Empire Souls Day 1, Enter: Ventus

Empire Souls
Day 1: Enter Ventus

Darkness and Light. Light and Darkness. Two paths, two stories, two endings. What will you choose?

He jerks forward out of his bed, sweat rolling down the side of his face like a great waterfall. His spiky hair covered his eyes, like a blanket would a freezing child. After getting the hair out of his face, he looked across the room. The room was dark but he could still see all of the items within. Posters hung at every corner of the room, a cylinder shaped dresser at the far right, a television set at the left of the room and a small electrical alarm clock on the rounded metal table to his immediate left. The floors were aligned with a 5x8 wooden tiles stretching to the outer reaches of the door. As he gets up, the door opens, with light rushing in like a great tidal wave. He shielded his eyes with his hands, as footsteps, sounding like those of a bear scuffling towards a camp full of food. Opening his eyes, he saw that it was a girl about his age. She wore a white blouse and fluorescent pink shorts. Her terra cotta red hair swayed in the wind, like a flower in the summer afternoon. She took steps forward until reaching his bed, kneeling down until they were face to face, her sky blue eyes staring back into his own azure colored eyes.

"Come on, time to get up Ven" she said, flicking him in the forehead.

"Ouch. Rukia, what was that for?" Ven asked coldly, rubbing the spot where Rukia had flicked him. Rukia got up and put her arms behind her head.

"Fine, if you wanna be like that, I guess I could've just let you sleep through your big challenge with Kai today-

"Oh crap! I need to get ready. Ugh, I can't believe I forgot!" Ven said, jumping unto his feet. He ran to the dresser, pulling out a blue zip-up hooded shirt, a white T-shirt and blue shorts. At this point Rukia crept out of the front door, giggling at the shouting made by the forever childish, yet brave Ven Hawthorne.

***
The waters of the beach rocked back and forth serenely in the background. Palm trees swayed peacefully in the breeze. A silver-haired boy was leaned against a large boulder protruding from the sands. His grey eyes scanned the area around him. He let out a sigh and paced back to the small town in the distance. He had merely taken a small step when, he heard a loud shout coming from behind him. He turned around, as he peered at the shouting figure racing towards him.

"What took you Ven?" he said, cracking the knuckles on his left hand. "I thought you weren't about to show up."

"I bet you would like that, wouldn't you Kai?" Ven retorted, exhausted from the long run to the sandy island.

"Not really, since it would mean that I couldn't have kicked your butt in front of everyone."

"If that's how you want to be, then let's get this race underway!"

Kai and Ven walked over to the giant palm tree, the waves dancing in little circles around the leaves. The boys bent down in the shadow of the monumental tree, as they stared at the finish line that lay nearly 100 paces ahead. It was there that the rest of the children on the island waited, quietly anticipating the race. Kai began to countdown from ten, as Ven took a deep breath. 7, 6…. I can do this Ven muttered, gulping as Kai continued the countdown. 4, 3…. A bead of sweat rolled down Ven's chin. 2, 1.....GO! The boys exploded out of the shade, running as if their very lives depended on it. Ven was to Kai's immediate right, though neither of them paid any attention to the other, for they only had one concern: winning. "I'm going to do it" Ven shouts, as he begins to inch farther ahead of Kai. Suddenly, he doubles over in pain and drops unto the sand. As he pulled himself up, Ven sees everybody cheering….for Kai. The crowd picks Kai up and walks him past Ven, with Kai saying "Looks like you lost again Venny", laughing as they carried him back to the town. As Ven brushes the dirt off of his clothes, his head begins throbbing and a voice calls out, stating "Never lose hope, never lose the light". The throbbing stops and Ven walks back to his hut.