2,070 Words
Point of View Change (Azariah)
I looked around the room, my eyes landing on Hosea in the middle of my room. He laughed, "Please, I'm not real, Azariah."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?" I asked, squinting my eyes, "The only fake people I've seen are actually fake people."
"You don't. I guess you just have to wait until I'm in the same room as the real one. Or... I can do this," he said, snapping his fingers. He disappeared.
I smiled, laying back on the bed, "Oh, thank goodness. He's gone."
"I'm back," I heard, the voice sounding the same, "Oh, don't act so annoyed! You'll hurt my feelings!"
"Whatever. Why are you here?" I asked, sitting up again.
"I'm bored. Well, your mind is. It's also panicking because you can only hide memories in the back of your head for so long. And... let's just say you've done that a lot over the years."
"Why don't I just forget it?"
"That's not how your brain works, Azariah. So, I'm gonna do what I do best; talking about Hosea. You like him already. He's ok, I guess, but he's insensitive and you hate it," he explained, smiling. He laid down on his back.
Then the door opened, "Azariah, some more of the people from Earth are coming and I have to show them around because they're not coming with their parents. How about you do it?" I looked to the door, seeing Abel leaning in.
I pointed to Hosea, "Can you see that?"
"See what?" he asked, looking around the room. I looked over again and he was still there.
"Nevermind, I'll show them around."
"Oh, and, where's Leah? She's supposed to go train," Abel said, still looking around the room.
I shrugged, "I don't know. There's no one else here."
"Except for me," Hosea said.
"Except for him," I added, not realizing what I was saying.
"What? Are you... hiding a boy in here?" he asked, looking under the beds.
I shook my head, "No, just the usual seeing weird things... thing. Look, can we just go already? I'm pretty excited." He slowly nodded and I got up off of the bed, "Thanks, buh-bye." I rushed out the door to my bedroom. I opened the front door, stopping in my tracks.
"Oh, we're back! We heard that we had to come," Leah said, smiling really wide, "What is it? You seem off."
"Nothing... I'll explain later, it's not important. Leah, you have to go train. Jenna and Mordecai, there's more people coming and we have to show them around," I explained quickly. All of them nodded, saying 'ok.' Leah left, going to headquarters and we made our way to the stairway to heaven. We were mostly quiet, until I got to the stairs and started freaking out, "OH NO. I do not like this. I don't feel like dying today, Jenna. Let's just wait here," I begged, holding onto Jenna's arm. "I swear, those stairs are moving... SO MUCH."
"The stairs aren't moving, Azariah! What's your problem? You're like always absolutely fine with this stuff. How'd you get up here in the first place?" she asked, trying to pry me off.
"I thought I was already dead! I thought I was invincible. I was blinded by sadness! I hate stairs so much!" I whined, falling to my knees.
"Carry her, Mordecai! I can't handle this right now!"
Mordecai nodded, picking me up, "Ok, let's go."
I held onto Mordecai as tight as I could, "AH. WHAT THE HECKITY HECK?!"
"What? What is it, Azariah?" Jenna asked, groaning.
"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure... the stairs are moving. They're definitely moving!"
Then Hosea popped up again, "Stop being an idiot, Azariah!"
"Shut up. I'm not an idiot," I said, growling at Hosea.
"We didn't say anything, Azariah," Mordecai said slowly, looking pretty scared.
"Ya, Azariah, stop being an idiot, they can't see or hear me," Hosea said, taunting me.
I rolled my eyes, "Whatever."
Point of View Change (Leah)
I walked over to headquarters, assuming I was going to train with Coretha. I wasn't thrilled about the situation, but I figured I could just fake it until I make it. I sighed, smiling as I remembered that Alexa was actually living in heaven, too. I was so happy. I wanted to squeel so loud, but not loud enough for Alexa to hear. But at the same time, much louder. I walked into headquarters, still smiling. Then I heard Coretha's voice, "Someone's happy," she taunted.
I turned to her, "I am happy! Alexa is in heaven and I can talk to her whenever I want!"
"You really like her, huh?"
"Well... kind of. I mean, I really like her, but I'm pretty sure I should just be her friend. If I rush things, she might not actually like me. Then she would say no and we probably wouldn't be able to be friends after that, either."
"So why did you ask me out? I mean, why do that when you have someone already?"
"Well, I didn't really know that Alexa was going to come back. And, I still don't really know if I just found you pretty or if I actually liked you. It's confusing. Anyway, I was told that I was gonna be training," I said, leaning against the front desk that Coretha was sitting behind.
"Oh, that's gonna be with the teacher. He asked me to start calling him that. He told me to send you to room 14."
"There's fourteen office rooms?" I asked, leaning forward.
"Yep. Bye." I walked off, looking at all of the room numbers. Once I got to '14,' I stood in front of the door for a moment, sighed, and then opened the door. Immediately, I saw a bright screen right in front of me. Being trained by two parent figures everything about digital and physical games that they played on Earth. There were several buttons on the screen. The picture behind the buttons was pixelated, which weirded me out. The buttons said, 'Play,' 'Options,' and 'Quit.' I slowly tapped the button that said, 'Options.' I scrolled down the page, which had several things, such as 'Sound,' 'Players,' 'Tag Name,' and 'Brightness.' I dragged the brightness bar all the way down, sighing with relief when it was a lot bright. Then I went to the tag name bar and typed out, 'Alexa.' I shrugged, hoping no one would ever see this. I backed out of the options and saw the title of the game... 'Cupid's Arrow.' I hit the play button and started to hype myself up for the game. I jumped up and down, getting really happy. All of a sudden, I was in this town and there were text boxes on the sides of the screen.
