Pain Purity and Apocalypse

Chapter 5: That Almost Didn't Work

Sunday, May 6, 1993
(Location: Asherwood)

9:00 AM, except for a few people, the majority of the street is dead. The sun has risen enough so that it's bright, but the air is still chilly. Lok sits, waiting on the white-painted cement of Jude's statue. It would be too obvious to wear his regular suit, instead, he adorns a white, long-sleeve shirt tucked into a pair of grey jeans with a belt and black dress shoes. His wings fold neatly behind him. The shirt and jeans have small holes from being eaten away by moths. No one is supposed to own clothing that isn't white or red in some shade, he found these in an old box tucked away in the attic. He doesn't know where they came from, and frankly, he'd rather not know who they once belonged to. Many thoughts flutter though his nervous brain, but only one cycles over, and over:

What if we can't make it over the wall?
That's not even a question, the answer is either they make it, or die trying. Of course Lok muses at the idea of ending AOME's whirlwind of chaos, but it's not exactly a straight walk in the park... More like trying to walk across the Sahara Desert, with nothing but the shirt on his back.

"Lok, are you ready to do this? Because i'm not." Xander stands above him, his golden eyes glowing in the dimness of the morning. Instead of his usual, classy suit, he wears a white t shirt tucked into a pair of light, high-rise jeans, with a belt and white sneakers. He eyes Lok's... Outfit... With both confusion and amusement.

"Stop looking at me like that."
"How can I not when you Look Like That."
"Don't question it, I didn't want to wear the suit, and I'm glad you didn't either."
"Psh— At least I have a shirt, your's looks like it's about to disintegrate."
"I'll get a new shirt somewhere else." Lok stands and Xander walks circles around him, gesturing to his outfit as if he's an abstract art piece on display.

"Where are you going to get a new shirt, huh? We're already asking RORO to do something completely outrageous—"
"I know very well what we're doing, so you need to stop yelling out our plan for the whole block to hear." He ushers for Xander to follow him, and the two set off down the street. All around them, the wall protecting Asherwood looms above them. The white houses stand like small dots across green grass in comparison.

Imagine for a moment, you wake up one morning, you open your front door and you look up in the distance... You see nothing but white painted concrete, white houses, white roads, and grass. Every neighbour is wearing white. The only animals you see are white, the only other colour is red. Now, imagine growing up only seeing the colours red, white, and gold. Every other colour appears in children's books or encyclopedias. You can't imagine it, can you? It's not something that you think could happen, and that's just it, the only reason why Xander and Lok are different is because of the influence Parker and Petra had on them as children, especially Parker Magnus.

Parker grew up in this conformity prison called Asherwood, with a father who was just like him... But he was too afraid to go up against the iron first of Jude's father, Jude Grail the First, the former leader of Asherwood. Now, Parker has handed that legacy down to his son, and his son has taken up arms with Asherwood's only remaining heir to Jude's place of power.

"What's the plan? It's not like we can just fly over the top... Unless of course you like being pumped full of bullets!" Xander's voice is a bit too loud, and Lok pulls him to someone's perfectly cut lawn. Muffled voices chatter around the corner of a house. The two immediately crouch behind a large rose bush, watching, trying to keep their breathing and beating hearts as silent as possible.

"The kid who killed The Grim Reaper is missing? Psh— he probably did it by accident, just a spineless rich boy~" Three Angels turn the corner, they all wear the same white suit with red letters above their breast pockets, reading: AOME. Two men, and a woman. The man who just spoke has a muscular body, and is taller than the other two. His wings drag across the smooth road, the tips dyed red as blood. The trio's white hair, all gelled back, is parted perfectly to the left side.