The scene that played out before me was always the same. I'm stood atop a small set of stairs leading up to a platform. Two thrones sit behind me. One is empty, while in the other sits a feminine crown. A man lunges at me from across the spacious room, swinging his sword at my torso. It barely grazes my onyx armor as I land on the red carpet. 

In retaliation, I point my palm in his direction and - FWOOSH! Escaping my palms are flames of pure white, soaring with elegance across the throne room. In this dream, I am a king.

A king... being attacked by his own son...

In the next instant, we lock eyes as our swords collide. Over and over again, a sickening cacophony of the ringing of clashing steel.

And yet, the dream always ends in the same exact way. I soar through the air, my fist reeled back for what feels like what would be the final blow. That is, until my momentum comes to a halt as I look down, a marble spike embedded through my chest, and my blood pooling onto the checkered marble floor.

The last thing I see is that man running toward me, his face dark and obscured, as if I could no longer remember the person who I had raised.

Alexander Young jolted awake to the incessant beeping of his alarm clock. Twisting his body to turn it off, he read the time: 06:15. He yawned and rubbed his eyes, trying to adjust to the sun peeking shyly over the horizon. He removed the covers and slid groggily out of bed, grabbing a shirt and sliding it on as he closed the door behind him.

As Alexander Young got to the base of the stairs, he was greeted by the remnants of the party he and his father had the night prior; a pizza box and an assorted pile of beer and soda cans on the table. Usually, he'd go to clean something like that up as soon as possible, but he wasn't quite feeling it this day. As he shuffled into the kitchen and put two slices of bread into the toaster, a small piece of paper caught his eye. He meandered over to the dining table and picked up the note:

Alex,

I left for my trip this morning. I'm sorry I didn't get to see

you for your first day, but I'm glad we got to spend time

together before I had to leave. I'll call you tonight. 

Love you, buddy! I'll see you in 18 months.

                                         Love, Dad

Alex was sixteen years old and lived alone while his father took business trips to keep food on the table, making up for the lack of income in their once-was family. And this was just another one of his business trips.

Alex sighed as he placed down the note, looking up only to become hypnotized once more by the crooked picture frame on the wall. Inside of this frame was a picture of Alex, his father, and his mother. Smiles forever planted on their faces in front of Cinderella's Castle at Disney World. Alex took a step closer to the picture, where he could only remember the feeling of his sinking heart as he approached. He straightened the frame, but his eyes stayed glued to his mother.

He'd remember how her blue eyes glistened like the moon over a lake at midnight. The way she'd laugh harder with each corny joke she'd tell. How contagious that laugh was. How empty life was when it was gone.

For a year and a half, he was nothing short of absolutely miserable. He couldn't cope, and it was only made worse when his father had gotten his new job and would leave for months at a time. His middle school teachers were the most concerned about him. Why wouldn't they have been? His mother died halfway through his eighth grade year. The whiplash of him being all smiles one day and then unresponsive the next worried the hell out of them, he was sure.

His concentration was broken abruptly by the toaster as he jumped along with the toast. It was at that moment that Alex had realized just what time it was. 06:34. He took one last glimpse at the woman in the frame before he snatched the naked toast, his favorite black jacket and his backpack, and slammed the front door shut behind him.

Approaching the school, he slowed down to catch his breath. He only had the shortest amount of time to collect his thoughts as an arm wrapped around the back of his neck, and the force of a body slamming into him from behind made his heart drop a few stories.

"End of summer," expressed a familiar voice. "Now it's back to this prison, huh?" Alex glanced to his left to find Taber. They had only met the year prior, but clicked over video games and anime almost instantly. This was his closest friend, one who he'd met in his darkest time when he needed a real friend the most. Alexander sighed after getting over his near-heart-attack, brushing the arm off of his back.

"Taber," he began. "Run up on me out of nowhere like that again, I'll break your nose." Taber curled his lips into a grin as he threw his head back with a chuckle.

"Oh, please! You love me far too much to do that!" There was a brief pause as Taber pulled out his schedule. "So what classes do you have?" Alex followed suit as they both read through each other's papers.

"Sweet," Alex exclaimed. "We both got Mr. Deck!"

"Yeah, but not the same period," Taber remarked, scratching the back of his head before noticing another detail.  "But we do have English and History together. You can help me with English since that was never my best subject."

