NOVEL WEB Chapter 3: When You Stare Into The Abyss, She Winks
Brett paced back and forth in what was apparently the nurse’s office, although it was much bigger than what he’d been used to in high school. With a campus of this size, the medical ward was practically a small doctor’s practice with its own staff. He wondered absent-mindedly if it also serviced the town, considering the fact that the building was connected to the road that led to Crescent. He could tell his brain was trying to wrap itself around any sense of normalcy, which meant that it was either, A, trying to put the majority of his current reality in his blind spots, and/or B, doing that thing you do before you die, trying to find a useful way out of your current situation.
“I’m so sorry for Lindsay.” A girl stood next to Elliot, who was awake but clearly still a little out of it. She was a Sophomore named Malena, and she’d quickly come to their aid after it was clear that they’d been freaking out and, in some cases, fainting. Malena was dressed in an overly large sweater, with sleeves that went past her hands. She was also tall. Even without the platform boots she was wearing, she would’ve easily been six inches taller than Brett. Now she had almost a whole foot on him. He tried not to think about that phrasing. Not with those boots. “She knew about the exchange students, but I think she might not have realized you guys were, uh…”
“Normal?” Brett barked, trying to keep the hysteria out of his voice. Sure, the girl in front of him looked human, and the guy who’d helped carry Elliot seemed nice enough, if a little on the gym-bro side of things, but after the menagerie of creatures he’d seen walking around earlier, Brett was close to breaking down entirely. Malena winced.
“Hey,” she said, “we try not to use that word here, okay? Not everyone is entirely comfortable with who they are, and we want to create a safe and nurturing environment--”
“For snake people?” At the mention of them, Elliot sat upright, blinking, looking around. Malena put a hand on her arm, and Brett noticed that it caused the girl to blush slightly. Well, whatever kept her from fainting again.
“Well, yes. Among others.” Malena seemed unfazed. “They really didn’t tell you guys anything, huh?” Jonas shook his head, and the girl McKenzie shrugged. She was taking all this in stride. In fact, she seemed more annoyed at the lack of reception on her phone than she had been at the parade of monster people. “Well, uh… this shouldn’t really be my job, but I don’t think most of the teachers and counselors and stuff are here yet, so…” She looked over at Gym Bro. “Hey, Tobias, you wanna come with, give them a tour?”
He grimaced. “I was gonna meet up with some of the guys, Lena. I--” He caught her eye and whimpered softly. “Alright, fine. Just don’t look at me like that, it’s not fair!”
“Like what?” Malena grinned. “Thank you!” She stood up. “Elliot, are you down?”
“For what?” she mumbled as she swung her legs out of the bed and got up on unsteady legs. Brett rushed over to keep her from stumbling, and she gave him a grateful little smile. She was pretty, especially up close, and Brett tried to focus on not focusing on that. It was going swimmingly.
“Well, you’re new students, you’re freaking out. I reckon it’s as good a time as any to show you around.” She walked around the bed and slung an arm around Elliot, who went beet red. “Welcome to Crescent Moon University, you guys. It’ll be great!”
After a few minutes getting checked out by the doctor, who was the kind of woman the word “cozy” was invented for, grey curls and blushing cheeks, Elliot was deemed ready to go, and Toby and Malena led the four out the medical ward back onto the campus grounds. At least it wasn’t raining anymore. For now. “You gonna be alright?” Toby -- only Malena called him Tobias, apparently -- asked, making sure Elliot wasn’t going to immediately faint again.
“I’m fine,” McKenzie said, still frowning at her phone. Toby looked at her in confusion, and then at Elliot, who just smiled and nodded. “So what’s with all the…” McKenzie looked around the campus and seemed to be struggling for the right words, “fur?”
Toby nearly swallowed his tongue and started coughing violently. Jonas quickly patted him on the back, which seemed to help a bit. Malena cracked a wide smile. “Crescent Moon is a… special college.”
“Well… obviously,” Brett said. “I mean… We’re just supposed to be okay with… all this?” He waved in the general direction of everything. Malena nodded.
“We’re okay with you being here, aren’t we? This is an exchange program. Get some bright students that aren’t… other, and work them into the student populace. Then, hopefully, you guys can advocate for us.” She smiled happily as she began walking them down the path crossing the main grass field that separated the main buildings. Brett had to walk fast to keep up with her stride. She was taller than him, significantly so.
“But you’re all…”
“Monsters?” Toby asked. “I mean, yeah, but we’re more than that, you know? We don’t discriminate here. It’s so easy to see people as a creature first instead of who they really are.” He exchanged a glance with Malena, who nodded. “Try not to judge.”
“But--”
“Enough of that,” Malena said. Brett looked up at her. She was still smiling, but something in her tone had made it very clear that she was done pursuing that specific line of questioning. Then he looked into her eyes, and he lost himself. Her eyes were black, infinitely, and it was like he was enveloped by the deepest darkness he’d ever seen, faint stars twinkling in and out of existence. A shape seemed to swim around him here in the deep empty infinite night, visible only where it obscured the light of distant stars. It was massive, larger than he had the ability to comprehend. Then an eye, the size of planets, of stars, of solar systems, of galaxies, opened up and looked at him, and the insignificance of his existence bore down on him with the power of a thousand suns. He was stripped of his identity, of who he was, and for a brief moment, he was forced to put himself back together with pieces he wasn’t sure he wanted to even handle.
He didn’t even realize he’d fallen backwards onto the gravel path until Jonas helped him get up. Brett looked up at Malena, who still looked like a normal girl. But he didn’t hazard looking into her eyes again. “Wh--” he managed.
“She does that,” Toby said.
