In a hospital, a boy was born. The boy turned one, then two and soon four. He had two siblings, an older sister and brother. His mother and father had always been busy with work or doing other things and had left him in the care of his siblings. His siblings did not care about the boy. It was common for them to leave him locked in a room alone, often forgetting about him until right before his parents got home.
The boy went to school and soon made friends with a boy and a girl named Anna. The boy finally had companions. He felt happy to have friends, people to do things with, and people that cared about him on some level. The boy would go to his friends’ house every day he could. When he was there, he was able to have fun, and his life started to look good.
During his second-grade school year, the boy found something else that he loved. Something that would allow him to leave this world and go to another even if it was just temporary…fantasy books. Every day he would read his books, and every day he would get lost in worlds of swords and spell worlds where someone from the bottom could rise to the top. Every day, the boy's would race, imagining himself in these worlds and everything he could accomplish in them.
When he entered third grade a new student enrolled in the boy’s school. After school, the new kid and three others met him outside. He went home that day with a broken nose. When he tried to talk to his mother, she told him to talk to his father. His father told him to break their nose back.
The next day, Anna found out and was furious. It took everything to keep her from marching off and getting herself hurt in an attempt at revenge.
Years passed, and the boy found that life was alright and enjoyable with Anna and books by his side. As time passed, his other friend slowly became a little cold, but Anna never did. She was alway there, and they could always do something new with her. As the end of high school approached Anna and the other boy slowly spent less time with him. due to Anna doing activities after school. Despite this, Anna still found time for them to spend together. The end of high school came, and the boy was walking home after graduation as expected alone. It was something that he had long gotten used to.
Five kids walked out in front of him. He let out a sigh as his eyes caught on one of them. There should have only been four, that was how it always had been. Words were spoken but not remembered. He was beaten up, battered and bruised but only one thought went through his head: His friend had been one of them.
College came and went; he ended up dropping out and getting an office job. His days were spent slogging through the day, but his nights were filled with freedom, filled with his books. Apart from his books, there was one other thing that brought him happiness and freedom. Someone that would drag him off to go outside and interact with people for no other reason than knowing he needed it.
Anna had never left and was always there. She was the only person that had stayed in contact with him in any way. Anna had asked him to come out with her. She wanted to go to the mall but didn’t want to go alone.
He knew that Anna was just trying to get him to get outside, but he didn’t care as long as he could spend time with her. That was all that mattered.
“Come on, you're so slow.” Anna said, tugging on him.
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“You're just too fast.” the boy replied.
“Come on, this is a short cut.” Anna said, pulling him down a side alley.
They took four more turns before he heard something. Footsteps were coming towards them. He mentally shrugged before going back to listening to Anna talk about a recent interaction with a coworker.
“And he won’t listen to me. He’s constantly pestering me trying to get me to go out with him.” she told the boy.
“Maybe you should-”
“Hey.” a strange voice interrupted the boy.
The boy turned around, and the first thing he saw was the glint of steel.
“If you want to live, don't say a single thing,” the man holding a gun said
The whole world seemed to slow down at that moment, and he took in everything in an instant. The slight burning that felt as if it radiated throughout his eyes. The man and his gun, the faint outline of a knife in the man’s pocket. The sound of shoes on pavement from the man behind him. He backed up slightly, his body in front of Anna’s, and despite his body only touching hers by the tiniest bit, it felt as if he could feel even the tiniest hairs on her body.
Two thoughts flickered through his head. Adrenalin? Doesn’t matter, get Anna out of here.
He backed up again, this time forcing Anna to back up with him.
“What do you want?”
“We just want you to come with us. If you do, you will be just fine.”
His thoughts spun. Don’t let them pick the terrain.
He backed up again, forcing Anna with him. She tried to say something, but he stopped her. He had to get Anna out of here. His eyes flickered back and forth noticing tiny details on the walls. She was one step away.
“We already told you, we just want you to come with us. We promise you won’t be harmed.”
He started backing up again and heard a slight scrape behind them, his head whirled around. One hand shoved Anna towards the alley way while the other somehow managed to grab on to the man behind them and pull.
“RUN.”
He jerked the new man in front of him then there was a bang and pain. His mind and vision blackened and narrowed.
“GET THE GIRL!”
One man tried to run past, but he was stopped by a hand and dragged to the ground. Something hit him, but he did not care. His other hand grabbed someone running past. There was a stinging, but he ignored it. There was only one thing that mattered.
His hands relaxed, he couldn’t move, he felt weak and tired, nothing was responding. Everything was going black and hazy. BANG. He dropped dead the final though going through his head the wish for Anna to survive.
***
In another world, something shifted, moved, breathed, an eye opened, lips parted, and a voice not heard in millions of years spoke in a voice that was barely audible.
“Let Pandora's box open, let chaos reign, a storm is brewing, and it will engulf this world!”
The world changed. A weapon was discovered that could bring about the death of gods, a dragon empress began looking for someone to host her egg. In a forgotten corner of the world, a rune lit up, and the forge began to stir. In an empire, an uncle began to scheme for the throne, in the same empire, a boy was born with two pure white wings. In the neighboring empire, a boy favored by time, space, and mind was born, a girl with bat like wings crawled around on the floor, a girl was born with the tails and ears of a fox that looked to be carved out of rubies and hair and eyes formed from uncut rubies, and a boy was born. A boy whose fate was like a raging tide pulling everything in with it. This boy had crimson eyes and crimson hair.
The being let out a dry, quiet laugh. “Order has reigned for too long, go my children.” The being closed his eyes but did not go back to sleep. For how could he? This was going to be too much fun.