Brown eyelids opened up to reveal emerald-green eyes that darted around examining every part of the room. soon the eyes rested on the ceiling and a content sigh can be heard by the owner of said eyes.

"I wonder if I overslept." he sighed as he rubbed his eyes and slowly got out of bed. He trudged over to his wardrobe and looked in the top drawer grabbing his phone to see the time.

"Oh man, I really did. Jake's going to kill me!" He said as he quickly dashed to the bathroom to take a quick shower and then put on his clothes. He finally ran out of the front door and to a small pizza dinner that him and his friends tend to hang out in.

"Achilles, gosh dammit you're late again!" shouted a young man with a low-cut afro and brown skin, he wore a black bomber jacket and a baseball cap.

"Sorry, sorry you know how it is, I kind of overslept again."

"That shouldn't be your excuse,"

"Well, what should it be?"

"I don't know! Maybe say your dog died!"

"I'll use that excuse next time."

Achilles finally sat down in front of Jake and pulled out a few textbooks.

"I thought I told you to put an alarm on your phone."

"I did, but I kind of placed my phone in my draw, so I couldn't hear it."

Jake rolled his eyes at this additional information.

"So did you order yet?" Achilles asked,

"Yes, I did, and that pizza tasted really good by the way." Jake boasted, showing off the power of coming early.

Achilles sighed at his friend's playful action, he enjoys this light banter that him and his best friend tends to have.

"So are you going to the energy festival tonight." Achilles asked his excitement basically radiating off of his face,

"I don't know, do I have a choice?"

"I don't know, you tell me."

"Guess I don't." Jake said laughing at his friend's antics.

"I heard they're showing off some new tech." Jake started,

"I don't care about the technology there, I just want to drink condensed energy." Achilles said sitting back and placing his head behind his back. Though the energy festival is something all civilians of Cin look forward to every year, this year it's has a lingering feeling of dread. A feeling that arises when many realized why the festival was pushed so early. It was because of a war, and as with most wars no one wanted this to happen. Achilles and Jake decided that today they were going to spend this day as they would spend any other day where they were free from school, that's probably why Jake was upset by the fact that Achilles overslept. Jake and Achilles continued to study. They study for school, something they won't be able to go to in a long time, or well every again.

"Hey, you finished that anime yet?" Jake asked,

"Of course, I finished all the anime that was on my list and the one you recommended. Though they were set to two times speed, but hey what all can I do. So, what about you, did you finish all of your games."

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"I finished it, with the help of a walkthrough but I still finished."

They both sat there silently for a while, though they tried to keep this cheerful facade of normality, they both knew that it was useless because their minds always tend to wonder back to the same question, 'why my generation, why was it peaceful for so many years, but then it all turn to hell in the generation I was born in' and of course these thoughts are normal for two teenage boys to have, unfortunately they won't be able to find out why as the end of the day was quickly approaching.

Achilles went back home around 6:30, his mother was baking a cake, while his father was making dinner.

"Hey son, get ready for festival. It's almost 7:28, we don't want to be late now do we?" Achilles father shouted. His father Peleus was a well-built man with a chiseled figure, his brown skin was almost around the same in complexion as Achilles. Achilles was actually named that to match his father's name.

"Wake up your brother okay, he was taking a nap." his mother Eniola, responded. Eniola had her hair in an afro and wore a jean and a t-shirt with an apron over it.

"Yes ma'am." Achilles responded heading to his ten-year-old brother's room.

"I'm already awake." Shaun whispered solemnly as he heard the footsteps of his brother,

"I know." Achilles whispered back as he opened the door. Shaun laughed a little,

"You know your hearing freaks me out a bit sometimes." Shaun said trying to pretend like he's alright,

"Hey little dude, no need to pretend." Achilles said,

"I'm not."

"Sure, you aren't. Well anyways get ready for tonight. We have to make this a night to remember okay."

Shaun nodded his head at this and got out of bed. Truthfully Achilles wanted to do nothing more but to assure his brother that everything will be alright, however he didn't believe these words himself and instead the thought got stuck in his throat, as though it was trying to suffocate him from the inside.

"I'm going to get ready okay." he said, both his parents responded back with an okay before he headed to his room.

Achilles took off his clothes and looked in the mirror, all along his brown skin were slight cracks some of the cracks connected with each other to form a long and intricate pattern. When these cracks first appeared, Achilles ran to his parents asking to be sent to the doctor, however Achilles dad told him never to show this to anyone ever. Achilles raised his arm up to eye view and saw that a new crack formed around his arms. It went from the tip of his finger all the way to the bottom of his arm. Achilles sighed because he knows there is nothing that he can do about this and instead decided to cover it up with a glove like he usually does. Achilles finally got ready and looked in his bedroom, as though he wouldn't be coming back tonight before all hell broke loose.