No nightmares. No strange dreams about Nicolas Cage, or my sister, or my Dad for that matter. For the first time in a while I slept pretty dang good.

Then I woke up and remembered that I had community college and that I was running late. Aiden woke up to find Gavin home and was ecstatic. He could care less about me.

After a bowl of cold cereal and a quick goodbye to my mother and brothers, I took off.

“Great,” Mom said. “You can walk Tain today, Gavin.”

“And hang out with me all day too,” Aiden yipped.

Gavin tried to object, but what was he going to do? Follow me to class?

“Hey Sean, have you seen my sword?” Aiden asked me.

Making a quick exit, I hollered, “Gotta go, bye.”

---

I sat through history class completely bored, just trying to make it through the day. My mind wandered all over the place. The empty chair next to me where Charice usually sat taunted me. I hadn’t seen her in a few days and every time I tried to call her or text her she would respond vaguely. According to her she was sick. She wouldn’t clarify what kind of flu she had. I hadn’t seen her at class all week either.

Why wouldn’t she talk to me? I saved her from Donn the lord of the dead and rescued her from the dungeons of his crazy island, Tech Duinn. You’d think I’d get a hug and a kiss and be the best boyfriend in the world.

When I had arrived at her house with flowers and chocolate, her mom had answered the door and politely turned me away. Maybe she was just really sick.

After class my teacher stopped me and asked to talk to me. “Sean you completely failed to turn in the last assignment. It’s a large portion of your grade and I noticed that your homework and attendance have been spotty at best. If this keeps going you’re going to be dropped a full letter grade, possibly more. Can I expect to see that homework assignment anytime soon?”

I had no idea what she was talking about. “Honestly Miss Baxter, I’m not sure what assignment you’re referring to?”

She pursed her lips. “Not to get into your personal affairs Mr. O’Farrell, but if you spend less time dawdling over that young woman and more time focusing on your assignments, you could turn this thing around. I know you’re a smart guy and it’s become concerning. Even your girlfriend managed to turn in all of the homework to me via email while being out sick.”

What, was I in high school? Since when do community college teachers actually care about their students? But I liked the sincerity of Ms. Baxter and I respected that she took the time to be completely up front with me. I told her I’d do my best to get the assignment done ASAP.

After a few hours of crammed study time and homework I went straight from community college to my janitor job.

---

“Sean, a minute of your time please.”

Dr. Stafford, moved through his office tidying paperwork. We hadn’t interacted in a long time. He trusted me to come after hours and clean this place.

I stepped inside his office and he motioned for me to sit down. “I want to inform you of an incident that occurred.” He slowly turned his massive Apple monitor around so that I could see a video surveillance tape of the inside of the office. Oh crap had I forgotten to clean something?

I saw the upper right hand corner that the video was dated two weeks ago. I also recalled that Dr. Stafford had been out on vacation for two weeks. On the screen I saw myself spill some cleaner, clean it up and then get ready to leave. Maybe he was pissed that I had wasted some of the cleaning supplies? And then it dawned on me what night it was. It was the night that the Sluagh attacked Rob outside of the office.

I saw myself stop and look out the window and I remember that was when I had seen Rob talking to himself and heard something funny outside. The event played out in my mind as I watched on the screen. In my head I had armed the security code to the alarm system and ran out the door. But in the video I could clearly see that I had started to put the code in, but then ran outside swiftly leaving the building completely unarmed.

“Did you see it?” said Dr. Stafford. “That right there bothers me” He rewound the video to the point where I was running out of the door and paused it. “You’re in such a hurry to get out of here that you forgot to arm the alarm system.”

I looked at him dumbly. What could I say? That a giant bird attacked a shape shifting hobgoblin and I intervened?

“I’m sorry Dr. Stafford. Really, I am. There was some kind of commotion outside but it turned out that it was a homeless man.”

He wore an expression like an Easter Island stone head. He raised the large finger at me pointing right in my face. “I don’t care if somebody is in the parking lot dying, you make sure to arm my office alarm when you leave. We have all kinds of expensive equipment, electronics, and patient information in this office. Anybody could’ve walked out of here with any number of things and ruined my business. If it happens one more time, Sean, you’re fired.”

The threat echoed in my head. I froze up for a second.

Geewhiz. What happened to the three strikes rule? Though it seemed unfair to me, all I said was, “Yes sir. Won’t happen again. I’m very sorry that I left your business unprotected.”

He didn’t hear me and proceeded to grill me. “Do you realize I received a phone call from the alarm system at night while I was on vacation? I had to call the secretary to come down and lock up because I couldn’t trust you to do it. Understand Sean that your neglect has ramifications not just for you but for other people as well.”

“Understood,” I said.

He rose and left without another word, leaving me to my work.

I moved through the office dumbstruck and absent minded. I found it hard to concentrate on my tasks. The weight of secrecy bore down on me. Was I supposed to keep taking punishment for doing the right thing?

Powers had awakened in me. I didn’t ask for them, I’d simply been born with them. But not only were the monsters threatening my life and the lives of others, but it was starting to have ramifications in every facet of my life. School, work, even my girlfriend.

“Something needs to change,” I said out loud, resolving within to find a way to fix things. But I didn’t have a clue where to start.

I needed a job, but the current job would never be a career. For that very reason I needed to do good in school, so I could figure out what I wanted to do for a career. But now all this magic monster mania mucked everything up. What should I do? I couldn’t ignore the monsters when it was within my power to do something, literally.

At the same time, if everything stayed the same, I’d be out of a job and flunking community college. And who wants to date a jobless dropout? Not a smart girl trying to become a pediatrician. She’d leave me in the dust and find some ultra-successful guy that drove a brand new Mustang, not a beat up classic. I’m like the opposite of King Midas. Everything I touched turned to ruin.

Maybe I would do what Gavin said. Delve deep into finding ways to get rid of the Keening. If I got rid of the Keening monsters would not regard me as a threat or target. I’d still have powers, but I wouldn’t be on the receiving end all the time. Remove the physical queue and the result would be a positive change in my behavior.

But I couldn’t do that just yet. I’d never be able to sleep at night with a clear conscience knowing that there were more Dobhar-chus and a stampeding stallion trying to drown and devour people at every waterfront in my city and the surrounding ones.

For starters, I’d have to get a new sword.

I knew just where I might get one.