The Iron Realm (The Iron Soul Book 1) Page 4

  “Okay,” Jenny sighed. “At least we've got Personal and Exploratory writing together this afternoon.” She leaned over and kissed her boyfriend quickly before frowning, “You taste like apple juice.”

  “I like apple juice,” he replied. “You're just weird.”

  Shaking his head, Lance chuckled and sipped at his coffee, giving Alex a small smile.

  The Hamilton Building was an old brick building on the east side of campus that mostly housed the offices of the History, Philosophy and Political Science departments. The classrooms were all small whitewashed squares with only a few windows and lacked a decent wifi signal and a sufficient number of outlets. In fact there were outlets only at the front of the room and in the very back, neither of which was the ideal seating location. Lance, Alex and Jenny had arrived in time to find places all together in the respectable middle of the room, not too close and not too far from their lecturer.

  Professor Williams was one of the older members of the faculty and yet could still cheerfully skip through his classroom and hear even the slightest whisper. Naturally their first hour of class was consumed with the presentation of the syllabus and Alex's first introduction to the notion that college professors didn't care if she showed up. Professor Williams made it clear that his mercy was only moved if he saw the students' face in all the classes and enjoyed their contributions to class discussion. They had ten minutes at the end which consisted of Professor William challenging them to consider the difference between logical thinking and critical reasoning along with assigning the first chapter of the textbook.

  When Alex stumbled out into the sunlight, she tucked her tablet under her arm and breathed in the fresh air with relief.

  “What do you think?” Jenny asked her, turning her face up towards the sun.

  “Not bad,” Alex replied with a shrug. “But I have no idea what the difference is between logic and critical reasoning.”

  “I think logic is more scientifically based,” Jenny offered. “You know, absolute truth while I think critical reasoning may be more human nature and behavior based.”

  Alex turned to look at her roommate with a new hint of respect in her eyes. Jenny smirked in response and winked at Alex.

  “I'm with Alex,” Lance admitted, “I wouldn't have thought they were different except that the class is called reason and critical reasoning.”

  “Well I'll see you both later,” Jenny said to them with a glance at her phone. “I've got to run if I want to get a water before my next class.”

  “See you later,” Alex called with a wave to the departing Jenny who gave them a quick wave over her shoulder.

  “Bye Alex,” Lance told her with a nod before he jogged off to call after another boy who was leaving the building.

  Sighing softly, Alex adjusted her messenger bag and slipped her tablet into it. She pulled out her sunglasses and slipped them on before stepping further away from the building. Her eyes scanned the moving crowds of students as she started walking towards the administration building, searching for anyone she recognized from her dorm. The buildings became less crowded quickly and Alex found herself walking up a long sidewalk towards a large classic university building complete with a massive clock tower. There was a large open park in front of the administration hall with lots of leafing trees and students were lounging all about, many of them on towels or blankets.

  Having nothing better to do, Alex moved off the main path and sat down in the grass. She shrugged off her messenger bag and set it down next to her. Pulling out her map, Alex put her finger on the administration hall and let her eyes trace the route back to her dorm room. According to the map, the large modern building constructed from pale brick and steel to her right was the Fine Arts building. The one to her left was Miller Hall and she didn't know what classes took place there. Turning, she looked at a smaller building beyond Miller Hall on the left that was the Health Center.

  Leaning back on the grass, Alex stared up at the blue sky and listened the low hum of the people moving around her and other students on the lawn talking amongst themselves. She felt a twinge of regret at not going to University of Washington or Washington State with her high school friends. Compared to Spokane, Ravenslake was so small and had so little to do. Alex swallowed the lump in her throat and closed her eyes. She was just a little homesick, she assured herself quickly. Her parents and brother had left the day before and she didn't have any real friends on campus yet. But she had Jenny, who seemed friendly and wanting to make friends just like she did, and Arthur and maybe Lance. That made Alex feel a bit better, and maybe she'd meet a few more people in her next class.

  Alex sat up and checked the time on her phone, wondering if she should get something to eat before her next class. She didn't feel very hungry, but packed her map back into her bag and stood up. Following the long sidewalk south, Alex headed for the University Commons where her RA had assured her a full food court could be found.

  One turkey sandwich and stop off at her dorm room later, Alex was sitting down in the fifth row of her 12:30 Survey of Calculus class in the Meier Building. This room was much more modern with permanent large seats arranged like stadium rows with each row higher than the one in front of it. Each chair had a small fold out desk attached to the right side that swung up and into place. At the front of the room, a middle aged African American woman who Alex assumed was Professor Bailey was writing on the white board.

  Waving to a girl she recognized from her floor, Alex took a quick drink from her water bottle and turned to watch the remaining students file in. Everyone looked about the right age to be freshman, but there were three nontraditional students in the mix as well. Alex was about to turn back to the front when a young man with short dark brown hair entered the room. There was nothing remarkable about him, he was cute and dressed casually, but as he walked down the aisle his eyes met Alex's.