Then a voice said, "Alexa, you have to- wait, really? You didn't even put your own name in? Whatever. Leah, you have to fix this town, none of them have love for the ones around them. Help the town find the ones they truly love."
"Ok. Yes, sir! ... Ummm... how do I do that? Do I just make them kiss... or?
"Go to the store to begin your adventure."
I nodded, "Ok... this seems important. I wonder if there are any potential couples there!" I followed the yellow line on the road, hoping I was going the right way.
Then the voice said, "Go back to the blue line. Go back to the blue line."
I laughed, "Oh, I thought that was apart of the road."
"Nope... that's the yellow... you are so dumb sometimes."
Once I got to the store, I looked around, "Hello? Oh, goody, two girls. Plaid? Check. Excuse me, do either of you like girls?" They didn't respond, "Excuse me, ma'am?"
"They aren't characters. They won't answer. Go ask the cashier for a bow and some love arrows," the narrator groaned.
I walked up to the cashier, "Excuse me, sir, can I have a bow and arrow?"
"Yes, yes you can," the cashier responded, handing me a bow and arrow, "Have a good day."
"You too! I'll find someone for you to love! Just you wait! WAIT, I still have business here, sir," I said, turning around, "Can I hit two people with one arrow?"
"Check your book," the narrator said, "The couples are in there. Open the book."
Then a book appeared in my hands, "Oh, ok... but if they don't kiss in this game, I'll be disappointed."
"Ok, Leah, I understand. Now, read the first set of names," the narrator instructed.
"Oh... Zadkiel and Domiel?"
"You have to find them and get them to kiss. You can use your bow and arrows, but it might not work."
I walked around the town, "So, I have to set my parents up?"
"Yep, I guess you do." I walked into this shop that said, 'Penguin Club,' and I immediately saw this girl in a dress playing pool. She had blue hair and a poofy dress with long sleeves.
"Dad?" I asked, walking up to the girl.
She turned around, "I'm... a girl. And, I don't have children... yet. Who are you?"
I grinned, holding up the bow, "Your bestest dream come true."
"Are you saying you're cupid?"
"Maybe... are you saying you like someone?" I asked, boosting myself up onto the weird pool table.
"You can't sit on that. Whatever, what's your name?"
"Leah. I'm your future child. Anyway, come with me. Do you have someone you like already? I just wanna know so that I can disappoint you in advance."
"Umm... whatever, ok... Zadkiel."
"Perfect, where is he?" I asked, looking around for a map or something.
"Probably at the park or something. He hangs out there with his friends."
I laughed, "Mom had friends?"
"Mom? Ok, that's a bit weird. Wouldn't we both be dads or something?"
"Why?"
She shrugged, "I don't know. When we were kids, everyone just called us boys."
"Oh... that's weird. So, you only dress how you dress when you grow up because... because of transphobia?"
She shrugged again, "I don't know. Oh, this is his house."
"But the question isn't what gender you were born as, it's which gender you identify as."
"Huh," she responded, knocking on the door.
Zadkiel opened the door and I smiled really wide, "Mom!"
He tilted his eyebrow, "What? Kelly, who is this?"
"Oh ya, names. Joseph, this is Leah. It's this random child who claims to be cupid... and our future child. How fun is that?"
Confused, I asked, "Wait, what? You told me you believed me."
She rolled her eyes, "I do, dumb dumb. Well, I'm mostly just taking it as it goes. Just shoot us already or whatever."
I smirked, "I've been practicing for this for like forever." I drew my bow and then shot Domiel and then Zadkiel. I grinned, putting my hands on my hips, "How'd I do?"
Domiel shrugged, "Nothing's really different."
Zadkiel stared at the ground, "Yep, it worked."
Domiel giggled, "Oh ya, I already loved him. That's hilarious, kid."
"Thanks! I guess this is what easy mode is like. Mom, dad, bye," I exclaimed, smiling.
"Actually, before you leave, I wanna say something. Thanks," Domiel explained, smiling.
"Ok... well, bye small child," Zadkiel said, waving. I waved back, smiling as I skipped away.
"Who's next?" I asked.
12 Levels Later
"Leah and blank."
"What? I have to figure out who the other person is, too? What happened to the first level where all the answers were right in front of me?" I asked, insanely confused as to where Alexa would be. Or even if Alexa is the right person. What if it's actually someone else? What if it was Claire? Or maybe Coretha?
"Ok, calm down, Leah. You just have to harness your power in the bow. Use it to find the right person. The bow will lead you to the right person, Leah."
"Uhhhh, my name is Alexa. I put it in the gamercode, remember?" I asked, smiling.
"I'm not calling you Alexa. Especially since I know for a matter of fact that you are not Alexa."
"Whatever... just... let's do this," I said to myself, holding out my bow. I thought about who I think it'll be. There's Claire, Alexa, and Coretha. I just have to figure out which one it is.