"Breaking news: Recently many people around major world cities have been randomly disappearing. All police investigation bureaus of said respective world cities are undergoing an investigation of how these people disappeared but until now they still haven't found anywhere to start. Tune in for more ne-" Felix's father turned of the radio of the car and began mumbling in a hushed tone to his mother, probably talking about what they heard on the radio. He cleared his throat and then turned around to Felix and his daughter, a sign they both knew meant that their father was going to tell them everything will be alright. "Felix, Elli, what you heard won't be a problem for us so don't you worry. Were kilometres away from London so I don't think anything will happen to us. But if anything does, I'll be there to keep you safe alright?" Felix never understood the overprotectiveness of his parents. He was 25 already and yet they still felt the need to constantly comfort him like a little child. He knew they were doing it for him, but that didn't mean it didn't annoy him.
"Yes dad we get it, Birmingham is far away and you'll protect us for the millionth time, could we please go to the shopping centre now?" said Elli, clearly sharing the same thoughts as her older brother. She was nearly going to turn 15 so obviously, she was in the rebellious. Oh the good teenage days that Felix wishes he could go back to where he didn't have much responsibilities. Now he has to worry about work, an apartment, bringing food, and paying for electricity on water. Thankfully he didn't have to worry about taxes, yet.
He had already graduated from Liverpool University with a Medical degree and was now on his second year of specialising as a paediatrician so he had getting a salary, but not enough to the point where he would get taxed on it. Thankfully it was the Summer Holidays which meant he wouldn't have to worry about his job for another month or two. For now, hed enjoy his time with his family.
They finally arrived at the Merry Hill shopping centre , a nice place with lots of clothing shops and everything you'd expect in a shopping centre. There was even an Odeon cinema and a KFC right next to it aswell, perfect.
"You two go walk around, me and your dad will go get a few things from Sainsbury's." said Felix's mother. Sainsbury's, a supermarket, was Felix's mother's favourite place. She liked it because the design of the building was nice and everything was available, in kuding the many flowers that she'd go to buy. Felixs father was of course forced to go so he had to endure the pain. He looked back at his children with a bored look in his face before waving at them and getting back in the car.
"Alright Mr grown up, now that dad's gone, I'm gonna go see my girls which have some tea to spill, have you heard of the new boy coming next year?" said Elli.
"No Elli, for the umpteenth time I don't know what goes on in your school and I don't care. I have other, more important things to care about rather than some silly romance between your mates and a boy." replied Felix. He used to be in the same secondary school as hers but he left years ago, immediately forgetting about it. He never liked it anyways, full of fuckboys and girls who drown themselves in makeup, his sister being one of them.
"You've got a boring social life you know that Felix. How are you gonna get a girlfriend?" she replied. Not this conversation again.
"Again, like I've told you before, I'm not getting a girlfriend. I have- yeah yeah more important things to take care of whatevs." Elli cut him off midsentence which made him quite angry but before he could talk to her about it she skipped away towards a group of girls snickering nearby the shopping centres entrance.
"And I thought year 7's were annoying back when I was in secondary, gosh teenagers piss me off sometimes. All they think about is relationships rather than study and do something good in their lives, explains why Elli doesn't do well." Felix used to have a crush or two back when he was in school but never those overdramatic relationships that all the kids had nowadays. He wasn't even planning on getting a girlfriend, he was going to organise his life, get a stable, high paying job probably somewhere in America in the future and begin to invest in real estate, then get married when he was like in his mid thirties. His friends laughed at him when he explained his plan to them, always teasing him that he would stay a virgin until his mid-thirties. They didn't understand that life doesn't revolve around sex.
Back to more compelling matters, Felix's next destination was the game store in the shopping centre. Like many people nowadays, Felix was an avid gamer who would spend his free time playing video games. He wasn't a hardcore gamer who quote on quote "was part of the pc masterrace", he only had a console. Hed mainly play shooters with the occasional RPG, but the most entertaining games for him were the souls like games. He had already finished demon souls, dark souls 1 and 2 and Bloodborne a few years ago so you could call him an expert at dodging one hit attacks from ridiculous bossfights. Today he would buy the newest dark soul release, Dark Souls III. What made him really want to get the game was that apparently Dark Souls III armour system and Ai are different from previous souls games as well as higher graphics and better performance, he was bound to spend a minimum of 100 hours mastering the game.
