[Trigger warning: blood, slight gore.]
The evening sky behind the large windows of the bedroom was dark and cloudy, thick with uncertainity but quite certain to rain anytime.
The room was dim, having no source of light except the sparkle of freshly fixed streetlights in the developed neighbourhood. The lamp on the bedside table had died of power several days ago, and a book of non-fiction laid on the same table was untouched.
Alixis was seated on the edge of the bed, his phone on the mattress lit with media that he was seemingly scrolling through while his eyes focused onto oblivion. The brightness of the phone lightened atleast a fraction of the room.
His appearance was messier unlike before. His eyes were unglistened under the minimal light, his hair was overgrown with the same style he had kept, and his skin pale from overworking. Nevertheless, his room doesn't need any sort of description. It was as messy as his current appearance.
The door was unlocked as someone else entered. Another boy with a well-built slim figure and loose attire came inside with silent and sluggish steps. Something which was indifferent about him was that he always wore a crimson red beanie whenever he wandered around.
Alixis only gave him his attention by simply turning his head to the side and saw him from the corner of his eye. He wasn't bothered by anything else, except for the fact that Rinae is nothing more than a photo frame in his study table.
"you weren't kidding after all." The boy expressed suddenly from behind.
Alixis turned around fully, now facing the boy completely. "what do you mean?" he asked hoarsely.
"that it would take you much longer to move on." He answered as if recalling the sentence that alixis said once.
Alixis blew a tired sigh, "don't be surprised then. What i did say was true after all." he paused in between, "would you answer if i ask you this?"
"what are you gonna ask me first?" He questioned back.
"why did you stop calling rinae "sis" after what happened, ryxin?"
Ryxin froze, his hand stopped fidgetting on his necklace. It took him a minute to "you'll never get near me if i tell you this."
+++
Alixis was walking home after deciding on skipping school for the day, occasionally glanced on the grazed arm and his broken phone, his expression for both situations opposing like two poles in a magnet. his phone finally turned on after fixing it on a fair budget, making him satisfied.
The first thing he did was to open his call log and stare at that number that called him earlier. like any other person, he has no intention of useless investigation and deleted the number.
He felt that tension was relieved until the same number sent a text.
"Why'd you delete the number?"
He froze in tension, and began looking around the streets out of instinct. The streets were busy that he couldn't catch anyone, till he caught a man with a mask staring at him while typing occasionally, and walked towards him boastfully.
"hey, what are you-"
The strange man made a run for it, moving across the street and into an empty alleyway which made alixis obviously chase after him. It took him just a few minutes till Alixis caught him by a dead end, his bag hanging heavily loose on his arm and his clothes dishevelled from running. He made a bold step forward, eyeing on the man from top to toe severly that his glare made the other swallow himself.
He reached out to pull off the other's mask, but his hand was swatted with great force that made his arm hurt. He hissed out of pain.
"Ow⎯ that hurts! what do you even want⎯"
The man threw a near punch at his face, making alixis stagger and move back from the sheer strength of the blow. He shook his head violently, temporarily relieving him from dizziness and threw his bag to the side, his fists raised and prepared for defense as if he was memorizing his faulty fight moves.
The man made a smirk under the mask, coming to him first and charging at him with another fist. This time, alixis bent sidewards and used his chance of ripping the other's mask off, revealing his familiar face. It was the same man who rammed a car into the streetlight pole.
Alixis had an expression of mild surprise cross over his face, later replaced with a wide, insulting grin showing disdain, "Haha! I knew you were so offbeat, you couldn't even act normal, pathetic fool!" He laughed, one of his hands going up to rake his hair back. "Tell me your name," He added, his voice raising pitch as he spoke between short laughs.
"Why should I?" The man questioned, clearly irritated by his mockery. "Unless you want to hear who sent me to you, that would definetely shut your⎯"
"That old man, right? Oh you're incredibly pathetic for this position." He left his fight stance and started to crack up, with his hand barely covering his mouth.
"Oh my⎯ where were we at now?" his laughter died down shortly, "oh, right. we were supposed to fight and throw fists." he spoke yet his giggles didn't suppress entirely.
