THE ONE CALLED J

Who Is Eva?

Joshua laid asleep on a long bed, the room was quite empty except for a few items of furniture. There was a big flat-screen TV which was roughly 60 inches which were etched on the wall directly facing his bed. Joshua sat up on the bed, he scanned the room as if trying to figure out what had happened last night, he couldn't recall and his mind was hazy.

"There's something I am forgetting," Joshua muttered to himself as he looked at the bed he was laying on. "The blue bedspread is gone," he continues puzzled. "But how?" Joshua kept asking himself as he tried to rack his brain with hopes of trying to recollect what had happened, he struggled for a while but when no answer came, he forgot about it as he moved over to his counter which was surrounded by a cellar of beer and exotic wines. Directly on the cellar was a gift which was wrapped beautifully, there was a note on it which read 'To Jolie, my one and only val.'

It was then that it hit Joshua, Joshua quickly removed his phone, putting it on, he could see the time, it was 7:45 am, February 14, it was valentine's day.

"The hell," Joshua muttered as he grabbed the gift and ran towards the nearest window, as loud as he could, he yelled out some coordinates as he jumped out of the window, like a speedster, the Rolls Royce Phantom 2021 ignited as it sped towards where Joshua was about to land, the front door at the driver seat opened, Joshua had a demeaning look on his face as he jumped and landed in the driver's seat. The car sped up towards his school, Joshua could feel his head aching and he couldn't help but feel he was forgetting something really important, just as the vehicle was about to get to the school, he looked outside the school and on the side of the road laid the bedspread he had been looking for, it was just a few meters away from the school building.

"What happened last night?" he thought to himself. "How did my bedspread get there?" The vehicle had parked itself in the school car park. As fast as he could, he highlighted from his vehicle as he moved briskly towards the school.

It would be time for assembly but Joshua being who he was always skipped it, he moved to geography class as he knew that was where he would have his first class, laying the gift on his desk, he sat down, he crossed his legs as he kept trying to ruminate what had happened the previous day.

While he was thinking, a figure suddenly phased through the wall before him, Joshua noticed it and nearly collapsed to the floor, the figure had completely phased through the wall and was directly in front of Joshua, it was about 6 feet tall, had a mohawk-like hairstyle on it's head with two bulging green eyes, it had the shape of a weak human as it had two scrawny arms and legs, it's body was completely black with markings of white styled around its body.

"What the f**k is that?" Joshua gritted his teeth as he took the gift from the table, he threw it towards the figure but it just phased right through.

"Throwing things in the class, are we?" came a masculine old voice, Joshua recognized that voice as he turned towards him, it belonged to the Geography teacher.

"Didn't mean to," Joshua answered him as he turns towards where he had seen the figure but it had suddenly vanished, it was then that he remembered he had seen a strange figure the day before, he was walking with someone when he had encountered it but who the someone was, he couldn't remember.

"Aren't you supposed to be at the assembly?" The teacher continued. "You are going to get detention with this delinquent attitude of yours?"

"You are fake, aren't you?" Joshua had a smug look on his face as he turned towards the teacher. "I know Brad, he always stresses whenever he says the word delinquent if I am to take a guess, that figure I saw has some ability to create illusions which manipulates the five senses of the human body."

"The Geography teacher isn't Brad, it's Mr. William," the Geography teacher replied.

"I know," Joshua's smug smile deepened as he walked towards him. "I intentionally said a wrong name to confuse you and cause you to lose your cool and as usual, it worked cause I am the J."

"Doesn't matter," he gritted his teeth. "You still don't know my name."

"Not yet I don't," Joshua continued. "But I have inferred two things, one you are also a student of this class and two, you aren't the best actor meaning that when you come for a class, you would give yourself out, also, I know the names of the 26 students in this class so even if you wanna bail, I'd know who it was, I am going to find out who you are, I just need to be patient."

The Geography teacher gritted his teeth as he vanished into thin air, Joshua had a smug smile on his face.

Soon the bell rang, many students rushed into the class, Joshua made no fuss to start inspecting any of the students who were rushing in the room, he sat confidently with his legs crossed on his desk. Not long after the students had entered, the geography teacher entered too.

