Adam Parrish

Adam doesn't know exactly what he was expecting when this day came, but there's undoubtedly an air of anticipation and relief as the ceremony goes on. one hundred boys were to graduate this day, and two and a half years of studied dedication to a school that Adam hated upon principle but needed to get where he was going, was finally over. No more trying to scrounge around for pennies just to feed himself. No more tolerating of the privileged upper class that would never truly appreciate the opportunity that was afforded them. And true, while he was trading Ivy League prep for a college that was just shy of being that sort of school in and of itself, he was more likely to find people that actually cared and appreciated what schools like these were opening doors for.

Despite all the drawbacks, Adam remained top of his class and was voted valedictorian near-unanimously by the falculty. It was everything he'd been vying for since first entering Aglionby Academy and now here it was. He finally did it. He laughed and booed during the various speeches and for once felt truly a part of the student body walking today. He only paid partial attention to when they began handing out diplomas, really only caring when Gansey, Ronan, and Kavinsky's names were called, shaking hands as they crossed him on the platform.

After all was said and done, Adam delivered his own speech, a thing he had been slaving over since he first discovered he would be the one to deliver the parting words of the ceremony. The nerves he usually felt when having to deal with such things were only background as he spoke, telling his peers snippets of his own story at Aglionby and of having been a student at public school. He spoke of this place helping him find the best friends he'd ever had, and how those friendships, and the friendships of those in the audience, would always matter. That even though the high school experience was over, the world was still out there to be discovered by them, and how this ending is really the beginning for each and every one of them.

Finally, Adam pauses, looking at each face in turn before him before finally looking at the guests with a wide smile. "And with that, faculty, students, honored guests. I give you the class of 2015." His smile grows wider as he holds his own diploma in the air. "We made it."

Think he'll like it?

Adam heads to Cabeswater alone, ensuring no one follow him to or from as he heads there. He's made a mistake, and now it's his time to fix it. He focuses, he speaks. And for once, the forest listens.


"This place, the heart of the ley line, must always be protected, and now someone seeks the sleeping king for ill intent. Should the man who wishes to find the king Glendower for war ever come here, he will be lost as long as he persists on this quest, stuck within the paths of no-time and no-space until he gives up and leaves this forest. As long as Glendower rests, this will always be the case."

There are no words, but as Adam stands, he can feel a subtle shift in the air, of Cabeswater pulling in on itself, going on high alert for the first time since Barrington Whelk attempted to kill Adam. If Drew ever did find Cabeswater, he wouldn't die, certainly. But as long as he was there and seeking the favor, he'd likely wish he would.

The sun was out and unseasonably warm in the afternoon sky. Adam sat in the driver's seat of his Honda, quiet as the grave. He'd just driven through the poorer side of Henrietta and down an old and familiar dirt track. To his left stood a bank of familiar rusted mailboxes. He hadn't been here since the summer, yet it felt like it was yesterday that he and Ronan had left here with his meager belongings, his left ear roaring and his very soul feeling like it'd been ripped asunder.

The trailer park sat unchanged, a collection of the lowest rung of the financially insecure in the small town. He'd done so much, made more progress than he'd ever hoped to, and still there was the feeling like he'd never amount to more than this place. Yet still he couldn't go in, crippled by fear. Fear of his father. Fear that he wouldn't be able to leave once he went in. Most of all, though, fear that he would finally be as hated by his mother as much as his father feared him. He'd taken off his Aglionby sweater, chosen not to drive the Bentley, and made sure anything of his he'd gotten since leaving this place, anything of value greater than this place, was unseen. His hands ached in the cold and he had to fight the urge to lick them as they started to chap.

He almost forgot about his father's lack of a job before the man himself drove by in his old pickup, passing him with a few of his buddies in tow, no doubt trying to find a bar to crawl into and not come out of until the next day, stinking drunk and angrier than a starved lion. Fear kept him glued in his seat, watching with wide eyes as the man turned right next to him.

And kept driving.

This was a bad idea. He knew it now, even while he knew this was the last time Robert would be home for the rest of the weekend, if his mother was lucky. The wrapped present for her stood sentinel in the back seat as he contemplated whether he should go on or not.

I feel like Batman.

It starts as any other fix job would. Find the kink in the ley line. Move a few stones here and there, reroute power. But as soon as the final stone is laid, Adam passes out, not breathing, but not quite dead, either. His vision melts away, then shifts, and he's seeng the world from a new perspective. Trees surround him, along with long-forgotten anachronisms and urban legends, myths and rumors made flesh.

He's noticed eventually, and those around him kneel, no matter the shape or size of the being. Latin and hundreds of other languages breeze by his ears, words of gratitude, and then light. Washing over him, around him. Filling him, and his vision shifts once more. He's riding energy-no, he is the energy, riding an ancient conduit now that much further restored. Apprehension and joy fill him as he makes the circuit, rounding the bends of power rerouted, and he hits a well, massive in scope, and there's something both familiar and entirely alien to this place.

Like Cabeswater, he thinks. And then he's in the embrace of this new wood. They speak, of the joy of being awakened after so many years asleep, of those who have come and gone. Of Cabeswater's/Adam's work and the necessity to continue.

And when he finally awakens, it's with a rush of air to his lungs, as if he's gone a long time without breath.

The first thing he does is call everyone.

It's a pretty cool video, even if you aren't into meteorology. Check it out.

The suggestion is that those who think they’re seeing kangaroos from a distance are, in fact, spying Devil Monkeys. While these 1934 encounters may or may not be associated with this phenomenon, the first “official” Devil Monkey sighting occurred in 1959, while a couple by the name of Boyd were driving through the mountains near their home in Saltville, Virginia. According to their account, an ape-like beast attacked their car, leaving three scratch marks on the vehicle. The Boyd’s daughter, Pauline, described the terrifying attacker: “(It had) light, taffy colored hair, with a white blaze down its neck and underbelly… it stood on two, large well-muscled back legs and had shorter front legs or arms.” Boyd went on to describe a second Devil Monkey encounter that occurred just days later in the same region: “Several days after this incident, two nurses from the Saltville area were driving home from work one morning and were attacked by an unknown creature who ripped the convertible top from their car.” Luckily the nurses — though surely frightened out of their wits — were unharmed. In 1969, esteemed mystery ape researchers Johnn Green looked into accounts of a long-tailed “monkey” beast that eyewtinesses claimed was lurking near Mamquam, British Columbia. This creature was said to have left a series of distinctive, three toed tracks — much like those attributed to Devil Monkeys as well as the legendary Bigfoot— in its wake.