The Tales of Jason Wright: The Beast

by Elijah Schaefer

A new semester, a new group of students. We started with fiction. Eighth grader Elijah Schaefer brings a genre-blender of a story with a build up, and he sends us home at a high point of tension. Hopefully, the saga will continue…

I didn’t ask to be this way. I’ve been given the labels reckless, hotheaded, troublemaker, ect. I didn’t ask for my life to be ruined. Perhaps I should start from the beginning. My name is Jason Wright. People think that at seventeen years old I wouldn’t have metathesiophobia. Metathesiophobia is the phobia for change. I’ve been told that change isn’t such a bad thing, but one day someone told me something that rocked my world. And that’s where my story begins.

“Yo Jace,” shouted my buddy Peter, “We’re gonna go play ball, you wanna come?”

“No thanks, I have studying to do.” I shouted back. I wasn’t really lying about studying, but I had never played. What if I’m bad at it? What if I fail? But what if I’m good? Do the math Jace, just do the math. Nope I’ll fail, I just don’t have the right height for the vertical.

“Alright well, see ya.”

“Bye.” I headed home down 3rd Avenue across the street over to 8th Lane and down to 1st Park dr to a little old apartment complex. It wasn’t anything special, leaning a little to the left, it looked pretty low grade if I’m being honest. I went up the stairs to the 11th floor, to apartment A3, because the elevator has been broken since May 11th, 1954. As I walked to the door, I saw something illuminate, something I couldn’t quite put into words, but it was starting to morph, or change shape. It was a person, no being of some sort. It started to reach out its hand, and then the apartment door opened and someone pulled me inside.

“Jason Wright! What are you doing out there? Get inside, now!” said my uncle Tom.

“I was just coming home,” I replied. “Did you see that?”

“See what?”

“That thing, it was glowing?”

He looked at me then out the door, and then back at me. “It’s not safe for you here anymore, you need to leave.”

“What?”

“We don’t have much time. I already got your bags ready, and here take this.” He handed me two letters, one addressed to me and the other to someone named James Anderson. “These will explain everything, now go take the fire escape.” He rushed me to the back window straight past my Aunt Clara.

“Where are you going?” Aunt Clara asked me with a cigar in hand, even though she knew that I knew that she didn’t really care.

“He’s leaving.” replied my uncle.

“‘Bout time.”

“I’ll miss you too Aunt Clara,” I snapped back. I don’t know why Tom puts up with her! Why would he possibly want to be around her? “Where am I supposed to go?”

“Remember that old military complex, the abandoned one?” asked Tom.

“Yeah, of course.”

“You need to get there before sunrise. There you find everything you will need for your journey ahead.”

“Hold on what journey? What are you talking about?”

“We don’t have time,” he said, rushing me out the window. “You have to leave, now!”

“Wait, what about you?” He smiled at me and said,

“Don’t won’t worry about us. We’ll be fine.”

“Wait...”

“Goodbye Jason, never forget who you are.”

I climbed down and out onto the street. I was about a mile away when I saw a flash in the apartment window, which was followed by an explosion that caused a 4.0 earthquake. I was knocked to my feet, when I saw it, the thing, a bright light, but it looked different somehow, I couldn’t describe it. Then I blinked and it was gone.

It was growing dark. I had walked half way across town before I saw the abandoned military base. The military base was used as a bunker, back in the Cold War. Never being used, the military decided it would be best to start a training camp. They closed the camp after a lab accident, no one knows what happened. Snap.

“What was that?” I looked around, nothing. Just me all alone, in the dark, in the middle of the woods. “Get control of yourself Jace come on, it's just your nerves.” I started walking again when I saw it, that glowing light. It looked like it had grown. I started slowly backing up when I stumbled, Snap, crash! I turned its head and looked dead at me. It stalked toward me, reaching out its hand, a red orb started forming and then, Bang! The creature screamed and then evaporated, sucking in all light with it. I sat there stunned wondering what had just happened, when I realized I wasn’t alone. I whipped around readying myself for another attack when I saw a man with a gun pointed at me.

“You need to come with me, now!” the man said.

“Why should I trust you?” I yelled back.

“Because I’m your only hope of survival.”

Seeing that I had no other choice, I reluctantly decided to follow him through the dark woods until we reached the old military base. We walked through the gates and inside. The man suddenly stopped and put his hand on the wall. The wall slid aside and revealed a hidden stairwell heading underground. When we had finally reached the end we were in a room filled with technology I had never seen before. People in military uniforms were working at what looked like stations, some were at computers, others at hologram screens, and a short few were sitting at a large round table. I registered the few people sitting there, an old man who seemed to be incharge at the head, a middle aged woman sitting on his right holding a tablet, a few men that seemed to be officers, and a male that seemed to be around the age of eighteen years old that looked oddly familiar…

“Peter?” I asked aloud, staring straight at him.

“Hey Jason, good to see you.” He replied.

“What are you doing here?”

At that point the old man stood up and said, “Welcome Mr. Write, Agent Anderson, you may be seated.”

“Thank you sir.” Peter said, sitting down.

“Wait, Peter, your last name isn’t Anderson…” I asked, severely confused.

“You must forgive us, Peter Valso is his alias, it's important that we assume a false identity when undercover, but we have more important information to discuss. My name is Arthur Hale and I am in charge of the A.E.T.F, the American Enhanced Task Force. Our job is to keep people in check and make sure they don’t tip the balance of order and chaos. Do you recall the great earthquake of 2153? Or the tsunami of 2186?”

“Yeah…of course I do, but…”

“Those were all caused by people who tipped the scale, just like your parents.”

“What! My parents would never do something like that!”

“But they did,” Agent Hale said while opening a file, “August 6, 2192, 10:53 am, a lab accident, both Dr. Wright and Mrs. Wright killed. That lab accident, do you know what happened?”

“No, I-I don’t”

“Your parents were experimenting with Malex theory. In the process they made a monster that killed them both and everyone in the lab. They were able to kill it, but a few years later there were sightings of it again.”

I sat there for a little bit letting that sink in, I was stunned. What is the Malex theory, why were my parents messing with, what were they intending to do? I stood up again and paced back and forth, and then it hit me. “Wait, is that why that thing is after me, because I’m related to Dr. and Mrs. Wright?”

“Yes, my boy, that would be correct.” Agent Hale replied.

“So that is why you brought me here?”

“No, the letters you are carrying with you, bring them out.” He commanded. I looked at him again stunned, and then brought them out. “Now, tell me what they say.”

“The first one is the will & testament, and the second one is addressed to James Anderson, so I guess that's you Peter.” I replied.

“Tell me what it says.”

“It says in summary, ‘Dear James, Incase the project proves to fail please look after my son. He is but a mere baby. From your friend, Sam Wright.’”

At that point Pe–I mean Agent Anderson stood up and spoke, “Agent James Anderson was my father, I am Jacob Anderson the II. He went missing around the same time the Beast showed up again.”

“You called it something, the Beast, is that what it's called?” I asked aloud.

“Yes. The Beast is nearly impossible to stop.”

Picking up on it, I responded, “What do you have to do to stop it?”

“A few months ago one of our agents stumbled upon something that looked to be a nest. He reported it in, but never returned. After a few weeks the Beast showed up again.”

“Why didn’t you guys just destroy the nest? That sounds like where they’re coming from.” I asked, picking up on the cookie crumbs he had left me.

“We tried. We sent out a team to destroy the nest, and they almost succeeded, but they couldn’t figure out the code. We believe that code is your genetic code Jason, which means you are the one who has to destroy it.”