Old Friend

As far as Frank was concerned, it hadn't been a very strange day. It had just been a few minutes since he had gotten off the train on his way home from work. He turned the corner and took a path down a beat up part of town with rusty pipes lining the walls of buildings that seemed like they could collapse at any moment.

Skipping over some murky puddles Frank headed down into a series of alleyways, his favorite shortcut in this part of town to get to his apartment a couple minutes faster than usual. It could be risky sometimes sure but the time save was well worth it to him.

He never expected to run into his old school friend, Charles, whom he had not seen in a very long time after he had suddenly stopped showing up to school. Had been gone for several days in a row until he eventually left for good.

Charles' absence from class wasn't too unusual at first since he had a habit of skipping class to sleep in longer or just because he didn't feel like it. Yet this time yet as the weeks passed and the absences grew more common making the event of seeing Charles at all was becoming an incredibly rare occurrence.

The two of them had not spoken to each other for several years since dropping out of school our freshman year. There was a reason for his friends sudden departure of course, one that for some reason Charles, or as Frank called him, Charlie would not tell him.

After Charles selfishly left without saying goodbye to him, Frank moved on with his life. somewhat confused by the surreal nature of it all. He could recall the times they had together and ask himself the same question.

'Why did he leave..?'

He couldn't get that thought out of his head as it constantly arose in his mind as he gazed at the seemingly different person that stood before him. Frank couldn't help himself from reminiscing all the good times they had together, it happened so fast as if their childhood was flashing before his eyes.

It had seemed like decades had passed for the two previously bubbly and lighthearted high schoolers. They used to crack open a couple of cream sodas on the school roof every day to enjoy the polluted sunset resulting from the ignorance of corporations pumping toxic fumes into the sky over the past hundreds of years...

Watching the slightly dimmed colors of the sun's rays would bring them so much laughter as they stared at the irony of old clunky cars passing by on the dusty dirt road that led to titanous factories to make money to campaign against the destruction of their worlds atmosphere, all contributing further to the issue they wanted to stop.

Frank didn't mind the fumes at the time since no matter what Charles' smile would shine through any toxic cloud that blocked his view, a smile that had stopped shining the last few times Frank spotted him in the gloomy halls.

Looking at the man in front of him, Frank was at a bit of a loss for words not only from the shock of seeing his childhood friend, but from how much he had changed physically.

Charles had always been pretty short in comparison to the rest of his peers as the image of a scrawny blonde haired kid with shining blue eyes who previously could only just barely reach the middle shelf of the bookshelf came to mind the now towering figure his friend hung over Frank's head at a strong five foot eight!

...Well he would have eclipsed Frank in height given he hadn't also gone through a metamorphosis during the years they had spent apart since Frank now stood at a slightly above average height of five ten himself, three inches taller!

Not only had his height increased but his hair had solidified into a darker shade of brown, yet not quite a shade of black. His muscles however, were completely inferior to the mountain of muscle Charles had developed. His stylish palm tree style aloha shirt couldn't hide his seemingly godly physique in comparison to Frank's well... underwhelming amount of muscle growth.

Regardless of the miraculous changes his friend had gone through, seeing him now brought with it a heavy bag of mixed emotions. No matter how conflicted he felt over his friends strange departure, Frank had no time to think any further as Charles energetically spoke with a wide grin:

"Hey Francis, long time no see!"

Francis was Frank's full first name, he had started to shorten it slightly after telling Charles to make life a bit more convenient since 'Frank' was much more straightforward and simple to pronounce than 'Francis' had been.

While wearing a shocked expression Frank, filled with growing curiosity and joy slowly spoke:

"Charles... Charlie! Where.. Where have you been? Where did you go.. Why did you leave?"

"Wait no.. more importantly.. what's that in your hand?"

Noticing the sleek pistol resting in Charles right hand a small frown appeared on Franks face as Charles replied with a somber voice:

"Oh.. well I'm here to kill you frank.. I'm sorry."

Bang!

Frank hit the ground without realizing he had been falling. Eerie silence overtook the ally, the last thing Frank saw while dying was his old schoolmate turning around and leaving him once again with no explanation, and no goodbye.

It had been so sudden..

Hadn't he just reminisced all the good times they shared together?

Didn't he just happen to bump into a long lost friend?

Did he deserve to die?

Franks mind slowly shut down as his vision faded to black, his eyes glossing over as they turned lackluster.

He had breathed his final breath and died alone in the middle of a polluted and run down ally..

A cold, low voice rang in the void of Franks mind:

[Arise Gladiator]

[Your Crucible Has Begun]