-5 Months Later-
"Yessssss! Checkmate!" I roll back on the couch, throwing my arms in the air.
"Hey, You just messed up the board now we can't see if you actually won!"
I push myself back up and surely just as Nayan said, almost every single one of the chess pieces between us are toppled over each other.
"I said that I wouldn't play chess on the couch with you if you kept on doing that, but here we are, again!" he gestures with both hands to me.
"That's called being a sore loser, not me effing up the game board," I smirk.
"It is not called being a sore loser, It's wanting to see if you really won, there's a difference."
At his guess, Nayan thinks that he's lived here for four years now, which is four more years than I would like to be stuck here.
When we first met It was only a few weeks after I and Lola arrived here and I was out scavenging by myself for the first time, I came across the very coffee house we're in now with intentions of stealing.
I walked around the antiquiey shop looking for anything valuable, There was nothing of any use, It had already been gone through by someone else. I searched a bit more before settling on a door that I assumed said something like "Employees only" in whatever language everything is in. I walked up a thin hallway of stairs that led to someone's kitchen, but the dim, candle-lit home was clean, recently lived in.
I didn't like the idea of stealing from an actual person instead of an abandoned home, but me and Lola we're hungry and inexperienced. I could live with the guilt. I considered trying to befriend whoever lived here, gain another ally, but I was new at this and scared out of my mind already, I didn't want to add an extra risk so I tried to keep it down in hopes nobody was here. Though I didn't get much past taking In the little kitchen I walked into. Just out of my line of sight when I was leaving the kitchen, a boy with dark skin-Indian and messy black hair, swirled around from the corner. He didn't hesitate at all, but immediately pushed me up against the intricate wooden cabinets, forearm pressed against my windpipe.
"Tum Kaun ho?!" He shouted just Inches from my face with a subtle accent. What I now know means, "Who are you?" in Hindi.
He stared at me with a threatening glare, I couldn't get any words to leave my lungs. All I could do was struggle and try to pry his arm off my neck, the thumping in my ears grew louder and grey spots began to dapple my vision. I pried at his arm just to get one bit of air, enough to keep me fighting, but the more I struggled the worse it became.
This is when I remembered the blade hidden In my pocket, for the first few weeks after arriving here all I could do was recount the minutes that those horrible strangers were in me and Lola's shared bedroom. All I could do was think about the things I could've done differently, fought harder, found some kind of strength to fight them off, anything. So when I came across a Swiss army knife the first time I went out scavenging I didn't hesitate before slipping it into my pocket.
He pressed harder on my neck as if just waiting for me to pass out, his stormy gaze unfaltering. I kept up the façade of my steuggle to escape his grip, to ensure that my plan would succeed. I began to grow weaker, my chest burned, and I felt like my windpipe was about to shatter, it was my last chance to strike. I pulled the knife from the pocket of my jeans, flicked the blade open, and even though I was disoriented I knew I only had one shot at this. With all the force and speed I could muster I slashed the blade across his bicep, blood instantly gushed from the wound.
He shrank back, releasing me and cursing in Hindi under his breath. I collapsed into a gasping and coughing heap on the ground. The speckles in my vision began to fade back to normal, and while my breaths were pained and ragged, It was more than enough for me. As soon as I was able to catch my breath I staggered back up using a cabinet handle for support.
I recounted the gibberish he spoke earlier before croaking defiantly, "English?"
He ripped a bunch of paper towels from a roll on the counter and pressed them against the wound before sighing at the ground. Not a physically paining sigh but an emotional one.
"Yes, I speak English."
I wielded the knife in front of me just a couple of feet from him, "Who are you?"
"You just broke into my home," he snarled, "I'm asking the questions."
The conversation went on for a while, more friendly than It should've been for this start but seeing how close we are now, I can be ok with that.
From here I can see the white scar just above the nook of his elbow, we still joke about it on occasion. A part of me is embarrassed by it, but for the most part, it's the feeling you get when looking at cringe-worthy scrapbook photos, the good embarrassing.
"Next time we're playing at the damn table."
"You always say that," A toothy grin spreads across my face, "We both know that I'll win that battle."
He stands up to stretch, the few multi-colored chess pieces still standing topple over.
"Then I'll play chess with Lola, maybe she'll sit at the table," He says through a yawn.
"That's low, she sucks at chess."
"So? At least she won't tip over the game board."
I dump all the chess pieces into its box and set it down on the side table. I swear we play chess at very least twice a week, but if one of us doesn't put the pieces back in the box he'll go on for hours about it. It's his house, or where he lives, so I'm in no place to fight him on it. Lola and I should try to be as tidy as him.
I, my sister Lola, and Nayan are the only ones here, or at least the only people here we've seen. We don't know how big Avex is, I've never seen any kind of interdimensional border or cliff of the world so It wouldn't be that crazy if there were others here. Avex is, well it's a mystery, there is no life here at all but everything is lived in, like every person and animal kind of vanished one day from a world just like the Earth dimension. Though if that did happen, It happened several years ago.
I plan to continue arguing that I am the much more worthy chess opponent when I'm interrupted by a burning coughing fit. I cup my hands over my face and will for the burning in my throat to return to its normal ache, It doesn't and I continue coughing, my windpipe on fire.
"Owch, I'll get you some water," He says already halfway to the kitchen.
When the coughing begins to subdue I draw my hands away from my face with a groan, Blood.
He gets back and passes me a brightly colored plastic cup, "Here."
I begin to take a sip but I choke on an unexpected final hack, scalding my throat.
