Chereads / Parlor of Revenants / Chapter 1 - Beginnings

Parlor of Revenants

Quiet_Librarians
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Synopsis

Chapter 1 - Beginnings

Hi everyone this is my first novel so please bear with my grammar and world building a bit, I'm getting better at it and if you all have any suggestions or questions please make sure to point it out. Also some stuff might be confusing but things will be explained slowly. Man I'm getting excited, anyway please enjoy.

-Quiet Librarian

...

In a small run down bedroom, an alarm clock on a study desk was ringing non stop. On a bed beside the desk was a young man who looked no more than seventeen and had a very irritated expression on his face.

"I swear one day I'm going to smash that damn thing", he said angrily. Still half asleep he was tempted to just grab the thing and just chuck it across the room but stopped when he remembered how much a replacement would cost.

Getting up groggily he put the old clock to snooze and headed to the small bathroom that connected his room to start his morning routine. After taking a bath he went to look in the mirror. He was five foot nine inches tall and was very skinny with practically no muscles, had very pale skin and short jet black hair. His black listless eyes looked at his figure in the mirror and sighed.

He returned to his room and put on a white button down shirt, a pair of black jeans, a pair of black sneakers and a tattered black hoodie, these were practically the best clothes he had. After his parents disappeared he was only left with this one bedroom apartment, a small sum of money and an odd heirloom left by his father.

He put on a pair of black circular framed glasses that were on his desk and looked at his phone that was resting beside it.

[Good morning Allister]

Chimed a robotic voice from the phone's built-in ai as soon as he turned it on it showed that the time was 6 o'clock on a holographic display. Placing it into his pocket he went under his bed and pulled out a small slim box and opened it.

Resting quietly inside was the one of the things left behind by his dad, they were a pair of slim black leather gloves that looked very ordinary. Putting them on he grabbed his school bag and stood in front of the door.

"Another day, another set of problems.", Allister sighed and walked out the door.

...

The year was 2207 and the planet earth was in a state that left much to be desired. After various wars and constant pollution almost two thirds of it were inhospitable as the toxic air could kill most ordinary organisms.

Then the "Falling" occurred and humanity was forced to take shelter underground where they built massive cities and strongholds.

With the discovery of a new mineral named galtverite that contained vast amounts of energy, humanity managed to make various breakthroughs in technology and healthcare.

The change also affected the lives of the population as some found ways to take advantage of the opportunity and become wealthy while others were left to the grip of poverty. This created a wide rift between the wealthy and the poor.

...

Allister lived in a city named Lycrof and its territory spanned for hundreds of kilometers, his apartment was at the edge of the slums and the middle district, so he was relatively safe from the criminals that lived in the slums

"Man I wish I could buy some synthetic noodles" Allister thought to himself as he had not eaten anything for several hours as he was trying to save money to find a better place to live.

He was running through various shortcuts as he was going to miss the train to school. After living in the slums for so long Allister would consider himself to be smart and cunning as he wouldn't have survived this long out here, but if he had to say what his real and probably only redeeming quality was, it was his sharp eyes.

For as long as he could remember he was able to see even minor details in the area around him. It helped him a lot when dealing with people as he could tell if they had good or bad intentions by looking at small details.

Running through twisting alleys of the slums he had traversed thousands of times helped him learn some parkour skills, so it only took him ten minutes to reach the train station. He rushed through the station and finally saw the sleek metallic hover-train getting packed with passengers.

When he saw the train doors closing he made a mad dash, the passengers looked at him and some laughed at his expense. Determined to make it he practically slid through the closing doors.

Safely inside the train Allister finally heaved a sigh of relief. People were still laughing at him but he ignored them. As he looked out the windows of the train he saw the bright lights of the middle district. As the city was built underground it was always dark so the only lights came from the street lights and out of buildings in the middle district.

The middle district never seemed to sleep as it was always vibrant and bustling. One skyscraper showed the long awaited release of the PlayStation 7 while another showed a podcast showing the in depth experience of Minecraft 2 full vr dive. There were even large holograms of different company logos and products.

It took about 20 minutes for the train to come to a stop at the next station that was at the center of the middle district. After Allister disembarked he headed towards a section of the station that held various blue metallic discs. These discs were called transporters as they could teleport you to various locations of the city.

Allister joined one of the lines leading to a specific transporter, as he was waiting he took a pair of headphones out of his bag and started playing some drift phonk which was his favorite type of music.

The line dwindled until it was his turn to step unto the transporter, and when he did it only took a few seconds to start as a bright light enveloped him and he turned into light particles.

In a few seconds he reappeared at another area of the city, as he stepped off the transporter he looked at the giant building complex in front of him, the building resembled a great manor from old Earth and stretched for 3 kilometers.

This was one of the best schools in the middle district, its name was St. Floyd academy. Allister was a third year student and was here on scholarship as he had done well with his grades at his previous school. He walked through the glamorous marble front gate of the school. Some of the students that were walking around the campus looked at him with contempt and one would notice that the other students wore navy blue suits which was the official uniform for the school.

Allister was unable to purchase it as he didn't have the money so most of the students ridiculed him for his bad economic situation. Allister just ignored them and made his way to his class. As he walked through the marble floors of the hallways he was stopped by a group of five students.

"Hey I thought I told you I didn't want to see your face again", said the student who seemed to be the ringleader. He was 6 foot tall and had a muscular frame with blonde hair, he had an air of nobility and class which made girls stare at him as they walked past him.

"Can't you find someone else to torment today Fredrick, I am having a headache and you are making it worse.", Allister said with a deadpan expression.

"You think you are funny huh, meet me behind the school at lunch you little prick.", Fredrick had an irritated face when he said that.

Allister heard that cliché line and was already done talking to this side character so he politely declined and walked around Fredrick and his crew.

" Hey we're do you think you are going!"

"You think you can shame out boss and walk away!"

Two members of the crew were about to follow him but we're stopped by Fredrick as he didn't want to make a scene in the open.

Allister walked until he reached a classroom door with the letter b on it and opened the sliding door, he walked inside he and found his seat at the back corner and sat down. The classroom room was practically empty as many students had not arrived yet.

Allister took out his phone to see if there were any new messages and surprisingly one came a second later.

[Contactor: You have a new target, I sent you his personal data, routine and schedule. We look forward to seeing a clean hit.]

Allister sighed as he was not expecting another job so soon but still sent a confirmation to show that he agreed.

[Meister: Sure, but I expect a bonus as I'm still recovering from the last job.]

Meister was the alias Allister used when he went to work. He put away the phone as students started to enter the class. When everyone was seated the teacher entered through the door, she was short and slim with a round face and shoulder length brown wavy hair.

"Ok class let's start with the register, Allister Asteros"

He raised his hand and tiredly said "here".