original

Archmage Ascension

Author: XeroXp

Chapter 1: So This Is Death?

Yawning was heard coming from a small room, the room barely even be called a room as it was more of a box. The untidy bed even occupied the space of the whole room and by that was a small desk and over it a small lamp. The room was untidy, with papers on the ground, cans of food just still there on the bed, and lastly, the one who was held up there, a boy with long jet black curly hair, jet black eyebrows, brown eyes, and dry lips, he had a long face structure with a normal size head, he was also quite skinny, but that could be because of stress, as of right now he wore his blue and white pajamas. He was also a young adult and was quite the handsome fellow indeed, his name was Alex Lane.

***

Alex looked at the ceiling as he sat on his bed rubbing his eyes. He was stressed and because of that, he didn't get much sleep.

" I wonder what time it is," Alex said with a hoarse voice.

As he reached out for his alarm clock, he was startled. Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! He immediately shut it off. The alarm clock was broken, it didn't go off at the specific time he wanted it to, instead, it went off twenty minutes later.

As Alex observed the alarm, he immediately sprung up," Damn! I'm twenty minutes late."

He ran to his wardrobe and took out the simplest piece of clothing he could wear, he wore a red hat, a redshirt, and red long pants. It was the uniform someone working at a restaurant would wear, that was exactly what it meant, one of Alex's jobs was working at a restaurant. Alex after dressing in his uniform left through his door and ran downstairs, it only took five steps to reach down the stairs.

" Good morning Alex, I made some breakfast hopefully we can share it?" It was Alex's innocent little brother, Andrew.

Andrew was a small boy who looked to be around the age of ten to twelve, he had short brown bangs that nearly covered his brown eyebrows, brown eyes, and a light skin complexion. He looked almost nothing like Alex, it would make one wonder if they were even related, but they were even though they had no resemblance to one another. Even so, Andrew loved and admired his older brother who was deemed a failure by their parents.

Alex then placed his hand on Andrew's head," Not now, Andrew."

As he walked away Andrew tried reaching out to him but could not say a thing," He always says that." He then frowned.

As Alex left the small house where he had lived in the reached out for his bike, and he was rushing his way to work. In probably about ten minutes he had made it there, it was that close yet he made it look as if the restaurant was so far away. It was a small restaurant, most of the restaurant was make-out of transparent glass, then there was an automatic door, and in front, there was a car park. The restaurant was located right in front of the road may be to grab tired and hungry customers after a long day. The name of this restaurant was Joe's Fast Food Stop, a silly name indeed.

As Alex entered the restaurant all eyes were pointing at him. As he walked he dropped his head low in guilt and shame.

" Late again?"

" That guy again, why don't they just fire him!"

" I hate that guy!"

" I can't believe who goes to the same college as me, a total dropout!"

A chain of insults was let loose at the victim, Alex, who cowered in guilt.

" Raise your head high Alex."

As Alex looked up, he saw his boss." G-good morning sir J-Joe." Alex knew he was late, and he was caught too.

The man who stood in front of him was exceptionally tall, even though Alex was also tall the man was twice the size of him, the man also had a muscular structure, he could snap Alex's neck with his biceps alone. He also wore a short sleeve shirt that revealed his progress at the gym, it was a bald man, his manager.

" Good morning slacker, I have quite some bad news for you. I get that you have a lot on your plate, considering your family but I can't fend for you anymore. I've received a lot of complaints about you, like how you keep dropping the customers' foods which they had ordered and also arriving a half or a whole hour late to work. And now you have no excuse, I checked upon where you live and figured out your home is only ten minutes from this restaurant, and all this time you were using an excuse that your home was far away. To say the least, I'm disappointed Alex Lane, and because of the complaints, you're fired."

Alex had expected this much, no one liked him even when he first entered the restaurant, all this because of his parents, none of the complaints were true other than the fact that he would always arrive late, Alex kept true to his job and worked his hardest, this was most likely plotted by his haters, everyone at the restaurant including customers.

Alex averted his teary eyes in guilt," I understand."

As he left the store satisfied smirks were present, there was even a hint of laughter, this was the society in which he had lived in. This was common for Alex.

" Lost yet another job, pathetic." Alex sighed.

Alex's phone then began ringing." Good morning Alex. I have unfortunate news, there's no need for you to come to clean up the building today, The company has been sold off, and there's no need for you to clean up today. Your job as a janitor is over." It was the voice of a woman.

This meant Alex had lost yet another job, he was jobless once again.

" Wait.."

The flip phone then hang up," Tck! Mom and her boyfriend gonna be pissed, to think I messed up again. I am worthless, let alone jobless. Looks like I'll be staying home today. What a shitty ass unlucky day."

Alex then rode his bike back home.

***

As he made his way home Alex noticed that two police vehicles were parked in front of his home. He then sprung off his bike and approached then who seemed to be at the front door.

" Good morning Officers, is there anything I need to be informed about."

The two policemen then spun around and positioned their hats over their heads blocking their eyes and even blocking their features.

" Yes, there has been a tragic accident surrounding your mother."

Alex then worried and questioned," Is she okay? What about her boyfriend?"

" I'm afraid to bear such bad news but, she lost her life, apparently her boyfriend's car was found inside a river meaning they had driven off a bridge, but it seems he got away safe and sound and is now requesting the remaining amount of her money that is supposed to go to your little brother."

The news had hit Alex like a drum,' This can't be true, can it? How, why did she leave at a time like this? That stupid woman was supposed to be there for Andrew, how could she leave him so suddenly. How am I supposed to take care of Andrew now that she's gone?'

Tears then ran down Alex's face as he ran away and screamed from the top of his lungs," This can't be true! Why now!"

Even the weather felt bad for him that started raining heavily. Alex ran down the road getting soaked in rain. As he ran he caused multiple cars to stop.

He then looked at the skies as the rain poured down on him," This has to be a dream, there's no way that today's such a bad day."

As Alex turned around he noticed a boy dressed in a raincoat playing with a toy ball on the open road. But it wasn't just the boy that he had noticed, he saw a speeding car approaching from where the boy stood. Alex had to have done something, if things continued going as they did the boy would get hit by the car. He couldn't let that happen, at least not in front of him. Alex reached out to the boy as the car rapidly approached, and just a second later before the car could hit the boy, Alex shoved the boy out of the way resulting in him taking the hit instead.

As he got hit Alex's body dropped to the floor, looking at the skies once again his vision slowly faded, people ran to approach him to assist him but he could not hear that.' So peaceful, so quiet.' It felt as if he was the only one in the world, this caused tears from his eyes,' So this is death, such a beautiful thing?' Alex's eyelids then closed, in short, he was dead, and in the best way possible, saving someone else.