Ch.2
{*Hearts Awakening*}
"Alex", a soft, feminine voice can be heard in the darkness.
"Alex...ALEX!
He opens his eyes and barely succumbs to the light, laying
backside on the ground with Cierras hands touching his head. Barely
awake he manages to murmur, "ughh, Cierra?
" Youre awake, finally," she sighs.
" What happened? How long was I asleep for? Did I lose?" he asks
a stream of questions as he slowly regains consciousness.
"Well, you definitely lost, and I really don't know what
happened. Maybe you tripped or something?" she asks.
"Yea, I think I did", he answers back thinking that was the only
seemingly acceptable answer. "I probably tripped and hit my head on a
rock. I don't know im not sure if I remember", he lies, and all of a
sudden has an awkward feeling, as if his body could feel the irony
that his mind created.
" I hope you don't have a concussion. Are you alright?", she
sympathizes.
"yea, actually I don't feel any pain at all. Hey let's get back
to the tree. I want to see the sunset before it gets dark,"
"Here, Grab my hand I'll help you up," Cierra suggests as he
finds his footing and uses her grip to gain his balance.
"thanks"
"Yep, oh and I still won that race", she kids around trying to
lighten the mood. It's still late afternoon, and the sun is just above
the horizon.
As they walk to the willow tree, Alex asks cierra "Hey,
how long was I out for?"
She replies, "Not that long. As soon as I got to the tree I
expected you to be right behind me. You weren't, and I thought you
would jump out of the grass and scare me. So I waited for some time
and you didn't come. That's when I started looking for you. It didn't
take long before I saw you on the ground, laying there. I'm still not
sure how you passed out. Really, I'm just as confused as you are."
As they got to the tree they each sat down using the trunk as a
back rest. They were about 5 yards away from the edge of the cliff.
At this point, they were able to see the sunset perfectly,
falling into a darkened shadow covering the mountains above the city
of falvalle. As the sun fell deeper and deeper into the mountains,
their shadows grew larger and larger, eventually covering the land in
which they sat upon into a slight blue darkness.
"Hey, ughh, Cierra, did you, by any chance, here me screaming
your name?", he asks with a look of confused determination in his eyes.
" You screamed for me? Why?"
"Nevermind. I was probably asleep by then. But, aww it's just so
confusing."
"What do you mean?", she asks with a bedazzled look on her face.
He thinks for a moment, and finally has the courage to tell her.
"My dream, it just felt so real, and I don't even know how I fell
asleep by then. I passed out because I was running for so long when I
knew I was supposed to be at the tree. It just doesn't make any sense.
Maybe it was more than just a dream, and..."
She interrupts him, "Calm down, Alex, you probably just had a
bad dream after you passed out. Hahahaha maybe you're getting out of
shape."
"No, it was more than that, I know it was. Dreams aren't like
that. You don't just go into a dream. You have to fall asleep, and
that's when your imagination runs wild. This", he begins shaking,
"this was real!"
Cierra starts to become annoyed and doesn't fall for any of it.
"Alex, if this is your wierd way of trying to Impress me, it's not
working. And you're scaring me."
"you're right, I'm sorry. I bet I sound like I belong in an
insane asylum right now."
She replies," Ha, yea you kinda do."
They both sit for a while, with nothing to say, and watch the
sun fall deeper and deeper into the mountains below it, until...
"Hey, what are you two love birds doin without me?", shouts Kage
out of complete nowhere.
Alex is pleasantly surprised to hear the voice of his childhood
friend, Kage, although he was looking forward to a deeper relationship
with Cierra.
"Maybe today was not meant to be that day", he thinks to himself. "So what brings you here?", Alex asks his cocky but unreplacable
childhood friend.
Kage replies with a cocky smirk on his face, "I just wanted to
ruin the moment."
Slightly embarrassed, Cierra remarked stubbornly, "what moment?
And how did you even know we were here in the first place?"
