4. The Static Age
The Static Age
Dustin shot up with a gasp, his heart jackhammering in his chest as he struggled to catch his breath.
His eyes darted around wildly, trying to survey his surroundings.
He expected to find himself still within the halls of that weird palace…
but instead he was in his bedroom. It took a few long, ragged breaths before his heartbeat found its regular rhythm again.
He should’ve felt relief; he was back in familiar territory, surrounded by his L’Arc-en-Ciel posters, empty Monster cans, and…
Those fucking leather pants. The ones he’d been wearing the night before, crumpled up on the floor next to his bed. He tentatively reached out with a trembling hand, touching the still-damp leather and recoiling when he realized the truth…
It couldn’t have been a dream. Not only were his clothes still wet from wading through the surf to get to the boat, but he still had that little black ring around his pinky.
He started hyperventilating again; his breaths coming in like air through a straw.
Thankfully, Chris barged into the room, shirtless and sweating, with a mixture of terror and relief in his eyes.
“Thank God you’re alive,” he sighed, pulling Dustin into a hug that was equal parts grounding and crushing, “I don’t even remember making it back last night. Once Bailey put her ring on, there was suddenly fire everywhere, and everyone was gone. Then the next thing I knew, I was waking up,”
“The same thing happened to m-me,” Dustin stammered, still trying to catch his breath, “except I was underwater,”
“Did you see him too? That weird guy with the pretty face and the white robes?” Chris asked as he sat next to Dustin on the bed, “he said something about… fate,”
“Fate spins along as it should,” Dustin repeated, remembering the words as clearly as a rainbow after a storm, “I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean,”
“Me either,” Chris groaned, “you don’t… you don’t think we all just had a contact high, do you? Like, we weren’t just seeing shit?”
Dustin scoffed.
“Hell no. We’ve both been high plenty of times and there isn’t a strain of weed strong enough to make all five of us react like that,”
Chris couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“Yeah, you’re right. It sounded stupid as fuck when I asked, but I think I just needed to hear it from someone else,”
The twins were quiet for a moment, but suddenly realization crashed over both of them like a gnarly wave…
“THE OTHERS!” they shouted in unison, Dustin immediately diving for his flip phone resting on his bedside table. He had to call Bailey and make sure she was safe first.
The ringing seemed to stretch on forever, before Bailey’s groggy voice finally crackled to life on the other end.
“Dusty, you better have a damn good reason to be calling me at 7am on a Saturday,” she began, but before she could berate him more, she gasped, “wait, I’m home? When the fuck… how the fuck… what the fuck happened last night?!”
“Me and Chris are wondering the same thing,” Dustin replied, shakily, “what’s the last thing you remember?”
“Walking through some kind of rock quarry or something? It happened right after I put that ring on and… HOLY FUCK I’M STILL WEARING IT,”
Upon hearing her freak out, Chris grabbed Dustin’s phone and put it up to his ear.
“Bailey, hey, chill okay? It’s all gonna be alright. Let’s meet up, yeah? We’ll get together with Chloe and James and find out what’s going on,”
Dustin couldn’t hear Bailey’s reply, but that fact alone meant that she must’ve calmed down at least a little. After another minute or so, Chris flipped the phone closed and tossed it to Dustin.
“Get dressed. We’re meeting up at the library,”
The Milton Square Library was the go-to place for exam prep, or to crank out a book report the day before it was due.
However, on a Saturday, the place was practically a ghost town.
Dustin followed Chris inside, practically drowning in one of his oversized hoodies. The hairspray had been washed out of his hair, and he probably looked like he’d just attended a funeral with how blank his expression was. But he was just trying to… process everything.
The Librarian Assistant at the front desk smiled warmly at them as they approached, but a mask of pure dread took over when she recognized Chris.
“No, no! Y-you’re banned! I haven’t forgotten what you did,” she said, the chain on her glasses trembling as she pointed to his picture on the wall next to her, marked with a bright red message reading TO BE DENIED ENTRY.
Dustin tensed; he too remembered that whole debacle from freshman year. When Chris and some of his dumbass friends thought it would be hilarious to light the pages of Macbeth on fire in protest of being forced to read it…
Half the library went up in smoke after that, and they very narrowly avoided being arrested after Chris managed to “convince” the lady cop who showed up that it had all been a misunderstanding. He’d talked his way out of it somehow.
