ALIVE - The Story of a Never-Could-Be

Chapter I: [The Start of The End]

Under the full moon that was shining over the streets of Southshine that May day, Dery was hurrying as usual to pick up his friend and get to the meeting point with the rest of the group.

"Oh, Joy for sure is going to kill me for being late. It's all Adam's fault for arguing with Levi. He is older and thus he is at fault. Anyways, this is not the time to be thinking about that. I shouldn't be kidding around and hurry."

He increased his running pace as much as he could so that his clothes didn't get crumbled and in no time he arrived. Joy was waiting under her flat like she said.

"Hey Dery!"

"Joy!" he was still catching his breath. "Sorry for making you wait. I had kind of an... argument at home."

"Oh don't worry about it. I just got down too. Took me a while to get ready."

"Looks like that time was well-spended. You look majestic!"

"A-ah, thank you!" she blushed. "So, are we off?"

"Off we are!"

They grabbed hands and made their way for the port, where they were going to meet up with Dery's friends. After a couple of minutes, they got there.

"What took you so long penguin? Wait, is that Joy!? Hey there, I am Leon; this guy's friend." he was pointing towards Dery.

"Nice to meet you Leon! Oh, Mai what are you doing here!?" It appeared that Joy already knew Mai, Dery's and Leon's friend.

"I should be asking that!" said Mai. "Out of all people you are Dery's gir-"

Dery interrupted her by coughing hard.

"I think it is time to get going. It's getting late." he added.

"Sure, get in the car." said Leon.

"The car?" Dery asked. "I wasn't told anything about a car."

"Do you have any other ideas?"

"Yes. Going to a bar or a cafe." proposed Dery.

"Nah, that's too boring. Let's go to the beach out of town and have some fun there, just the four of us."

"Ha, there's no way the girls agree for th-" the girls were already in the car. "No way!"

And like that they left. Leon had just recently got his driving license and he wanted to make use of it at any given opportunity, like this one. However he was way more careful then what you should expect guys around his age to be. As much as he likes to show off, he loves his friends and will never put them in danger.

"DJ! Put something good." (DJ was another nickname he used for Dery, because he used to work as such.)

"Sure. Do you like David Gue- LEON WATCH OUT!"

Leon broke as quickly as he could and the car came to a full stop in two seconds. What had happened was that they were blinded from the lights coming from the cars that had stopped in front of them facing Leon's car.

"Is everyone ok?" asked Leon.

"Yeah.." said Joy and Mai. "What's going on? Who are they? Are they nuts?"

"Stay inside." said Dery and both him and Leon got out.

Three men were standing in front of them.

"Who the hell are you? Why did you stop in the middle of the fricking road? Do you realize an accident could have happened just now?"

"Are you Leon o'Rouge?" said one of the men.

"How do you bastard know my name?" replied Leon.

The man who asked the question pulled out a revolver and aimed at Leon.

"H-hey, what are you doing? What's the meaning of this?"

"This is for fixing your father's mistakes."

"I have no connection to that person! He is not my father!"

"Unfortunately that's none of my business. We are here only to make him pay. Adios."

And the gun fired. A small bullet came out and hit Leon right in the middle of the chest. Just that small bullet had the power to end something so well built, it had the power to remove all potential those four's lives had. All that just in a blink of an eye...

"LEOOOON !" shouted Dery. "Oi, Leon, pull yourself together. Come one pal, this is nothing. You have passed through times a lot harder than this. This is just a piece of cake." Leon wasn't responding. "Hey, come on get up, can't you see that Mai is waiting for you inside the car? You can't leave her waiting like that." Dery's first tears were starting to fall. "You... can't leave us like that, Leon..."

"What about him, boss?" said one of the other men. "He saw the entire thing. He might be a problem later."

"Father said he is just a recent friend of Leon. He shouldn't know much." In the background Dery was still trying to make Leon get up. "Hey, he is already dead. Crawling on the ground isn't going to bring him back you know."

Dery wasn't listening to a word he told. Now Joy and Mai were out of the car too, but they were quiet. The only thing that could be heard were Dery's words.

"Hey you! You are getting on my nerves! I think I already told you to shut up! Take that motherfucker and those two bitches and move!"
Something changed in the air when he spouted out those words from his mouth. Well, for Dery at least. He stopped talking to Leon and directed his eyes to that guy.

"What... did you just say?" said Dery with a really bad mood on his face.

"What-you-just-heard. What are you going to do about it?"

Dery stood up.

"You know what? I have had enough with guys like you. I don't understand what business you had with Leon or his father, but I just don't get your ways." He was talking with a quiet and cold voice.

He started walking toward that guy.

"Shrimp! It's not in your favor to go up against us. If we wanted to kill you we would have done so, for that you should be grateful." He put out his gun again. "This is your last warning! If you don't get out of here right now, I am going to open a hole in your skull and then those girls' future won't look so good. I am giving you an option. Be wise, kid."

"Do, not, order, me, around!"

BAM! The gun fired. Dery's eyes turned vivid. If you looked in them you couldn't just see a simple reflection. There was an entire world hiding in them. A world where Dery had won a lot. A world where he had lost a lot.