Posted august 9, 2020

For The Wattys 2020

"Leave me alone." I yelled into the night, facing Isic.

I didn't want to be with him anymore.

Isic came to my house at one o'clock in the morning. He wasn't letting me say no, and he didn't let me stay home. I was in bed trying to sleep when my phone rang.

"I'm at your Gate." He said.

I jumped to the window and sure enough, he was there. He waved.

"What are you playing? It's one A.M."

"Exactly." He said, his voice high with excitement. "Have you experienced the world at one am?"

"No."

"Open the gate."

I wasn't going to let him stand like a moron outside. I opened it.

"Send me something so I can climb directly to your room." I frowned. How did he know there was something that could get someone directly to my room on the seventh floor without passing inside the house?

I opened my mouth, but he stopped me with a finger on his lips, looking nervously to his side. Was there something dangerous outside? Or someone.

There was a secret slide that could take me from my bedroom outside. I clicked on a camouflaged button on my wall, and it made the slide come out of the wall. It was transparent, and whoever touches it becomes invisible too.

"Come right beside my window. Then climb the stairs. Just trust me."

Without questioning me, he did as I said. At first, his steps were wobbly, and a shot in the dark. But as he started going up, he started seeing the stairs, and climbed them way faster. It was an escalator.

Slide was for when going doing. escalator were for going up.

"what happened? " I said, when he I was sure he was inside, and my voice wouldn't come into the street.

"nothing."

"Are you crazy ?" I yelled inside the tube, a rush of adrenaline in my system.

"Yes." He said, laughing. "Are you coming?" his mop of hair appeared at the end of the slide.

I mirrored his smile. "What do you think?" I said and launched myself inside the slide like a happy squirrel. Isic had to slide too to not collide with each other.

As soon as I was out, I secured my grip on my phone and started running out of the gates. Then the street. My hair was untied and my stuffed slippers were slipping. But I didn't feel any of that.

All I felt was the wind on my face and Isic's laughter behind me. I didn't know where we were going.

But it didn't matter. I let my heart, along with my feet haha, guide me.

Isic had bought himself a few months ago an AirCar- they were extremely expensive- so we boarded it and went to the shore. There was a small party to celebrate the nice weather. We played arcade games. My bodyguards were always keeping an eye on me.

Everything was going smoothly. How did it change so drastically?

It started with an unsettling game.

We were controlling two characters inside a maze, trying to find clues to kill the invisible enemy. The issue was that we were in separate mazes, with a wall we didn't know if there was a way to take off. We tried at least four times to win the game but it was impossible. Even though in the game, we had bodyguards guarding us while talking the clue, we would always get killed by a fake friend. Or a hidden enemy that would send a boomerang to kill us. It seemed like there was no way of winning.

We also had time limits. And we were against each other.

The crisis between us started here, I believe. I wanted to leave. But isic was obsesses with figuring it out. Almost felt like we went there for that specific purpose.

Isic was so focused on it he would zone out my voice. But I wanted to leave!

The fourth time he restarted, I grabbed forcefully his arm.

"let's go. This is no fun."

"no." he said. "I need to figure it out."

"wha-" I was about to have a fit, when an old man that had been watching us play intervened.

His voice was rusty. "the secret is to find the clues and bring them to each other. When you both touch the wall with the riddles, the wall will open itself and the riddles will be solved. The man in the cage won't drown."

"It can't be won by one person", he added.

At first, Isic thanked the man. Then when he kept talking to us, he got mad.

And left him talking.

I apologized to him then went to Isic. "What's your issue?"

The glow of the arcades was illuminating half our faces as we were standing.

"Nothing. Is there something you'd like to tell me Autumn?"

I frowned. "What? Nothing you should know."

"I'm scared for you. I don't want you to get hurt."

"What are you talking about? Let's go play something else. The night is young." I smiled.

"Don't let us be victims of the evil."

I had a feeling he was talking about my surgery. Did he think it was foreshadowing my future? It wasn't. you can't win if you're going around telling everybody your secret. That's how you'll get killed.

The surgery was tomorrow, no matter what. Tomorrow everything was going to change for me. Maybe I'd finally be happy.

"There is nothing to say Isic. We were having a good time. You had to ruin it."

"ruin it? I'm trying o save you."

"save yourself Isic! And the people that want to be saved! You have this hero complex that makes you want to save people. Some people don't want to be saved sometimes." I was gesturing way too much. And the night was making me way more emotional than I usually was.

He had to leave me alone. I was going to hurt him

I started walking away. "Just because I hang out with you doesn't mean we're besties again. We're not friends, Isic."

He started chasing me. "Again with the nonsense? We might not be but I wish you the best because I love you. Don't do something you'll regret later. Be great, Autumn Ace Air. Be great."

I turned around. "If you say any of that one more time, I'll never talk to you again. "

He shut his mouth.

"if you follow me too." I turned around. His shadow was standing with limped shoulders under a street lamp.

As I was running away, I remembered my brothers words too.

Be great. Be safe.

My grandpa. What's the other side of the story?

Ken. Be smart.

Nora. Confide in more people.

It was almost there o'clock am. The surgery was tomorrow.

After, I wont be a freak who cant feel love. I'll have a life full of people who support me. Nobody would ever leave again. I'd finally be good enough.

It was my time to shine.

Hopefully.