Intertwining Chaos: Chapter 1

His Beginning
Alexei leaned up against the side of the Great Marble Wall. He hadn’t had a single errand to accomplish, so he felt relieve at his uncommon break. Alexei looked up the great mass of marble, barely understanding the importance of it. He had been told in school that it was to protect the United Cities from falling victim to the vicious tribes of animals that resided in the forest, be he had not paid much attention to the lecture since he was to busy thinking about other things that currently interested his mind.
Alexei chuckled. The thought of the United Cities was a joke, which normally he would heed to attention to but he had nothing better to do except re-explain it to himself for no reason what so ever. The United Cities were all once at war with one another, that was, until his father took charge of the Arcadian empire in Arcadia Prime.
Alexei’s father was a quick and deadly man. He had won his kingship by stripping it of the king who was in charge at the time. That was the thing about Arcadia; it was the most powerful governmental power at any point in time. The government worked in a very weird, or so Alexei thought, way in which there were two kings. The Dojo was the first king, who was chosen by the most powerful warriors in Arcadia. It was a simple process really; it was where two hundred of the strongest men were chosen and they all fought for ten days, and the one left standing became the Dojo.
The second king was called a High Saint, who was the wisest of the wise, and led the country in everything that didn’t involve war. Alexei’s father was a wise man but no where near as smart as a High Saint should be so he stuck to the wars. What was strange to Alexei was not that fact that he was the son of a Dojo, but his father was a small man. He was only about five foot nine but what he lacked in height, he gained in speed and strength.
It didn’t matter to Alexei to remember what his dad looked like since his father was dead now. “It’s funny,” Alexei said, as if he thought there was someone listening. “He was the man who conquered everything and yet he could not defeat death.” Alexei had a knot in his stomach from the thought of his father. He hated that man with every ounce of his life, and yet he could not do anything about it at all.
Alexei stood up, his back now off the wall, allowing the cold, crisp winds to move in and out of his shirt. Alexei stood at six feet, much taller than his small father. He was a lean kid, without much muscle or fat on his entire body. His hair was long and black that hung a bit over his face, and flowed in the winds. His eyes were as black as the night, always in search of something but never finding it. The boy was a senior in high school, at the age of seventeen.
Alexei was a lot different from all the other boys his age. He wore a black shirt that hugged against his skin, with a small jacket that only covered part of his upper chest. His shorts were knee-long and were a sapphire black. They hugged the front of his legs and flowed with the wind in the back. He looked nothing like his parents, but did wear two things that belonged to them before they died. One was a necklace; it had a bulky chain and a two golden letters attached to the end of it. The letters were added by Alexei and they were an R and an A which represented something to Alexei that no one else knew about.
The boy noticed some of the younger kids running around playing with a blue ball, kicking it around to each other, laughing. Alexei looked around to notice everyone who had been watching the boys were smiling; he was the only one with a neutral face. “Wow,” Alexei had said, walking away from the wall and towards his school. “Pathetic.”
The blue ball the boys had been kicking, bounced up against his leg. “Hey Mr. can you throw the ball,” one of the little boys said, running up to about fifteen feet away from Alexei. He just gazed at the boy with those black eyes, and then continued onto school, without moving the ball an inch.
Alexei walked down the main street of the snowy barren wasteland that was his home. He wasn’t sure why he was in this sort of mood at a time like this. Usually when Alexei went to school, he hung out with Rachael, who he had secretly been in love with since he met her in the second grade. Rachael was Alexei’s best friend and though both were very popular, they had never actually engaged in a romantic relationship.
During the many years that Alexei knew Rachael, they had both gone out with a lot of people but had never actually had any successful relationships. Alexei had always gone out with the most beautiful girls in the school, but that never lasted long. He dumped every single girl because the only girl that was ever on his mind was Rachael and that made him a bad candidate for a boyfriend. Rachael, on the other hand, was not asked out much since everyone had a fear of dumping her since Alexei was known to go after Rachael’s ex boyfriends and beat them until they could barely move.
Alexei had reached the school, not a moment to soon. The bell rung and traveled through Alexei’s eardrums, ringing in his ear for a second after the bell had stopped. All of the students hanging out in front of the school gathered all of their things and headed into the two story building. He looked around for a couple of seconds until his eyes came across Rachael, who had been waiting for Alexei to arrive. She caught eye of him and waved to Alexei, who had smiled and waved back in return.
Rachael was an average sized girl, with her dark blonde hair tied back in a knot. She was a very athletic girl, who was actually one of the most athletic girls her age in the Empire. Though Alexei was not sure why, he preferred athletic girls over those skinny twigs that populated the school he was going to.
Alexei walked towards the school, Rachael coming up on his left. “Hey Alexei, you ready for today?” She asked in an agitated tone, looking towards Alexei without paying much attention to where she was going. Alexei could not remember what was so special about today and there was probably no use in trying to remember either.
“Nope, what’s today Rachael?” He replied, taking a quick glance towards her and then back up at the path he was heading down.
“It’s draft day. Which means that we might finally be separated into the army,” She said, looking down. She wasn’t happy about the draft and neither was Alexei. He felt his stomach drop as those words slipped from her mouth.