"Thank you, I don't know how you've lived here four years, this right here," I wave my bloodstained hands in front of me, "Is the worst."
"Lucky me, I don't have to deal with that anymore."
"What? How?" I straighten my posture and lean forward eagerly awaiting a real, life hack.
"The only good thing about living here this long, I think I have permanent blisters in my lungs or something from doing that so many times."
Damn, no life hack.
"Yeah, I don't want to be stuck here long enough where I start to be thankful for permanent lung damage," I croak, my throat still tender.
The air here is bad, not pollution type bad- I wish, but kill you slowly and painfully bad. Another mystery of this dimension, the toxic fog that floods every corner of where the eye can see. The day and night are differentiated by how dark the fog is, I haven't seen the sun, moon, and stars in around five months. Outside you can only see a few yards in front of you with clarity and a block vaguely.
But this adds another string of questions. There's no doubt in my mind that there were people living here at one time or another, but we don't know where they went. The fog here hurts like hell, but was it always here? If it wasn't for there being no corpses anywhere, I'd think this is what killed them.
"I'd rather have it not hurt as bad, we might not ever..." He trails off with downcast eyes, I know what he's thinking and I just won't let him believe it.
"Hey! Don't talk like that!" I scold, "This isn't the end for us."
He offers a half-smile, not a real smile, just something to show he's at least acknowledging my words, "That... ok."
I reach across the couch and nudge his droopy shoulders, "Someday- Soon," I emphasize, "Somebody will find us."
He looks back up at me, "I've waited, nobody's coming."
"One day," I reassure
"Four years is well over a thousand of those precious days someone might be coming. Cassie, get used to it, we're stuck in this shithole."
I grumble, one day we'll get out of here, I know we will eventually. I refuse to let my, Lola, or Nayan's story end with us just rotting away in this dimension. I know that Nayan probably means well, not wanting me to get my hopes up, but not being hopeful would make living here ten times worse.
"Trust me, we'll get out of here."
He sighs with a hint of a smile, "Alrighty then, I'm taking your word for it, so if we don't-"
"We will."
"Ok miss optimism, Isn't Lola waiting for you to get back?" He snorts, clearly trying to change the subject.
"Probably is, but how the Hell should I know? There's no working clocks here, and even if there was, they're all in Avexian."
"You should probably go, you were here too long that one time and she," He pauses, trying to jog his memory, "What did you say she did?"
"I think she was in near tears she was so worried, But that was just one time forever ago, she's getting used to the place."
He laughs.
The beaten-up leather couch suctions to my pants when I get up to bring the plastic cup back to the kitchen. Nayan says he found this place within ten minutes of him being here and has lived here every day since, by himself. I couldn't Imagine being here alone for that long, I've heard of quiet making people go crazy, that's exactly what would happen to me If I was here that long. Without any people or animals around there is no noise to be made, the constant chatter at school and the barking of me and Lola's dog back home, Nemo, is something I took for granted.
His home is in one of the best conditions of all the places I've seen on Avex, it has a kitchen, living room, and a bedroom, and everything just has a cozy feel to it. Various paintings cover the walls, a few chipping black leather couches, and a beige carpet covering every floor in the house except for the kitchen with orange clay tile. There's even a deep box TV with a good inch of dust on it, even if we wiped the dust off it's not like it or almost anything else like it would work. No people equals no electricity.
I walk past the TV but something catches my eye, the blanket pinned to the wall behind it, how abnormal it is, Is it covering something?
I walk over and tug gently at the edge to catch a glimpse of what's behind the blanket, before I know it Nayan is right next to me.
"What'cha doing?" He says it carefree but his jaw is clenched ever so slightly, something's up.
The blanket is pinned back tightly and I can't see anything but the off-white paint of the walls and something brown, "What's behind here?"
"Oh, This, It's a door."
"What an amazing explanation, that surely answers all my questions," I peek back, annoyed that all I can see is the frame of the door.
"It's uh, one of those rooms," He scratches an itch behind his ear, "The ones with the fog."
I walked into one of those yesterday, that's why I'm hacking up blood. Just wandering the streets and going inside most buildings can't do all too much damage immediately beside a pain we've been forced to get used to, but there are some places where the air is so bad that being in there long enough could kill you.
"Why in the world would you live somewhere with one of those?" I exclaim too loudly for how close to me he's standing, "A piece of wood and a blanket is all that's keeping you from dying in your sleep!"
"Relax," He soothes nonchalantly, "There is a towel jammed by the floor and the door is stuck anyway. Nothing is getting in or out of there."
"How could you say that? You've surely walked into one of those rooms before, you know how bad it is!" I begin pacing, scared for my friend.
"No, really, It's all good-"
"No, It's not! You- You could..." I don't finish the sentence, It confirms a possibility that I refuse to acknowledge.
He grabs my shoulders, the blue rims to his pupils glint in the reflection of a nearly burnt-out candle nearby, drawing all my attention to him, "Cassie, How about we make a deal?"
I force myself to stop freaking out about my best friend having a doorway to death and just listen for a moment, "What is this deal?"
"You trust me with the door and I'll trust you and your optimism of being saved."
I suck in a sharp breath, I could fight this, try and get him to leave the closest thing he has to a home, but It's not my choice, It's his.
"Ok, deal."
A/N: Because this story takes place in a world that has been abandoned for 15 years, despite my best efforts there will still be some plotholes associated with this. While food expiration is something I can manage, I have some hangups about the expirations on sanitary stuff. Just thought I'd mention it ahead of time for clarity. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and best of wishes to you.