Writer's Wednesday || Part Two - The Name

I'm very excited to post the next part of This Name and Moment. So, hope y'all enjoy!
(p.s. The picture below is supposed to be of Clarity. Timing worked out great because my sister just bought a really flashy shirt. And the jacket is supposed to be black, but all I had was brown. So... just work with me...)

- Part Two -

The Name

When she heard his Name, Clarity's stomach dissolved.

"Sean?" she repeated numbly, "Just Sean?"

"Just Sean."

Instantly, she wiped the expression of panic off her face. She couldn't break down now. It wouldn't do to look stupid in another dimension, now would it?

"Clarity," she said, "My name is Clarity Shaw."

Now it was the boy's turn to look like an anaesthetized llama.

Unlike her, he was no so good at hiding his emotions. But, then again, Clarity had had years of practice.

"Cl...Clarity...Shaw?" He gasped, as if the words were Velcro and his mouth was lined with felt.

Clarity's first impression of Sean was not exactly a good one. He was red in the face, which did not contrast well against his reddish-brown hair. The boy had bright green eyes like a polluted river, and ears that stuck out just a centimeter too far for Clarity's taste. He was tall, and lanky, and in that awkward stage where he didn't quite know what to do with his newly lengthened limbs. The clothes he wore were tattered, two inches too short in both the pants and the shirt. The only piece of clothing he wore that wasn't too small was a brown leather jacket that was at least three sizes too large.

But none of that mattered much. His name was Sean. Only Sean. No last name. Just like the Name Clarity had been born with. While everyone else on Aerathyst might have been born with a full Name, the first, middle and last of someone, Clarity had only been born with one. Sean. Just Sean.

The boy was speaking again, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"What's your full name?" He finally managed a coherent sentence.

Clarity sighed. Her head felt like it was going to implode. Apparently, ley line jumping wasn't like the movies. And it didn't help that so many confusing things were happening all at once.

"Clarity Renee Shaw," she answered, "Why do you want to know?"

Sean took a deep breath, finally discarding his shocked expression for a more normal, composed one. "Uh... No particular reason... You said something about ley lines?"

"Yep," Clarity stretched her back with a groan.

"As in a supposed alignment of a number of geographical and historical monuments, theorized by some to transport a being through space, possibly to another dimension?" He rattled it off like a dictionary. 

Clarity shrugged, "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up." Then it dawned on her, "Oh, man, please tell me you aren't a nerd?"

"Um..."

"Don't... answer that."

There was a bang and a metallic slam as a door to their right swung open and a skinny man in his late twenties walked through. He glanced between Sean and Clarity.

"You kids should really get back to whatever school group your from. You can lose yourselves pretty easy in here." The man descended down the stairs and out of sight.

"Oh man," Sean whispered under his breath, then sprang for the stairwell heading up.

"Where are we?" Clarity asked, following him and trying to keep her vision from swimming. There was a ball of nausea rubbing raw in her stomach. Thankfully, her headache had begun to clear.

"The Institute for Technological Advancement."

"A bit full of themselves, aren't they?"

Sean glanced back at her, as if she wasn't really one to talk. He was right of course, but Clarity ignored that fact.

"Do you think I'm crazy?" she asked as they arrived on the next floor's landing. Sean opened a door that led to a wide hallway, one wall nothing but a giant window. A few dozen yards from the stairwell doorway, a group of middle-schoolers were bunched together. Judging from their faces, the kids were bored out of their minds.

Sean opened his mouth to answer her, when a middle-aged, pinch-faced woman came up and hissed viciously at him. "Sean, what were you doing? I almost sent for security! Dr. Stallings has already started his lecture."

Sean looked eagerly over at the man standing before the group of students, his green eyes suddenly filling with sadness and confusion. He flashed his gaze to Clarity for a moment, then flickered it back to the man who was obviously Dr. Stallings. Clarity didn't know why, but she felt guilty and offended. The way Sean had regarded her, it was like she had ruined his life.

"Sorry, Miss McPherson. It won't happen again."

"It better not," snarled Miss McPherson, waddling away.

"Nice lady, her," commented Clarity.