"Mr. Collins..." Mr. William began with a dismissive look in his direction. "That conduct is very unacceptable."

"It's the J to you," Joshua smiles. "Also, that's just your opinion and last I checked, it doesn't matter."

The Geography teacher had an annoyed and depressed look on his face. "That's a very unacceptable way to talk to your teacher, Mr. Collins."

"So we talking about unacceptable," Joshua continued. "Your face is an eyesore, it's the most unacceptable s**t to society."

Just as Joshua said that the black figure that Joshua had seen earlier on suddenly appeared and dashed towards him, Joshua dashed out of the way of the incoming figure. As fast as he could, he grabbed his gift and threw it towards his right side. It hit a white-haired boy who was roughly 183 feet, he wore a round-neck cardigan, the gift hit him square on his forehead. As it did, the black figure disappeared.

"Max," Joshua smiled. "I forgot to mention one thing during our brief encounter earlier, I had already figured who you were since when I referred to our teacher earlier, you added the Mr, that's a sign of respect and regard as he wasn't even present, in a class full of rude and indisciplined pussyos, it wasn't hard guessing who it was, I was intentionally insulting the teacher just to confirm my suspicions as I knew that would trigger you," Joshua strode towards him. "And as usual, I am right, why? Cause I am the J."

"You really are an i***t," Max told him, he stood to his feet. "I had given everyone in the class their separate illusions, even the Mr. Williams that you were speaking with was a mere illusion," Joshua didn't appear fazed or anything, he still wore his demeaning look. He continued. "The fact that you can see my entourage shows you are a fellow user, where is it? And more of what range, if I am to guess, it's short-range and usually, my intuition is never wrong."

"Entourage," Joshua thought to himself as he looked at the black figure which he had seen earlier which suddenly materialized beside Max. "That must be the general name given to those figures, Max's entourage enables him to cast illusions, I have to find out how to unleash my entourage."

"You are a dumbass, aren't you?" Max now has a scornful look on his face. "Even while we were talking, the effects of my entourage were still active, you thought you were thinking but in actuality, you were talking, sounds like teaching you a lesson will actually be a piece of cake."Max's entourage dashed towards Joshua, Joshua tried to evade to the left but as he did, the entourage reappeared at the side where he tried to dodge to, grabbing him by his right leg, he flung him away and immediately, the scenery changed to that of a desert. Joshua landed vehemently on the sand. He could feel his body breaking against a desk but his sight betrayed what he was feeling. "f**k," he gritted his teeth. "This illusion ability is f*****g annoying."

As he did, a herd of camels dashed towards him, Joshua tried to roll away from the incoming herd but he felt a kick landing on his face, he moved back towards the herd of camels, he felt arms wrap around his lower belly, before he could free himself, he felt himself being hurled towards the ground at full speed, he crashed against the ground which turned out was another desk. Joshua could feel splinters implanted in his skin, he was also bleeding from his mouth. There was no way he could make out what was and what was not around him, it was only when he felt the damage that he could feel that this was what actually was or not there.

"I have to find a way to bring out my entourage, it's the only way," Joshua muttered to himself. "Maybe if I focus hard enough, it will form, I bet it would have a new ability to combat it."

"You dream too much," he heard a voice which seemed to be right in front of him, Joshua jumped towards the sound of the voice but almost immediately, Max's entourage appeared behind him, he grabbed him by his left leg, slamming him repeatedly on the floor before throwing him away. Joshua felt his body being hurled a few feet away, his head hit the side of a door vehemently.

"I just made it out of the classroom," Joshua kept thinking to himself as he kept up. "What Max doesn't know is that I have an eidetic memory, I can easily navigate my way around, find a safe place, find a way to summon my entourage and beat up that dumb fuck..."

Joshua was interrupted from his discussion as a giant cobra about 12 feet tall suddenly appeared before him, it bared its fangs as it lunged towards Joshua but he dodged it as fast as he could, Joshua quickly turned in the atmosphere, he removed a small knife from his pocket as he threw it towards the direction he had turned to. The knife whizzed past Max, if it had been thrown a few millimeters to the right, it would have scraped Max's leg. Max was standing by the doorstep in actuality but in the illusion that he had placed Joshua in, he was invisible.