  Suddenly she was enveloped in the thick scent of old books. Pages turned around her and low voices sounded like there were off a great distance. Then the smell of garlic washed over her before Alex snapped back to reality.

  Taking in a quick breath, Alex stared at the young man who was gaping at her with a stunned expression on his face.

  “Aiden,” a voice called out. “Come on man!”

  The young man, Aiden, turned towards the voice instinctively and started towards it. He had taken a few steps when he looked over his shoulder at Alex with a confused expression. Lowering her eyes, Alex focused on her tablet. She kept taking slow and long breathes, trying to sort out what was happening. First there had been that weirdness with Arthur and now with this guy. Risking a look up, she found him sitting with another boy two rows ahead of her. After a second, he looked up at her over his shoulder making Alex look down quickly. She was relieved when Professor Bailey announced the beginning of class and started to go over the syllabus. Alex barely heard a word of it and rushed from the room as soon as the professor dismissed them.

  When she made it back to her dorm room, Alex was relieved to find Jenny absent. Tossing her bag onto the bed, Alex sat down on the edge and rubbed her eyes. After a moment of consideration, Alex set an alarm on her phone and walked over to her laptop on her desk. She taped her fingers impatiently as the machine booted up and accessed the internet.

  Then she hesitated. Alex stared at the search engine screen for may have been minutes before typing in ‘seeing and hearing things'.

  There was so much. Search results ranged from visual and auditory hallucinations tied to late life blindness, schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress to spiritual awakenings. Alex found none of them particularly comforting. She went through the other symptoms of suggested mental disorders, but didn't think that anything else applied. The alarm on her phone went off, startling Alex out of her research. She shut the laptop and reached for her phone.

  “Okay, Alex,” she told herself. “It's probably just the stress of college and being homesick. Don't panic yet.”

  Moving automaticall
y, Alex grabbed her things for her next class and started walking back towards the Meier Building. She moved through the crowd of students with little difficulty until she reached the stairs and had to blend into the natural flow of movement. The classroom was at the far end of the hall and Alex slipped inside with a sense of relief. Once again she second guessed her decision to attend class, but she wasn't ready to go to the Health Center and announce that she'd had two hallucinations.

  The classroom was far more similar to high school than the others had been with free standing chair and desk combinations in rows throughout the midsized room. There were three windows on the far side that looked over at the next building giving the room a closed off feel that didn't help Alex's nerves at all. There were only a few people in the room and the professor's tweed clad back was turned to the door as he wrote points of the syllabus on the white board. Hoping to be seen by her new professor, but avoid any more unpleasant contacts, Alex's eyes went to the back row this time.

  Another girl was already seated at the back with a notebook open in front of her, nibbling at her thumb nail. She had long auburn hair styled with a crown braid and was wearing rolled up jeans which revealed a tattoo on her ankle. It looked familiar to Alex, with a J, T and maybe two R’s, but she couldn't place the symbol. Alex moved to take a seat and smiled as the girl turned to look up at her. Alex's eyes met the girl's blue eyes and she felt the world fall away again in a surge of panic.

  Her hands were moist and touching rich thick clay as she inhaled the dusty earthen scent. Dry particles in the air irritated the skin of her face and arms. There was dried clay on her arms even as the moist clay caught under her fingernails and caked her hands.

  A desk crashed to the ground as Alex backed into it, breaking eye contact with the girl. Unable to regain her balance, Alex tumbled over the leg of the desk to the ground, hearing a few people cry out. Her eyes rose to the girl in the back row who was now standing and staring at her with a look of shock.

  “Are you alright?” an older warm voice questioned her before someone knelt beside her.

  “I'm fine,” Alex replied automatically, turning to look at whoever had come over.

  She wished she hadn't as her eyes locked with a pair of warm brown ones.

  The smell of an old forest overwhelmed her as the classroom fell away from her sense. Birds were singing around her from amongst bright green leaves that rattled softly in the wind. Her feet were sinking into moist earth and a cool mist settled on her face and arms.

  “Young lady,” a distant voice called. “Are you alright?”

  “Uh,” Alex uttered before swallowing. “I'm not sure.”

  A pair of hands helped Alex to her feet and she blinked a few times before risking another look at the person helping her. He was a bit taller than her and clearly her professor, wearing a tweed jacket with jeans. Her eyes were drawn to the strange silver pin on his left lapel that looked Celtic.

  “Take a seat,” the man advised as he guided Alex to a desk. “I was afraid that would happen,” he added in a more cheerful voice. “They pack these small rooms so tightly. We'll all have to careful.”

  “I'm fine now,” Alex assured him as she sat down and focused on pulling out her things for class.

  The professor remained beside her for another moment and Alex thought she heard a gasp from the back of the room, but wasn't certain. Surely one small sound couldn't carry over the noise the other students were making. Alex looked up cautiously at the professor standing beside her. He was looking down at her with a pleased and gentle expression.

