans, this only meant that if I was correct, horrible things were happening.
Next order of business would be to figure out what had actually happened with the notification, since I had no memory of ever receiving or reading that. Before I could though, I had to act like I wasn't. What that means is, whoever sent the message is likely monitoring me, so I have to throw them off. So, the next day at school, I asked Mr. Thorne questions about figures related to wars. He actually was quite thorough in his responses, but after a while must've thought I was doing it to stall time, since he started ignoring me. This should hopefully through whoever is watching me for a loop, since most of the people I asked weren't in the lesson at all. Should buy me some time while I execute the next stage.
Next stage, I need to look at IT logs to see if there was any tampering. To do that, during lunch I would go to the bathroom. In the bathroom, there were secret tunnels that I had learned about through the research I did earlier. One of these tunnels led me to right outside the main office, which was directly in front of the IT room. I walked in, and approached the man who was at the front counter. He was slouched over with greasy hair that was all over his head. He had rimmed glasses, and worse a grease-stained white t-shirt and blue jeans.
"Hey, I was wondering if I could IT logs and transmissions for 2 days from about 6:30am to 7:00am?"
"Uh? Sorry kid, no can do."
I had expected as much, but worth a shot. I snuck back into the lunch room as fast as I could and relayed the information to TJ.
"Yeah, man. It fucking sucks." He said, punching the table.
"Yeah, but I expected as much would happen. Luckily I have another plan."
"Ooooh." TJ rubbed his hands together excitedly.
"This plan entails… the watch." I said, lowering my voice. TJ's face turned grim.
"Don't you… want to try and test it first." He asked, a nervous edge to his voice. I shook my head.
"This will be the test, and will confirm if anything the old guy said was true, or if he was just trying to scare us." TJ nodded in understanding.
"Alright, tell me your plan."
"Here's how it'll go," I started, taking a pause to take a bite out of my burger. "So, we don't know how the pings work. What I'll do to work around that is have you hit the watch and freeze time in a location far from the school, but within running distance. Reason you're doing it is because you can defend yourself. I cannot do that. What we'll have to do is sneak out during lunch period tomorrow. I'm thinking we will meet-up at the head of the trail that's about 10 minutes from the school. Since we only have an hour for lunch, we'll have to act fast. Now, since assuming the old dude is telling the truth, other people can move even when the watch is active. Using this information, I'm going to operate under the assumption that we can manipulate the watch to allow both of us to move while time is frozen. To test it, I will simply keep my finger on the watch while you hold it."
I paused and took another bite. TJ nodded to show he probably understood the plan.
"Then, when the evil scary dudes show up, you beat their asses. You can't lose to them unless there's too many, or they're superhumans. In either case, what you will do is run back to the school, where I will be waiting and take care of them there. If they overpower you, use the walkie-talkie that I will give you. I will unfreeze time and several cameras will witness these people attacking you for no reason. Make sense so far?"
"Yeah, but will you do once I make it to the school?"
"Oh it's quite simple really." I said with a smirk on my face. "They'll have no choice but to stop. School's still in progress, students will be all over the place. These people need to maintain secrecy, if they even do exist."
TJ gave me a nod.
"Once I get all the information I need, I will unfreeze time and we will rendezvous at the park near my house that we'd play at as kids all the time. We meet there since there is no pattern leading to that, so no one can predict that spot."
I let out a long sigh.
"Whew, nothing has made me have to think this hard in a while, whoever is behind this all sure is someone special."
"Yeah man, I always knew you could do something like this. You just needed someone who could push you there."
"Thanks bro, yeah. As a wise man once said, 'It is only with a worthy rival that one can reach their fullest potential.' I am now seeing how true this is. This is fun, I hope this can continue further." I truly meant this. Nothing this fun has ever happened. Whoever was behind this, be it Fredrick, or someone else, I will find out who it is, and crush them.
…
The bell for lunch had rung, TJ and I wasted no time ordering our food, sitting down, then quickly ducking out one of the side doors. We met up at the trail's head.
"Are you ready for this?" I asked TJ, hardly able to contain my excitement.
"I'm ready, but I'd like to get some clarification on some things first." TJ said, his nervousness showing through his voice.
"Oh, no worries, what's up TJ?"
"Well, for starters. Why is it exactly that I'm the one pinging, since you can just do it and leave me here?"
