Elijah turned from the bed...crossing the small room to stand beside him at the window with his shoulder bumping against Alex's as they both stared up at the impossible line splitting the sky...
The black void on one side pressing against the golden-white blaze on the other like two forces that had no business sharing the same night.
The countdown on their phones kept falling...00:03:45...00:03:28...and the pressure behind Alex's eyes krpt getting worse...like something that made the hairs on his arms rise even while his mind raced to make sense of what he was seeing.
"What the fuck..." Elijah breathed...the words trailing off into a nervous laugh that died almost as soon as it started...his hand gripping the windowsill tight enough that his knuckles paled while Alex stayed perfectly still...observing...processing...because standing there frozen wouldn't change the fact that the sky had broken in half right above their dorm.
Then the Voice spoke.
It didn't come from the phones or the hallway or anywhere outside their room. It slid directly into their heads...sounding genderless and flat like something reading instructions with no emotion.
The Trial of the Divided Sky has begun. All registered souls must choose their Allegiance.
Light...or Shadow. You have 60 seconds.
Those who do not choose will be Claimed.
Alex felt the words hit him like a physical force...like a warm tug pulling at the center of his chest...
And at the same time a colder pull gripped his spine...sliding down into his shadow quietly...
The warmth felt suffocating...demanding even.
While the cold felt like the only thing he'd ever truly known...like it was meant for him...which was weird from his perspective.
00:00:52.
"Bro...bro what is this? What the fuck is happening?" Elijah's voice cracked as he spun toward him...eyes wide and searching for answers Alex obviously doesn't have.
He started inhaling sharply while he backed up a step and nearly tripped over his own controller cord. "Is this real? It can't be real...the sky...that thing in my head...Alex tell me what the hell we're supposed to do..."
But Alex was somewhat different from Elijah...after all, panic wouldn't stop the countdown and the Voice had been very clear about what happened if they stood there doing nothing.
They would be Claimed.
He couldn't really understand what it meant...but their was something about how the voice in his head said it, that made the word terrifying.
He didn't understand what Light or Shadow truly meant...but the cold pull felt better somehow...compared to light.
00:00:37.
The moment he thought of the shadow...he didn't speak the decision out loud.
He simply accepted the cold...letting it flood through him as the warmth recoiled like it had been slapped away...and the rush came all at once.
Like ice water pouring into his veins while his vision flickered dark for a single heartbeat.
When it cleared everything in the room looked sharper...the shadows deeper yet somehow easier to read...the dim glow from the monitors cutting through the darkness like it was full daylight.
His shadow on the floor twitched once...shifting independently for the briefest moment before settling again...as if it had just woken up and decided to listen.
◇◇◇◇
「Allegiance Chosen: Shadow」
「Synchronization complete. Welcome to the Trial, Alex.」
◇◇◇◇
00:00:22.
"ELIJAH!" Alex snapped...lunging forward to grab his shoulders and shake him hard enough that his friend's head rocked back...for Elijah stood in place, completely lost in thought, or fear...we'll never know.
"CHOOSE. Pick something. Pick ANYTHING right now."
Elijah's eyes darted everywhere...fear and confusion crashing across his face while the pulls kept tearing at him from both sides.
His hands were trembling as he tried to form words that kept fracturing before they could finish. "I don't...which one is...what if I pick wrong...I don't know...I can't just..."
(A/N : You faggot...)
00:00:15.
Alex's grip tightened...his burned need to act overriding everything else because this was Elijah, the only person he could actually call a friend...he couldn't let him stand there while the clock ran down.
"IT DOESN'T MATTER. JUST PICK ONE. PICK ONE RIGHT NOW!" His voice tore out louder.
Elijah looked at him then...with something apologetic flickering behind the panic...his mouth moving one last time. "I can't...I..."
00:00:00.
BAMMMM!
A pillar of golden-white light smashed down through the ceiling without warning...blinding and roaring as it swallowed Elijah whole.
The brilliance was so intense it burned even through Alex's newly sharpened vision and filled the room with scorched fabric.
Alex reached anyway...instinct driving his hand straight into the edge of that light...only for pain to explode across his skin like fire.
He yanked back with a hiss...the back of his hand already blistering red while the pillar kept burning brighter...and through the roar he thought he heard Elijah scream...or maybe it was only the light itself making a sound that should never exist.
.....
.....
...
Then it ended.
The pillar snapped upward and vanished through the ceiling as if it had never been there...leaving the room darker than before...the monitors flickering once before stabilizing.
Elijah was gone, leaving no trace of blood.
Just a black scorch mark burned into the sheets where he'd been standing...his controller lying on the floor still connected to the paused game...and his laptop open to that Google Doc with the unfinished story still glowing on the screen.
Alex stood there...his burned hand throbbing in time with his heartbeat.
The new sensation inside him kept the shock from turning into anything louder while he stared at the empty space.
Then silence pressed in on him, as he continued staring at the scorched ground, and for a long moment he couldn't make himself move.
He couldn't even register the absence that had replaced his roommate in less than a second.
Then the sounds started.
Ahhhhhhhhh
Help! Helppp me.
Please someone, ANYONE!
There were screams from the hallway outside their door, that sounded terrified, while a wet sound kept overlapping their screams that tore underneath them.
It was a ripping sound that made his stomach twist.
He glanced toward the window...seeing figures running across the quad below...some falling...others rising again in jerky unnatural motions.
There even some grey shapes that looked different, but wearing the same uniforms as students of his college.
With Elijah gone...or worse.
The thought tried to land but the cold pushed it back...sharpening his focus instead...because standing here processing wouldn't change the fact that whatever was happening in the hallway would reach their door in moments.
Alex's eyes flicked to the desk...and he grabbed the heavy metal lamp base...ripping the cord from the wall as he tested its weight...because it wasn't much but it was something solid he could swing.
He moved toward the door.
"I need to get outta of here."