Shadow Born: Book 1 of the Shadow-Borne Chronicles (4 page)

Alec finished dressing, ran some product through his hair to make it look like he had just rolled out of bed, and grabbed his backpack as he headed out the door.
 
He walked the short distance to the bus stop and waited.
 
He could have driven his old beat up car, but he enjoyed the night air and the walk.
 
Besides, the community college was close, so the bus ride was short.

When Alec arrived, he made his way through the campus, weaving between buildings and complexes heading towards his first night class.
 
He had already ridden the bus here during the day and made sure he knew where the buildings for his classes were.
 
And of course his first one was all the way on the other side of the campus from where the bus stop was located.
 
In the bright light of day it had never occurred to him that he would have to traverse the campus in almost complete darkness, otherwise he might have re-thought the whole thing and driven.

Alec had been looking forward to this moment for a while, but now that it was here, he was nervous.
 
He wasn’t nervous about the class itself or even going back to school.
 
Part of his nervousness stemmed from being alone and having to walk across the campus in the dark.
 
It reminded him of the parking lot the night he was abducted.
 
He kept flicking his eyes around and checking behind himself nervously.
 
He was also nervous about being around a bunch of people. Alec had always been a loner, even from an early age.
 
He had learned quickly that people would pick on you and make fun of you if you were different and so he stayed quiet and kept to himself.
 
Now he was going back into a class situation where he didn’t know a single soul.

Alec entered Carpenter Hall and immediately felt the difference in the air as he walked out of the humid night and into the air-conditioned building.
 
He walked quietly through the silent hallway looking for room 1013.
 
The only sounds he could hear were the taps of his shoes on the blue and white striped linoleum floor and a fluorescent light that kept flickering on and off, making a quiet little buzzing sound.
 
He found his room, checked his watch, and found he was thirty minutes early.
 
Peeking into the classroom he saw it was empty so he went in and took a seat waiting for the rest of the class and the professor to arrive.

After a few more minutes, students began wondering in either singly or in pairs and found places to sit.
 
Some sat with their heads together talking quietly and some were too caught up in their music or texts to pay anyone else any attention.
 
The room was starting to fill up quickly and very few seats were left.
 
When he turned to look to his right, he saw a young dark haired man had taken the only empty seat that had been close to his.
 

After a few more minutes the professor walked in with his brief case in one hand and a cup of coffee occupying the other.
 
He was probably in his forties and had on baggy trousers held up by suspenders and was wearing a brown and white striped button up.
 
He introduced himself as Professor John H. Laurence and wrote the words HISTORY 101 on the dry erase board and started talking.

After explaining the basics of the class, how the grading system worked and what he expected, he brought out the class roster and called roll.
 
When he got to Alec’s name everyone in the class turned to look at him like he was some sort of exotic zoo animal and started whispering to each other excitedly.
 
The only one not staring openly was the young man to his right.
 
Alec blushed, dropped his head and said ‘Here,’ but the professor focused on Alec and forgot about the roll call in his hands.

“Is there a problem I should be aware of Mr. Carson?”

“No, sir,” Alec answered not meeting his eyes.

“Then why do
my
students seem to be focused on you instead of me?”
 
He didn’t ask it in a mean way but asked it as if Alec could answer in some significant way that would make him go ‘Ahhhhh, now I get it’.

Alec barely shrugged his shoulders, embarrassed by all the attention.
 
This was exactly what Alec had wanted to avoid.
 
The professor stood there a moment longer then addressed the class.
 
“Can anyone tell me why Mr. Carson attracts such attention?”

A young blonde girl in the back raised her hand immediately and waved it around.
 
The professor rolled his eyes and said “Yes?” very politely.
 

The girl giggled and then said, “He’s been on television recently.
 
He’s the dude that survived the crazy Devil-worshiping lady.
 
He’s kinda cute,” she said in a loud whisper to her friend.
 
The young man sitting behind her scowled in Alec’s direction.

Alec blushed down to the soles of his feet.
 
He’d never been called cute and certainly not by someone in front of a room full of people.
 
His face was on fire and he felt like he would burst into flames at any second.
 
It was horrible.

“Ah,” the professor said and looked at Alec more closely.
 
“So it is.” With the roll still in hand he walked around his desk to stand in front of the class.
 

“I believe that Mr. Carson does not enjoy the notoriety in which his present status has placed him and that he is embarrassed by being the focus.
 
So why don’t we instead turn our attention to history and allow Mr. Carson some time to just be a normal student like the rest of you.
 
Yes?”
 
And with that the professor went back to calling the roll and class started.

Midway through the long class, the professor allowed them a break to stand up, stretch or visit the bathroom.
 
Alec stood up and stretched his back muscles out.
 
It had been awhile since he had sat in one place for so long and he wasn’t used to it.
 
He looked up once to see the girl that had called him cute was looking at him and smiling.
 
She waved at him causing him to blush all over again.
 
The guy that had was sitting behind her, and had glared at Alec earlier, saw her wave and took her hand in his.
 
Angrily, he turned her to face him and began talking very low but intensely to her.
 
She nodded her head but when she turned back around, she rolled her eyes.

The guy was probably about 6′3″ and weighed around 260 pounds. And he was all muscle.
 
The man barely had a neck.
 
His shoulders went directly to his shaved head with barely an indication of anything in between.
 
