Chapter 1 - Amour Épanoui(Blooming Love):

Boston University - 3:07 PM, Thursday, April 13th, 2011

Arts and Science building near-center of the campus. 

 Ticks from the clock travel through the ears of all the students in a small lecture hall learning of film from their experienced, though quite old teacher, Mr. Bigsley. Not only has this teacher learned to act from some of the greats, but he's starred in well-known films such as Build it Back Up Again and Curious Hypocrisy. Many of his students do not care for those 80s hits, only barely listening to the gracious words coming from his mouth. Listening to the bare minimum and taking notes at their leisure, but one student seems to have an actual care for this subject. Not being vocal about it, though he scurries to take notes and stay long after the lectures speaking with his professor, this young boy's name is Declan O'Brien, mainly known as Brien by his peers and a man with a simple style wearing blue jeans complementing his long blonde locks and light blue eyes. This Brien loves to study the arts so much so that he goes to the Mugar, a popular library on campus, nightly reading of all the greats to appear in front of a camera. Beside Brien, directly to his right, is a similar student, Sarah Holloway, a quiet kind of sad-looking girl wearing all black with dark red hair, but beautiful green eyes. Oddly, two extravagant minds sitting next to each other don't even recognize each other, except for quick glances and a few occasional conversations at the Mugar.

While Bigsley spills more gospel upon the new generation in the young year of 2011, Brien takes a long glare at Sarah with a different sense in his eyes. Quickly after the boy rips a page out of his book, catching the attention of Sarah. Carefully Brien lies the note on her lap.

"Read that after class," he says in a slightly Irish tone. 

Suspense and even a smile show on the usually gloomy face of Sarah as she nods while responding "Okay," with a slight southern tang to her sweet voice.

They then both look back to the front where they see Bigsley staring at them with a slight grin as the clock hits 3:15.

Once the clock hits that specific time Mr. Biglsey dismisses the class in a calm tone as he sits down at his desk, which sits in front of a large screen where they study movies every three classes.

Before Brien leaves, Bigsley walks to the top where he sits to ask him "Finally going for it eh' kid?"

"Quiet down Mr. B," Brien looks behind him where Sarah quietly giggles, "she's still here," he says quietly.

While walking away Sarah opens the note to quickly read it and she glares back while saying "I'll take you up on this offer," Bigsley smirks, "How about… tomorrow at six?"

"Oh… sure. That'd be grand," Brien begins to blush as he says this.

"Great see you then," Sarah says while walking away quickly trying to conceal her happiness.

Both of the men left in the dimly lit room staring at each other with a sense of joy growing around them.

"Y'know this reminds me of the time your grandfather, the late and great Finn O'Brien first came here," Biglsey remarks, "his skill was unmatched and he was the greatest writer I've ever had the pleasure of working alongside. But this reminds me of the first movie we co-wrote, Of Past and Present. He was yelling at me using words I didn't understand through his thick accent, but all I remember is he wanted the scene where-."

Swiftly Brien cuts him off "-the boy hands the girl the note," he chuckles, "exactly where I got it from."

Proudly Bigsley nods while smiling with the words "Now leave my classroom, I don't wanna see your face until Monday next week," jokingly of course.

Quickly the young boy rushes out of the room while saying bye to his gracious teacher. The mid-day sun shines on Brien as he makes his way to a local coffee shop with his laptop bag. As he arrives in the shop he is greeted by a close friend of his, Aidan Yang, a Chinese science student with a black mid-part and a black sweater with a cat on it.

"Yo, Brien, come over here!" Aidan exclaims from the other side of the shop.

Brien rushes across the shop while greeting Aidan "how've you been bro?"

With a smile on his bright face, Brien responds "I finally did it. A.Y. I finally did it."

"You did it?" Aidan slaps Brien on the shoulder, "Oh you gotta tell me she said yes right? I mean the look on your face says yes, but… bro good for you."

Excitedly Brien nods up and down as he stands up while asking "I'll get you a coffee, and then we can talk about everything."

