As soon as he heard his name being called by a familiar voice, Elias turned his head to find a green-haired Avian wearing his classic blue messenger's hat staring at him with a can of hot green tea and a bag of snacks off to his side. His green eyes staring at the bruised and battered Elias with astonishment. Waving ever so slightly as he tried to make out Elias's features.
Elias knew that Drew was always out late going round and about doing his own stuff but he didn't think that he would be out this late since Drew always arrived back at the dorms before he did. What was going on? The silence between them grew on the empty AirTrain as it glided along the rails, passing by the glimmering high-rises of Ozwarth.
Elias knew it was going to be impossible to pretend to be someone else so he decided to respond.
"Hey," Elias awkwardly chuckled as he sat down a few seats away from Drew in the empty cabin. It was the first time he has ever appeared this way in front of another person outside of his job. "Drew."
Drew sipped his tea quietly, waiting for Elias as he hung his head down low to prevent Drew from seeing his face but it was already too late.
"It's beautiful outside, isn't it," Drew said gazing out the window, watching the snowfall slowly from the sky.
Elias nodded, folding his arms together.
"Yeah."
Silence.
"Geez." Drew cringes, though there was obvious concern in his voice. "What happened to you?"
"None of your business. I'm fine." Elias snapped. Boy, was he grumpy? However, he couldn't tell Drew what he was doing. It was confidential, according to the job description.
"Dude, I'm your friend just let me see." Drew insisted pulling back Elias's hood.
His left eye was swollen and bruised badly. Small cuts, that were beginning to scab, decorated the right side of his face. His nose mended with a bandage, but it was bleeding pretty badly. The crimson liquid almost drenching the pad. Puss was even seeping from some of the wounds on the upper side of his lips. His grotesque appearance was something straight out of R*sident E*il.
"Holy shit." Drew shirked back. "You gotta get this treated. Standard first aid isn't going to help you too much. You're gonna need some heavy aspirin and antibiotics."
"I said I'm fine!" Elias spat, knocking aside Drew's hand. This was the first time in a while that Elias had lashed out.
"No, you are not!" Drew replied stubbornly. He didn't have any medicine on him to help Elias. Realizing this, Drew injected Wind Otrio into the can of hot tea. The vortex formed in the can by the Wind Otrio caused the hot liquid to cool down substantially. Once it had cooled down enough, Drew handed the can over to Elias. "Here, press this against your wounds. We'll stop by the Academy Infirmary once we get back. They'll prescribe you some medication. Plus, I think everyone will freak out if you came to class tomorrow like that."
Elias, begrudgingly, accepted the cold can and pressed it against his swollen eye. The cold can reducing the inflammation.
"Thanks." He said.
"Anytime," Drew smiled before opening one of his bags of snacks. "So tell me, how exactly did you get your face beaten up so bad?"
Elias scoffed.
"I tripped down the stairs after bumping into a door taking out the garbage and ended up falling on top of a bag full of broken glass."
"Man, that's messed up." Drew laughed, slumping into his seat. As absurd as the story sounded, it lined up with the wounds on Elias's face. There were clearly tiny shards of glass in some of Elias's cuts.
Thank god, he believed that! Elias sighed to himself in his heart as he watched Drew open a bag of chips.
"Want some?" Drew asked waving the bag of chips in front of grumpy Elias.
Elias forced out a small grin.
He really knows how to comfort people.
"Yeah, thanks." Elias accepted, pulling out a handful of chips from the bag. The crumbs and flavoring salts getting all over his fingertips while some even feel onto the ground. As he began munching on them, a sudden thought appeared in his head. "So why are you out so late, Drew?"
Drew was startled.
"Oh me," He said pointing himself. Despite his thoroughness, Drew completely forgot to craft a good alibi if this kind of situation ever happened. Thus, he just blurted out the first thing that came to his mind. "I had to run some errands. You know, Mr. Snow is quite demanding and before I knew it, it was nearing midnight. And obviously, I managed to grab some food on the way back."
