Chris came into the gym around six. Adam sensed him coming down the stairs when he was two floors up. Adam could feel his bodies nagging opinion of its discomfort. He was sitting in an uncomfortable position with his chin against his chest and was sitting on his hands. This was where he was when he heard the door unlatch and open.
"Adam," the name whispered so quietly that it was almost impossible for Adam to normally hear, but he did. He could hear the jawbones open, the air leave the lungs of Chris and his irregular heartbeat "thumb thumb thathumb thum" repeatedly. Then it was gone his concentration broken.
Adam was curious to see what it was like to meditate with someone else; he had always done it alone. Adam watched Christian walk so slowly over to the mat next to his and sit; his mouth seemed to open so slowly.
"Shooow haaaooooww dooo yooohhh maheeeedihtaaataa, ahhhneeeeyhaaooow?"
“What!” His jaw moved so fast he bit his own tongue and the blood flowed instantly. It took effort to slow down to a normal speed. "Cough" "what?" he finally got out with effort to slow down.
“I said, so how do you meditate, anyway." Chris asked, "Holy crap, are you bleeding?"
"It’s nothing,” he brushed off quickly “and to meditate you have to find the most comfortable position, and then let your thoughts drift then when you feel sufficient time has passed you start to organize your thoughts. Then, and only then can you start to think of your surroundings and learn things."
"You found that position comfortable?" referring to the awkward position he had found Adam.
"No not really I start out in a position like this." Adam moved to the wall put his hands in his lap. Feet out in front of him, legs straight, his back against the wall, chin up.
Christian moved to the position that Adam was sitting in. "This isn't that comfortable."
"The key is relaxation; you need to be comfortable to be relaxed. The position isn't important; just find a position where you don't have to move around a lot to stay comfortable."
Christian moved around for a while and eventually settled into a position where he was sitting with is back against the wall his knees bent, elbows on his knees, chin against his chest. Although he was comfortable, he could not get into the tranquil like state of meditation. After an hour, he gave up.
"I'm going to class.” He finally said around seven-thirty.
Adam did not respond. Chris did not know Adam had just found something new, something that had never happened before. Something that if Adam had been in his natural state of mind he would have laughed at. Chris just assumed Adam was too deep into meditation to realize that he was leaving but he was not. He knew all too well that Chris was leaving and knew every single muscle he used to leave. Adam was more in tune with his environment then he had ever been before. He got up and the room felt cold but he was warm and he knew why.
Classes went by extremely slowly for Chris. He had a hard time paying attention he kept staring off into space. In psychology class he ended up drifting in thought and staying in the class until the next block, he came back to reality in Middle Eastern history. He ran out of the class confused. His next class was not until two and it was only eleven thirty. He decided that he should just take a break, sit under a tree, and sort his thoughts. He tried but he kept having other whispering voices in his head, so much that he thought he was going crazy. He kept having problems identifying which ones were actually his. There were whole conversations going on. Stuff that did not make sense in his head, there was an engineer doing complex calculus that he didn’t even know how to do, but it was there nonetheless. He had troubles focusing his eyes, his ears were deceiving him; they would go silent and then loud. Soon he had a splitting headache. He could swear he was going crazy. Dizziness soon followed. In the half hour he was sitting there, he went from just confused to utter bewilderment. His world was spinning out of control and he did not know why. Then all of a sudden he was fine and he found himself laying on his back in the center of the field with an audience, staring at him. Apparently, he had been rolling around screaming in pain. Then he heard the sirens, he couldn’t afford an ambulance ride all he could do was get up and run. His thoughts were running wild he could not understand what was happening. He did not know where to run to so he took a back way to class... he could not afford to miss any more classes.
His Professor was not making any sense his words were slow and slurred, almost as if he was drunk. Soon Chris found himself staring off into space. He kept catching himself before he got to deep into the trance. It must have been boredom. The next thing he knew he could smell smoke and hear screaming. The smell was so acute he could tell what type of wood it was that was burning, he could also tell that there was paper burning. Then all the rest of the scene came crashing through on him. His desk was burning and his textbook was aflame. All he could do was join the rest of the class running away. As he was running though, he could hear the class saying his name. It was spreading as fast as the fire; he was responsible for the blaze. He needed somewhere he could think and just be alone. He ran for the dorm, Adam still had his last class and he could be alone in his room for an hour or so. He did not realize it but he was running faster than 45 km an hour. He could hear the screams of shock as he ran past the fellow students but he did not care. Most of the students could not believe what they were seeing but the rumors spread and Chris knew that the police would know about the running by the time they came for him. They would come for him it was just a matter of time.
As he walked onto the floor, everyone was in the lounge and as one; all of them turned and looked at him. The news was on, it was a picture of the lecture hall, and it looked a lot similar to the pictures on the news that morning of the monastery in Greece
"Sorry dude, the police are on their way"
"How did you do it?"
"Are you a terrorist”?
"I can't believe you would do such a thing."
Then the most important words he heard yet..."Adam is missing."
"What do you mean Adam is missing?"
It was Sheryl, her intense green eyes blazing with hate, which responded. "He never went to class; in fact no one has seen him since last night. He had that meeting with his social worker and missed it, that is what the police were on their way here for, but now this with you."
"Oh no they are going to think that I had something to do with it, with this whole lecture hall thing. I need to go!"
"Where do you think you’re going?” inquired Sheryl with a glare. "You need to talk to the police and we're not letting you out till you do, you and Adam mean to much to us to let you both disappear." She had stressed Adams name too much and it was obvious she was upset about him being gone without saying goodbye.
"Sheryl, get out of my way!" He said calmly and waved his hand. Surprisingly she did; she flew across the room headfirst, faster than the eye could see, and cracked the plaster on the wall where her head hit. To everyone else it looked like she just appeared at the wall but to Chris she moved ever so slowly and he didn't even wait for her to hit before he was running down the stairs and into the afternoon air. Air that seemed too thick for him to breath, his lungs had trouble normally with the high humidity of the day, never mind at this speed. He ran until he left the campus He ran and ran until he had to stop and puke, his lungs felt on fire.. Then he dodged into an alley, where he focused on disappearing.
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