"Atleast hear this before you make a fool out of me," he swooped in between, "I always wanted to see how that other girl with you would scream if i had a little fun."
Alixis stopped laughing entirely, his expression replaced with a serious look, "what?" His voice hoarsed with anger. "Repeat it again." He spoke, having an annoyed smirk on his face. The man looked satisfied, having achieved alixis's frustrated state of mind. "I want to see that other girl screaming-" his words paused as alixis lunged with a kick to his face, making him stumble back.
He jumped back and anticipated for the next move, watching every single move the other made. He was not a trained fighter with adequate skills, but having brawls with his campus enemies after school had him gain some reasonable experience.
Alixis braced himself as the man charged, dodging one of the punches but recieved the other punch after being unable to regain his stance. He wiped the sweat on his forehead briefly and bent himself, supporting himself upside down in a second and delivered a dance of kicks to his torso, turning his body with each kick and dropping down to the ground, standing up as quick as possible.
"I did it!" he made a satisfied smile. It was a move he had made several attempts on. But this is where combat ends, as the man drew a pocket knife like a coward. The kicks gave him a face with parts of grotesque bulges, and slight freckeles of blood. He couldn't stand this and exposed cowardice in a mere combat.
A shameless smug appeared on his bruised face, charging at alixis by extending the knife. His slow movements became an easy dodge for alixis, as he moved swiftly without gaining major scratches. But this type of advantageous combat pissed him off, ultimately finding a good chance to strike a punch at the man's chest, leaving him choking on his breath and making him stumble backwards.
"Pathetic, but atleast I'm one lucky guy." he thought in that moment. Lastly, he kicked the man to the ground, having him pinned down with the same foot and bent forward just to see his panicked face on the bricked, dusty ground.
"well well, you lose" he laughed mockingly, although he knew he was somewhat pathetic as well in hand combat. "should have shut that mouth at the first place."
"I don't care, what do you even got to stop me?" The man judged, feeling ashamed that he had lost to a mere high school kid. confidence and words is all he got to defend himself in this situation.
Alixis didn't respond immediately, scanning the current condition of the man and smiled, "everything. except hand combat though." He scratched his head awkwardly on the last sentence.
"everything?" The man was taken aback.
"I still don't have your name though," he added.
The man was still confused ever since he asked the same question before fighting, yet he answered, "Fine. Nolan." he said with a mumbling tone, "now why do you want my name?"
Alixis gazed at the knife he held towards his own face, the same knife the man used, It's blade casting reflections of the remaining sunlight shining in the dim alleyway. He briefly looked at the man's twisted face before looking at the clean knife again.
"When i said everything, I meant everything except hand combat." he repeated, "Now, let me ask you the same thing, what do you got to stop me?"
The man's confidence broke with such a rhetorical question. He became silent and swallowed himself, having no other response. sweat dripped around his forehead, opening his mouth to stutter at last, "n-nothing..."
Alixis scoffed with satisfaction, "Good." he whispered, but he wasn't moving his leg from the man's torso. The man finally came to notice that this teenager was not easy to interpret as he thought, as he saw a sense of familiarity in him and his father.
"I'm not letting you go." he broke the silence, eyeing at the man the entire time. "What if you make your report like usual? and looking at my inappropriate character right now, you guys would definitely plot something, especially after what you said about rinae...." he trailed off.
The man guessed it immediately; Alixis is going to kill him.
"I know you're comparing me with that old man." he continued, noting his thoughtful expression and sweat-beaded face, "although you think we might be alike, like poles always repel. They repel so aggresively that one will definitely lose itself. about the one losing itself, I can't decide who it would be."
The man watched his abnormal expression, far different from what he had faced, "you sure rant a lot, alixis." he cut him off.
"Really? well time's over." Alixis smiled and annihilated the man by his throat, blood splashing all over the floor and at his face partially as the strike was quick. He watched his face relax dreadfully, eyes dead and head lolled to the side, indicating that he was dead within seconds.
But alixis's next hectic task was to get rid of the body, which he obviously wasn't someone of that knowledge. he groaned while wiping blood off from his face, "This is a disgrace of my persona." He mumbled with frustration.