Alexander sighed as he sipped his beer in a bar. Beside him, his high school crush, Charlotte was currently swooning over his eternal rival, Damien. Damien blatantly ignored her and continued swirling his wine.
“Come on, Damien. Just one date!”
“I said no, Charlotte.” The brunette sighed before looking at Alexander. “Idiot, stop acting so uncaring over there and get Charlotte off my back.”
“Aw, don’t be so rude to me, Damien.” The redhead pouted.
Alexander ignored them as he continued to sip his beer. He was twenty-seven years old. He wasn’t the stupid little kid people used to tease him for being. He was a man, now, and a man wasn’t going to rise to his rival’s bait. Not now, not ever again.
“As hilarious as ever, Damien! One day we will get you to lighten up!” Alexander’s ex-schoolmate, David laughed.
“Come on, Alexander.” Charlotte’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “Help me persuade Damien! I will give whatever you want.”
Alexander just shook his head at her immaturity, not understanding how she could still be this way. She should have grown up. And she was the one who used to chew him out about his determination in wooing her. Now, she was exactly doing what he did in the past when they were merely high school students.
Ray and Jonathan were across the bar, occasionally looking over at the table before whispering between themselves. Alexander knew they were there, and whispering about him, but he ignored them. He didn’t really care. They could whisper all they wanted.
“I hear we have a mission tomorrow.” Damien said, his hands clasped together and resting before his mouth.
“Yeah. Eranahia’s special force is on the move. We need to ensure that the entire squad is eliminated,” David’s expression became solemn as he picked up his wine glass.
“No one can stop them.” Alexander whispered into his beer. “Everyone who tries just dies.”
“Now, that’s not an optimistic thing to say!” Charlotte snapped, glaring at the blonde.
“But it’s the truth.” he whispered again. He stared down into his beer for a few seconds, watching as the liquid swirled slightly. Their small little town was already in a mess because of the new ruler of their country, Eranahia. The tyrant sent his armies of talented assassins to annihilate those who are not willing to be under his rule. That included his town because everybody was living in poverty and was not willing to pay the hefty taxes and also send their men to be trained torturously to become one of the tyrant’s army assassins.
“Alexander.”
The blonde snapped back, shocking him out of his daze and he turned to look up at Ray. The taller man was frowning down at him, a look of concern in his eyes. “You’ve been sitting here for a while. Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Alexander rubbed the back of his head, putting his beer down and standing. “I was just-reminiscing.”
“We have a mission tomorrow; you should probably get some sleep.” Jonathan whispered, the two Resistance Assassins recognizing the look on the blonde’s face. All of them had set up a Resistance Army against the tyrant a few years ago. Too many people were lost and they merely wanted some peace.
“I’ll be fine, Jonathan, don’t worry.” He smiled reassuringly, but his eyes didn’t light up, and his smile looked forced. Ray and Jonathan just left it at that, allowing the blonde to walk away from them.
As Alexander exited the bar, he sighed as he saw the large drops of water falling from the sky. Rain, he sighed, shaking his head. He hated rain. But, he had to get home, so he walked out into it, anyway. The water sloshed around his feet as he walked, causing a disgusting feeling to settle itself between his toes when mud got into his sandals.
He was just about to turn onto his street when a crack of lightning lit up the area he was in, and something glinted in the night. He turned, his eyes fixing on the memorial stone that was built to remember the people who were sacrificed in Resistance Army. He wanted to look away, but something compelled him to walk towards it.
He entered the training grounds and stopped in front of the large memorial stone, his hands in his pockets and rain running down his face. He stared at the recent names engraved on the stone. There had been six more deaths since the three that Alexander missed the most had appeared on the stone. The names he came to see every day for an hour.
Charlotte.
Damien.
David.
A hand fell onto Alexander’s shoulder. “Why are you standing here in the rain, Alexander? Commander will be worried if you catch cold and cannot participate in the missions. We are one of the best teams, ever!”
“Well, he’s just an idiot.”
“Really, Alexander. You shouldn’t make yourself sick all the time. It slows us down.”
Slowly, Alexander brought his hands up to his ears, covering them. His lower lip quivered as the rain masked his tears. It had been four years since the three of them had died.
When…
When was he going to stop hearing them in his head?
Word Count: 875
A very creative story. I found it relatively interesting how Kai Yuan lets characters speak in the protagonist’s (main character’s) head. Initially, I felt quite lost because there were so many characters and the whole story seemed pretty disjointed but the last sentence was very powerful. The impact was there and just this one line left the story hanging, but at the same time, provides a good conclusion to it. Very, very creative!
Good work, Kai Yuan!
HEYHEY. Your sister helped you to get this “skeleton” of the story by getting ideas from her fan-fiction stories right?