Completely ignoring the second question, Kage replied again,
with another look of cockiness on his face, and walked closer to the
two, " Oh, that's right", he rolls his eyes, "like you said the other
day, Kage shutup, we're just friends. You sounded so defensive. Cmon
guys I'm not stupid. You two have something going, but I swear if I
end up being the third wheel or some shit..."
Alex knew he had to say something, otherwise, Cierra would just
get up and walk away. "Kage?"
Kage stared blankly into Alex's eyes, "what?"
" If I were you, I'd quit coming to conclusions. You're annoying
her, and you know just as well as I do that you should never make
Cierra mad. She can get pretty feisty", Alex replied, knowing that
would comfort Cierra enough for her to stay.
She giggles and points at the sky. "Hey guys, look."
"look at what?", Kage asks holding back a comeback towards who
he now believes is "challenging" him. Then, he slowly turns his head
towards something remarkable. "Woah, Alex you see that?"
Alex's eyes wide open, with pure awww running through his mind.
He notices the mysterious misplacement of the night sky, "Kage, you're
wrong. You mean what we DONT see."
Now in complete, utter shock, Cierra begins to make possible
assumptions as to how this strange event is happening . "Maybe it's
just a wierd eclipse, or am I imagining this whole thing? Alex, am I
dreaming?
He shakes his head, "No, you're not dreaming, I think."Maybe I
am again", Alex thinks to himself.
The experience is so unbelievable that Kage begins to studder,
"wha, wha, where did, did the moon go?"
"Maybe Alex knows. Alex, did you do this?"
He looks at Cierra with a snark look on his face. "Oh yea I
totally ripped the moon right out of the sky. Like I could ever do
that."
"You're right, I just don't understand. Did it really just,
dissapear!"
Under the impression that something is very wrong, Kage starts
to feel anxious and uncomfortable. "Guys I think we should leave. I'm
getting the chills."
Cierra replies with an odd look on her face, "Wait, we should
stay here a little longer. It's almost like, I can feel something.
It's wierd. I can't explain it."
"Yea. Thats kind of the reason why I want to leave. Please, I
wanna go now", Kage pleads while slowly walking backwards up to the
high grass.
"Kage, wait. You hear that?" Alex asks.
"yes I do now let's get out of here!", Kage yells back as a
large rumble begins to form, as it becomes so loud and so powerful
that it feels like a small earthquake. As the small quake assembles,
an odd figure is seen pixelating in the sky where the moon is supposed
to be, while a large bright pink light flashes out of the pixelation.
The air around them begins to flutter rapidly, as a large wind picks
up speed at almost hurricane level.
Now screaming in utter terror, while holding onto the willow
tree for dear life, Kage yells, "WHATS HAPPENING?"
"I DONT KNOW!", Cierra shrieks, also gripping the trunk of the
tree.
Alex slowly walks towards the edge of the cliff in order to see
the bright, shining, pink object with better clarity. His eyes
glimmer, and mirror the bright pink object floating hundreds of miles
away from them in the sky. He is almost hypnotized by it's beautiful
essence.
A huge blast of energy can be felt through the ground and into
their bodies, as the pink light becomes brighter and brighter, and the
wind becomes incredibly strong, so strong that it pushes Alex even
further away from the tree.
"Grab my hand!," Cierra reaches out for him while Kage holds
her arm forming a human monkey chain. She looks over Alex's shoulder
and sees the steep cliff behind him. He finally comes back to reality
and tries his hardest to grab Cierras hand but finds himself being
pushed closer and closer to the edge of the cliff.
"I can't!", he screams. "The winds pushing me back! It's too
strong!"
Completely ignoring Alex's fight against the smoldering wind,
Kage looks towards the sky and yells," WOAH! YOU GUYS SEE THAT?".
He sees a pink heart shaped figure positioned directly where the moon
was supposed to be.