"Makes sense." Elias shrugged. He was already aware that Drew was working for Snow, one of the rising stars in the Alchemy world. With his popularity increasing by the day, there's no doubt that Mr. Snow and his staff are trying to meet the public's expectations. "I've been rather curious, what exactly do you do for Snow?"
Drew scratched the back of his head, luckily he already had an answer for this.
"I'm kinda an assistant." He replied, flushing with embarrassment. "I just do small tasks like delivering papers, gathering supplies, getting lunch, some logistic work, etc. I'm more of a courier boy you could say."
He felt terrible about lying to Elias, his closest friend but it was at this time where the two were lying to themselves. It would only be years later where their lies would create a tangled web full of countless dark secrets and innumerable mysteries to only be uncovered by each other. For now, both knew in their heart, if they even make one wrong step or slip up, it could result in the other ending up dead.
"How about you, Elias? What's it like working in that restaurant?"
Elias frowned. He knew he would have to tell his friend another lie. It twinged at his consciousness, human guilt he guessed. Yet, what choice did he have? He couldn't tell Drew anything, according to his boss. No outsider could know. Knowing this, he felt even more upset that he couldn't fully trust anyone since he was aware that his words and choices could cause irreversible damage and it was that very same issue that made him fail to understand his friend's emotions, causing the chain of events to occur a year ago.
>>>
It was winter, the cold biting against Elias's skin as he trudged past his humble home on Glass Road and passed into the slums. The terribly paved road fading into uneven gravel, slush, and mud. His breath could be seen through his muffler, his boots grinding the muddy ice crystals underneath as he weaved through the crowds of people. The pathways getting skinnier and skinnier as he progressed deeper into the slums. Though he was not a resident, he knew the streets like the back of his hand.
Every twist.
Every turn.
Every nook and cranny.
He even knew what kinds of people would flock to each street on a specific day. Passing through the shantytown, he understood how fortunate he was compared to others. The homeless, caked in dirt and wrapped in thin blankets, could not even protect them from frostbite. The residents, deprived of clean water and proper shelter, some with no more than two pairs of shoes, probably from goodwill or the dumpster mountains looming over the slums. It was pitiful.
***
Elias never lived anywhere else in Ozwarth, Glass Road had been his home ever since the day he was born. If one asked him his impression of it a year or two ago...he hated it. He hated it. He hated how Glass Road was so gloomy, so dark, and devoid of anything. Half the businesses in the District didn't even do business, while their owners sat outside on the empty road waiting for their time to come. There were hardly any kids his age that lived on the street one of them being Inn Keeper's daughter, Wannowa (Wan) Louis, who Elias never interacted with at the time since she lived quite a distance away. But that was normal, people on Glass Road only interacted with their own families and those that come to do business and no one else. That's just how life was.
He never told other kids that he lived on Glass Road. He felt ashamed of it. The mockery, the stares he would receive from his peers. The destruction of his normal, unchanging life. He didn't want that. He wanted to escape Glass Road, run away from it all so then he wouldn't have to face the embarrassment of being labeled as a poor boy, even though he wasn't.
Why did my parents choose to live on Glass Road?! Elias had screamed to himself multiple times. We could've lived in a nicer District easily yet, out of all places, why Glass Road?!
There were days where he asked his parents about that but they never gave him a clear answer. Although, he had heard them mumble something every here and there. There was always one phrase that he could recall clearly in his mind every time he finished fighting with his parents.
"For the Heir de Winter, the survivor of the Winter Family."
He didn't quite understand what that phrase was supposed to allude to. His parents never mentioned anything about the 'Winter Family' in their stories. What could it possibly mean?
***
Though he initially hated living in Glass Road, he had come to appreciate it. After he made a friend in the slums.