"Oh, I must've forgotten to say, sorry man." I had to make sure TJ fully understood my plan, if I just made these up then TJ wouldn't learn my thought process and wouldn't be able to think for himself. "Basically, I don't know how the ping works. You're pressing the button so that if it shows the person pinging, it will show as you, and whoever is behind all this thinks you're the one who got the watch, and not me."
"Ohhhh, gotcha." He said, nodding back in understanding. "One more thing, though."
"Shoot."
"Why am I staying behind here? If it's just one ping then can't we set it off and go to the school together."
"Good point, but that's not how it'll work." I said, hardening my gaze. TJ gave me a blank stare.
"Didn't you just say you don't know how the ping will work?"
"It's not about the ping," I said, taking a step closer to TJ. "It's about information gathering. Until now, we have no concrete proof that anything the old man said was true. If he was telling the truth, we can confirm this by seeing what happens while we do this. Whatever happens, you're strong enough to defend yourself, or escape back to the school where I'll be. And also, it will be extremely easy to find someone moving in frozen time, and we don't know what tools they have at their disposal. You'll also serve as a distraction for me."
TJ nodded, understanding the plan now.
"Got it, thanks man."
"Of course, can't leave ya' out of the know."
He gave a sheepish smile as he scratched the back of his head.
"I don't get it man, how are you so smart?"
"Fufufu… well, you don't really get a choice when you're locked in a library for several hours a day for several years straight."
"Right, right. Anyway, you ready?"
"Born ready, man."
As I held out the watch, it glistened in the sunlight. TJ cautiously took it, his hands shaking. I put my finger on the watch, and TJ pressed the side button.
Suddenly, a giant beam of light burst out around us and engulfed the surrounding area in a blue light. After a few seconds, everything turned back to normal. I looked around and saw TJ was still next to me, right as he was a few moments ago.
"It worked!" I thought out loud. TJ also looked up and around and saw me. He gave a quick cry of joy and scooped me in a bear hug.
"Oh my god, Jeffrey, you're alright!"
"Yes, yes, we're fine. Alright, it's time to set this plan into motion." I said, barely able to breath after his monstrous hug. He finally put me down.
"Alright, see ya man."
"See ya."
And with that, I was off. It wasn't long before I heard the signal on walkie talkie from TJ.
I recalled the final part of the plan I had told him.
"Alright, TJ. Let's assume these men show up, and see you. I need you to act like you expected to see them. Whoever they are, they will certainly be henchmen for this organization, if they exist at all. We can't let them know about me at all. To communicate that you see them, you'll send three signals through the walkie talkie. Keep it in your pocket, and your hand on it until they appear, so you don't make a random movement toward your pocket. This is also so they don't think you're reaching for a gun. But, yeah, all you need to do is act like you're the mastermind behind all this. If they question you at all, just say you're going to reveal all your tactics."
"Okay, man, I can do that." He said, his expression stone cold. "But, one more thing. What if, by some miracle, they overpower me?"
"I got that covered as well, no matter what, you should be able to access your walkie talkie, just send a signal that I don't recognize. If you can't do that, they won't kill you. They will send a message to come rescue you, and I will devise a plan from there. But, if you do manage to send a signal that I interpret as you needing help, I will unfreeze time. Remember, there are street cameras, as well as manual cameras I will have at the head of the trail, we will catch them."
The signals came across in the form of TJ simply pressing the button that starts the communication, then immediately releasing it, so that all I hear is the static and nothing else. Three of them came across, which was a relief since that meant TJ wasn't immediately overpowered. I had confidence in him, I truly believed that he would not lose.
I finally made it back to the school and ripped open the main doors. Once inside I bolted for the bathrooms that had the secret tunnels leading directly to the main office. As I approached the main office, I couldn't help but feel a mixture of pride and nervousness rise in me. On one hand, I was excited to finally have a good reason to go all out. But on the other hand, I was scared that there was a crucial flaw I missed, or that my plan would end in failure and our deaths. We had no idea who our opponent was, and we were dealing with unknown forces. I popped out of the tunnel and immediately made the turn towards the IT room. Once inside, my heart sank.
Sitting on a chair in the middle of the room, legs crossed, reading a book, was the man who I feared the most. The worst possible scenario had come true. Mr. Thorne looked up from his book, and gave me an icy smile.
"Welcome, Jeffrey. I had a feeling you'd get here soon."