"It appears my ribs are broken," said the man who bled out on the stage. Blood pooled from his back and sides, where a large chunk of debris—which had fallen from the roof, had impaled him.
The man in suit spoke into a handheld transceiver which lay on the floor next to him, while he stared at the starry sky through the round opening in the ceiling.
"How did I fall for it?" said the man. "Good question, really."
"To be honest, only a dumbass like me would actually end up getting slimed like this."
"I heard there were hordes of zombies in the Bahamas Theatre, so I came to steal a couple bucks before the Unit got to it. Turns out it was a big ass trap from the enemy faction. I was done in before I could even speak."
"My lungs have most likely been pierced by my ribs, so I have no fucking idea how I'm even alive and breathing right now. I ran out of vials so I'm definitely not surviving it. Just do me a favour, okay? Get inside my den, take the black suitcase you see and hand it to my brother. Yeah, the small one with black hair. He'll be needing it if he's going to survive in those areas. Also, make sure to incinerate me before six pm. Burn me without a trace. I don't want that fat fuck turning me into his dinner."
The man paused and hummed for a while.
"Alright then, I'll be dying now. Get to it."
After those words, there was a static sound from the transceiver, and the call was cut off. There was nothing aside from a 'shh' sound in the space of the dimly lit theatre. A spotlight remained on him, and his eyes captured a cosmic streak—a shooting star flying across an army of glittering celestial bodies.
"Man, I wish…"
The man heaved a breath one last time, and gave up the ghost.
******
Several years later,
Memories. These memories…
A young male lay on his bed, with his hands raised up, and his eyes fixed on the night sky. He made the motion of catching the stars, cuffing his hands to look at one before grasping at thin air. Not once did this young man blink, as his body and mind had simply forgotten to. His heart—if there was one, had wandered to the place where his mind had drifted to.
It was a memory.
A young woman with long, blonde hair, bright and cheerful, in a white gown that reached her knees. She wore red masculine shoes, and socks that barely reached her ankles, as well as a red tie that was most definitely out of place. Her make-up was the kind that caused you to either pity her or laugh at her. Regardless, in this situation, the right response was to laugh.
Adriel smiled, and tucked in a giggle, as he watched the woman make silly dances, hopping on one leg and singing in a faked masculine voice. Her arms were spread out, and there were two round patches of dirt on both sides of her face. She was aiming to amuse him with her behaviour and attire, and she didn't give up until his laughter erupted.
"Hahaha! Just stop, already," Adriel said with teary eyes. His hands beat his laps, and his shoulders shook in his amusement. He couldn't help it when she looked so silly. Layla had even put one of her shoes on her head, while spinning her hands like they were helicopter blades. A grown ass woman for that matter.
"Ah. Yes! There's the laugh," she cheered with a proud smile. "I started to think that your humour had really died."
Adriel rested his face on his palm. "Well, I thought it died too. Why would you even go so far just to crack a laugh? Don't you work on Thursdays?"
"Ah..well…I got fired."
"Pfft!"
"Did you laugh? Hahn! Adriel! You do know you should be in school too, right?"
"Well, it's not like I was expelled or anything," he jeered. "Why were you even fired in the first place?"
"It's the new boss. She's an old lady, and she doesn't like me," she replied with a pout. "I was frustrated because she kept making mi life difficult. So, I had to quit."
Adriel narrowed his eyes. "So it's not that you were fired, but you resigned? No! It's not that. You did something bad, didn't you?"
"....." Layla looked away, whistling to herself.
"Ah! So you did something! Come on. Spill it."
"Well…" Layla poked her face. "I might have 'touched' her with a little too much force. My hand moved on its own, I swear! I didn't know it was going to smack her in the face."
"....." Adriel's jaw dropped. "You assaulted an old lady?"
"Hey! Don't say it like that. Plus, she was a villain so she kind of deserved it."
"Still, you smacked the shit outta an old lady. She's definitely lost the rest of her teeth. You kind of scare me now."
"Hey, saying it like that makes me sound like a bad person," she argued with a frown.
"Well, I was deceived to think you were a good lady," Adriel replied, tilting his head to one side. His black, spiky hair brushed along the rusty old walls of the narrow urban alleyway, and his knees drifted from side to side as he sat on the ground.
"My old man used to say every woman is double-sided," Adriel said. "I was like eight then, and I was pretty stupid so I thought he was just being misogynistic—cause what a grumpy old fellow he was. Didn't get a new wife after mom expired—I mean, died. Anyone really would have thought the same. But, now, I understand. You've got a devil inside. You're a pretty nasty lady."