Pushing his way through the crowd, till he reached the fountain in the middle of the slum, Elias found a strawberry-blonde-haired boy sitting on its rim. He was a good five centimeters shorter than Elias. He was bony and frail. His skin was as pale as snow while his hair was caked in dust and grime from scavenging in the wasteland behind the slums. Though he looked as though he was in despair, his eyes were full of light. There were cherry blossoms dancing within his irises.
"Krono!" Elias called, waving to the frail boy.
The boy named Krono turned his head, facing the orange-haired Human who was running towards him. The small horns, no longer than a nail that looked like branches of a cherry tree, produced white blossoms.
"Elias!"
"Hey, it's been a while!" Elias chuckled plopping himself down right next to Krono. "How have you been!?"
"Good!" Krono nodded. "I hear you're graduating from Magnolia, congratulations!"
"Thanks a lot, Krono!" Elias smiled. "I also heard that you almost finished classes. Are you planning on taking the Exam to get into Star?"
"I am," Krono replied excitedly. The blossoms on his horns growing even larger before the petals began to fall. "That way, I can finally leave the slums."
"I'm rooting for you!" Elias cheered truly hoping for Krono's success.
"Thank you, Elias." Krono smiled weakly. "You know, you're lucky. Since you live on Glass Road, even though you claim it to be terrible, it's still considered a District. The slums, even though it is one, people don’t regard it as a District. Compared to the slums, even Glass Road seems like heaven. You live a comfortable life with a nice roof over your head without worrying about your next meal coming from an expired compressed food package. You can even go to an academy within the city and get a proper education. I envy you."
"Krono."
The Sakura Platian's face was green with envy. The white blossoms disappeared with black ones emerging from the tips of his horns.
"There's no need to envy me! In the end, status doesn't matter, personality does! Anyhow, I'm sure you will accomplish your goal! " Elias said, trying to comfort Krono. "Plus, you already have broken through into Mid-F Rank without using any regiments! That's amazing! I'm positive you'll get into Star without a hitch."
Krono fidgeted with his fingers for a moment.
"You think so?"
Elias gave Krono a cheeky grin before fishing around through his pocket for a small box.
"Of course! Oh, by the way, I got you a gift!"
"Same here!" Krono exclaimed, forgetting everything he said before while handing Elias a box.
"On the count of three, let's open them!"
"One. Two. Three."
The two boys opened up their boxes at the same time but their expressions were vastly different.
"No way! A new scarf!" Elias shouted. "I've been asking for one for ages! Dude, you're the best! Krono..."
Turning over to Krono, Elias noticed that Krono was looking at his gift with a strange expression. Inside the box Elias gave Krono was a long branch with pink cherry blossoms decorated on its wavy curves. On the branch was a blade mark that had cut slightly into the bark. It was a petrified cherry blossom branch that Elias had bought from one of the home decor stores on Glass Road. The person who had sold it to him said he found it on the ground and wanted to make a nice resin art piece. It was really pretty. Elias knew that Krono likes cherry blossoms since he was a Sakura Platian, a race of plant humanoids who have a high affinity for Earth and Life Otrio, thus he thought it was a suitable gift. However, it seems like something was wrong with it.
"Hey, Krono are you okay?"
But Krono only kept his eyes fixed on the branch as if he had seen a ghost. His pupils dilated, his hands trembling as he held onto the branch.
That branch would be the catalyst of the misfortune that would occur in the near future: Krono's suicide.
>>>
"Nothing much," Elias replied to Drew's question.
I'm sorry Drew, it seems I'll be lying to you, again.
"Cleaning, serving, just the typical things you would do at a restaurant. I've surprised you're asking since you've worked in a soup kitchen before."
"True, but different places have different expectations for their employees so I was just curious," Drew said swinging his legs back and forth. "You can tell me more about it later. I'm kinda tired. For now, let's just focus on getting you patched up."
Elias nodded before giving him a small laugh.
"Definitely."
Though their laughter could be heard clearly from the AirTrain cabin, both of them held a bitter expression.
How long do I have to lie for?
Not much longer.
Thanks for the chapter