23 June 2012
"Aleeeeex! Where are you Alex?"
The voice surprised him. "Oh, dammit, not now!" he whispered angrily, hastily trying to cover his nude body up. The last thing he wanted was his best mate coming inside to find him knocking one out.
"Just a second, Chloe!" That was the other reason for his rapid clothing change. His best mate was a GIRL. That makes ten times more awkward.
Alex's door opened the moment he put on his shirt. He looked at Chloe, annoyed. "I thought I told you to wait?"
Chloe grinned. "Why? In case I saw you in the nude?"
'Damn, she's fast,' Alex thought. The silence proved to Chloe that she was on the ball with that guess.
"Bloody hell, I was right?!" Chloe laughed harder than before. "Lemme guess, giving yourself a good ol' wa-"
"Shut up!" Alex yelled, getting deeply embarrassed.
"Aww." Chloe grabbed Alex's shoulders and pulled him into a head lock. "I've been your friend for over seventeen years. We were together when we were babies. I can still remember us running about in nappies! So, don't be embarrassed. We've seen each other naked before."
"We were five at that age, Chloe!" Alex said, letting out a sigh over his friend's brash attitude.
Indeed, Alex and Chloe had been best friends ever since they were babies. Her family had moved in next door not long after Alex was born. Back then, her family too had a baby girl, a few months old. Alex's parents had asked her family around for dinner, which resulted in the two families to begin a long relationship with each other. But if there was anyone in the two families who got on exactly with each other, it was Alex and Chloe.
Those two got on like a house on fire. First, the two were weary of each other. But as the two grew up together, they became closer and closer. Some even claimed that the two were fated to be together for the rest of their lives. In a relationship? Alex and Chloe were beyond teenage love. Alex had even dreamed of the two being married when they were older, and Chloe herself had daydreams of being his wife.
Alex let out a grin as Chloe let go of him. He then decided to put on a jacket. The two were meant to be heading to town with some friends, for a friend's upcoming birthday.
Not long after that did they finish everything they wanted to do, which left them an hour to kill. "Wanna head over to the Dome?" Alex asked the group, who agreed. Chloe smiled, and put her arm around Alex's. Those around them grinned at their closeness. It was cute.
The group walked over to the Dome, a giant building in the shape of a dome - you don't SAY! - which was basically a teenage haven. Shopping centres, swimming pools, arcades, five-a-side football pitches, bars, the lot. There was even a stage for amateur bands to play, and in the nights there were karaoke booths for a group of friends to mess about in. It was never really quiet there, always frantic. Only once had Alex ever seen the place dead quiet, and that was about three in the morning. He'd left his phone behind one day. Thankfully it was there, but Alex remembered the weird aura in the place, the dead of night enveloping the Dome.
Most of the group decided to take the hour in the swimming baths, but Alex, Chloe, and a couple of others said they wanted to spend their free time in the bars. The other two were eighteen anyway, they can get the drinks.
Alex sat down on one of the many sofa booths, slumping deep into the soft seat. Chloe crashed next to him, sighing happily as she sat in his arm. She smiled at him, her eyes looking directly into his.
'Man, she's beautiful,' Alex thought, those brown eyes taking him by surprise. Those eyes that came closer, and closer...
BANG!
His world slowed at the bang, seeing her half-closed eyes go dead as blood spurted out of the side of her skull. It took him a moment to realise what on earth had happened. But then, as she slumped to the side, he realised that the love of his life was just killed in front of him.
"CHLOEEEE!" he yelled. He went for her, grabbing her body. "CHLOE!" His eyes scanned the Dome, trying to search for the killer. It had come from above, to his left, so that's where he-
BANG! --------------- Darkness. That was all he could see. Well, essentially, he couldn't see a thing. He couldn't tell whether his body was there or not. He couldn't feel anything. He was about to let go when he heard a voice. Chloe's voice.
"Alex, if you could have three wishes, what would you do?"
The answer was simple.
"Only one, Chloe. To tell you I love you."
But he couldn't, could he? She was dead now, killed by that sniper. "You can't save me now, Alex. But you can save yourself!"
"How?! Why should I? You're dead! Why should I live, and not you?!"
"Because you're the only one who can really save us all." -------------------- BANG!
Alex dived out of the way at the last millisecond, going prone on the floor. 'What the hell?!' he thought, panting heavily. 'He just shot me! I was dead!'
No... Not dead. But awakening.
Alex's body surged with power and rage, the anger from Chloe being killed. And with the power, well...
He stood at the epicentre of the explosion, the power erupting from within him. It sent everything in a blast, vaporising anything or anyone in its path. He burned with anger, his eyes aflame with grief and pain. His voice mingled with a thousand others as he spoke. "I will find the person who killed my love. And I will destroy those who stand in my way!"
The blast disappeared, leaving a fiery Dome in its wake. Alex stood alone, tired, and grief-stricken. He slumped to his knees, before his body shut down, and fell to the side.
"Shh... Sleep now, Master..."
Change, Part 1 - Grief • Opuss № I