| Alphastone | [IN PROGRESS]

Chapter 1

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   The wind felt so nice since I hadn't been outside my home in a while. I think I'd almost forgotten how it felt to sit in the grass slumped against a tree and listen to the birds. I sort of kept myself locked in because of the fear that the gang might find me. I wish I had known their names. Looking at pictures of my family and me together, all of us on the beach or hikes, it was sort of soothing. I took off my maroon hoodie and tied it around my waist, and slipped my phone in my shirt pocket. Immediately after I sat down, I heard a sound close to that of a motor, almost like a motorcycle motor.

     Why did I hear a motorcycle? "What the? There are never people in this part of the woods." A man pulled up in front of my house. Who was this guy? Why would he have been here? His outfit was oddly familiar and scary. "Who the hell are you? Why are you at my house?" He just stared at me blankly. I couldn't even see through his motorcycle helmet's visor. "Long time no see, Zeke Shepard! You don't remember me, do you? Well, let me refresh your memory."

     He took off his helmet and looked at me. He struck a pose like something out of a superhero movie and said, "The darkest alleys of Thybius City, your home, is where the Hawkeye Encryption gang thrives. I am their leader, the one who killed both of your parents. I am the one and only Saca Hawkeye."

     He was over-dramatic when introducing himself, but it still caused me to stare at him blankly with tears rolling down my cheeks. At first, I hadn't noticed that I was crying. "This guy, he's the one who hurt my parents?" I thought to myself. I was debating on springing up and running away or questioning the man.

     After a few seconds, I had jumped up from my spot against the tree trunk and ran quickly into the woods behind me. "Wait, where are you going?!" Saca said, "I just want to talk!" I ignored his words and ran deeper and deeper into the woods, with Saca on my tail not far behind. I had always kept the blue rock my parents gave to me years before in my pocket, and suddenly it had started to glow. "What the? What's happening to my rock?"

     I pulled it out to examine it while running, and it continued to shine brighter and brighter until I could barely see my surroundings. I came to a clearing where the trees hadn't grown and stopped to catch my breath. But as I looked farther out along the horizon of seamlessly endless trees, the sky began to turn to a frightening shade of navy blue.

     "This is unreal." I was staring at the sky at this point, with darkness swallowing up planet Ebony. The sun had disappeared, and now the sky was a dark shade of black. The only light that I could see was my rock, which also meant that Saca was bound to show up any second.

     Now walking steadily through the tall grass, I tried to make my way to the center of the clearing. There was a big hole in the ground. I had been all over the forest before, but there had never been a sinkhole in the clearings, let alone a single manhole. Standing at the edge, I stared down into the dark abyss that lied ahead of me. If you were me, you would not want to go down there. I don't think anyone would.

     "Wah! Zeke, save me! I'm gonna die!"

     I lashed around quickly after hearing Saca's cry for help, but as soon as I turned around, he crashed into me. I screamed as we both clung on to each other for dear life. We were plunging down a dark abyss without any sense of our surroundings. Then I realized that as soon as Saca had knocked us into the abyss, the rock that I was holding had stopped glowing. That aside, we were both going to die, and there was no way for us to stop our doom from coming.