Normal Kids Run Away, Rich Kids Fly

A guard was waiting in front of the Prince's room when Atlas opened the door from inside. He had just stepped out of the shower and was in a loose orange t-shirt and jogger pants. A towel lay draped on his head as tips of wet hair strands kissed the tips of his nose.

"What do you have to report?"

The Guard stood straight and didn't meet his eyes, "Your highness. The girl is currently sleeping in the Prion house."

The Prion house? The house of Mr Prion and Mrs Prion, members of the Government Council? What was an extra-terrestrial doing in that house?

"Who all are in the house right now?"

"The daughter, Brooklyn Prion. The house maid, Tiya Chalams and the girl, your highness."

Atlas nodded and pulled the towel from his head and slung it around his shoulders. He ordered a few guards to be placed to watch the girl's movements and report if she leaves the house. The Guard stomped his legs in attention and marched out of sight. Atlas banged the door close and flopped onto his bed.

"Ah...so young but yet so wise..." he told himself, staring at the fan spinning and spinning like his head was. He X-rayed each element of his plan and tried to fit them all in like a jigsaw puzzle. Except this wasn't just any jigsaw puzzle. This was a 1000 piece one, that might take years to finish.

Or maybe just a month, Atlas thought, if I get hold of that fire breathing girl...since she survived that many years in the star, her lifespan might just be perfect to exchange it with for 5 minutes of my mother's life.

Thinking of magical things, he wished he could take the life of the Wheel, but that would make them run out of energy forever. So he chucked that idea away.

Another knock on the door. Atlas smiled and opened it because he knew who it was.

"Chief-" he started and then his convoluted, "Ryoko?" he asked instead, "What are you doing here?"

She had a book clutched in her arm. Her face was in alarm and she handed the book to him as she barged into the room and closed it behind them. "Hey, I didn't give you permission to enter-"

"Someone leaked the information."

"What information?"

Ryoko shook his head at him and walked towards the window and pulled open the curtains. Bright ghosts of yellow and orange flames danced across their sights. Atlas looked down from the window at the Palace premises.

The gardens, hallways were packed with citizens screaming and shouting their rulers name in various ugly forms. Majority of them held sticks of fire in their hands. Atlas took in a breath and closed the curtains and its rings rattled against the metal rods.

"What is happening?" Atlas asked Ryoko, "Why is the whole of Zyka protesting? You can't hide it forever Ryoko, just tell me."

Ryoko sighed and pulled at her hair. Why did she hide it from him in the first place. She hid it from everyone. And then suddenly today's morning report was missing from her desk. The reports which showed the new sightings in Outer Palace District, Jowamen, Delis and Kira. How could she have been so careless?

"Atlas, I think you should sit down," she suggested before making herself ready.

"Secretary, there is an entire hoard of angry people outside my house, don't you dare tell me to sit down!" Atlas screamed at her.

Ryoko wanted to cry.

"There are monsters on the loose, ugly ones. The people call themselves the Raken and they are huge and green in color with large spikes on their scaly skin. They prowl around the houses at night. We don't know where they are coming from. But the sighting were first in Outer Palace District, then slowly spreading out to Zyka. The Council said that the Raken's origin must be the palace.

"Till now, twenty three civilians were killed by them. We had ten killings only yesterday and I wasn't planning on releasing it but somehow, the report went missing from my desk and it got leaked and now people are angry," Ryoko panted, trying to catch her breath as she said everything she knew, like a dam opening after a long season of rain and the water just gushed out with no real limit.

Atlas stared at Ryoko not blinking. A thick blanket of tension weaved through them, the shouts of the protesters growing louder every second as more people heard of it and neared the palace to let out the anger they had pent up inside them since that start of they year, when the first Raken popped up.

"You even had a Council meeting without me."

Ryoko started to apologize but he interrupted.

"You thought you could stop this on your own," he looked at the closed window, and played with his fingers, netting them together. "I'm surprised. You hid a national sensation from me," he pointed at himself, "The Crown Prince."

Ryoko was silent and hated herself so much at that moment. What was he going to do now? "I-" she started again.

"It's okay, Ryoko, I knew this would happen. Just didn't know in what way," the Prince said, imagining himself with more jigsaw pieces scattered in front of him. There were suddenly more than 1000 now.

"What do you mean?"

"It's all connected," Atlas said out loud as he realized it, "I'm trying to raise Mother from the dead, I told you right? To bring someone from the dead, you need to give it life. This is just nature acting to balance everything out. It's taking the life from others to compensate it for the things I'm doing. It's okay."

Ryoko looked up at him, "I don't believe you. How can you be okay with this?" She stood up grabbed the book which had the Raken records from him, "People are dying, Atlas. Your people. And you're just shrugging it off? You're not doing anything about it?"

Atlas was the one laughing now, "Ryoko, you sound like a hypocrite. You handled it all on your own till now...then why are you asking me to care? Isn't this what you wanted?" He stood up and fished out a backpack from his cupboard and started dropping clothes into it, his head whirring.

The Raken were spirits of nature just doing Atlas' bidding, gathering enough life to raise his mother. That meant the first phase of his plan worked. It was time for the second phase.

"So you're going to leave?"

"Yes."