"That cunning bastard," Max said to himself as he looked at the knife. "He deliberately knew I could hear what he thought he was thinking, he wanted me to believe he was actually relying on finding how to summon his entourage to beat me whereas his plan was just to bait me, find my location, and incapacitate me from there, for the smartest guy in this school, he certainly lives up to expectations but he underestimated me."

Max said as he ran towards him. Joshua suddenly saw giant scorpions materialize around him. All at once, They suddenly turned as they tried to use their stinger to topple Joshua to the ground, Joshua jumped as high as he could, narrowly escaping the sweep by the scorpion tails, he held one of the stingers and he could feel by the shape and texture that it was a waste-bin, there was a wry smile on Joshua's face as he expertly turned in the opposite direction. Like clockwork, he felt an overwhelming force hitting him from behind causing him to fly several meters away, he felt his body crashing against and breaking glass as he fell to the ground, before he could recuperate from that attack, Max dashed towards him, raising his right leg, he kicked him on his lower belly causing him to roll several feet away, Max kept doing that but Joshua could see nothing, Joshua tried to do some acrobatics with his feet in hopes of actually tackling whosever was hitting him as he could feel that it was a human leg, just as he did it, he felt another intense force hold him down, it was far greater and stronger than the previous one. It was Max's entourage that was holding him down as Max had moved backward and kept his distance. Joshua struggled but to no avail, he wasn't strong enough to topple the entourage which was pinning him to the ground.

"Learnt your lesson yet," came Max's voice.

"Only creatures with inadequate knowledge and understanding need to learn lessons," Joshua's smug face was now even more demeaning. "But I, the J have already attained absolute and perfect wisdom, therefore I do not need to."

"When I beat you up some more, you will come to your senses," Max adds.

"There would be no need for that," Joshua continued. "As I have already won, I was at a disadvantage in the school as it had been a while I attended and the i***t janitor keeps changing the location of some objects, you are known for punctuality, therefore you must have taken your time to observe where each object was placed in the room and how to use it effectively in the illusion you put me in, that's why I brought you to a place where I was so confident I had memorized all the objects present, in other words, the car-park, I am sure a broke student who doesn't have a car can't relate," Joshua continues smirking but Max staggered backward as he looked around him, sure enough, he was surrounded by cars.

"I have to relax," Max tells himself. "There's no way Joshua can find out my position, every time I talk, my entourage enables it to seem like my voice is coming from a different direction every time he hears it, there's no way he can make sense from that even if he's a genius, even though we are in the car park, there's no way he can use it to his advantage."

"Lemme take a guess," Joshua's smile kept deepening. "You are thinking that there's still no way I can use it to my advantage, in case you haven't noticed, I was directly baiting you with false thoughts and all, I had already set my marker on you and now, I know your position," Joshua smiled as he turned towards Max's direction. Max was shocked as he could see Joshua staring directly at him but in the illusion, Joshua was staring at nothing.

"He's just making a calculated guess," Max thought to himself. "He isn't sure, lemme move away from this direction," Max said as he jumped to another spot but amazingly enough, Joshua's eyes followed him as it now rested on the spot where he was.

"Are you tryna play a game of tag?" Joshua smiled. "In case you haven't noticed, none who has ever contested with me won."

"He's just bluffing," Max kept telling himself as he continued switching locations but Joshua's eyes kept following him.

Finally, Max got tired as he could feel sweat breaking from his forehead. "How do his eyes keep following me, what trace do I keep leaving?"

"Enough of this child play, time to end this," Joshua smiled as he muttered a few words. Joshua couldn't hear anything but Max looked back, he saw Joshua's vehicle starting.

