We're all in this virtual space together.
Alula

You cry out in pain, throwing the shield as far and as hard as youcan, hearing it knock against the one of the identical walls of coding thatsurround you. You kneel over, clutching your stomach as if you might vomit. Theshield mocks you, as you believe it always has. You try to work up the nerve tomock it back, but only empty curses slip past your lips.

You are in exactly the same place you started. The same fourwalls. The same emptiness. The same lack of memory. Only, now you know loss andit is deafening. You think now would be a good time to lie down. To never getup again. The thought is sweet to your ears, almost drowning out the sound ofloss but not quite, like trying to erase the odor of something pungent byplacing flower petals on it.

You see the Shield in the corner and wish to throw the objectagain when it begins to glow. You think it is trying to give you a message.

You lean closer, and listen.

“Aren’t you going toleave too?” Myos asked quietly, averting his gaze from the other green eyedman. His hands wanted to rise instinctively to lightly touch the casings of hisheadphones but he quelled the urge and looked up to Zeke again.

“Why?” Zeke asked,quirking a thin brow. “I have no desire to get lost in this citadel by myself.”

Myos’s lips curledupward slightly. Knowing this man for as long as he had, he knew that was asclose as he was going to get to any sort of affirmation of friendship from theperson who had always been there for him since childhood despite their ups anddowns and completely dissimilar personalities. “Well, don’t go thinking I wantyour ass slowing me down.”

“Same goes to you,” Zekereplied with a slight smirk, and then the two lightly tapped their knucklestogether, shining silver thumb rings flashing in the unnatural purple light.

Even though he hadsomeone by his side, the crushing weight of despair starting to nestle itselfin his chest, and Myos could feel himself slipping into that pitch black dimensionagain. His entire team had left him. He was alone. The air was heavy with guiltof the things he must’ve done wrong to drive the people with whom he thoughttheir bond was forged in fire. The outline of the cold star on the back of hisneck prickled and burn. His stomach turned. His fists clenched.

Myos couldn’t breathe.

You are Alone.

The mocking words onceagain flicked across the front of his screen, and even though they were inchesfrom touching his face he felt like they were driving into his skull andinfecting his system like some sort of computer virus.

Myos couldn’t breathe.

He couldn’t.

He was alone.

Alone.

He was -

“Myos?” A voice beyondthe lithe young man’s sensory perception called.

Voice? How could therebe a voice here, he was -

Alone.

“Myos?” The voice calledagain, echoing with the reverb of a bullet ricocheting around a tightlycompacted space creating a clang clang clang that shook his brain.

Go away, Myos calledmentally to whatever voice was trying to summon him. Just go away I want to be-

Alone.

“Myos, get a fuckinggrip!” The voice called, louder now. Angrier. More urgent. This time the voicewas accompanied with a pain that rippled across his cheek and through his teethand crashing through whatever glass had held him beneath the black murky water.

The glass shattered andMyos reached his hand upward through the scattered pieces, catching glimpsesand reflections of the past.

“Zeke, what do you thinkis out there?” Myos asked, the young boy pressed against the glass pane of theview to the only thing they had ever seen outside since childhood. The vastnessof space littered with glowing lights of the cosmos, a world so close yet sounknown to the two children. Myos brushed back the untamable fuzz of his wild redhair so he could get a better view of the glittering stars, pressing evencloser and holding the oversized headphones on his head so they wouldn’t falloff yet again - he really needed to buy ones that fit.

“Stars, duh,” Zekerolled his eyes, the boy with shaggy hair the color of a raven’s feathersreplied, playing off his interest with nonchalance as normal.

“Don’t be dumb, Zeke,there has to be something after that,” the small young boy retorted, pouting.His parents never told him about the world out there, but Zeke heard from hisparents and relayed the information about the Earth they used to live on. Thesweeping fields and glittering oceans, palettes of color instead of thecoldness that now lay outside the wide window to a world he longed to know yetdesired to escape from. “Anything.”

“I highly doubt it,”Zeke scoffed, turning up his button nose. “But if there is - on that way offchance, Myos, we’ll replace it okay?” The taller boy’s eyes glittered much likethe stars, giving off the same look that his friend sometimes got in hisbrilliant green eyes - color so similar, yet a shade so different.

“I’ll hold you to that,buddy.” Myos laughed as they scampered away from the window, will all theinnocence and bliss a young child should possess.

Like a kaleidoscope, thefocus of the glass shifted in the murky water, like a path illuminating hisexit.

“I swear, it was huge!”The gangly middle schooler exclaimed, waving his lanky arms that he had not yetgrown into controlling. Myos had all the awkwardness that one expected toexperience at his age and his shocking red hair that erupted from his scalpwith no rhyme or reason just added to the already present factors.

“Don’t lie to me, birdsdon’t get that big,” Zeke sneered, arms crossed tight to his chest. Muscle hadstarted to develop, so he was caught in the phase between losing his baby fatand gaining the muscle of an adult, leaving him just as awkward as the other.“Everybody knows that. You always have these outlandish stories, it’s dumb.You’re just being dumb.”

