NOVEL NEXT Chapter 32 – Bad Start
Eleven years ago, Alan as a child was being picked on by a group of boys on the playground of a school. The boys were physically pushing him around laughing at him.
Alan: “S-stop it!”
Bully: “What’s a little baby from Gix gonna do about it?” the child said, before pushing him down onto the ground.
Alan fell and was now laying on the ground and eyes closed and his arm protecting his head. He was expecting to be kicked by one of the other boys.
Alan hated this. It only been a week since he and his parents were forced to move to Graheel, due to the civil war in Gix, and he was already being picked on. When Alan first started attending school, he did his best to fit in and not stand out to avoid bullying. Unfortunately, he had an accent from living in the Gix empire, and this small thing about Alan was enough for him to be singled out and picked on by the other boys at school.
One of the boys was about to kick Alan while he was on the ground, until a ball came flying at his head, hard. The young boy was knocked all balanced and nearly fell. He was holding his head in pain from where the ball had impacted, looking around to see where that ball came from.
Bully: “Who did that!” he yelled out, turning around to see who it was. His angry expression turned to fear as he saw the person who threw the ball at him. “Oh, no! It’s Sere! Everybody run!”
Coming out of nowhere, little Sere came running at the group of boys with her small hands swinging and her long silver hair flowing behind her. The other kids were scared of Sere. She was a Lockheart and that family had a certain reputation amongst the community, which trickled down to the local kids and was distorted. Lockheart’s had a reputation of working either for law enforcement or the military. This for some reason translated to the kids at school thinking that the Lockheart’s were all monsters.
The boys surrounding Alan scattered like bugs as Sere approached. Once she saw that the other kids who were beating up on Alan were gone, she slowed down to a walk while continuing towards Alan.
Sere: “Hey are you OK?” she said, as she stopped in front of Alan and reached her hand out to help him up.
Alan, who was still curled up into the fetal position, looked up to see Sere reaching her hand out to help him up. He hesitated for a second, but reached out his hand to her and pulled himself up.
Alan: “T-thank you. I-i’m fine,” he said while standing up.
Alan was also a little afraid of Sere. He had heard the same rumors that the other kids said, that she was a monster. But looking at her, he wasn't so sure what the other kids meant by that. She just looked like a normal silver-haired girl to him.
Sere: “That's good. So, um. I noticed that you’re new here and probably don’t know anyone. So, you wanna be friends?”
Alan: “Y-you wanna be my friend?” he said, surprised by what she was asking him.
Sere: “Yeah.” she responded with a smile.
Alan: “Oh, um. Ok—” before he could say anything else, Sere grabbed his hand.
Sere: “That's great! Let me introduce you to my other friend, Jafar.” she said, while pulling Alan along.
Alan: “Wha?” was all he could mumble as he was dragged along by Sere.
This was the day Alan first met Sere and Jafar. Ever since then, they had become his best friends in Graheel.
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In the present day. It was the morning after Alan had gone out drinking with his buddies. Him and Jafar were sitting on a bench just outside one of the Shrom Pact dorms.
Both of them looked terrible. They had massive bags under their eyes and were holding their heads down. They would both reel away from any source of bright light. Anyone that looked at them could tell they were in the middle of recovering from a hangover.
Jafar: “Ahhh, my head is throbbing so much,” he whined.
Alan: “Tell me about it. I don’t even remember much after the fifth bar we went to.”
Jafar: “Yeah, it all went downhill after I ordered that red drink. What was it called? The killshot?”
Alan: “That was like one of the first drinks you ordered. And, what did you expect from something called ‘the killshot’.”
Jafar: “One of you guys dared me to drink that.”
Alan: “No one dared you.”
Jafar: “Are you sure? Ugh, whatever. Trying to remember stuff hurts too much right now,” he said while rubbing his eyes.
Alan: “Gaaaah, if I knew if it was going to be like this, I wouldn't have challenged Cris to that drinking contest yesterday.”
Jafar: “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. So, did you at least win?”
Alan: “No. Cris is a freak. He drank me under the table.“
Jafar: “Whoa, really. That’s surprising. You're way bigger than most people.” He said while looking up to Alan. “I thought that would have given you an advantage.”
Alan stood at over 6 and a half feet (2 meters) tall. He had a half foot height advantage over Cris. Bigger people can drink more liquor before it affects them. So both Alan and Jafar thought he would have a massive advantage in a drinking contest against someone like Cris. But, Alan still ended up losing.
Alan: “I swear he used enhancement magic on his liver or something.”
Jafar: “Is that a thing?” he said, curious to know if someone could cast enhancement magic on their organs.
Alan: “I don’t know. I just know that at the end, he was the only one not wasted.”