"What the f**k?!" Max said as the Rolls Royce phantom suddenly sped towards him, Max's entourage suddenly appeared before him, it held him by his shoulders as it threw him above the oncoming vehicle, while in the air, the entourage held him and placed him gently on the ground behind the Rolls Royce. Almost immediately as he had landed, he saw Joshua running towards him, even though Joshua could actually see nothing in the illusion he was placed in, somehow, he was approaching his location, before Max could do anything, Joshua curled his right fist as he launched it in his direction, he hit Max square on his face, the force so intense that Max was knocked off the ground, while Max was still in the air, Joshua jumped backward, readying his two arms. He threw a barrage of punches as fast as he could.

"ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE ODE!!!!!..." Joshua kept shouting as he punched him aggressively as fast as he could, Joshua stopped and followed it with a roundhouse kick connecting it to his head and sending him unconscious to the ground. The entire illusion that Joshua was seeing suddenly crumbled, now he was able to perceive actuality as he could see the vehicles around him.

"How did you know my location..." Max muttered, his face was a bloody mess, even Joshua too looked bruised and injured all over as he was panting quite heavily.

"Back when we were in the classroom," Joshua said to him, "I made a feint when you used your entourage to throw me right before you started the illusion. Immediately, it held me, I had quickly removed the tag on Jolie's gift and tied it around your leg, I always knew where your location was but I pretended like I didn't till I could take you to my place of absolute advantage, I knew your entourage lacked the ability to duplicate and it didn't take a genius to know the constructs in your illusion aren't real so I knew the only way you could protect yourself against my incoming ride was by retracting your entourage who was holding me down to come to protect you and once you was stupid enough to do that, I capitalized on it and won, it's a non-shocker, after all, I am the J!!!"

"Here was I thinking I was the only entourage user in the school, turns out there were two more folks like me," came a gruff masculine voice, Joshua turned towards the owner of the voice and standing before him was someone who roughly the same height with him, he was roughly 193 centimeters tall, he wore a jockey Cardigan, had long wavy brown hair, green emerald eyes, and soft pink lips, he was handsome, some would say he was even hotter than Joshua.

"Dave," Joshua had an annoyed look on his face. "I don't recall anyone asking you shit."

"Come on J, why do you always have to be such a drag," Dave smiled warmly at him. "Besides, I know you can't even learn to summon your entourage, tell you what, you cut me some slack and I will teach you how to bring it out."

"The Dave I know isn't so nice, there's always something you want," Joshua answered him.

"Yes actually," Dave began scratching the back of his head. "Remember that girl, the one you always walking around with, that tall cutie, I think her name's Eva."

As Joshua heard that name, a flood of memorable moments suddenly flooded through his head, he remembered all the times he spent with her, the times they had laughed and joked, how had he forgotten everything? it must have been due to the encounter he had last night with that weird-looking entourage. "Eva, how could I have forgotten about her?" Joshua asked himself as he quickly turned towards Max. "You and Eva have most of your classes together, once, you even did a chemistry practical together, do you remember her, she's tall, really pretty and she has this dazzling smile."

"Who's Eva?" Max had a puzzled look on his face.

"It must be an entourage attack," Dave quickly interjected. "I also asked Jolie and the rest of the cheerleaders about Eva, each of them was surprised as if they didn't know who she was, as if they had never met her," Dave still had a calm demeanor as he spoke, turning towards Joshua. "You were the last person with her, what happened?"

"I don't know but I was attacked by an entourage, I can't remember much of the events but that must be where Eva got abducted," Joshua continued as he turned towards Dave.

"No matter how much we look at it, something is wrong here," Dave continued. "Why are we the only two who remember her? I thought it would be because the rest were non-entourage users but seeing that Max can't recall her, being an entourage user isn't a prerequisite, I would have also forgotten about her but I saw the bouquet of roses that I wanted to give her this morning, I saw her name attached to it and it was then that I remembered her, for a moment, I had actually forgotten about her.  This isn't just the effect of any entourage, it must be from a primordial entourage."

"Primordial entourage?" Joshua thought to himself. "Whatever the f**k is that? I don't care but that has been what I was trying to recall since morning, it wasn't something, it was someone, Eva. I have to find her and bring her back, she's the only person I give a s**t about other than Jude and ma," turning towards Dave. "We have got a deal, teach me to summon my entourage and you have my word, I will definitely get Eva back."