Brushing the fiery locksout of his face - maybe one day he would cut the darn stuff - for the umpteenthtime, a knowing look fell onto the lanky boys face. “But how often am I right?”

“That doesn’t make youright this time,” Zeke said pointedly, huffing. Just then, a loud screechsounded overhead and they looked towards the artificial heavens to see a birdwith a wingspan larger than their bodies fly above them, back to its owner’sliving pod. The avian flew with majesty and grace, seeming unreal to the twoboys watching below.

Myos looked at his bestfriend with a goofy, triumphant grin eating his face, glad to be right again.

The glass felt like itwas piercing through him, driving straight through to the other side andpropelling him upwards.

“Zeke! Check out what mymom got me for my birthday!” Myos called, running over to meet his friendoutside the tall building erected in the center area of the Astraia’s cityscapeto serve as an educational center for the youth. The two were on their firstday of what was referred to most as high school, only four more years remaininguntil they were free to go about their lives however they wanted.

“It’s not another gameis it? We haven’t even played through the other one yet,” Zeke replied, shakinghis head and disturbing the long crow’s feather locks. He had cut his hair inmiddle school and despised it, so the shaggy look from his childhood was onceagain adorned on his scalp.

“No, it’s not,” Myossaid sheepishly, the other knowing all too well his obsession with the latestgames. He awkwardly fingered his own shorn locks, getting tired of alwayshaving to tie it back during all the running around they did when they gamed,so he finally cut the red tresses to just an inch in length. “It’s kind of forboth of us.”

“Well, what is it?” Zekeasked, trying to hide his excitement. Though they fought often, they neverreally meant it for long, and had basically always been best friends.

Myos reached into hispockets and pulled out two sleek thumb rings, both a shimmering silver. A smallstar adorned both of them; with opposite sides engraved so that it was obviousthe star fragments meant to join to make a whole. “Best friends forever, dude,”Myos laughed, punching the other’s arm lightly after handing him the ring.

“Only if you stopcheating off of my tests,” Zeke snorted and placed the ring on with a bit ofquiet reverence.

“Never, that’s what bestfriends do!” The red haired boy replied, grinning widely.

The glass flew by himfaster, shards and pieces of broken memories flitting much faster than theyshould in a suspended state like the crushing water Myos was in. Though, thepressure seemed to be grower lighter, and the cold around him became warmer.

“Really? You’re gonnajust up and fucking do that?” Myos spat, throwing his headphones down in a ticmost often associated when he lost a gaming campaign. “I thought we were gonnabe partners? We can’t enter gaming leagues without a partner, you know that!”

“I’m not just ‘up andleaving you’ I’m doing something more with my life, Myos. I’m not going to be abum like you, drifting through life,” Zeke said, not backing down in hischoice. His hair now sported a two toned undercut, groomed back smartly becausenot but ten minutes ago the two had been attending their high school graduationwhere Zeke had been announced as Valedictorian as well as one of the lucky fewwho had been accepted to start training to become a guard in the Empress’sforce. The honor was prestigious and set for only a select few; if Zeke becamea guard he would never have to worry about his living conditions or anything atall really, something that had never been afforded to him. Though social classwasn’t as rampant as a distinguishing factor as it had been back on Earth sosays his parents, those who worked as government officials were better takencare of.

“You’re such a traitor,we planned to do this all through high school and now you’re just gonna walkaway?” Myos said angrily, bunching his hands into fists. Is this why the otherhad become more distant, provoking these obnoxious fights? To lessen the blowwhen he up and left him? The red head - hair steadily growing back - threw awild punch which the other dodged easily due to the fact there was no realeffort behind it.

“I’m not a traitor. I’mmaking my choice and this is it,” Zeke stated simply. “If I have the time wecan still game together.”

“Thanks for the effort,don’t hurt yourself though,” Myos spat quietly, quickly losing his outwardvenom, instead it all built inside. A tension that would always be wormedbetween the two, which would never go away.

A large pointed memorypierced his chest, illuminating the water around him for the briefest moment.

“You idiot, I’ll alwaysbe there!” Zeke yelled, his usually calm demeanor broken for once. A wingedheart pin now adorned his lapel, but the silver ring still found its home onthe man’s thumb.

“What do you mean?” Myosscoffed, “You left to join the Empress’s bitches.”

“We’re always going tobe friends you idiot, whether you like it or not,” Zeke said, calmly at firstbefore balling his fist and pulling back before the fire maned young man hadtime to react. “Myos, get a fucking grip!”

The fist connected hardin his jaw, knocking him out of his idiocy like Myos liked to think he had donewith Zeke hundreds of times before. The blow smarted where it had hit, but Myoswas left smiling like an idiot.

Thoughts and memorieserupted to the surface of the water, flashes of smiling children and fights,and heartache, and scary stories, and adventures, and all the things that camewith growing up flooding like a current through his mind until one image wasleft in perfect clarity to stand out amidst the spray and foam.

I am not Alone.