Chapter 5

"Wow, and here I thought you couldn’t pull that off, thanks gran," Rex replied, totally lost at her latest statement.

"Let me start at the beginning to make it a little easier on you," she said with a smile, sitting down with her coffee, "This may take a while, and please save the questions for the end."

Rex sat hurriedly, totally enthralled that he was finally going to find out things he had merely dreamt about, he was secretly hoping for a mention of why his parents dropped him off and had not come back for him.

Taking in a deep breath, Iris began her explanation,

"This existence isn't the only one that connects to this world, there are a few more, that both you and I and many more belong to. In some these places things not thought possible there exist in harmony with everyone. Things like magic, for example, as I hear you have already had a small taste yourself. In our world what you would think impossible is quite common, like your feat of strength and the slowing of time, which is quite rare I must admit, the reason why I was surprised you saw me talking to an old friend of mine and how you saw me leave is an extremely rare gift, a gift that allows for you to see through certain barriers erected, like the one I raised when speaking to my friend, only a small amount of people can even do that at all, I thought it myth myself until I spoke with a person called "The Curator." She is quite knowledgeable about all things magical, and you will see her in due time, you were not even supposed to be having this conversation until after your 18th birthday, then you would follow me back and take your place in the realm we both actually belong to. There is a reason your parents left you here with me and why they called you Rex, you will find out why in good time, for that is not my place to tell, yet. As for the dagger you saw, I asked my cloaked friend you saw across the street and they told me they knew nothing of who was sent to kill you, but we will find out eventually. Now, any questions?' She said smiling at Rex sitting mouth agape again.

"This...can't be real," Rex stammered, he had read many storybooks, and this sounded like Iris was adding her own spin to her own.

"With everything I have told you, and you experienced, that is all you have to say?" Iris chuckled, taking a long drink from her cup.

"And the man with the huge hand?" Rex demanded trying to ignore her chuckling at him.

"That is my late husband's good friend, his name is Ley, he is what we call a 'Bohl.' A race of people from the Ragnar Mountains in Bhutan, they are quite large because they are part human and part ogre, quite friendly and can be very intelligent if you ask me," she said.

Rex didn't know what to think, except the question that has plagued him for as long as he could remember, "If I'm from another realm, why am I here and not there? Why did my parents abandon me?"

"That is a story that is hard for me to explain to you, trust me when I say, it was not a decision made lightly, what I will tell you is that it was to protect you from who was coming," Iris replied, her face turning sombre.

‘Must be something serious if she looks this upset,’ Rex thought, so his next question was, "So when can we leave?"

"Once you were 18, we were supposed to be headed back to start your introduction into your new life, that cannot change, for it is important for us all," She spoke in a serious tone Rex had never heard before.

"Still as cryptic as ever..." Rex trailed off his face frowning slightly, he knew he wasn't going to get much more from her.

"You're taking this surprisingly well," Iris said raising one eyebrow.

"I've always known for a long time I was different," Rex said shrugging his shoulders, "This had just confirmed my suspicions, one more question gran, how has a whole different world been kept hidden? Surely someone would have found it by now."

"Not a new world dear, it is a plane of existence that connects to this one through a gateway held safe by a chosen one called 'The Gatekeeper.' He or she is charged with keeping our people in and others out that have no permission crossing the border, another delightful man you'll soon meet, I know his mother," Iris winked.

Gatekeeper sounds terrifying and Iris speaks about him like they are family friends. 

"So why do I have to wait until I'm 18 to go home?" He asked, emphasizing the words GO HOME to get his point across.

"To begin the path to take your rightful place, of course," she said.

Once again confused, Rex had gotten a few answers and also many more questions.

"Now that I have told you all I can tell you for now, you need to get yourself sorted for tomorrow," Iris said, standing and washing her cup before placing it on the sink.

"What's tomorrow?" Rex asked, not hiding a little excitement just in case it was something to do with the news he had just heard.

"School of course, silly boy," she laughed. 

‘What a letdown that was,’ Rex thought to himself, he had let his imagination run wild and had forgotten that tomorrow was still Monday, which meant he was back to school.

