The Abstraction Chronicles

Book 1

The Abstract

Nicholas C. Donovan
My Book

“Hey, guys, Zane Ackerman here. It’s been a long couple of weeks with multiple

explosions, near-death experiences, and a host of mind dwelt creatures called Dwellers chasing

Cynthia and I. Mostly, through other people’s brains might I add. Believe it or not, she actually

adopted a squirrel. I still think that thing isn’t actually a squirrel but she is adamant about

keeping it.”

“Oh, shut up it’s a squirrel just look at its cute tail and eyes.”

“Uh-huh, sure. You do know that this animal has blue eyes and white fur, right?”

“Zane, you’re getting off-topic.”

“Oh, right, about the last couple of weeks. Well, I suppose it all started a few weeks ago.”

I’m seventeen, and a tall guy for my age with black hair, with angular facial features. I

was attending Bluemont which was a prestigious private academy until I died, more on that later.

Up until I died, I lived with my two parents and my younger sister in Trenton, New Jersey. It’s a

fairly urban area, but we lived in the rural part. We were a normal family for the most part with

my parents making an above-average living as my father worked as a manager for some global

tech company. The year is 2025, the year that changed everything.

Unfortunately, I had my fights with my parents and today was no exception. See, I was

decent at school, but to my parents, I needed to achieve perfection. I had just gotten home from

school when my dad called me into his study and asked, “Zane, how was the exam you took

today?” My father is a man of a decent size, he didn’t work out much and it showed. He wore a

grey suit for his work most of the time.

“I got a B which is a tad better than I expected. I guess it’s just been tough recently.”
 “You’ll need to do better if you want to do anything with your life. Also, I’ve noticed

that the dishes weren’t running before you left for school earlier.”

I inwardly sigh, “I’m sorry I’ll do that immediately.”

“You better and remember to get them finished before you head to school next time. And

hand over your keys since I paid for the car, you’re grounded.”

“Fine.”

This was a normal occurrence, by this time I was used to this sort of treatment. They

treated my sister like a princess but never did care much for me. I went to my room to find my

room was torn apart. Angrily I storm back to my dad, “Why is my room a mess?”

He shrugs, “How should I know?”

Knowing I wouldn’t get any help from him I head back to my room which now has trash

strewn everywhere with my garbage tipped over. This sucks, it was probably Lily, but why

would she dig through my trash? It doesn’t make sense how my thirteen-year-old sister would be

interested in garbage. Just then I notice that there are a couple of red eyes glaring at me from the

trash.

I yell, “Hey dad, I think there’s a rat or something in my room.”

“Take care of it.” He yells back.

Why did I bother? My mother was probably out shopping with my sister which means

I’m going to have to deal with it myself. When I reach for a hanger that was on the ground, the

rat just jumps out at me. Don’t you dare, I swat it away. When I look to see where it landed, it

was gone. I look back at my hand which is now starting to throb and it is definitely swollen and

bleeding around what looks like bite marks.

 Great! Come home to be grounded and bit by something in my trash. What else could

happen? Suddenly, my vision is starting to get blurry and for some reason, I feel calm as my

head hits the bed as all I see is darkness.

Next morning, I wake up to my father turning on the light. “Why are the dishes not

running? And don’t you have school to get too?” He almost yells at me accusingly.

I inwardly scowl at this. “Sorry, I’ll get right on it. I haven’t been feeling the best lately.”

I say through gritted teeth. I can tell this is going nowhere fast when he folds his arms.

“Get on it now.” He says in an angry look.

“Alright.” I shrug.

I need to get ready for school anyhow. As I get up using my hand it feels as if it’s on fire.

I look down at it and it has a weird-looking star on it around the bite marks. What in the world is

this? No time to wonder, after I’m done with the dishes I run to school.

I meet up with my friend Buster. His actual name isn’t Buster, it’s Zach. But after he

busted up a kid who was bullying another, everyone just started calling him that. He’s a medium-

sized guy with red hair and usually always has a sunburn on his head. Today, he was wearing

jeans with a T-shirt inspired by The Starry Night.

“Hey, Buster how was your class?”

“Boring, much rather be at home playing something or practicing for basketball. Have

you heard that our P.E. teacher Ms. Massingale was attacked by a coyote last night? It’s what the

whole school is talking about right now.”

“No, what happened?”

“Apparently, she was walking to her car after teaching her class and she got bitten by it.

She is in the hospital and is being tested for Rabies from what I hear.”
 “That stinks, yesterday, I had something jump out from my trash and bite me as well.”

He notices my hand, “What in the world happened to your hand? It looks like it was put

through a grinder and someone put a nice star-shaped stamp on it.”

“I don’t even know what bit me. It vanished as soon as I swatted it away.”

“That’s weird, shouldn’t you get it checked out?” Nah, I’ll be fine. Hopefully, it’ll just

heal itself.”

“Alright, whatever, you say.”

“Anyways, you ready get back to class?”

“Eh fine, can’t wait to get home, I’m not a fan of this place.”

During classes, I kept noticing I started to drift off which was unusual for me. Suddenly,

echoes of words start to barrage my brain as I look from side to side in agony. I hear classmates

talking about how school is going to be over soon and their plans for tonight. Each comment is

accompanied by a flare of pain. A few seconds later it passes as if it never happened at all.

