We Meet Again, Stranger

My older sister has always described me to friends and family as an ambitious, lion-hearted character. And because of that, the things I have done as a kid really embarked on that. Having an urge to impress the kids at my new school, I tied a satin red cape loosely around my skinny neck, bound for school. A special needs school. It be almost unpredictable how they'd react to my little antic.

"They'll tease you!" My sister had warned as I made my way to the bus station as a kid. But, little did she know that she'd see me after school with 5 other boys, all wearing matching red capes in the backyard, racing around the pathway pretending to be Superman.

This little talent really proved what it had to offer during the days at the office. You may think I don't go around the block of my office frolicking around in my tattered cape...

But I do. Every Day.

I'm Fletcher Burton.

I am a 23-year-old superhero obsessed guy who's been to Jerusalem for a cave excavation. That's right, I'm an archaeologist. This excavation gave me a duty not to destroy my career, the world....and a little cool looking bracelet.

Things had really started to go bad last July when I'd just came back from Jerusalem with a fancy bracelet curled around my wrist. The bracelet has a bunch of lions carved around it as if they were all chasing each-other angrily. And this petty looking bracelet which was found in a cave was the cause of my troubles.

But don't get me wrong. The whole trip there was pretty fun, despite the dust and blackheads which have formed over my face during those dusty damp time. I've always thought of Jerusalem as the birth of the word of Jesus. I never really managed to get my head around the fact that this place is now a pretty dangerous place at night. And that's exactly the time I recall when I found the bracelet, just hanging off the hand of a dead lady, flesh all devoured in the soils of the cave. All was left was bone. Without taking precautions, I took the bracelet and clipped it on my wrist. The semi-precious bracelet was a tight fit, but with a bit of elbow and grease, I manage to slip it on. But that wasn't the start. I'd been sure I was sober when I claimed to my co-workers that the angle bracelet seemed to maneuver, and tighten even more as I'd made myself comfortable. They just gave a sympathetic sorry to me. And I knew that that sorry was not the kind you'd expect. They were probably sorry because I had a huge imagination, deciding if my brain was diluted and plain, or that I was just plain crazy.

Before I knew that this bracelet would stick to your wrist before you could even think of taking it off, I thought it was just a souvenir I could take home in reward of my hard work.

However, having a bracelet attached to you permanently is nothing compared to what we had to do when we came back.

Our Boss, Mr. North had told us to write a whole document on our trip of what we found, and, I could write a whole thousand-word essay of how boring that was, and that would be ten times more amusing than this!

Despite my brain's constant disputing and rage, I'd pivoted my focal point over to do this stupid work.

Nothing except boredom flooded my mind, as I watched the cursor flicker. Before I could even lean my wrist over to type, an avenging pain squeezes my arm, veins popping out. It was the bracelet. This wasn't the first time it has been acting this way, I had multiple encounters of the same incident on the plane back. Only except, it was different.

A penetrating, shrivelling scream filled my mind as I tried to pry the bracelet off. Despite my hard work, the bracelet pridefully remains almost intact on my wrist. I finally gave up after a while before the same voice comes along, with an inaudible voice-like screech, as if someone scraped a fork over a plate.

I try to ignore the repetitive mumbling to focus on my work. But, instead of the flickering cursor and blank page, a scarier thing was flashing around on the screen.

A silhouette of a feminine lady. The figures had a staring contest with me, her blue eyes dancing with emotion as her pupil expands, almost to the size of her whole eye.

It's been the third time I've seen her. And honestly, it was getting repetitive, but, none the less, it was freaky. I try to remain sturdy, forcing my trembling head up high, giving her the state that I didn't care.

She didn't care either.

Before I could slam my laptop shut, my Word document began to write by itself. And I swear, I wasn't touching my keyboard. My eyes darted around each sentence the document was writing, observing every move.

For a short, sweet second, I take my eyes for a trip around the room to see if any movie cameras were recording me. I haven't a clue why I was thinking that I was in some horror movie, but I turned back to the laptop. And it had finished writing.

"Et armillam de superbia." It wrote.

I hadn't even started to wonder what it meant, my translator had detected Latin. I clicked translate, and those weird words were changed.

"The Bracelet of Pride."

Whatever it meant, something weird was happening. The eyes on the lion began to glow red. Before I could even take a closer look, my laptop was up in smokes. The screen cracked, and the whole building was up in flames. I take note of the sudden fire, then looking out of the window to see a couple of the neighbouring buildings, also on fire.

I looked back at my laptop to see the keys jumping about, too quick to be someone typing. I gazed up at the cracked, sparky screen, to see some more words on the doc.

"We meet again, stranger."