Prologue: Collision

*beep beep beep beep beep bee- click*

Groggily waking up to the sound of my alarm clock, I stretch and try to get up… but the bed sheet embraces me like a lover finding her long lost love. I succumb to the temptation and lay back down hugging it back.

“Wake up Cas it’s the first day of school!'' a feminine voice says and I feel a weight on my stomach. I opened my eyes and it’s my childhood friend sitting on my belly and looking down on me. Amabelle Carlson, we’ve been friends since we were 6. She and her family moved next to our house back then so I was her first friend here. She’s half Asian but it’s really not noticeable. The only reason I know that is because I’ve seen her father and he’s Asian too. Wait a minute...

“Ughhh did mom let you in again? I thought I told her not to let you come up here.” I say while getting her off me and heading to the bathroom to freshen up.

“She told me but I went anyway.”

“Note to self, buy a lock. Anyway, can you wait downstairs I’m gonna get ready.”

She pouts and heads downstairs before shouting, “Oh! You have like 15 minutes to get ready for school!”

“Ah f%#*@!”

-15 Minutes later-

“*pant pant* Did you really *pant* have to take a HUNDRED pictures of that dog? *pant* We almost didn’t make it to the bus!”

“We made it *pant* didn’t we?” she said grinning and sweating like an idiot.

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I wiped my sweat off and laid my head back so I can at least sleep for a bit before school. I grabbed my headphones before glancing at Amabelle staring at the pictures she took of the puppy. I started nodding off once the music started.

I notice something wrong as the background noise was too quiet. I opened my eyes and… huh? I was on a bus earlier right? Am I dreaming? I can't hear anything. What is this place?

All I see is white, no horizon, no ground, no sun, nothing just pure white. What a weird dream.

I blinked and the scenery changed suddenly, I’m standing in the middle of a... plaza? But something’s not right, the sky turned red and… things suddenly came out of the shadows. They look like eldritch horrors described in those Lovecraftian books. I turn around and it’s chaos. People are running around and screaming. It all feels like a scene from hell.

What the hell is this dream?

I feel the world-shaking. Reality is shattering and falling apart around me. Is someone calling my name? I look around and see no one. I close my eyes to focus on my hearing.

-as

caS

“CASSIUS!”

I jolt awake to see Amabelle shaking me awake with a panic-stricken face, pointing to the window. I look out and see a truck coming towards us at full speed. The driver waving and honking at us frantically.

“There’s a truck coming towards us!” I shout towards the driver.

“I know boy! The gas pedal is stuck! We can’t move out of the way”

“Open the doors!”. I look around frantically for the hammer used to break the bus’ windows.

“They’re stuck! We can’t make it!”

I look out the window and see the driver bracing for impact, still slamming the steering wheel. I immediately lunged towards Amabelle to try and protect her from the collision.

I close my eyes and brace for impact.

*honk honk honk honk honk hon-crash*