Apparently, I had attracted a bit of attention. Our teacher looks up from teaching our science

lesson, “Zane is everything alright?”

“Yes, sorry, everything’s fine.”

Later, Buster and I sat together at lunch. “So, what’s your plan for tonight? Do you want

to go out with some other friends and me?”

“What other friends are you referring too?”

“I have some friends that we could go see a movie with. I heard that there’s an awesome

new sci-fi film out.”

“I’m good. Not really interested in doing anything, but sleeping tonight.”

“Alright suit yourself.”

 While we were talking one of our classmates named Colin had just gotten up out of his

seat and was frantically whispering to people while looking as if he was holding back tears.

Colin is more of a quiet person that was known for being close with a few teachers since he

didn’t have many friends. Buster looks at me. “I wonder what’s going on with him. He’s usually

just sitting and minding his own business.”

“I don’t know either. Want to go find out?”

He shrugs “Sure.”

We walk over and I ask, “What’s up Colin?”

“It’s Ms. Massingale. She passed away during the treatment of her coyote bite.”

“Huh? That’s impossible!” Buster and I both exclaim.

“She must have contracted some sort of disease from the bite.” Colin says as he starts to

cry a little bit. He’s a big guy that played on our high school’s football team so it was very rare to

see him like this. “She also helped me get a PR in track during the offseason.” He sniffles. As

he’s saying this a few more students are starting to get teary-eyed since she was a popular

teacher around school. She was always helping others to improve upon themselves.

Buster whispers, “I wonder what the school will do. I heard that they never caught the

coyote that bit her.”

“I don’t know either. Probably not much, they really only care about how much money

they are getting. The worst thing they have to worry about is hiring a new teacher.”

“Alright, this whole sad thing is getting me down. Want to go play basketball or

something and ditch the rest of our classes?”

“I’m good, still need to get that grade I’ve been working on. I’ll talk to you later.”
 “See ya buddy!” he says as he pats my shoulder. Before I know it, I’m back in the

classroom. After my final class, I’m free and ready to head home and pass out. I walk along my

usual route as I live close by. It’s at most a few blocks down the street. The area is surrounded by

tall apartment buildings with a road to my right. The sky was cloudy as usual, but I preferred that

weather. It helped me think and it meant that the sun was beating down on you. Mostly, it’s an

uneventful walk, but today my world would be changed forever. And Cynthia wants me to say

for the better as well.

As I was walking, home I hear a loud growling coming from a nearby alleyway. I didn’t

think it was anything until I heard a girl yelling, “Why won’t you just die already?” Being

confused I head into the alley to see what’s going on. What I saw was one of the most bizarre

scenes ever. A blonde girl dressed in jeans and a plain white tee was fighting what seemed to be

a tiny black hound creature that had the same red eyes that reminded me of what was in my trash

can yesterday. I yell, “Hey is everything alright?” She looks up suddenly surprise on her face,

“You can see us?” As she’s distracted the monster jumps up and slashes her arm that was

holding a glowing turquoise hunting knife. She grunts in pain and dropped the knife while the

monster retreated and prowled around her like a wolf stalking its prey.

Without thinking I lunge forward and grab the knife which had turned back into a steel

looking hunting knife. As I picked it up, the blade turned into a long double-edged blade with a

red scarlet aura emanating from the blade, reminiscent of the turquoise from the dagger. “Whoa,

what is this?” Looking back at the girl who was gripping her arm, now with blood dripping down

her forearm.

“No, you idiot don’t take your eyes off of the Dweller.”

“What?”
 I look back and the monster is already upon me. It’s legs land on my chest as it tries to go

for my throat. There’s just enough time to move my neck out of the way, but the monsters’ jaws

catch my shoulder and latch on. Instant pain, all I could do from not yelling my head off was grit

my teeth. Now that it was quite literally hanging onto my left shoulder, I was able to get a better

look at the creature. It had a sleek black hide with a face that was a mix of a crocodile and a feral

hound. I could feel the beast tighten its grip on my shoulder with its incisors.

“What is this thing?”

I quickly thrust the blade into the side of it. The beast let go and howled a long guttural

roar at me. If I wasn’t so dizzy from the blood loss, I would’ve been terrified. As I’m clutching

my shoulder the girl shouts, “You need to stab the Dweller in its Mark.” I just now notice at on

the hind leg there is the same star with intersecting lines as what appears to be on my hand.

Alright, time to try this again, I swing the sword at the creature which at that point stopped

howling and quickly dodged my attack, leaping to the side. Then, it charged. I aim for a swipe at

the leg, but it maneuvers out of the way only just enough for me to graze the leg. Immediately it

went as rigid as a board and vanished into black dust. The feeling of dizziness started to take

over as I look down. The monster somehow managed to rake my chest with its claws as it had

dodged. “Huh, well, that stinks.” I mutter as I start to blackout. The girl now runs up with a

worried expression. “Stay with me, I need to get you back to the Abstract.”

“What is that?” But before I could get an answer the next thing, I knew was oblivion.