"No I'm not!" Layla squeezed her lips. "You wanna see nasty ladies? Then try getting a girlfriend! Those bitch-! Ladies are going to make fun of you and spread all sorts of lies. I know because I've seen many people fall in the same trap."
Adriel stuck his finger in his ears. "Nah! I'm not interested in any lady from that school. Plus, I rarely ever go to college anyway. I'll rather date you instead."
"Why? I'm some 'manageable option'?" Layla crossed her arms.
"In a nutshell, yes."
"You-!"
"You're pretty crazy," interjected the teen with dark hair, brows and irises. "But you're still the only one that makes me laugh. My life is pretty boring, and to be honest, I'm most likely just alive because why not? I've got nothing to do now that my father is dead and my brother is missing. But then, you still come by here and somehow manage to put a smile on my face. So, to be honest, I wouldn't mind living just to see you."
"...."
Adriel coughed. "No! No! No! I didn't mean that last part. What I'm trying to say is that you're bad but not too bad. You know, like a half-spoilt mango? I can urm…yes, manage you."
Layla sighed. "That's the worst proposal I've ever heard."
"Propo-!" Adriel coughed again. "No! I wasn't proposing. It was a Freudian slip is all. Nothing much. Nothing you should think about."
"Look, Adriel," Layla knelt to look him in the eye. "I get that you may have developed feelings for me after a while. Afterall, I'm your only friend, and coincidentally the only female in your life. I'm also so beautiful," she tucked her hair behind her ears, "so it can't be helped…"
"But," Layla's azure irises quivered for a second. "You're a minor, Adriel. And I'm an adult. I'm afraid I can't respond to those feelings, even though…I'm not very proud to say this, but I may feel the same way towards you. Still, I cope by chucking it up at the corners of my heart, and seeing you in the light of a little brother instead. Hopefully, you can see me as a big sis instead. That might work."
Adriel shut his eyes. "Heck no! Big sis my ass."
"Oi!"
"Do you know how much of a struggle it was, coping with my overbearing elder brother?" Adriel asked, opening his eyes. "I'm also certain that he was in a gang or something. His aura was different, and he had awakened abilities from the 'fluid'. Up till today, I've got no idea how the fuck he afforded it, but it was terrible experience living with him. Big sis? Fuck no! My bro is prolly dead, and the curse of the elder sibling domination is dead with him. I don't want an elderly sis, thank you."
Layla grinned mischievously. "In other words, you can't accept my rejection. Damn! I didn't know you had fallen so hard."
Adriel nearly blushed, but he put on a strong front. "Me? Nahh, I have better tastes in women. I'm just saying that-!"
Something warm pressed his forehead.
"Eh?"
Layla's nose was suddenly right in between his eyes, and her mouth had connected with his forehead. After five seconds had passed, Layla retracted her face, licking her lush, red lips.
"What just-! What did you-! Why did you?" Adriel's eyes darted from side to side erratically, and a super obvious blush was imprinted on his face. He couldn't hide his feelings anymore. That was his limit.
"I would have done it on the lips," said Layla. "But I can't kiss a child now can I?"
"Ah…uh…uwwhemee..offu.."
"Pfft!" Layla giggled. "What are you saying? You're as red as a tomato."
Adriel buried his head in shame, while rubbing his forehead with his palm. He hid his face beneath his legs, but Layla's face poked from the gap in between, causing him to jolt back in surprise.
"You're showing much emotion today, Adriel," Layla smiled wholesomely. "That is nice."
"What are you? My therapist?" Adriel dodged her gaze.
But, Layla pushed herself into his line of sight, blocking his face with her hair.
Adriel sighed. His eyes became more honest.
"You know..I'm actually seventeen."
Layla's eyes were narrowed in a knowing light. "And I'm nineteen. What's your point?"
"I'll wait."
"Huh?" Layla cuffed her hands over her ears, acting like she didn't understand what he meant. "What are you waiting for exactly?"
"Tch! I'll wait till I become an adult goddammit!"
"Heh? And why is that?"
"Because I like you!" Adriel screamed. "Fuck!"
Layla opened her mouth in surprise. And then, she stood up, her hands circled behind her back. "Fine then. I'll also wait for you. You dare not get involved with any other lady!"
"I already told you that I like no one in my school. But you have good looks, so you're the one who's most likely going to breach the urm..contract."
"Okay then! Let's make a promise to each other," Layla suggested with a clap. And then, she bit her pinky, causing a ring of blood to seep from the wound.
Adriel bit the surface of his thumb. "You won't find a better man than me, Layla."
She chuckled. "Alright, my knight in shining armour. Nothing separates us. Nothing breaks our bond."
With those words, their fingers kissed and then crossed each other. For a while, the two of them just stared at each other, and as if only realising what they had just done, they immediately looked away from themselves in embarrassment.