Jafar: “Really?”
Alan: “Yup. After a dozen shots he wasn't fazed. He was the only one not out of it and helped get us both home. He even helped carry you home after you fell asleep.”
Jafar: “So that was a dream. I thought it was a big beautiful muscular lady that carried me home…” he said disappointingly.
Alan: “Huh?” he mumbled, confused at what Jafar just said.
Jafar: “N-nothing! H-head hurts. Can’t talk,” he said in a panic.
Both of them continued to sit there and groaned about the pain in their heads for a few more minutes before Sere showed up.
Sere: “Hey guys! You feeling better yet!” she yelled out.
Both Jafar and Alan clench their teeth and cover their ears. Serre's voice pierced through their head and caused them agonizing pain.
Jafar: “Agh, you don’t need to yell.”
Sere: “Well that’s your punishment for not inviting me out last night.”
Sere originally didn’t know about the outing that Jafar and Alan did last night. She only found out by seeing her friends in this pitiful state when they met in the morning.
Alan: “It was just a guys night out. You wouldn’t have liked it.”
Sere: “You don’t know that.”
Alan: “Whatever, we can go do something together on the weekend. So please stop yelling. “
Sere: “OK, but you guys picked the worst time to go out drinking.”
Today Alan and his group of friends were supposed to ask around the Shroom Pact dorm about Cid. They planned to do this today after Jafar discovered Cid’s identity yesterday. They wanted to know exactly what dorm he was in and the kind of people he was associating with. Unfortunately, Alan and Jafar had not been very helpful in this investigation. They were too fixated on their hangovers to help Sere ask around. So, she was forced to go into the dorm herself and ask around while Alan and Jafar quietly sat outside by themselves.
Alan: “Sorry about making you ask around by yourself. We planned this outing ahead of time before Jafar found out about this guy.”
Sere: “That’s ok,” she said with a sigh. “With the way you guys look, you probably would scare away the people you were supposed to question.”
Alan: “Do we really look that bad?”
Sere: “Yup. By the way, weren’t you supposed to ask if Cris would help us out? Or, is he too hungover to help either?
Alan: “I did, but he had to go see professor Black this morning. Something to do with his admission into the Arcane Eye college.”
Sere: “He got Arcane Eye college!” she yelled out in surprise.
Jafar: “Please don’t yell,” he said in pain from Sere’s yelling.
Sere: “I’m going to yell all I want, cause I'm extra pissed now that you didn’t invite me out yesterday. I didn’t get to hear about Cris’s admission and celebrate with everyone.”
Alan: “Again, we’ll do something this weekend. I’ll even invite Cris too, so you can celebrate his admission. Anyways, did you find out anything about Cid?”
Sere: “Yeah. I know what apartment he’s in.”
Jafar: “You already found that out? You were gone for like twenty minutes, how do you know what apartment he’s in already?”
Sere: “I guess I'm that good. Anyways, I don't think Cid is in his apartment right now. From what I heard about him from another Shroom Pact student, he pretty much spends most of his time in the library lately.”
Alan: “Even now? Exams are over, so why’s he still going to the library?”
Sere: “He could be writing a thesis for all we know. Your guess is as good as mine. But, the main point is that he’s not in his apartment right now. So, we could use this as an opportunity to sneak in and look for clues.”
Alan: “That sounds like a plan.”
Sere: “There’s just one problem.”
Jafar: “He has a roommate, doesn't he?” he said, already surmising the issue they might be facing.
Sere: “Typical Jafar. Already ahead of the game. Yeah, he has a roommate. I don’t know if his roommate is currently in right now, but if they are, that’s going to cause some problems.
Jafar: “We’ll have to wait until they are both out of their apartment.”
Alan: “Actually, I have another idea. If his roommate is still in, me and Sere can distract him while Jafar sneaks in.”
Jafar: “What?! Why do we gotta do that?”
Alan: “Look, we gotta find evidence sooner rather than later. The longer this guy is free to roam around, the more people he’s going to kill.”
Jafar: “Ugh, but why’s it gotta be me to sneak in?”
Upon hearing that, Alan made a wide motion with his arms. The uniform he was wearing had armor plating in it. So as he moved his arms, it made a bit of noise from the metal in his clothing rubbing against each other.
Jafar
: “OK, point taken. You’re not stealthy, but what about Sere?”Sere: “You think you can hold a conversation down with his roommate the way you are now?” she said, while focusing on the bag under Jafar’s eyes.
Jafar: “Why are we having a conversation with his roommate?”
Sere: “How else do you think we’re going to distract him?”
Jafar: “Ughhhh, fine…” he said, finally admitting defeat.
Alan: “Don’t whine. If we're lucky, his roommate won’t be home either.”
