The Adapted World

Pressure

"Well, you wanna do magic right?" Joel asked.

"Well finally, I get to make decisions for myself!" I responded, with sarcasm.

"Ava."

"Fine, jeez. Yes."

"Then, you're going to have to know your options first."

"I spent years trying to ignore Alex with all his crazy talk about guilds and now I actually have to listen. Great. Continue."

"There are three different types of guilds. You've already learned one of them. Us, the Knight Owls. We are known as the neutral group in general." I nodded.

"The other two groups are in battle. One of them is called Skull Breakers. They believe in dark magic, manipulating lost kids to use their magic to do cruel things to kids who can never summon any magic. 'Norms' for short. Typically, they crave power."

"And the second?"

"Shadow Roamers. They come out at midnight, and hike through the woods and towns that were taken over by the no-brainers and-"

"No-brainers?" I interrupted.

"Oh!" He laughed, "Yeah, that's what the Roamers call them. Anyway, the Roamers use their magic to attack the no-brainers from the shadows, to shorten their number. It also helps the norms of course."

"How do you find the Roamers?"

"That's the fun part. They hide in plain sight and their location is unknown. But if you run into someone in the middle of the woods at midnight, and you see them with their glowing gold mark on their hand, you found one."

"What does the mark look like?"

"We don't know. No one has ever been able to get close enough to one."

I turned and looked at Alex next to me, staring at his drink in his hand. He hasn't spoken one word. I'm worried.

"Anyway, I just wanted you to know your options, take your time, and even if you're in another guild, you're always one of us. Cheers." he raised his glass.

The next day, Alex was back to his normal self, and we decided to go back to our hometown. We haven't been there since the tragedy happened. When we got there, we came across a giant sign. It said "SKULLBREAKER TERRITORY." The words were spray painted in black. I ripped it out of the ground and tore it up. I snapped the stick that was holding the cardboard up and I took out my lighter from my bag.

"Ava, calm down." I burned it. I burned the piece of trash that tried to take ownership of my childhood hometown. He gently took my lighter and put it in his pocket. "Let's go." he said.

The buildings were either about to crash or worn down. Cars were smashed into the roof of one of the stores. How it happened wasn't clear, but it was obvious that there was chaos. The streets were full of ashes, building crumbs, and trash. Some buildings survives with some burns and others not so much. Some windows were smashed and I spotted a burned stuffed unicorn on the ground. I picked it up and put it in my bag. All the buildings were emptied and the walls were spray painted in black. I was too angry to read them. My vision blurred and my throat began to close up. Alex grabbed my left hand. "It's gonna be okay." he whispered. I began to shake. "Ava." he said, worried.

"Why." I said quietly. "Why here?!" I growled. I looked at the glass windows with spray paint on it, and it shattered to pieces. Alex's eyes widened. "I'm so done. I better not find them." I said, calmly. All the glass windows on every single building I could see, shattered at the same time.

"Ava..." he whispered. I began to cry. He hugged me and after what seemed like a while, I began to calm down.

He told me that something urgent had come up and asked me if I wanted to go or stay. I chose to stay. When he left, I went to the dark alley where my mother left me and I sat where I was before. As I sat there deep in thought, I felt a presence. I got up and looked out to see who it was. It was a seventeen year old girl wandering around. She had short, blonde hair and wore ragged clothes.

"Hey!" I called out as she was walking away. She stopped. When she turned around, I could see her face better. She had brown eyes, a small round nose, tan skin, rosy cheeks, and full lips. She waved shyly. When I got closer to her I reached out my hand.

"My name is Ava." I said, out of breath. She shook my hand.

"Helen..." She replied quietly. Her voice was very delicate.

"What are you doing here?"

"Uh... Just looking around here." she responded, uneasily.

"Do you do magic?"

"I don't know.." She looked away.

"Do you want to come with me? There's a nice place that you can stay at. They're called the Knight Owls."

She smiled warmly, "No, thank you. I have a place to stay, but we can be friends?"

"Sure! It was nice to meet you, Helen!" I smiled brightly.

"You too, Ava!" she replied, lightly. When we separated, I started to have thoughts. Why was she the only one here? What was she doing? Where does she stay? When I reached back into the K.O.'s main town, I had forgotten all about the encounter. It was 11:45 pm and I was exhausted. When I got to the hotel I noticed he wasn't there, but didn't care. I was too tired emotionally and physically.

When I woke up, he was deep asleep in his yesterday clothes, snoring faintly. I went over to him, gently took his shoes off, his jacket too. I rolled my eyes. You're wearing a thick jacket in hot weather, how dumb can you be? I put his right arm around my neck, wrapped my arms around his waist, and with all my strength, I walked him over to my bed. I sat him on my bed and lifted his legs and propped it on the bed. Then I pulled the blanket over him. I changed into my day clothes and left with my bag, silently.

I went to the Forgotten City and looked into clothing stores. I found some sleeveless shirts for Alex, since he only wore long sleeve. I got him various colors just in case he didn't like it. Red, Navy, Green, and black. Then I found some shorts, bathing suits, and oversized T-shirts for myself. I'll just cut the sleeves off and it'll do. Satisfied, I went back to K.O.'s town. I got into the hotel and snuck his t-shirts into his bag.