“I can’t help it,” Malena said with a pout. “It’s not my fault short stack here decided to gaze into the abyss.”
“Stop calling it that, weirdo,” Toby said with a wolfish grin. Malena returned it. Elliot looked between the three of them, confused.
“Excuse me, what just happened?” Elliot was also helping Brett stand up, and then looked at Malena. “I take it there’s more going on here than this kid being awkward around beautiful women, right?” Brett wanted to be offended, but he was still having too much trouble finding words. On top of that, Malena gave Elliot a look that made her blush fiercely.
“Always nice to hear a cute girl call me beautiful,” Malena said, her voice sweet as honey. “But yes, I’m not… exactly human either,” she said. “I’m a little older than you think,” she added, clearly being a little coy about it.
“Like, beginning of the universe old,” Toby said. Jonas and Brett stared at him in disbelief, and then at Malena. Curiously, McKenzie was just grinning at Elliot, who was making a point of ignoring her. “You get used to that, too.” Brett couldn’t help but stare at Malena again. This wasn’t real, right? This couldn’t be real. “Go on, ask her what she’s doing in college.” Malena seemed positively giddy with excitement to tell them. Elliot asked the question with a look.
“Well, I recently turned over a new leaf in my life and I have a lot of things to relearn, so I’m here to try and figure out what it means to be human,” she said happily. And then, both her and Toby grew a little bit more reserved and Brett suddenly felt very looked at. All four of them were being studied, it seemed. “And,” Malena continued, carefully, “what it means to be a girl.” Brett blinked a couple of times. Of all the things an eldritch abomination could choose to be, she had apparently chosen to be a twenty-something girl. It was going to take a moment to wrap his head around that. Of course, if he had the power to be whatever he wanted--
“That’s awesome!” Elliot said, interrupting Brett’s train of thought. “I’m so glad you found yourself. I mean, I can imagine it’s a little easier if you’re… y’know, not human, but still, I--” McKenzie poked her softly.
“You’re doing it again,” the blonde said with a little smirk. “Breathe before you knock yourself out again.” Elliot smiled sheepishly at Malena.
“Sorry. I tend to get a little ramble-y. Especially around o-- around queer people.” Malena raised an eyebrow and looked at Elliot, and for the umpteenth time, Brett saw her blush, and he felt a weird feeling in his chest. There was a degree of envy there, but he didn’t know if it was because he wanted to have that effect on someone like Elliot, or if he wanted to be looked at that way by someone like Malena. Did that mean something? Should it? Did he want it to? He shook his head.
“Nothing to apologize for, Elliot. I think it’s absolutely precious.” Brett knew that, if he’d been in Elliot’s place, he probably would have died on the spot. Then he noticed that McKenzie looked like she seemed to be having a great deal of fun with something, but he didn’t know how to ask.
“Anyway,” Toby said nonchalantly, “this is the student dorms. I’ll get you to your rooms in a bit, if you want.” McKenzie and Jonas shot him a questioning look, and Toby scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “I’m the prefect. Getting you guys acclimated is kinda my responsibility.” He tried to force something of a smile. “You’re gonna see a lot of me, I’m afraid.”
“I’m sure I’ll survive,” McKenzie said with a little smirk that Toby seemed almost terrified to acknowledge. The girl, Brett decided, managed to seem both harmless and a menace. She reminded him of the more insidious bullies in high school, and yet she seemed to also be mostly nice and supportive.
“I noticed your shirt,” Jonas said, clearly trying to change the subject a bit. “You’re a runner?” Toby perked up visibly, clearly excited.
“Yeah, man! You run track?” Toby almost bounced off the path when the answer was an enthusiastic nod. Was he doing warmups? Brett would never understand these jock types. Toby looked at the others. “You know where the rooms are, right?” he asked Malena, who nodded with an exasperated smile. Toby looked back at the group. “Hey, Jonas, right? Wanna see the track course? It’s ma-hoo-ssive.” Toby was practically vibrating as Jonas looked at his friend and the girls.
“Y’all gonna be alright?” Brett nodded, Elliot smiled, and McKenzie ignored him completely, staring at Toby like a cartoon cat staring at a cartoon ham. Jonas shrugged, and turned back to the other guy. “Sure, lead the way.”
“Yes!” Toby said. “Just follow me!” Then, his upper body seemed to inflate like a balloon. His shirt stretched to accommodate as his neck bulged up and suddenly grew a big coat of dark brown hair. His face stretched into a fuzzy muzzle and his arms now ended in coal-shovel-sized hands with giant claws. “Let’s go, dude!” Toby said, wagging his now present tail, before running off. Jonas stood there stunned.
“Go on,” Malena said. “Can’t leave him waiting.” Jonas, now a lot less self-assured, followed the wolf-boy to the track course. Brett looked at the back of his friend. He hoped Jonas was gonna be okay. He also hoped Jonas wouldn’t be too okay. The last thing he wanted was to find himself without his best friend in a place this strange and alien. “Well, girls, shall I show you to your rooms?” Brett’s heart nearly stopped and he looked at Malena in a panic. “Sorry. Girls and boy,” Malena said, in a weird tone of voice. “Elliot?” The girl seemed lost in thought, also having been looking at Brett in a way that made him feel very weird. “Elliot, right?”
“Hmm? Yes? Hmm?”
“Can you get your friend?” Elliot and Brett looked at McKenzie, who was still staring in the direction Jonas and Toby had run off to. Her eyes seemed glazed over and she was biting her lip. “She seems a little preoccupied.” Elliot coughed to hide a laugh, and grabbed McKenzie by the arm, to go look at their rooms.