But before the young boy can walk away, Aidan stops him by saying "Sit down dude, I should be the one getting you coffee, plus you gotta save that money for your date."

After hearing his dear friend say this, Brien sits down and nods in thanks as Aidan stands up to go order both of their drinks. Once his friend comes back to the table, time flies past as they speak about all the things he wants to do with Sarah, from the bowling alley to the next state over and all in between. Finally, the two friends noticed the color of the sky had changed from light blue to dark black with shining white all scattered around. Before leaving they say their goodbyes and both leave heading to their different living arrangements. 

We follow Brien into his room at Bower, a local apartment complex with nice rooms with a great view of the beautiful city the young boy had grown up in. Right after he gets inside the well-renowned complex he heads to the elevator to make his ascent to the fourth floor where his room resides. And once he arrives in his room he walks over to his large window. Looking out this window Brien watches the beautiful night sky with leisure and pleasure as tears of joy begin to grow on his face under his eyes.

Just a couple of minutes away the very woman Brien fell in love with is working at a small cozy 80s-themed diner cleaning up the plates of many elderly folk trying to make money to get by in the expensive environment. Finally, she makes it to a table to take the order of two close friends of hers, a twin brother and a sister. Laura Florence, a gold-headed girl with a very pretty smile, and Patrick Florence, a large man with a buzzcut and a sharp jawline.

"What are you two doing here so late," Sarah asks, "don't you have class in the morning?"

After smirking, Laura responds "thought we'd stop and say hello," she deviously grins, "We also wanted to know if anything happened between you and that Brien guy?"

The color red spreads on Sarah's pale face as she responds "he gave me a note in the middle of class," a bright smile comes across her usually stern face, "and he asked me out on a date."

"Didn't think he would've had the balls," Patrick says in a cocky way.

With a sense of resentment towards Patrick's remark, Sarah tells him "Come on man. He's just different. Like I told you guys, he isn't like a lot of the other guys I've met anywhere especially-."

Wittily Laura cuts her off and says "Especially his hot Irish accent?"

"Don't even get me started on it man," Sarah chuckles, "anyways what do you two want to eat?"

Then the two siblings, who seem to be very different people, order their food. One of them is a jock who throws parties nightly and the other is a sweet girl in love with the sound of music. Once they eat the clock ticks 11 o'clock and Sarah punches her ticket to leave the cozy late-night diner.

On a bus Sarah decides is the quickest way home, so she wanders down to the nearest bus stop, passing all the tall nice-looking buildings, and sits to wait for the late bus to come. Half asleep Sarah looks up to see the large bright bus stopped in front of her. She boards it just in time.

"Please put money in the slot ma'am," says the creepy bus driver.

Sarah reaches into her purse and puts a couple of dollars into the money reading machine as she says "No problem," then she takes a seat in the back of the bus. 

After sitting down she opens her laptop to begin working on a story, it's called Dragon's Den: Fire and Ice. About three minutes in and halfway to her home a very sick man walks onto the bus, she doesn't notice him at first because she is busy with her work. But right before she stops, about a minute away the sickly man begins to seize, collapsing on the floor screaming with a distorted screech and blood pouring out all orifices on his body. All she can do is sit and watch in fear as this man is dying on the floor until the bus stops and the driver rushes to the back where he sees the man seizing.

"Call a damn ambulance girl," the driver then begins to perform CPR on the sick man, "we're on Beacon Street near Bower."

Quickly Sarah takes her phone out and dials 911, "someone is seizing we need an ambulance quickly," she says while backing to the corner of the bus near a small emergency exit door.

"Please tell us where you are and we will send an ambulance to your location," the 911 operator says.

"Oh um uh, we're on Beacon near Bower," Sarah says frantically.

"Now just stay calm ma'am we're I just contacted a group of EMTs and told them the location," the 911 operator pauses for a second, "is anyone performing CPR?"

Sarah freezes up for a second until she says "Yes… yes, the bus driver."

"Okay thank you," the operator says, "now what's your name?"

Fear still covering Sarah, she responds "I'm Sarah."

