• Chapter I

    Hollow men and women roamed the many streets of NecroCity. One is teasing another. Others are hurrying to their business. As if nothing has happened. How wrong they were. Or at least still are.
    “Xilus, good luck,” she told me. A tanned girl with black hair. She was always peppy. But now, I can’t ever see her again.
    “Xilus come back for us, okay?” he said. A tanned boy with brown hair. He was always the unofficial hero. Remembering them brings grief and mourning. But how can you let them go? How can you let go of your best friends? Your only friends? A cloaked man and a pale boy in white and black horizontal stripes led to this mourning. Or did I do this? The answer is unclear. The puzzle of my life seems to take a million pieces to take. And I only have one. The rest are in a hay-stack. It’s near impossible.
    And it was on that faithful, rainy night at the Core Reactor in NecroCity. It was there that the burden of guilt and grief filled my already corrupted heart. My metal boots clunked against the metal of the floor between reactor seven and the core. The moonlight had shone on my white sweater. “Hey Xilus!” cried a girl from behind me. Linda.
    “What is it?” I answered coldly.
    “You don’t have to be so cold!”
    “Sorry.”
    “It’s okay. Anyway, you think we’ll find the mayor in there?”
    “Hopefully. If the explosion sets, the city’s doomed.”
    “Thanks Meister Negative. Wow, Xiona must really love you if you’re always that negative.” An awkward pause as we moved closer to the Core Reactor. “I mean not that you’re horrible! You’re a really nice guy, and I wouldn’t mind spending time with you!” Another pause. “Ugh. Xilus I didn’t mean that…”
    “I know. You’re with that boy at Argonia, so don’t worry.”
    “That reminds me!” she yelled. Grabbing her phone, she dialed a number. “Hello, Xavier, how are you doing?”
    Pause.
    “I’m fine. Wow, it’s hot in here. But not as hot as when you burned down that Akalorick base in the Plains.”
    Another pause.
    “It’s great! We’re really having progress here! I gotta go! Duty calls!” she finished on her phone call. “Xavier’s a great guy, Xi.”
    “I bet he is,” I answered when we had reached the Core.
    “Xilus, this is it. If he isn’t in here, all we have worked for is over.”
    “This has been a weird summer job.”
    She gave a warm smile. But smiles would not last long once we had opened the door. The metal doors opened by themselves. We shrugged at each other and walked into the dark depths of the reactor. It was not completely dark, though. An eerie green light dimly lit the center.
    “Why do you try?” murmured a calm and deep voice. “Why do you stand in the way of the recreation of the world?”
    “Who is that?” inquired Linda.
    “It’s probably him,” I whispered.
    “You make it sound like I am a forbidden man. I am just doing what’s great for this world. And my city will begin the recreation,” continued the voice. White lights turned on all around the reactor. A silhouette appeared in front of the green center. Three long, spiky figures connected by a bulky figure stood in front of us. It was darkened by the light behind it. “And this will start it all!” The silhouetted figure made a screech and destroyed the reactor.
    “Xilus!” cried Linda. But her voice died in the explosion that came after. I found myself falling down the seven hundred foot side of the cylindrical reactor. It’s the end, thought I pathetically. But what else could I say? What else would I think? At about ten feet to the ground, my eyes closed. I felt warm for just a heartbeat. Opening my eyes, I felt the cement floor.
    “What the…?” I mumbled. My words scratched the inside of my airless throat. “I’m…alive? But how?” My heart was beating unusually slowly. It made one heartbeat per second. But yet, I felt just fine. “Wait…Linda! Linda! LINDA!” I cried until my throat felt burned again. “What the hell!”
    Feeling enough guilt, I stood up from the ground. Smoke and ash covered the floor. Shivering, I went towards the city. It was eerily quiet. The sky glowed a dim green and the buildings were cracked and destroyed. Flyers flew here and there with the cold wind. Puddles of water turned into rivers, and then to miniature oceans. The city was swept of its life. Whispers filled my head. A hollow cry rang at the distance. Footsteps echoed in the city. But nobody was around. Life was rare now in this newly abandoned city.
    “Did every one…?” I whispered to myself. “No. No! They couldn’t have! How am I alive?”
    “Don’t you understand, Xilus?” answered a quiet voice behind me. “You’re vital to us. Vital to our existence.” I turned around to see a pale boy with red, spiky hair, a bit like mine, wearing a white and black cloak.
    “What the heck are you talking about?”
    “Let this just be a warning,” he continued, ignoring me. “We are no longer responsible for keeping you alive.”
    “What?”
    “Good luck, Xilus.” He dematerialized.
    “What was he talking about?”
    Isn’t it a fine day?
    “Huh?” I answered to the hollow voice. Nobody was there when I looked back.
    Yeah, if you count the green sky, answered another voice. No human in sight.
    True.
    “Who’s there?” I asked desperately. Nobody. “Hello?”
    Low whispers.
    “I’m serious!”
    Demented giggles and hollow voices continued tormenting me.
    “Who are you talking to, kid?” asked another voice. This one was full, though.
    “People are talking around me.”
    “Where?”
    Translucent people roamed the dead streets of the city.
    “There,” I pointed out.
    “I don’t see anyone, kid.”
    “But he’s right there, talking on his cell phone!”
    “Umm…”
    “Shut up!” I yelled at another hollowed creature.
    “Kid you need help!”
    “No I don’t!”
    “Yes you do! Come over here!” yelled the man as he reached for my arm. “I don’t know how you survived out here, but you won’t last very long like that.”
    And so I was dragged to my prison. For the next three years.