Sean took a deep breath, his back to her, as if wrestling with his temper. Succeeding (though only slightly, because his face was red again) Sean turned to her, whispering, "Alright, look. I don't know how and I don't know why, but you're my Moment and my Name. No--shh--let me finish. We can't talk now. I don't know if you really came through a ley line or not--I'm not entirely indisposed to the idea--but for now, just stick with me. Got it?"

Clarity, who had tried to interrupt at the whole "Moment and Name" thing, nodded, but not without setting her jaw defiantly.

The lecture was ending. Some of the kids were snickering at Dr. Stalling's ending joke. The Professor walked briskly to a door behind him and opened it, allowing the kids to file through, speaking to some. When it came time for Sean and Clarity to pass him, the last of the students, Sean paused, thrusting out his hand stiffly.

"Sean, sir. And may I just say it's a pleasure to meet--"

As the Doctor's hand clutched Sean's, the watch on his wrist began to beep rapidly. Apologizing, Stallings quickly pushed a button and the beeping stopped. A look of surprise had flared in the man's eyes. But only for an instant. Had it been anyone else watching him, they never would have caught it, but Clarity did, the result of years of experience reading people's faces as they tried insincerely to be sincere and mildly pleasant while underneath they were boiling cauldrons of cynical acid.

"Nice to meet you, Sean. And...?" Dr. Stallings looked towards Clarity, fishing for a name.

"Clarity Shaw," she obliged.

"Clarity Shaw. Nice to meet you both." Dr. Stallings clapped his hands together, "I'm afraid something's come up. Would you mind informing your teacher for me that I may be a few minutes late?"

Sean nodded hastily.

"Thank you."

The Professor hurried off, and Clarity knew he was flustered by the set of his shoulders.

"What was that about?" she wondered aloud quietly to Sean.

He offered no reply.

The school group wandered through several large rooms filled with hanging displays and museum-like glass cases protecting different items. A half hour passed, and then another. At some point, Dr. Stallings returned, but said nothing to either Sean or Clarity. Sean looked crushed. Another half hour passed, and this time, with a droning narration from the Doctor about the different displays. Clarity tried to keep her mouth shut and the ants out of her pants, but it was impossible not to get anxious and annoyed. She needed to talk to someone. She needed to figure out a way to get home. Her aunt would go ballistic... Was there even a way home?

At last, the group moved on, back into the hall with the glass window-wall, towards the two elevators at the end. Sean, distracted, held back. Clarity, a few steps ahead, halted till he caught up with her.

"Hey, we're going to miss the elevator."

Something about that must have deeply alarmed Sean, because his head snapped up and he muttered something rude, bolting for the closing elevators doors, Clarity right behind him. With a ding, the doors of the last elevator shut. Some dumb boy with frizzy brown hair had pretended not to see them and pressed the button for the panels to close. Clarity and Sean lurched to a stop three feet from the descending box.

"I'm gonna buy that kid lunch next time I see him," growled Clarity. "A nice, fat knuckle-sandwich."

"You've got that right," agreed Sean. "Guess it's back to the stairs for us."

"No need," came a voice from behind. They spun around to see a stripe-suited man with a powerful build saunter up to them, briefcase in hand, "There is another elevator down the hall. I'm going down. I'll show you to it."

"Thanks," said Sean.

The two of them followed the stranger down a side hall, to another elevator. The man pressed the button, and the doors chimed open. He gestured for them to step inside, then entered himself. He pressed another button, on the side panel.

Sean frowned, and it only took Clarity a moment to recognize the problem herself. The metal box squealed and began heading up.  

"We need to be going down," Sean pointed out in a polite voice.

The burly stranger twisted to face them, a syringe in his hand. The needle was pressed and sunk into the flesh of Sean's arm before either he or Clarity found their voice.

"Hey...what...are you doing?" panted Sean. His breath had slowed. His eyes were fluttering. Alarm thudded into Clarity. Adrenalin flooded her veins. She bit her lip to keep from screaming as Sean crumpled to the floor.

She backed into the corner, pressing herself into the wall, willing it to swallow her before the stranger could reach her. He stepped over Sean, and reached toward her with the syringe. Clarity managed to get two kicks into his thigh before the man grabbed her and inserted the needle.

Darkness flushed her vision. Oblivion opened as a chasm below. She fell. 

Writingly, 

~The Scribbler in the Attic