“Separated? That can’t happen. We are best friends; we cannot let them get away with that!” Alexei’s mood turned from feeling sad, to feeling angry. He didn’t like the fact that the Arcadian empire started a war with someone bigger, stronger, and smarter than they were.
The two friends grew silent, not speaking a single word to each other as they walked through the halls and into their arithmetic class. Alexei couldn’t believe it: he was going to be away from Rachael. The thought burned into his heart and a tear dropped from his eye. He quickly wiped it away before anyone noticed it. As the two walked into the class, they saw their entire class standing, apparently waiting for them. Alexei and Rachael looked from each other, to the entire class and their teacher.
“Kids,” the teacher said, trying to keep a smile on her face. “You two, unfortunately, will not be finishing this year out. You two are heading into the armed forces. I’m sorry to say, but you two will be separated into two very different squads.” The teacher could no longer keep her smile. “You leave in two hours, so go ahead and spend the most time together.”
Alexei was heartbroken. Finally, after five years of managing to avoid the draft, they were finally going to be split up. Alexei and Rachael both walked outside and sat on the nearest bench. Both were in a deep line of thought and neither one talked. But then really, what was there to talk about? How could Alexei sum up all of what he wanted to tell her in two hours? He was baffled and broken.
Rachael was the first to break the silence. “So, our nightmare has finally come true,” a tear rolled down her cheek. “We’ve been friends since second grade, and now we are being torn away from each other. I can’t believe it, and I don’t want to.” In truth neither of them were mentally ready to be separated from each other; going away to different parts of the war to fight in the unknown.
“You know what Rachael,” Alexei said, looking up with a smile. Rachael was confused and didn’t know how to react. She wasn’t sure if he was happy they were being separated but she hoped that wasn’t the truth.
“What Alexei?” The tears stopped rolling down and off her cheeks. She was hoping for a good answer.
“I have a plan set out for my life,” He said, Rachael still puzzled. “And you’re a major part of it. To tell you the truth Rachael, I love you, I always have. I cannot begin to understand why now at this last moment I decided to tell you, but I believe in doing so I’ve given myself something to fight for, to live for.”
Rachael was stunned. She didn’t know what to say, nor did she expect something like this to happen. “So you love me?” She didn’t sound to enthusiastic, nor did she sound upset at this. At the sound of her voice, Alexei’s heart sank. “I don’t know what to say about that Alexei. But I don’t feel the same way towards you. I mean sure, I love to be your friend, but that’s all. I don’t think anything more will come forward and I think I need my space before I head into the unknown.”
Once again, Alexei was heartbroken. He had not wanted to hear a reply like that, but in the end, what could he have expected? Rachael left and turned the corner towards the front of the school. “So that’s it then,” Alexei said to himself, a tear rolling down his cheek this time.
Alexei was indeed broken, his dreams turned to the chaos of his imagination. No more would he see the girl he loved; no more could he smile at the thought of Rachael. His dreams had been shattered to pieces. Now what did he have to live for? It all hit him hard and so fast that he could no longer control himself. A new side began to manifest itself in Alexei slowly.
Alexei’s thoughts were scrambled and confusing to him. He could not even make out left from right, or what was to become of him. Though Alexei was lost to his thoughts, something awoke him in the darkness of his mind. Before Alexei could move, he was sucked into that darkness; the unknown.
The boy moved back in forth, as if preparing for something to appear from the darkness and attack him. Nothing appeared, and Alexei gave up on preparing for something to come about. He sat in the nothingness, lost and broken. “How could one girl do this to me,” Alexei asked himself. “It’s true though, I did love her, but how can I fight for someone who doesn’t love me back?”
“You don’t,” A voice came from the darkness. Alexei stood up and prepared himself for whatever was to come out. But nothing dark or hideous came out; instead it was Alexei himself, but in a way not him at all.
“Who are you and why do you look like me?” Alexei demanded, staggering back a little. The copy looked Alexei in the eyes and laughed.
“Me? Why I’m you, you idiot.” He began to walk towards Alexei but Alexei continued his walk back. “Ah, I see you are afraid and confused. Well let me introduce you to myself and this place that you have been taken to.” The copy held up both arms and yelled, “I am Shade, ruler of the darkest part of your mind. You have been fooled by a mere mortal of a girl, but don’t think that I will disown you like she did! I am a true friend, true to my word, true to everything that is morally correct.”
“Shade? But why do you exist in my mind, and in the form of me?” Alexei was indeed confused and he wanted answers that very instance.
“Because you are confused and I am taking over. True to this though, I cannot take over unless you surrender the physical form to me. But before you answer, think of this; I can get you through the war and maybe in the process find this girl that has hurt you so bad.”
Alexei couldn’t think of anything to reply with. He had indeed lost hope and knew that because of it he wasn’t going to make it out of the war if he was on the front lines. In the end, he had no choice but to accept his offer. “Do it,” Alexei said, giving full power to Shade.
Shade laughed. To him it was as simple as taking candy from a baby. He disappeared and left Alexei to rot in the darkness of his mind. Alexei let his body drop to his knees without any second thought. Now what? He was trapped in his mind without anyone to talk to, or to love. In time, he would become cold, his mind wandering to death and destruction.