  Leaning forward, he whispered, “It's alright. There is nothing wrong with you. This will pass.”

  Before Alex could form any kind of reply or think of a question, he called the class to order and introduced himself as Professor Ambrose Yates. He took a moment to do a quick survey of the students in the class for their majors before he launched into explaining the syllabus for Literature of Western Civilization. Alex wanted nothing more than to vanish into the background, especially given her less than flattering introduction, but Professor Yates went around the room and had each student introduce themselves including their major, hometowns and reason for taking the class. For most it was pretty standard; the class was a mixture of freshman and sophomores who were either taking the class to fulfill a general education requirement or were English majors getting started.

  The girl in the back whose eyes Alex could feel throughout most of the lesson was apparently named Nicole “Nicki” Russell and was an anthropology major. If Nicole's gaze wasn't bad enough, Alex noticed Professor Yates glancing her way multiple times during the hour. She wanted to brush it off as concern for her fall, but couldn't shake the dread that was knotting in her stomach.

  When class ended and the professor assigned them to start reading Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream Acts 1 and 2, Alex was halfway packed. She rushed towards the door, but saw Nicole slip out ahead of her. Alex felt trapped as she stepped out and found Nicole waiting a little down the hall from her. The classroom's location at the end of the hall and away from the stairs meant that Alex was stuck. Despite her intentions to the contrary, Alex locked eyes with Nicole and was relieved when nothing happened. She saw Nicole relax a little as well and stubbornly moved forward.

  “Alex,” Nicole called to her, reaching out to grab her arm.

  Alex tried to shrug her off, but the girl had a remarkably strong grip.

  “What?” Alex snapped, turning to face Nicole with a glare.

  Her tone surprised Nicole who looked uncertain for a moment before her facial muscles tightened. “What did you see?” Nicole questioned her.

  Starring at Nicole, Alex could think of nothing to say. “What are you talking about?” she asked in a small voice.

  Nicole's gaze softened a little and she eased her grip, but did not let Alex go. “I smelled a thunderstorm and fresh cut grass,” Nicole informed her. “There was a field and lightning. What did you see?”

  “Nothing,” Alex responded, pulling her arm away. “I don't know what you're talking about.”

  “Liar,” Nicole said under her breath as Alex started to walk away. Despite the people around them, Alex heard the word and flinched.

  Jenny was in their room when Alex made it back. Her roommate looked up from her desk where she was painting her nails and watching some television show that Alex didn't recognize. Smiling widely at Alex, Jenny gave a little wave before blowing on her nails.

  “How were your classes?” Jenny asked cheerfully. “Mine were awesome! I think this semester is going to go really well.”

  The sick feeling in Alex's stomach intensified at the words and she was lost for a moment. Forcing a smile, Alex dropped her things on her bed before turning to her dresser.

  “They went fine,” Alex forced. “I'm just a bit twitchy from all the excitement,” she told Jenny as she pulled out some running clothes. “I'm heading out for a jog.”

  “Oh,” Jenny responded with a curious glance over Alex. Her expression softened and she turned fully in her chair to face Alex. “I'm sure tomorrow will go better.”

  Alex looked over at Jenny with surprise and then gave her a small real smile. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I hope you're right.”

  “Enjoy your run,” Jenny told her before turning back to her computer screen. “And give Galahad a hug.”

  It was the best advice Alex had heard all day so she picked up the small plush dog and gave him a tight squeeze before changing. She grabbed her phone, keys and put the map of campus in her pocket, just in case. Alex glanced over at Jenny one more time before she left the room and headed down the stairs.

  The University of Ravenslake campus was on the southwestern side of Ravens Lake and the South Santiam River marked the northern edge of half the campus. The dormitories were located near the river, giving some of the rooms a nice view of the water and winding trails that ran along the bank. A small path out the back of Hatfield Hall led straight to the trails. Alex
waved to some other students who were arriving home and started walking down the path towards the water. She stopped once she was down the hill and near the water to stretch, wondering briefly why the town name was one word while the lake was two words. A few students were out on the trail and Alex could see a bike coming towards her in the distance. Taking a deep breath, Alex tried to put the strange happenings of the day out of her mind and began to run.

  The campus buildings faded from her consciousness as Alex focused on her breathing and the sight of the lake ahead of her. The trail followed the river to the mouth of the lake and then turned southeast to follow the beach. Alex left the last of the campus buildings behind as the trail curved between the lake and the university's arboretum.

  Waving to fellow students, Alex let her eyes trace the far shore of the lake where there were only a few stray cabins and docks. Up ahead the trail vanished into a small parking lot at the side of a busy city street. Beyond that, Alex could see the homes, shops and office buildings of the older section of town. The trail restarted at the other side of the parking lot and Alex guessed it followed the lakeside through the rest of town.