5 pm, a hot evening, Sage's head is on his desk, the blazing hot sun boils the back of his head while he listens to birds chirping outside the window, ignoring the teacher's boring lesson.
[*Bell rings*] to signify the end of school.
''That's all for today! , the class is over, don't forget to review what we did today.. oh and Sage, come to my office.''
Just when he thought he could finally leave school, he was called by the teacher. As Sage walks towards the office, his mind filled up with different things that the teacher could possibly ask of him.
~~~
( *swish*) (*bang*) sound of a sliding door opening swiftly!!
''You called me sir?''
''Ah yes... Sage!, I did. I just called you to remind you about the fees for this semester and the next?''
Sage knew it, he figured out that he wouldn't be called for anything else other than money. He wondered whether his teacher knew that he had permission to pay in instalments.
At the same time, Sage also marvelled how on earth his teacher expects a high schooler to pay school fees when he had other problems he has to deal with.
Sage needs all the money he can get. He works at several restaurants, as a delivery boy, as a tutor for middle schoolers and many odd jobs to pay :
$1000 for rent per month
$600 for electricity bills
$800 for water bills
$100 for food
$12,000 for his mother's hospital bills,
and this doesn't even include the school fees which is $5000. And to make matters worst his father upped and disappeared when he was 6 years old, leaving him and his mother with an enormous amount of gambling debts of $2 million which she has to pay. As a result, it caused her stress and now she's laying down in a hospital bed.
"Sir, I promise that I will pay my fees, I only need a few more weeks."
"Well... considering that you have the highest grades in all of the third-year classes and the entire nation...and this coming semester is your last... I could extend the deadline, but only by three weeks."
''Really!?!, thank you so much! I promise you won't regret it.'' To be honest Sage knew exactly what his teacher meant.
* Just because you're ur intelligent, don't get ahead of yourself, being smart at your age doesn't always bring money.*
He knew what his teacher said was out of pity, but Sage does not like being pitied because it made him appear weak.
''Be careful on you way home!''
''Thank you, sir, I'll keep that in mind.''
•••••
Sage heads towards the school's gate after he grabs his belongings from the classroom. At the front of the gate, his best and only friend awaits him, Mark.
Mark may fool around sometimes, but his a very loyal and reliable friend towards Sage when it matters most, his the only person besides the teachers that knew of Sage's family situation.
''Yo!, Sage what's going on? you okay?''
''Yeah just had a talk with the teacher, you know, about the usual''
''Again!?, don't pay attention to them, I got your back if they try to cause you any trouble just let me know.''
''Thanks, I know.''
Mark is also the son of the school's chairman, so his confidence comes from that. Sage knew he was trying to help him out of the kindness of his heart and all, but he also knew that it was going to be quite troublesome if his other classmates think he was using Mark.
'' Sage, let's go to the arcade!!''
'' I don't think I can Mark, I've got to work this evening.''
''Aw come on, you always say that at least come just this once, plus you owe me one for waiting for you.''
'' Sigh... Fine, I'll go but only for two hours and no more.''
''That's a deal''
(*laughs*)
****
They arrive at the arcade where there were tons of different games to play. They played to our heart's content, and time went by quickly.
********
''Well Mark, this is my stop, I got to go now''
''Okay!!, see ya tomorrow''
It's now 8 pm, the sun has set, it was time for Sage to begin his work. He works at a restaurant as a waiter, he appears to be having fun, but the job is usually tough. He constantly moves around like a ping-pong ball, attending to the endless amount of costumers that appear during the night.
he worked at two other restaurants before he knew it it was already 11 pm.
********
Sage always pays a visit to the hospital before he goes home.
'' Excuse me, I'm here to see Manda I'm her guardian''
Sage explains to the nurse, as he arrived.
'' Of course, you can, she's in the usual room''
the nurse replied with a smile.
''thank you''
Sage quickly walked towards his mother's room, he had a worried expression on his face. He arrived only to see his mom in a dormant state, she looked pale and scrawny, she didn't even look alive anymore. Sage's expression changed from worry to disappointment, he sat close to her and began to cry.
~~~~
Sage's mother, Manda was once a strong and healthy woman, she was amazing at her job and was always so cheerful. But after Sage's father left she began to grow weak, she always had dark circles under her eyes when she came back home, and sometimes her mental state would plummet, losing control of herself, breaking things around her and screaming.
Before this happens she would always lock Sage into a room, so she doesn't inflict any harm on him. Sage was only a ten year old at the time but he could see that there was something wrong with his mother, he was relatively worried about her, so he begged his mother to go to the hospital for a check-up...
After the check-up it was confirmed that there was indeed something wrong with Manda, apparently, she had tumours in several parts of her body, in other words, she had cancer. And to make matters worst it was already too late to perform surgery.
*******
''Why mom? why are you leaving like this? are you leaving me all alone in this world?''
Sage silently sat there in tears until it was time to go. By the time he went home, it was already 12 o'clock midnight. He lives at the very outskirts of town, in an estate with a dense forest as it's neighbour.
When Sage got back, the house had a cold and empty atmosphere, he was bothered by it but he couldn't do anything about it, so he lazily dropped his bag at the side of the entrance, immediately went to the kitchen, turned on the kettle and brought out a cup of noddles from the stock he had.
[*whistle*]
The water was hot and ready, all he had to do now was put the water into the cup, which he did.
'' Thank you for food.''
he had his chopsticks and was ready to dig in, he cobbled up all of it in a few seconds.
******
[ *Approximately 12:30am*]
Sage was on his bed looking through his messages, from Mark.
|!CHAT!|
Mark : ( Hey Sage, you home yet? )
Sage : ( Yeah I'm back, what's up ? )
Mark : ( Have you seen the news!?, there's some weird stuff happening all over the world!! )
At first, Sage thought, Mark was pulling one of his childish pranks.
''Must be one of his tricks again''
[*CLICK*]
he turned on his TV just to clarify that fact.
[*TV speaking*]
{''There have been some strange occurrences happening all over the world''}
{'' Large objects landing from the sky are causing enormous expulsion''}
{ ''This is officially marked as a *Red mark*, calamity.''}
{''All citizens are required to seek shelter at a nearby underground bunker, immediately''}
******
|!CHAT!|
Mark : ( Dude, are you seeing this? )
Mark : ( what's happening over there, where are you right now? )
Mark : ( are you ok? what about your mother? )
Mark : ( hey answer me !!! )
>>>>
Sage couldn't pay attention to Mark's messages, he rushed towards the window.
'' This is all a joke, right? there's no way!''
[*swish*]
Sage swiftly opened the window, still in disbelieve of what was really going on, but the truth said otherwise. His whole neighbourhood was engulfed in flames, people were running, sirens were shouting, the world had fallen into utter chaos.
The very first thing Sage thought of was about his mother's safety, he wondered if she was stable, even though she was hanging onto the last string of life, he tried calling the hospital.
[*Ring*]
''Pick up, please pick up''
******
[*click*]
{The number you had dialled is not available at the moment, please try again later.}
[*beep*]
''No!, no! why!?''
Sage was in a state of panic and confusion, his face slowly became pale and thoughts began streaming into his head.
''What if she's injured!? What if they all escaped and left her behind!? Or even worst, what if she's....''
but then he quickly came into realisation.
''Wait!, what if they're not in the hospital anymore!?, maybe they've moved into the closest bunker, there suppose to be one under the hospital.''
Sage still held tightly onto that last string of hope, the possibility that his mother was still alive, well and safe. But now was not the time for him to celebrate, he begins to find a way out of his house, but the entrance was already engulfed in flames, his only way out was the kitchen through the back door which leads to the dense forest.