Ryoko grabbed the backpack from him and blocked him from moving anywhere. She trapped him between the cupboard and her. "What's going on in your head, Atlas? I don't think the Atlas I know would show disregard for innocent people losing their lives for his own needs."

Atlas dropped his hands and buried them in his pockets, staring deep into her eyes, "There's another Atlas?" he chuckled, trying to avoid her poring questions. It was just getting in the way. Ryoko closed her eyes in frustration and opened them again, "I'm warning you, don't do this. First I thought you were doing the right thing, but now...people are dying and it's just so..wrong."

Atlas rolled his eyes. He really needed to get going, "People die everyday, Ryoko. And still nothing can bring my father back. Except what I'm going to do right now. So simply saying," he shrugged, "I don't care."

He pushed her back and grabbed the bag before making his way to the door, still in the orange shirt and jogger pants.

"Where are you going? Tell me that, at least."

Atlas shook his head, "I'm not dumb, Ryoko, why would I tell you that? But while I'm gone do this for me. Find the Raken lair. And keep it hidden. You can do that right? You're pretty good at hiding things. Keep the things you'll find in that lair safe until I come back."

He turned the knob and Ryoko stopped him again, "How do you know what's in the lair?"

Atlas smirked and made his way out of the door. The Chief of Army had come to meet him regarding the protesters and Atlas shook it off and told to report everything to his secretary from now on.

"Have you arranged everything like I told you to?" Atlas asked, referring to the phone call that evening. The Chief of Army nodded, "But your highness, are you going on a long trip to somewhere? I wouldn't suggest it-"

"Are you my Counsellor?" Atlas snapped.

"No, your highness."

"Then do as I say. Take me to the helicopter."

The Chief of Army saluted again and led the Prince on his long journey to meet the only person who knew how to bring his mother back to life. He hoped that, by the time he would be back, the Raken would have completed their jobs and the extra-terrestrial would be behind bars like ordered.

He didn't have to worry about Sam and Kayden leaving the Palace, they already had enough incentive to work for the Palace.

"Poor, homosexual nuts," Atlas thought as he clicked on the controls of the helicopter and levitated the helicopter into the air and away from Zyka.

......

The riot died down with no fruit and people retreated when the Prince didn't show up. The storm wasn't over. It had just calmed down until they found out that the Prince was gone. Then it would start all over again.

But until then, all was calm. And the birds were chirping as the sun rose and greeted the people of Zyka lying to them by giving out the feeling of happiness.

Sam rapped on Kayden's door. "Sammmmm!!!" he screamed gleefully, "Wake up! It's our first day at the stables!"

The door creaked open as it revealed a barely awake Sam who hadn't finished opening his eyes yet, "Kayden...it's just 7:00 in the morning..."

Sam gasped as Kayden pushed him back inside the room and shut the door close. "Kayden what are you-" Kayden placed a finger on his lips as he pinned Sam to the back of the closed door. The curls of his morning hair tickling Sam's forehead.

Kayden leaned closer and Sam wrapped his hands around Kayden's waist, giggling, "You seem to be in good mood today," Sam noticed and touched his nose on Kayden's cheekbones.

Kayden laughed and kissed him. "I just woke up feeling happy. And I wanted to share it with you."

They spent a little while tied up in each others arms before Kayden pulled back, laughing from the after effect of Sam's touch, "We're going to be late, get dressed."

Sam walked off to take a shower. Exactly at the moment Sam shut the door close, Kayden's smile dropped. He leaned against the wall and waited for Sam to come out. But until then he looked around the room, thinking about the strange feeling inside his chest.

What's happening to me? Kayden thought as he remembered kissing Sam right now but playing right beside those memories were the memories of another face. A calm, docile one...the way she had sneezed...the way she opened her eyes and looked at him first...he felt like she was overtaking the memories with Sam and then it was the face of the strange girl in his head.

But as soon as Kayden started thinking of the girl, Sam took over and those memories start playing. All night, he was caught up in this endless stream on confusion.

He felt guilty somewhere. He had been happy when he got up because of her...but he had spent that happiness with the wrong person.

"You coming, Kayden?" Sam asked, smiling and holding the door open. He hadn't even noticed Sam step out.

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming," Kayden answered, covering his confusion with a simple giggle and walked out to tame some horses.

........

Isaiah decided to spend his whole day at school, to avoid Brooklyn of course. He didn't know how to face her. Not after what he had done last evening after they had left the Forbidden Room.

His heart had been beating hard with fear as he made an anonymous account online and without, second thought, taken Brooklyn's book from his jacket pocket and clicked pictures of it.

He did think once though, before hitting Send. "I'm helping Brooklyn, right? But I'm doing it so that she won't get caught. I'm just protecting her, yeah," he assured himself as he sat under the blankets in his bed and saw the morning report for that day leak into the world.

Now the world knows, he had thought, and Brooklyn is safe, he had thought.

He switched off his phone and deleted the account immediately, leaving no obvious traces of activity.

Then why am I not able to sleep? he had asked himself. Because, what he had just started was not just a riot.

The 17 year old boy who was curled up in blankets in his room in the Palace Assistant Living Quarters and secretly had feelings for his best friend had done something no King of Zyka ever could.

That night was the start of the biggest intergalactic war the world would ever see.