That’s just what Alec needed, to piss off the football jock the first day of class because his girlfriend, or whatever she was, was flirting with him.
 
That by itself was unheard of.
 
No one had
ever
flirted with him.
 
He looked up to see No-neck glaring at him menacingly.
 
He quickly dropped his eyes and turned away, and ran directly into the path of the young guy that had been sitting to his right.

The guy caught Alec’s shoulders with his hands before he could barrel into him.
 
Alec looked shocked and then quickly said, “Sorry I didn’t see you there,” Alec stumbled over the words.

The young man just smiled at him.
 
“It’s okay.
 
I saw the football jock over there glaring at you. Figured you were a bit distracted.”

Alec laughed nervously.
 
“Yeah, a little.”

The man smiled knowingly and held out his hand.
 
“I’m Marc, with a ‘C’.”

Alec reached out and shook his hand and without thinking about it said “I’m Alec, also with a ‘C’.”
 
This set the man to laughing.
 
Alec blushed and dropped his head but after a moment, Alec realized the man wasn’t laughing at him, but with him and relaxed just a small amount and laughed as well.
 
He normally didn’t joke with strangers.

Marc crossed his arms over his chest and looked around Alec to the football jock and their laughing group of friends.
 
“There’s one of his kind in every crowd.”
 

Alec didn’t know if he was even conscious he was doing it, but Marc had tensed the muscles in his arms and his well-defined biceps were stretching the fabric of his sleeves.
 
Alec was convinced if he flexed any more, the sleeves of Marc’s shirt would lose the battle and would rip.
 
He had this image of Marc’s shirt ripping like something off the Incredible Hulk, and had to suppress the laughter that almost burst out. Now that he was looking at Marc, he noticed that the man was very handsome.
 
Not in a male-model skinny kind of way, but in a masculine kind of way.
 

Marc had jet-black hair and an almost bronze complexion.
 
He was handsome in that rugged, manly kind of way that Alec wished he had.
 
He also had stubble on his face like he hadn’t shaved today.
 
Marc’s eyes were a dark, cinnamon brown color with flecks of something almost golden in them, and that’s when he became aware that Marc had noticed him staring.

Alec dropped his eyes quickly and blushed.
 
He stammered an apology and felt stupid for staring.
 

Marc just laughed and said, “I get stared at a lot.
 
People always think I look like someone they know or someone on television.
 
You had the same look like you were trying to place where you’d seen me.”
 
He chuckled.

“Yeah…sorry about that.
 
I was trying to figure that out,” he lied, thankful for a way out of the awkward situation.

“Don’t sweat it.
 
It’s all good.” He laughed again, like he had just made a private joke.
 
He shook his head and looked back at Alec.

Alec and Marc chitchatted back and forth a little more, with Marc doing most of the talking and Alec mumbling niceties here and there.
 
Finally the professor came back in, smelling like smoke, and asked everyone to please be seated.
 
The rest of the class, Alec focused on all the reading material he would need, and took as many detailed notes as he could.
 
Most of the students in the class were using laptops to take notes.
 
Alec was poor and using the manual style pen and paper.
 
He looked over at Marc and saw that he wasn’t taking notes at all.
 
He was just sitting there with his arms crossed over his chest, staring intently at the professor as if he were absorbing every word that came out of his mouth.
 
Every now and then the professor would say something that would either make Marc shake his head slightly or frown just the smallest amount and Alec couldn’t help but wonder what he was thinking.

Class was over and dismissed and Alec gathered up his things and shoved them in his backpack.
 
Marc leaned over to him, “You want to go get a beer or something?”

Alec was taken aback by the question.
 
He was never invited to go out with anyone.
 
To do anything.
 
Ever.
 
Even the people at work never invited him anywhere.
 
He was silent a little too long.

“Hey it’s cool if you don’t want to, just thought I’d ask.”

Alec shook his head.
 
“No, it’s not that.
 
I have to work tomorrow.
 
I kind of need to get home and get in bed.”

“That’s cool, Alec.
 
Maybe another time?”

“Yeah, that would be great,” Alec said, feeling completely out of his element.
 
Someone wanted to hang out with him.
 
It was just…unheard of.

“We can trade numbers and you can text me some evening when you’re free.”

Alec looked embarrassed.
 
“I don’t have a cell phone.
 
I can’t afford one.”
 
In the 21st century, in the age of electronics and gadgets, he—Alec Carson—had to be the only college student alive who didn’t have a cell phone.
 
Money was just too tight right now.
 
Moving to Jordan, renting an apartment and starting college had wiped out his savings.
 
He had had to pay for his classes on a deferment plan just to be able to afford them.
 
He was going to have to save every penny he earned just to be able to scrape by.

“No problem, man.
 
I honestly wish I didn’t have one.
 
They are a pain sometimes.
 
My boss wants to be able to get a hold of me anytime, anywhere.
 
Consider yourself lucky.
 
I want to ask the professor something.
 
See you Wednesday in class?”

Alec said yes and they said their goodbyes.
 
Marc headed up to the front of the classroom to talk to the professor and Alec headed toward his lonely trek for the bus stop.

Once Alec got outside, the humidity hit him hard and he started sweating.
 
Well, not all of the sweating was from the humidity.
 
He also admitted to himself that he didn’t like walking through the campus alone, and in the dark.
 
It made him nervous.