"Do you go to school around here, Sarah?"

While watching the driver resuscitate the seizing man, Sarah responds "... Yeah I go to Boston University."

Right after answering the question the phone goes silent and Sarah looks down at it scaredly realizing it had just died. After she notices her phone's death, she looks back over at the driver. He had stopped giving CPR and was now doing the same thing as the man seizing, though now he has a large bloody bite mark on his throat. Fear and shock come over the young southern girl, she quickly opens the emergency door she was backed up against so she can make her escape from what seemed a cursed area. 

No direction seemed to be right, but she runs until she reached Bower, where Brien is in the lobby at a glowing vending machine, in the far right corner of the nice marble room, looking for a late-night snack. From behind him, with some blood on her legs, which are shorts she was wearing as her work uniform, Sarah wraps her arms around Brien.

"Oh, well this is different," Brien says jokingly and nervously, "I uh didn't know you lived here."

All Sarah can ask is "Can we talk?"

More seriously this time Brien responds "Oh um yeah," then he grabs a small chocolate bar from the machine, "wanna go up to my room? My friends Aidan and Max are over."

"Ye-... yea that's fine," Sarah says shakily.

Up the elevator, was a small steel box with a yellow glowing button, but the number four lit up white instead. Nervously the young boy looks at Sarah noticing the blood spatter on her legs.

"Hey, are you hurt at all," Brien asks.

"No… it isn't mine," Sarah shakily responds.

All the confused Brien can do is nod with a worried face as they make it to the fourth floor and hurry towards the room. Once they get into the neat room, Aidan and Max, a law major with curly long brunette hair wearing a tank top with an olive green coat sitting next to him, stare up confused.

"So ooh's this, Bry," asks a very confused Max, in a strong Australian accent.

While sitting Sarah down in a small chair in the corner of the room, Brien says "Her name's Sarah," then he kneels in front of her and asks, "Can you tell me what happened?"

She freezes for a second to look around the room at all the confused faces, "I… I don't know what happened," she says scaredly.

"Just tell us what you could see," Brien says supportively.

"A man," she says with a worrying conviction, "fell over and started yelling and, and, blood started to pour out of his body."

"Oh shit bro," Aidan seems intrigued, "that's what happens to the people who got that new like… sickness."

Confused, Brien looks over at him and asks "What sickness?"

Seemingly knowing more about this subject, Aidan continues, "It's called Necromoxious. All I learned is that it spreads from certain animals and can kill you… pretty fast. But dude it isn't in the US. Or at least it wasn't yesterday."

"I just came in contact with it… am I gonna die," Sarah says with horror and fear coming through her voice.

Brien looks over at Aidan scaredly, not moving away from Sarah though, "It's gonna be okay, right A.Y.?"

"You should be fine," Aidan says confidently, "we learned it can only spread from saliva from animals and people who got infected by it."

A sigh of relief leaves the shaking mouth of Sarah, she then asks "Can I… stay here for the night?"

"Of course," Brien says as he turns to Max and Aidan, "do you two wanna head home?"

"Ye' we'll peace out for the night, mate," Max says as he stands up and walks out of the room, "see ya' later."

"See you later bro," Aidan says while leaving the room.

Right as they leave the door slowly snaps shut, leaving Brien and Sarah alone in the neat room. Carefully, in complete silence, Brien comes to his feet from right in front of Sarah and moves to his bed where he sits.

"So, um you live here," Brien asks from a somewhat further distance.

Now in a more calm tone, "No, this place was just really close."

"Where did everything happen?" Brien asks, "Maybe I can go check it out?"

She thinks for a second then responds, "No. I called an ambulance."

"Ah um good alright well then, let's get a little sleep then." Brien then begins to take his shirt off, "Oh sorry I usually don't sleep with this on," he stops removing it, "I'll keep it on if that makes you more comfortable."

A small giggle comes from Sarah as she responds "No it's fine. Where do you want me to sleep?"

"Take the bed," he says while sliding down onto the floor, "I'd be rude if ya' didn't. I'll take the floor."