Layla ran away with a wave, saying she had to go to work. A terrible lie to come up with, since she had been fired, but Adriel understood how she felt. Afterall, he felt the same way.
What is this feeling?
Adriel felt his heart thump in his chest, and sweat building on his forehead. The rhythm of his heartbeat was much different than normal, and he was strangely warm from within. There was something budding in his mind, and heart—something light and beautiful, much more beautiful than anything he had ever experienced. Like a flower spreading out its petals, butterflies beholding its glory under a radiant sunlight. It felt like green fields, filled with endless green, lilies, and thornless roses.
Except roses did come with thorns.
Drip!
One drop of blood hung and fell from his thumb. Adriel observed himself in the reflection of his face in the new blood pooling from his wound. Black hair, a sharp pair of eyes, chin and face, as well as two small lips. His skin looked rather smooth for someone from the Undercity, and he would have been mistaken for someone from a well-to-do family if he didn't have a scar on his neck that stretched down to his belly. They were actually products of stitch marks, possibly from a surgery.
Another drop of blood fell from his thumb as he rose to his feet. He was of a decent height—nearly six feet, but not quite, yet his hair seemed to scrape the skies. There was a new air of confidence around him now—one that would make any lady pause and turn.
A last crimson pearl fell. And Adriel looked beyond the alleyway, at the cars that beat the road with endlessly rolling tires. He always found it crazy that civilization was doing pretty fine despite the outbreak of zombies. Turns out that it only took a few nukes to quell what was once assumed to become an apocalypse. There were these Sound Towers constructed in almost every state which would constantly send a frequency that only zombies could hear, after which the landmines would be left to do the job. At times, a bomber jet or two might be summoned to deal with the threat.
In other cases, those biological machines of a human would pay them a visit. Afterall, no construct was perfect and there would still be several hundred zombies that would be unaffected.
But all that was none of Adriel's business. At the moment, the only thing he thought of was Layla. The more he thought of her, the better he felt. He had even started to picture a family of five already.
A family, huh?
Adriel, now back on his bed and to his present, lowered his hand slowly.
The star is beyond me. It has gone too far.
A shooting star flew in the sky. Adriel's eyes pinned onto it as he gazed past the round window above him.
"I wish…"
"I wish that didn't happen," he said. "I wish she didn't-!"
A radio interrupted him.
<
<
Adriel banged the top of the radio, pressing a button that turned it off. The only thing it now did was tell the time in a display at the front, hinting that the device was both a radio, an alarm—and judging by its makeup, a safe and a microwave.
"20:00," he muttered to himself as he read the time with two hollow eyes. "It's time."
He pushed himself from his bed, onto his feet and ran his hands around the radio. He pressed some buttons on the top, which opened his safe. That safe had a key. And he slotted the key into a keyhole at the bottom of the radio, which he had to lift to find. The moment the right click sound was made—after five alternating rotations, he pushed his finger into it. There was a beep sound, made from the device scanning his fingertips. After which he could finally slide a portion of the bottom to the side. A pistol, and a handkerchief fell from it into his grasp. He rubbed the pistol with the red handkerchief for a while, before tying it around his wrists.
Adriel then opened the microwave, which was formerly locked until now. If one looked from outside, they would see a projection of an empty microwave, but when one opened it, he or she would see what he did. About fifty or more small glass bottles, filled with some plain yellow fluid, and a few flakes of skin. Adriel picked about three and examined them. They had no marks on their bottoms. This meant they weren't the vials, but the poisons he had prepared just in case the Unit found a way into his den. One whiff of it was enough to kill. If fully opened, anyone in the room was sure to die.
He picked up another three. These ones had marks on them. He dropped them carefully. They weren't the vials either—just another trap. These ones would explode if handled with a certain amount of force.
This one has gone bad.
One of the traps had taken a noticeable discoloration. Adriel removed it, and hid it underneath his bed. Then, he began to feel the ground with his palms till he felt a slight depression. When he did, his thumb pushed down on a button, and a portion of the floor snapped open. In it, was the body of a young man who had nothing but a head and a torso. This man was alive and asleep, however, his tongue was cut, and he was pinned to the ground by his shoulders with heavy metal pegs. A drip extended from his chest to a large bag of fluid filled with the actual stuff—the true contents of the vial, as well as a mixture of grounded food pellets, water and glucose.
Adriel poked at his stomach. There was a zipline sewn into the man's skin. He unzipped it, revealing several bottled vials that glowed from the organ that held them. He unzipped that one as well and obtained one bottle. After that, he was done. Everything was closed in a jiffy, and he was ready to go.