"Cmon Alex! Reach!", Cierra manages to scream, as the heart
becomes brighter and brighter with each passing second, while forming
a red aura around the perimeter. At this point, the heart is fully
visible, and the hurricane winds begin to subside. Alex is one foot
away from the edge, and begins to lose his balance.
Cierra let's go of Kages hand and runs towards Alex as he slowly
begins to fall backwards over the cliff. She runs as fast as she can towards Alex as he falls over the cliff, and almost loses her own balance as the power of the winds slowly die down. "Alex!"Cierra screams in shear agony over his plight towards the jagged edges of the giant cliff. She looks below the edge, and sees nothing. Then she notices something even farther down. It was Alex, hanging onto a large root coming from the Great Willow Tree.
The tree had momentarily saved his life. Now, he just had to find some way to get up towards the top of the cliff, which was definitely not going to
be easy.
"Alex! Don't worry we'll find a way to get you up! Just hold on!"
He replies sarcastically, "Yep, just hangin on for my life
here." Then, all of a sudden, he feels a great burst of energy in his
chest. Something far greater than adrenaline. No this was something
that made him feel incredibly powerful, something that could not be
explained with words. Was it his heart? No, maybe not his physical
heart, but something within him that brought hope to this desperate
struggle. He all of a sudden feels the urge to let go of the root.
"Alex I'm sorry I can't find anything!", Cierra yells fearfully
as she looks over the cliff and no longer sees him hanging off of the
root. "Nooo", Cierra whispers as a huge part of her dies within her.
She screams to Kage as if in agony. "Kage, he's gone!"
"What? What happened to him? I can't hear anything over this
wind!"
She ignores him and continues to look over the edge of the
cliff. "Hes dead."
"Cierra. I'm right here.", she hears something echoing from
behind her.
She turns around, and sees an insanely bright, yellow figure of
a person walking towards her. She knows that it is Alex, but can't
shake this feeling of losing her mind. The shining yellow essence in
replacement of his normal body didn't make sense, but she ran up to
him and hugged him tightly regardless of the insanity. As they both
regain balance she manages to ask, " But...but how?"
He replies, "I don't know. I just felt this wierd feeling and all
of a sudden I ended up here. Anyway, the winds gone. Maybe it's over."
Cierra felt overwhelming feelings of both of relief, and of
confusion. She was relieved that he had survived, but bedazzled as to
what was happening to him, and as to how he managed to get up the
cliff. But now, that didn't madder. Now dead silent, with the wind
gone and the earthquake subsided, the only sound left is the intense
vibration throughout the air made by the gigantic heart in the sky.
The atmosphere around them begins to change from a dark blue to a
bright, blinding pink, while little glimmering flashes of white light
randomly appear and dissapear from sight, repositioning themselves all
over the sky, and the vibrations coming from the heart begin to
subside as well.
"wwwwoooowwwww! It's so beautiful!", Cierra announces,
completely awe-struck, staring at the giant heart in the sky with
confusion and amazement.
Out of complete nowhere, the heart beats once, and the pink
light becomes so bright that it blinds the three of them, allowing
only a flash of whiteness to be seen. They all scream, as if it is the
end of their lives, as the heart bursts, and explodes with a large and
incredible vibrational force. It knocks all three of them onto the
ground, and shortly after, the three of them can hear a large
whistling object, gliding 20 yards above their heads, like a firework
heading in their direction.
They begin to regain their sight, as a big, bright blue object
the shape of a comet flies past them at sonic speed, and crashes into
the high grass, causing a combination of debri from the ground and
pieces of the object to scatter all over the place. The object burns
everything in it's path, and leaves a large trail of fire and burnt
grass behind it.
Now able to see perfectly, the three of them look towards the
trail of burnt high grass. Cierra and Alex each take deep breaths, and
take in whatever it was that just happened.
Kage on the otherhand does not react to the situation as calmly as them. He begins to lose his
sanity. "What,.. The hell,... Is GOING ONN! THIS is FREAKING INSANE.
Alex tries to calm him down, "Kage, it's alright, we're fine,
right? Not even a scratch on us."