Sarah raises an eyebrow at Brien, then tells him "We are gonna take the bed, this is your house."

Brien looks down, smirks then glares back up as he tells her, "Go get that blood off ya'. Take a shower, I'll get you some of my clothes."

While Sarah slowly stands up with a small smile on her face, Brien grabs a pair of clothes from a closet in the corner of the room. After he retrieves her the clothes, he drops them on a chair next to his bed, walks them over to her, and leads her to the bathroom.

"Take a nice hot shower," Brien says with a caring face, "and tomorrow we can go on that date."

Warmth fills the room as Sarah's deep red hair is used to try and conceal her smile as she says "... I'll uh wash up now," not only is her hair red so is her face, "thanks again for all this."

Brien responds with kindness, "Of course, just throw my robe on when ya' get out I haven't worn it yet so ya' get to tell me how great it feels and then I'll getcha ya' that clothes I promised and you can change in here," he walks to the doorway, "I'll leave now so ya' can… well y'know shower."

Without the care of Brien in the room, Sarah removes her clothes showing her pale body. Steam from the shower rises in the room as she enters the small shower and tub combo. Sarah sits down inside the warm shower with tears strolling down her face as the steam from the nearly boiling hot water consumes her. Redness spreads all along her body as she sits in her cradling position thinking of what she saw. Thinking of the blood pouring out of the man's body, but then she remembers a small detail from the driver after the CPR. Blood was pouring from a large bite mark where his throat should've been, he was infected with the sickness. The realization makes her eyes calm, yet widen in fascination.

All she can think is "What's causing this?" "what's happening?" "how bad will this get?"

Horrific things happen everywhere, but there is always someone trying to conceal it. This time bomb seems to only be ticking down closer and closer to detonation.

In the room over Brien turns on his TV, where a newsman is speaking of Necromoxious, "-State area has been extremely affected with five new cases almost every two minutes. The only official Government report we've heard has told us to stay away from any sort of animal and anyone acting strange. Please be advised that our government is-."

Brien sternly clicks the remote to switch channels, "Maybe give me something less horrifying to watch," then he gets to Cartoon Network where Looney Toons is on, "this'll do."

Only a few minutes into the episode, Sarah, almost fully covered in Brien's robe, walks into the room.

"Oh… your clothes are right next to ya' right there," a blushing Brien points to her clothes, trying not to stare at her somewhat revealed body in the robe.

But before grabbing them Sarah looks over at the TV and says "I love Looney Toons."

Brien brightly smiles, "it's great innit?" he says.

"Your accent is so… just… great," Sarah tells the Irish boy.

Now looking right at Sarah, "Well t'ank you kindly malady," he says with a chuckle.

Gradually, she reaches down for the clothes, "this robe is super comfortable by the way. Good choice," she says.

"T'ank ya' for reviewin' it for me," Brien says with a kind smile and red face.

Sarah, who is also blushing, tells Brien, jokingly, "You look really red. Are you okay?"

"Oh shit, really?" Brien jokes, "What pretty lady does to me I guess."

After Brien makes this great remark Sarah's face becomes beet red, and she smiles her way out of the room back into the bathroom with her clothes. Alone in the bathroom, she removes the robe again. She puts on the baggy pajama pants, which look to be swallowing her whole so she ties the waist, and a tank top, which seems more fit, that Brien had given her. Then she stares at herself in the steamy mirror looking at herself with a smile.

Creakily the bathroom door opens and Sarah walks into the bedroom. Where she sees Brien sleeping on the bed with his laptop open and lying on his chest. Ninja-like, Sarah quietly makes her way over trying not to wake him and she catches a glimpse of what he was doing. Brien was writing a story of his own, one called The Life of a Tightrope. With intrigue lining her face, Sarah looks at more of it and finds words so beautifully written on the digital page, to the point where her eyes begin to tear up.

Shortly after the shock of reading that story and the freak accident she had seen earlier, she is able to fall asleep hopefully landing in a land of dreams and not nightmares.