Writing Challenge: Short Story "Venom"

“It’s impossible to maintain any significant level of embarrassment for a long period of time. You simply succumb.” That phrase played through his mind like the echo of waves in a shoreline cave. Each time he heard it it would layer upon itself enveloping its own beginnings and ends. Would he believe it though? It had been too long since he had the kind of mind that was willing to believe, he was now simply going through the motions of a prescribed coping mechanism.

Four months prior to finding himself sitting on the edge of an icy bench clothed in ice, Marcus was a negligible speck on the University of Wisconsin campus. A native of the state of New York, he didn’t care much for notoriety or popularity. To be completely honest he just couldn’t be classified as anything but Marcus. The political science student attended his lectures religiously and when he wasn’t studying he’d be found seated behind a computer in the student resource centre where he volunteered. This sense of comfort and predictability were not what had him sitting in an empty lot on the south end of the university campus, he had wound out of his routine into a web of confusion, lies and betrayal.

His polar fleece beanie collected snowflakes which gently succumbed to the warmth of his head and soaked into the thin fibres. His thick, fur-lined boots trembled as he knocked his knees together and swayed back and forth dancing to the mantra cycling through his mind. Marcus was far from concerned about the bitter chill causing his nose to start running, nor the fact that his denims may soon form a bond with the icy seat and he would then be rendered immobile; all he cared about was the most recent events of the night that left him completely floored. “It’s all Derek’s fault.” The thought came as an interruption of his thoughts and he stilled himself for a few heart beats before swirling back into a liminal state of nothingness and everything in between.

Derek Lucas was a rare type of human being; he performed the role of a brute yet had a world of intelligence at his disposal. A young man with so much charm that he could convince a snake to dose itself with its very own deadly venom, and that is what he did to Marcus. He didn’t know what the man could do, he’d always taken him to be the very numbskull he performed in public. The irony of the situation is that as much as Marcus wished he could fit in, Derek dictated who had the ability to fit in.

“It’s not as though you’re anything great, is it?” These words flew over the top of the desktop computer. “Yo! Alfred Nerdstein?”

It soon registered that these spiteful words were directed at him, Marcus, sitting behind his usual computer, in his usual place, with his usual routine being his usual self.

“Pardon?” responded Marcus.

“I heard some people going on about you and I thought I should see for myself.”

Feeling berated and reduced to nothing but a tourist attraction, Marcus didn’t have a witty come back to throw at Derek, he merely tucked his head back down behind the computer.

“Don’t go acting all shy on me, can’t you talk? What’s the matter, you some kind of special case or something?”

“Derek…” was all Marcus could manage to get out. He felt like some sample placed on a petri dish; the chief scientist poking and probing and analyzing every move while his minions observed him at his craft.

“You know my name? Aw, no wonder you’re acting all shy, you have a crush. Alright then, let’s you and me go for a coffee to get to know each other better then.”

What he thought was a joke was in fact the candid statement of a terrifying truth. Derek walked around the table a strong-armed a shocked and limp Marcus from his seat behind the computer. The plot was afoot and Marcus knew nothing of what would soon become of his life.

The only comforting words he could find to get himself out of the downward spiral of his mental whirlpool were, “they say when God closes a door, a window opens.” A pale-faced attempt at gaining composure he never had before. The truth is, Marcus knew this to be a lie; as much a lie as the day Derek Lucas sat him down at the library café and uttered the words “Let’s try be friends. I promise I’m not half as bad as you make me out to seem.”

STORY IN PROGRESS…