Jaxon's Mysteries

CHAPTER 1

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. The locals from the little town of Cape’s Edge had a number of theories as to how this phenomenon occurred, from aliens to a witch's curse. But no one could explain why it only happened at midnight. No one could explain a lot of things that happened in Cape’s Edge. It was a town that since it’s conception, has been filled with mystery and intrigue.

One day, a brave, teenage boy decided he wanted to find out the answer himself. That teenager was Jaxon Maxwell. Jaxon was always different and had grown up with an affinity toward the supernatural. Just last year, he took his obsession a step further and started a podcast, called Jax’s Mysteries. The show would deal with him as he discussed many of the various unexplained occurrences of the town, even attempt to investigate some of them. He was able to effectively solve several incidents that in the end either had answers that were covered up or had scientific explanations. The purple clouds inspired his investigations and after a year, he decided he had done enough to truly crack the case. He spent months researching and asking questions around town, but no one had any concrete answers. So, he resolved to use science and stay up until midnight to observe the mysterious purple clouds himself.

On his chosen night, he stayed up until 12 o'clock and watched in awe as the twilight clouds began their ballet across the sky. He looked into his telescope to try and get a clearer view. Just as his lens began to focus, a beam of light broke through the clouds. As he moved his face from the eye of the telescope, the light illuminated it with a brilliant pink glow. He knew then that it wasn't aliens or witches behind this phenomenon - it was something much more terrifying and yet somehow… beautiful. Jaxon closed his eyes and bathed in the light. It was if something was coming over him. A feeling of euphoria, despite his mind going into a frenzy.

Just as suddenly as the light shined down, it went away just as quickly. What felt like forever, had to have only been a few seconds. Who knows. Jaxon opened his eyes; the clouds and the light were gone. A look of pure fascination comes over him. He runs over to his computer desk, opening his laptop, going to his recording DAW. He puts on his headphones and plugs in his microphone. He begins to speak.

The next morning, as Jaxon walks around the halls of his school, people are pointing and laughing at him. Talking about him. In his excitement last night, he posted his recording live to RSS feed. What was meant to be mindless ranting notes, became an official episode of Jaxon’s Mysteries. As he walks he overhears, “The only mystery is what’s going on inside that freaks head.” He looks up momentarily to see it’s from a cheerleader standing at her locker with some friends. Jennifer Smith, head cheerleader to be exact. She made Jaxon’s life a living hell any chance she got. You’d look at Jennifer and think she was a nice girl, she certainly knows how to play the role very well… no one could suspect her dark side. She started bullying Jaxon after she discovered his podcast. She called it lame and began to nit-pick with every detail about him, while he tried to remain quiet. Thing is, Jaxon was shy and timid. He tried his hardest to stay away from her, but she just kept finding a way to pull him into her games of humiliation and ridicule.

One day she asked him out on a date as a way to prove that he wasn't worthy of being in her presence. Jaxon accepted despite his fear, but when he arrived at the restaurant he saw that it was all a trick; Jennifer brought her cheerleading squad with her to make fun of Jack in front of everyone. As he ran out of the restaurant, he ran into a kid named Brandon Jones – who was carrying horror comic books. Jaxon gawks at the covers of them, barely noticing Brandon holding his hand out, gesturing him to hand it over. “Uh, sorry.” He says. “No man, it’s cool. Attack of the Spider Bride is one my favorites. I’m Brandon.” Their relationship was cemented in that moment.

Brandon walks up to Jaxon and puts his arm around him, pulling him. “Don’t worry about Jennifer, or anybody else man… I believe you.” He says. They get to their lockers. “I didn’t mean to release it.” “Who cares man, look… this is the 1st time anyone has reported something like this from the clouds. Whatever you saw, God… a Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror… aliens… love… I believe you saw something. It weird actually, I don’t get why people are acting like it doesn’t make sense. I don’t see anyone else with an explanation. Let alone Jennifer, the wicked witch of Cape’s Edge High.” Jaxon thought to himself, he’s right. He’d been researching for months and the answers he got were no crazier than what he felt last night. “I have to try again tonight. You wanna come to my place?” He asks Brandon. “Yeah man, I’ll be there. You think your God, Alien, Love Monster will show up again?” “I hope so.” Jaxon responded.

After school, Brandon and Jaxon decided to take naps so that they could stay up later. They did their typical hangout things, read comic books, watched old episodes of Tales from the Crypt while eating junk food, and played a few video games. By 11:50, Brandon was ready to call it quits. “I don’t think I’m gonna make it man.” “What do you mean?” he says as he gets up from his computer desk, heading toward the telescope. “I can’t hang like I used to. I’m getting old.” Jaxon turns to him, “You’re 16…” “I know, I’ll be 17 in a month… I’m started to have back problems already.” Jaxon shakes his head, looking back into the telescope. Brandon always had an old man quality to him. Jaxon would often call him gramps when he wanted to annoy him. “Whatever you say, Gramps.” Brandon jumps up. “That’s it, I’m going downstairs to make coffee. Your mom still has that Hershey’s creamer that I love, right?” Jaxon laughs. “Yeah man, hurry up.”

Brandon heads downstairs as the clock strikes midnight. “Show time.” Jaxon says. Five minutes go by… and nothing happens. Five more minutes go by, and still… no purple clouds. For the 1st time in years the beautiful purple clouds that filled the Cape’s Edge sky with wonder… were nowhere to be found. Brandon walked back into the room with his cup of coffee. “Dude, what’s going on? Where are the clouds?” he asks. Jaxon, looking worried, responds, “I-I don’t know.”