"What DO YOU MEAN WE'RE FINE? ALEX THERES A FREAKING HEART IN
THE SKY! AND SOMETHING JUST CAME OUT OF IT! FOR ALL WE KNOW IT MIGHT
WANT TO ANAL PROBE US OR SOME SHIT! I MEAN IT DID JUST AIM ITSELF
RIGHT AT US RIGHT? Alex it came from space. IT CAME, FROM
SPACE! AND NOT TO MENTION THE BLINDING YELLOW GLOW
SURROUNDING YOU! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?"
Alex doesn't quite know how to respond, because nothing like
this has ever happened to him, and he is just as scared as his
friend. The only difference between the three of them is their sense
of adventure.
Alex and Cierra become curious, and want to figure out exactly
what's going on. Unfortunately for Kage, there's only one way to
figure it out.
Cierra looks to Alex for approval, "Should we go through the
trail?"
Before Alex gets the chance to answer back, Kage answers for him.
"What do you mean GO to it? Are you crazy?"
Alex understands Kages hesitance, and although his curiousity is
overwhelming, he agrees with Kage and replies to Cierra, "He's right,
we should just leave it alone and go home. Act like it never happened."
"THANK YOU!"Kage yells at him, seeing to it that someone was
finally making sense of the whole situation.
As Kage and Alex begin to run away from the trail of burning
grass, Cierra chooses to stay and figure out what exactly Is
happening. She yells at the two of them. "How can you act like none of
this ever happened? The whole world is probably going crazy right now!
Look at the opportunity! This thing could have landed itself anywhere
in the world and it chose OUR hideout. Alex, think about it. These are
probably aliens with a technology so advanced that they were able to
visit us before we could even contact another alien race.
Guys, this is an opportunity we can't miss, and even if you do leave,
this, thing, will probably make itself known regardless of our
decision to stay or not. Alex, and not only that, maybe this has
something to do with your dream. Maybe the aliens were trying to
contact you in your dreams or something. I mean, what if this is our
destiny? Already I can feel the adventure. The linearity is coming
to an end guys, now we just have to suck it up and become a part of
the adventure.!"
Alex turns around and replies, "Cierra, are you coming with us
or not?"
"Did you hear anything I just said?", she yells back with
frustration.
Alex and Kage are both too stunned to answer.
She thinks for a moment. "No, I'm not going with you guys."
"Why NOT?" Kage yells at her in disbelief.
She rolls her eyes at Kage and tries to convince alex to go with
her. "Cmon Alex, I don't wanna go alone."
Alex stares at her for a while with sympathy, and comes to the
conclusion that it would be best to leave. "Cierra I understand that
it would be a great opportunity but what if they're not friendly? Do
you want to be the first human being on earth to die because of a
hostile alien race? Tell you one thing , I know I don't", Alex thinks
for a moment, "Cierra, please, just come with us.
"Fine, I'll just go by myself", she announces and runs straight
into the trail of burnt grass.
Alex yells, "No! CIERRA!" He finds himself with no choice but to
follow her, not only because it would be the right thing to do, but
because he cares about her.
Before entering the burnt pathway, he walks over to Kage, and
notices his body trembling in absolute fear.
Alex begins to reason, "Kage, listen..." and is yet again
interrupted.
" What the hell is she doing? Why would she go in there? Is
she nuts!", Kage shouts unable to control his erratic emotions.
Surprisingly calm and collective, Alex notions to Kage, "
Listen, I really don't know what's going on, and I want to go home
just like you do, but we can't let Cierra go INTO THAT FLAMING
DEATHTRAP BY HERSELF!
"I know, but all of this is just plain crazy! What if it's the
end of the world?"
"It could be, but that's no reason to just leave her behind!"
Kage looks to the environment around him and picks up a big stick.
"You know what this means right?", Alex notions to Kage.
He gulps, summoning up the courage to enter the blazing pathway,
"Yep, let's go."