FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter Nineteen: Breaking News

Marcus stood in the wide men's room mirror. He brushed off his black jacket and tightened his tie. He then took out a paper towel and dried off his hands and face, which he had just soaked with water. Less than thirty minutes.

Marcus never had a problem with public speaking, in fact, he enjoyed it. But he couldn't help but feel weak in the knees, or rub his face and neck repeatedly. This, by far, was to be the biggest speech of his life. According to Phil, the coordinator of the event, there were well over a couple thousand people crammed into the public theater, which they had reserved for the 5th Annual FERAL Convention. All of the spectators, Marcus thought, would have cameras, video recorders, phones, and the like; all of which would only add to the amount of eyes he would have to confront. The night before, hoping to get the feel of the room, he stood at the podium on the center stage, with the whole theater light up and empty. But standing in an empty room is a lot less exhilarating than standing in a room full of people who you could barely see with the hot lights shining on him, making everything beyond the stage a lot darker, throat in a bulb, forehead slightly secreting, and suit constricting.

God I wish Reis were here.

Marcus could only take so much of the florescent lights. He rubbed both wrists, picked up his written speech, and exited the restroom with a pull of the heavy metal door.

Walking down the hallway, Marcus looked for anything that could possibly serve as a distraction. But the hallway was empty. All of the others were either back stage or in the audience. The hallway was solid brown from the old wood, which it smelled like, and white from the floor tiles, which were covered in black marks. Marcus took a seat on the steps of a stairway. Hunched over the bundle of papers, he began to shift through them. The speech was about marriage equality and what FERAL should do to make sure that there was a favorable vote for Resolution 44, which would legalize gay marriage in the state.

It's gotta be good.

"Marcus!" cried a voice muffled by the echo of the hall. Marcus looked up to see that it was Hera, who was running down the hall. He shot up from his seat on the steps. Hera Messinger was Marcus's Law and Rights Advocacy professor. She was a thin zebra in her early forties.

"Hera!" exclaimed Marcus. The two had grown close to the point that they talked as friends and not as professionals. They embraced.

"How are things at home?" asked Hera with a joyful smile.

"Things are good...defiantly not boring." Marcus stroked the edges of his manuscript, which brought Hera's attention to it.

"Are you ready?" asked Hera. Marcus looked up, "I think so."

Hera gently squeezed Marcus's arm, "You'll do great. You've always have been good with class speaking."

Marcus smiled, "I'm so glad you could make it," she always made him feel the most reassured at anything.

"MARCUS! MARCUS!" Shouted Dave, a short grizzly, who burst between Marcus and Hera, grabbing Marcus tight around his shoulders.

"What is it, Dave?"

The young grizzly gasped for air, he must have been running a long distance, and the fact that he was slightly overweight could only have exacerbated his exhaustion. The poor guy coughed and began to kneel down. Marcus gently placed his hands on Dave's shoulders.

"What is it Dave?" Marcus asked again, this time more demandingly.

"It's...it's all over the news, Marcus."

"What?"

"Mayfield...Mayfield High...THERE'S A SHOOTING GOING ON!"

Marcus froze. All of his senses swept out of his body in a flash. He looked up to Hera, who reached toward his arm. But Marcus pushed Dave away and charged down the hall, leaving a trial of papers in his wake.

"MARCUS! MARCUS!" He could hear Hera's voice fading in the echo of the hall.

Marcus ran into a lobby where he remembered that there was a television hanging up on the wall. Sure enough, when he got there, aerial images of his smoking high school flashed over the screen. A new anchor was saying something, but Marcus heard none of it as soon as he saw two figures standing outside the entrance of the school amid the crowds of kids running out of the building: Reis and Joji. Marcus fell forward, pressing his hands against the wall to keep his body up, fixated on the screen. Suddenly, the screen began to zoom in on the two of them, as if compliant with Marcus's subjective demands. The camera was getting a closer shot of two paramedics coming out of the building holding a stretcher that had on it a cub tiger squeezing his bleeding leg as he screamed in pain. Marcus could see clearly the sorrowful expression on Reis's face as the poor kid passed the two of them.

FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!

Marcus shoved himself off the wall and bolted toward the glass exit door. He pulled out his cellphone and began to frantically look for Reis's number. As she rammed the door with his left hand, the glass shattered. Still, he kept running, despite the blood gushing from his left hand.