1 Early Bird

The alarm clock blared it's song like a symphony reading a piano to fortissimo on their scores, with no crescendo it had a nightmarish affect.

Having left it across the room due to his consistency of clicking snooze and going back to snoring, Sage was a mess untangling himself from his covers attempting to restore the tranquility. Finally succeeding only after he met the floor in a not so gentle way and uttering more than a few curses. Seeing how early it was and how the sun was barely rising a few more curses were said. The only positive was that the smell of bacon was slowly letting itself rise to second floor and sneak it's way under his door, thank god for Moms.

It had been a rough summer, he was entering his senior year at school and was as close to making friends as his first day as a freshman. In all honesty he hadn't ever put that much effort into it. Being introverted and more than a little apathetic he just couldn't find any drive to care about small talk and shallow friendships that surrounded his high school atmosphere. That coupled with his seemingly permanent frown was all that was needed for his peers to do the rest, distancing themselves and throwing more than a few glares his way as his attitude had unknowingly came across as hostile to others.

Ever since his dad died back in car crash back when Sage was in junior high, he had slowly started isolating himself, this wasn't abnormal given the circumstances but what made his Mom worry was how Sages' eyes had slowly faded from pain filled to an almost sort of emptiness she couldn't really describe. It was if he had grown content with the loneliness and that was something that she didn't know how to fix and had hurt coming to terms with.

After a quick shower he headed down to meet the highlight of his day head on as he gorged his way through breakfast hoping to rush off to school without playing hundred questions with his Mom about his excitement, or lack thereof for his senior year. Before she could even ask him how he slept, Sage with a mouth stuffed to the brim with eggs and armed with a piece of toast, mumbled something and waved as he sprinted out the door. All his mom could do was sigh and say, "love you too" as she began washing the dishes with a frown that could've rivaled her son's.

Since his school wasn't too far away Zale was one of the many students that usually just walked to school. With black bags under his eyes and breadcrumbs on his face Zale moped his way down the streets, hoping to do a pit stop at the gas station and grab an energy drink or three before finally accepting his fate and force himself to go to school.

However life never was a friend of his, just ask all the acne that ruined any chances of dates to the school dances previously, and that's when he rounded the corner across the street from the 11/7. The scene unfolding before him seemed to be from a B-list action movie with the irony to match as a man wearing dark clothing and a mask slammed into the door as he rushed out, carrying a woman's purse and small bag that contained God knows what.

"Don't run this way dude don't you fucking dare run this way" Sage was desperately thinking. Contrary to his Mom's opinion he wasn't a stand up guy, being isolated by mutual agreement between him and his peers at school, they would describe him as a stone wall with the emotions to match before the word hero would ever come to mind. Sadly as if the world heard his words and flipped him off, the thief sprinted across the road in his direction, trying to weave traffic without dropping any of his loot as he went.

Sage being a third of the way down the crosswalk felt as if his legs had suddenly turned into stone, unsure as to whether he should ignore the man and proceed forward or sprint back as fast as possible for self preservation. For it was at that moment he saw the sun reflect off a metal looking object in the thief's hands that he presumed was nothing other than a knife of sorts. With no time to lose as the man was a few feet away Sage just closed his eyes in fear and tried to side step out of the mans way, like he said he wasn't a hero. The man completely ignored him seemingly dealing with bigger issues when a loud squeal became audible as the not so nimble man was inches away from being ran over as a speeding car rounded the corner. Unfortunately for Sage that was the moment he decided to open his eyes, it was at that point that he made eye contact, prior to the physical contact, as the driver behind the swerving car. The man was wielding pure terror in his eyes with an equally unpleasant expression. Sage didn't even have time to grimace before his world went completely numb, void of all color and sound, he didn't even get a chance to feel the pain.

The scene everyone present saw, apart from the charming thief who continued fleeing, was a teenage boy being flung fifteen feet down the road as the driver hadn't been able to slow down in time. Head slamming down into the concrete with such force even the driver sweared he heard it, a pool of his own blood pooling beneath his broken body. Papers that had fled from his backpack upon impact were slowly raining down, spiraling in the wind before resting down in the blood soaked concrete before them.

Unpleasant calls were made, an ambulance dashed its way down the street while Sages' mom continued to clean up the mess from breakfast, unaware that her already fragile world was about to implode mercilessly. Delicately but with as much speed as possible the ambulance crew carried the broken boy onto the stretcher, desperately attempting to restore a pulse as they hastened there way back to the hospital. If he could talk Sage probably would've just sighed, sip the energy drink he never got to buy and nod his head since it was like he mentioned earlier, life was never a friend of his.

Pain danced it's way through his body with such intensity and precision that it abruptly woke Sage from his tranquil slumber. As he lurched forward screaming, a rollercoaster of emotions and memories slammed him like an unfettered wave from an ocean. Feebly attempting to not succumb to it and delve back into in unconsciousness, Sage attempted his best to take note of his surrounds but something clearly wasn't right. he was wearing a hospital gown with a bunch of wires and bandages encompassing his shattered body. Notably, everything else besides his bed was devoid of any sense of color to the point he couldn't even tell if it was anything more than sketched out lines on a failed project. His room was so dark it was as if he was starring into an abyss, as it unnervingly stared back. Petrified as if he felt eyes dwelling in that darkness lock onto him as he struggled not to scream yet again. That's when suddenly something whispered in his ear "Gotcha" as they grabbed his neck cutting off all air supply, feebly struggling but already weak from his current condition, all Sage could do was attempt to scratch at whatever had ahold of him as he thought he'd ever escape from this hell.

Hours passed uneventfully, albeit that's what Sage assumed. Lacking any dreams or unsure if he was himself a dream, he lost himself in the slumber. Finally a thunderous voice yelled "wake the hell up already!" Startled Sage shot up panicking, one from the terror that had drenched him earlier and two for the sudden shift in position that had shocked his already broken body. Desperately trying to see in the darkened room, attempting to sense where the voice came from, as sweat snaked its way down his spine.

Finally a set of pure white eyes awakened in the night, fixated upon him. Sage desperately reached around for something he could wield as a weapon but came up lacking, the eyes however stayed put as if just watching an animal in a zoo. "What the fuck are you?" managed Sage in a mere whisper, more so because fear entangled him to the point anything more was simply asking too much of him. The eyes cocked themselves side ways as if truly pondering that question when a set of sharp lookin teeth slowly appeared under the eyes in what appeared to be its attempt at a smile, "I am you" it proclaimed. Being more terrified of what that meant than the current predicament he was in, Sage found his strength albeit temporarily as he loudly questioned " What are we then, what the hell happened to bring me here?" And finally "How can I go home?" Unsure how best to answer that he just said what he presumed was obvious, "Do you not remember getting pancaked in the street, I didn't know you, sorry we, were that messed up." Any color that was left in Sage face slowly trickled out as a sudden flash of remembrance proclaimed itself as the scene of being ran over played itself in his mind. "Does that mean I died" he barely managed to ask. "First off we" the pair of eyes said, "Two not yet but probably soon, even at your feeble attempt to dodge was useless when the car was obdurate."