Alan and his friends made their way through the Shroom Pact dorm and up an elevator to where Cid’s apartment was.
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Alan and his friends exited an elevator onto the 4th floor of one of the Shroom Pact dorms. The guy’s in the group were following behind Sere, as she led them down the hallway to their destination. They passed by a number of apartment doors on their right side, before they eventually arrived in front of the door to Cid’s apartment.
Alan: “Ok, before we knock,”he said as he made a hand gesture directed at Jafar.
Aether gathered in Alan's hand and then was released as he cast a spell. Jafar then felt something like a gust of wind below him, and then he felt a little lighter all of a sudden.
Jafar: “Whoa, what was that?”
Alan: “That was a type of enhancement magic for combat that improves your physical speed. But more importantly, I infused that magic with the air element, making you lighter as well. That should make it a little easier for you to sneak around.”
Jafar: “Oh, OK. Yeah, that’s a good idea. Hey, Sere do you have anything that could help me as well?”
Sere: “Umm, nothing I can think of. But if you hurt yourself, I can patch you up,” she said while smiling innocently.
Jafar: “Yeeeeah, I'm not planning to get hurt anytime soon.”
Alan: “Ok, here’s what we're going to do. You go around the corner and hide,” he said while pointing at Jafar. “I’ll make sure the door is unlocked to allow you to get in. Then you quietly sneak in while we distract whoever Cid is sharing the apartment with.”
Jafar: “Ok, but what if no one’s in the apartment?”
Alan: “Then we try and figure out how to get in without breaking the door.”
Jafar: “Ok, got it. Oh, one more thing. How long will this enhancement magic you cast on me last?”
Alan: “It’ll last as long as I keep supplying aether for it, or you get too far away from me. OK, if there’s nothing else, let’s do this.”
Jafa nodded before quickly, and quietly due to magic affecting him, hid behind a corner in the hallway they were in.
Once they couldn’t see Jafar, Sere and Alan approached the apartment door and knocked. They waited for a little while, but there was no reaction. For a moment, both Sere and Alan thought that there was no one in the apartment, but then the door slowly opened.
Standing in the doorway was a young looking male student in casual clothing of a t-shirt and pants. He had messy brown hair and looked like he just woke up recently. His overall appearance didn’t make him stand out much.
Cid’s Roommate: “Um, hello?”
Sere stepped in front of Alan and took the lead on the conversation.
Sere: “Hello, is Cid in?” she said while smiling and trying to act as pleasant as possible.
Cid’s Roommate: “Oh, um. No. He’s not in. Um, who are you?”
Sere: “We're friends of Cid. We came by to check up on him.”
Cid’s Roommate: “Cid has friends?” he said, surprised by Sere’s comment.
Sere: “Yeah, we’re worried about him. He’s been acting strange around us,” she said, while continuing to act like a concerned friend.
Cid’s Roommate: “Yeah, that tracks.”
Both Sere and Alan took note of Cid’s roommate’s comment. It seemed that he was noticing something strange was going on with Cid. Sere took this as an opportunity to further the conversation they were having.
Sere: “If it's OK, can we come in and talk to you?”
Cid’s Roommate: “You wanna talk to me?”
Sere: “Yeah, we’re worried about our friend, and since you spend so much time around him, being his roommate and all, we thought you might be able to help us figure out what’s going on.”
Cid’s Roommate: “Oh, OK. I don’t know if I can help you, but I guess we can talk. Please, come in,” he said, as he opened up the door further to let them in.
Alan and Sere entered through the front door into a hallway where they could see what looked like bedrooms at the end of it. Sere followed Cid’s roommate as he turned right into an opening, just before the bedroom, it led into a kitchen area. Alan lagged behind a little, and when he thought no one was looking, he jams his student ID card into the door in a way that prevents it from latching. He then caught back up to Sere in the kitchen.
The space was small and surprisingly clean for a kitchen that university students would utilize. At the center of the room was a small table with some chairs around it.
Cid’s Roommate: “Take a seat anywhere you want,” he said as began to pull out a chair to take a seat.
Sere noticed the chair Cid’s roommate was about to sit down in, would face him towards the entryway of the kitchen, allowing him to see into the hallway. Realizing it would make it harder for Jafar to sneak by if he sat there, she immediately rushed to that chair and took a seat as the roommate was preparing to sit in that chair.
Sere: “Thank you very much,” she said with an awkward smile.
Cid’s Roommate: “Oh…O-OK” he said, confused by Sere’s strange action.
The roommate then took another seat across from Sere, with his back now facing the kitchen entryway. Alan followed suit and sat in another chair at the table.
Robert: “Oh, right. I didn’t introduce myself. My name is Robert, I’m Cid’s roommate.“