He opened the shop door and was met with an immediate bell ring, probably something set up to alert the employees of new customers. He closed the door behind him so that he wouldn't let all the cool air coming from the AC out. It seemed this was one of the few shops in Birmingham which had Air conditioners. Makes sense, as they were currently going through a heat wave and frankly opening the windows doesn't do much. Without paying any attention to the empty cashier register Felix immediately went to the consol games section where he sifted through the muddled section of games, finally finding the forementioned Dark Souls III. Oh the cover looked so good, the details of the armour and the castle behind what looked like a man clad in medieval armour. Everything looked so good and perfect, except for the too right of the cover where there was a sticker... of the price... £60... He didn't expect the game to be so expensive, now it made him hesitant to actually buy the game. He gulped and took out his wallet and looked at the notes that he had. £60 and 3 pound coins. Just enough to get the game and have some food while he waited for his parents to finish.
"Screw it, the games worth the expensive price tag" he thought to himself. He picked up the game and moved over to the counter, still no sight of an employee. He placed the disk on the counter and took out his £60, ready for when an employee from the back would come back and take his money. He waited, a minute went by, he waited more, 2 minutes. Felix kept looking at his wrist watch, watching as time passed by and still no sign of an employee.
"Hello? Anyone there?" he called out and waited, but no reply.
"Yo mate, I wanna buy this game." still no reply. Hmm, worrying. Was there even an employee in the building. what if they had gone out to get some food? Poor customer service if that is the case. Felix decided he would wait one more time, and if no one came, he would go check out the back himself.
10 minutes passed by, still no employee. Now he had to go check. He scrambled over the counter and went for the door, hoping that it wasn't locked. Thankfully, the doorknob turned, albeit a little slowly with some friction between the rusty metal pieces, as sign of the age of this door. He entered the small room, looking around to see where the employee would be to tell him that he shouldn't be here, but no one was there.
He looked around, still no sight of anyone, and then finally examined the purpose of the room. It was the storage unit where they kept all the games and consoles. He could literally steal a bunch of things right now and no one would know it was him, but he chose not to. He didn't want go imagine the employees getting fired for not taking care of the shop, even if it was their job. Maybe he'd come back another time when hopefully someone would be there.
Felix was about to leave the room when he heard a weird sound coming from the back of the room. He turned back to find 10 weird cracks in the air. They weren't anything he'd seen in real life, more like miniature black holes that looked like they came from movies, except, they were right in front of him. All had different colours and shapes from each other which he didn't know what that meant, bit he wasn't going to stay any longer. He was about to leave once again when he suddenly felt a force pulling him. He turned around and saw that he was getting pulled to the cracks, all of them. They had all formed a circle with a whole in the middle and were now pulling on him. He tried to desperately escape but the force was too strong, he eventually got dragged into the circle. He was panicking, tugging back with all his might in an attempt to break free of the weird magnetic pull but to no avail, the cracks had surrounded him now, all pulling in different directions. that was when the pain began. his entire body was now being pulled in 10 different directions, pulling at his limbs as they slowly stretched out in different directions. He screamed in pain as he felt his bones creaking and popping out of their sockets, skin tearing of his body like a hydrophilic phosphate group desperately trying to get close to water. His fingers began to twist in different directions, cracking and twisting in ways he never even thought possible. He tried to scream in pain, but even his mouth was being pulled, his teeth rattling in their places and flying out of his gums. His eyes were on the verge of tearing out of his eye sockets, and when he could no longer take any more pain and was on the verge of passing out, the cracks changed. They all moved towards each other, the energies borders crackling against each other in a fight of dominance. The pull began to increase in intensity, and now the powers that used to clash against each other were now combining, synergising into a single 4 by 4 meter crack. Suddenly Felix was sucked into the crack, which winked out of existence after it consumes him.