Back to another week of torture, he sighed, for that was what awaited him each day he went to school.

Just like at home it seemed that Rex had the same routine at school, every day he had his classes, lunch by himself, more boring classes, then home, a little homework, and then video games until dinner, and then it was a shower and a little sleep.

So, when Monday came around, true enough, his routine kicked in, he had breakfast, got ready, and rode his bike to school, but instead of Dean waiting for him where he usually dropped his bike off to give him his daily morning dish of what Dean called "lessons in learning your place," no one was there to greet him today.

"Well, that's odd," Rex said stowing his bicycle in his usual spot away from everyone else, Maybe he is waiting for me inside he pondered, Dean never missed a day to target Rex.

Walking up the stairs and in through the main door, he half expected Dean to jump out and grab him, but once again, he was not there, 'something is going on here,' he thought with a suspicious frown. 

Making his way to his locker he noticed everything else was the same, people would see him come and start to whisper amongst themselves as usual, except this time people moved away from him, acting like he had a disease.

Once at his locker, he started stowing his things. Leaning over, he asked the only person he knew would talk to him, Calvin, one of the school geeks who also received daily bullying.

"Calvin, people are weirder than usual today, what's going on?" Rex whispered, still seeing people staring and talking amongst themselves.

"There is a rumour going around that you went completely psycho at Dean and his friends at the river, something about your grandmother using voodoo or something to help you, that part is mere speculation, seeing as science doesn't support 'magic and voodoo'" said Calvin, pushing his glasses up his nose before getting his books and leaving.

Great, not only because of my parents but now this, at least people were only talking, which he could ignore, no one seemed to want to come near him.

So his week continued quite strangely to usual, people just stared and whispered, and no one tried to say anything or beat him up. So he just went to his classes, sat by himself at the back, ate lunch down by the fence under the same tree, finished his end of day classes and went home.

'Thank god it's Friday' Rex thought, getting dressed for school on his last day, he was actually quite happy, for a whole week he didn't have to repair ripped off buttons, torn sleeves or scrub one single grass or dirt stain off from getting pushed onto the ground, "I could get used to this," Rex grinned.

Once again, arriving at the bike racks, and stowing his bike, no ‘welcome to school’ greeting from Dean, just like the rest of the week, he walked into school, the same thing as every other day, just everyone whispering amongst themselves and staring. 

Everything went as normal through the first sets of classes, he grabbed his lunch and sat down on his bench under the tree near the fence, ‘this actually isn’t that bad being left alone for once’ he thought, would make the last few months of school bearable, whispers and stares were easy for him to ignore.

"Hello," came a voice from nowhere bringing Rex back from his thoughts.

"Oh shit! I know you wouldn’t let me go for a whole week!" he said, jumping up and whipping his head around expecting someone to jump on him behind.

When his eyes saw who had spoken to him, his mouth dropped open.

"Would you mind if I sat here? It's my first day and I find big groups of people intimidating."

The voice came from the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. "Umm...yeah...sure..." he stammered, rubbing his eyes to make sure he hadn't fallen asleep and this was a dream. When he realized it wasn't, he looked around to make sure this wasn't a setup from any of his usual bullies.

"I'm Vanessa," she said, holding her hand out and smiling, no one had ever asked to sit with him, let alone a girl! To Rex, this was a girl who looked like she had fallen from the heavens!

"I'm Rex," he said nervously, wiping the sweat from his hands before shaking her outstretched hand, Vanessa had made him extremely nervous with this surprise meeting.

"Nice to meet you," she said.

‘What a smile’ Rex thought, she could light up a dark room with that, glancing over at her he also thought she had perfect skin, beautiful brown curly hair that just touched the top of her shoulders, and incredible blue eyes.

"Are you going to eat or just stare at it?" Vanessa said chuckling at Rex's reaction.

"Of course, of course" he replied, taking a quick bite from the corner of his sandwich.

‘Wow has my life taken one hell of a change’ Rex said to himself, this can't be real, first, the bullying had ceased, and now a gorgeous girl wanted to sit next to him.