Dustin never asked exactly what happened; he didn’t want to know what a grown ass woman wanted from a fourteen-year-old boy in exchange for letting him walk.
“Now, now. Let’s not make a scene,” Chris said, cool as ever as he raised his hands in surrender, “a lot of time’s passed, and I’ve turned over a new leaf.
I’m just here to meet my friends, new ones, a lot less chaotic.
We need to get a jumpstart on our book report and there’s no better place than this,”
Dustin knew Chris was a smooth liar, but it always unnerved him to hear it in action. He wanted to turn to leave, but he knew that wasn’t an option; they needed to get to the bottom of this, and he couldn’t turn tail and run just because of one terrified library employee.
The woman looked at Chris, and then her gaze shifted to Dustin, and then to the photo on the wall.
Chris was grinning at her; that sly, almost seductive smile that he always employed when he was trying to get things to go his way.
Dustin personally thought he was laying it on a bit thick, but somehow it always fucking worked…
and this wasn’t going to be the exception.
She cleared her throat and locked her eyes on Dustin.
“You. You’re his twin, right?”
“Nah, he’s my cousin,” Dustin replied with an eyeroll. Chris shot him a glare that he heard loud and clear; don’t fucking ruin this. He adjusted his posture and spoke again, “uh I mean, yes. We’re twins,”
“Then I’m making it your responsibility to keep him out of trouble. Even one step out of line and you’ll both be banned for life, understood?”
“Yes, thank you,”
With that, she finally let them pass and they stepped into the library proper; a musty, almost claustrophobic space with a few scattered tables and computer stations here and there.
It didn’t take long for Dustin to spot Bailey; her bright pink hair acting as his personal Bat Signal, directing him to the largest, circular table in the back of the building where she was sitting with Chloe and James.
Chloe looked just as frazzled as Dustin on the surface; her eyes wide and staring off into space, nails absentmindedly clacking against the table and her leg bouncing with thinly veiled anxiety.
However, her appearance was still on point; purple baby tee and matching miniskirt with knee high boots that looked way too dangerous to walk in.
If controlled chaos had a vibe, it was Chloe in that moment.
James on the other hand was grinning ear to ear like he’d just won the lottery, his gaze focused entirely on his ring.
“We’re here, now we can finally figure out what the fuck is going on,” Chris said, pulling up chairs for him and Dustin, “we gotta compare notes,”
“We all remember the palace, we all still have our rings and they don’t fucking COME OFF,” Bailey took a deep breath to calm herself down before continuing, “but it seems like each one of us had a different vision. I was in the rock quarry, Chloe was trapped in a giant metal cage, and James…”
“I got lost in a forest that kept shifting and changing like a living maze. It was wild, but kinda cool as hell,” James said, finally looking up from his ring.
“I just wanna know what the fuck is going on so we can be done with this,” Chloe interjected, impotently pulling at her own ring before sighing in frustration, “I’m already over this shit,”
“I get it, trust me. But we’re in it now, so we might as well find out what we’re dealing with,” Dustin spoke up, information rolling through his mind like rainclouds, “wait… each of our visions. Mine was water, Chris yours was fire, Bailey’s could represent earth, Chloe’s metal and James might be wood,”
“Okay? And?” Chris motioned like he was prompting Dustin to continue.
“We found these rings in a creepy ass Chinese palace, and those five elements aren’t just random. They’re part of the… fuck, I can’t remember the name,”
“Wu Xing, the Five Phases,” James said, snapping his fingers as the information came to him, “I remember that from when I was in Asian Culture Club for like two weeks,”
“Right, that’s it! I saw those images engraved on the wall too; those warriors fighting against that demon looking dude with the antler helmet. It’s gotta all be connected somehow,” Dustin tapped his chin in thought, “there must be information we’re missing,”
“Okay, slow down,” Chloe cut in, “Woo… sheeng? What’s that?”
“My mom said they’re like the five fundamental building blocks of like… everything,” Dustin started, his voice a bit quieter now, “not just elements, but directions, seasons, personality types, body parts. Basically, everything you can think of,”
“Sounds complicated,” Chloe put her head in her hands, “Chinese stuff is always complicated,”
“Not much connection to that side of the family, I’m guessing?” Dustin asked. Chloe scoffed, dripping with bitterness.