"And History was never mine, so it works out." Alex replied as Taber examined his schedule more, announcing that they had lunch together. "Hell yeah," Alex shouted in response. "This year's gonna be a cinch!" He threw his hand up as they gave each other a high-five as they walked through the gates.

As the teacher entered the classroom and struggled for silence for a couple moments, it was time to begin their work for the day. Around half an hour into the class, the students were turned away to do their first assignment. Alex picked his head up from his writing and peered around the room at all the different groups. There was a trio talking about the latest game, a pair gossiping about the newest trend on social media and even a group of guys exploding with laughter over a content creator’s video. He was just about to go back to his work when something caught his eye.

It was an impressive piece of artwork. However, the girl behind the pencil was almost equally as intriguing to him. Her black ponytail draped tenderly over her purple hoodie and down her left shoulder while her deep brown eyes exuded a seemingly unbreakable focus. Her hand’s movements displayed a precision that only years of practice could boast, and each mark left on the paper was another mark ingrained into Alexander's memory.

He was so focused on the art that he hadn't realized that she had stopped, and as Alex looked up, he made eye contact with her. She had a curious expression, as if to say, 'can I help you?' He immediately turned away to face out the window. Let’s not stare at the girl, yeah? he thought to himself, his face flush with embarrassment.

Later on in the day, Alexander met Taber in the hallway, where he talked seemingly nonstop about an argument he had with some kid about String Theory. Interesting, Alex thought, but way too early in the year for him to grasp such concepts. So, he opted to just nod and agree until Taber's story was finished.

“Well, at least you’ve had a decent day so far,” Alex muttered.

“What do you mean,” Taber asked. “The day’s halfway through! You mean to tell me nothing exciting has happened?!"

“Dude,” Alex said, “this ain’t an action manga, this is high school. Not every moment is very exciting. If anything, it’s rather bland.”

“Man, that’s rough. I’m sorry to hear that,” Taber replied, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck before gaining his second wind and shooting yet another smile at Alex. “But hey! We’re gonna eat lunch, then the last two periods of the day are ours! I’m sure something interesting is bound to happen, even if it’s just us slackin’ off and talkin’ about whatever the whole time.”

“Yeah, I guess that’s true,” Alex agreed, facing him briefly. As he turned his attention back to the front, he caught glimpse of a familiar face. The same girl from first period. “Oh, it’s her,” he said softly to himself.

Shortly after noticing her, he witnessed as Kyle Quinn, the school's bully, and his lackeys creeped on the girl from behind and grabbed her notebook, the three crowding up on her as her eyes dropped to the floor, her face wrought with discontent. It was at that moment that Alexander's mood declined quickly.

Alexander and Kyle had been friends throughout most of middle school. When Kyle started belittling others, Alex turned a blind eye to it. He wanted to tell him to stop, but seeing as Kyle was bigger than him - and more intimidating - he could never work up the courage. Later on, Alex stopped associating himself with Kyle. Kept being the bystander as more and more people got harassed. And for those who tried to fight back, they were left in bitter defeat.

Alexander kept remembering each person left to deal with a person that he felt he'd created, in a way. At least, somebody who he could have stopped from becoming a problem like this. Then, his mother's soothing voice echoed in his mind. Just do the right thing for me while I'm gone, okay Angel?

"Hey man," Taber began. "I get it, but if we try anything, he'll make our day that much more annoying. Let's just leave it to the staff and get some food. All this learning's making me hungry."

The staff, Alexander scoffed to himself. The same staff that lets this happen on the daily without batting an eye?

"And what's this," Kyle mocked. "Some of that dumb weeb shit?!"

Finally, Alex had had enough. Before he could anticipate Taber's next words, before he even cared to hear them, his legs sprang forward. As he approached the trio of low-lives, Alexander's mouth opened before he could think. "Cut it out, Kyle!" 

While his face was burning and twisted in rage, it softened to a much lighter expression of anger as the three turned to face him. Then a thought occurred to him. You know, I probably could have said something pretty badass there, but I think it's safe to say I blew it.

Alexander's stomach churned as Kyle chuckled at him, his physique striking him with a wave of anxiety. It was safe to say that Alex being five-foot-three, squaring up to somebody a whole five inches taller than him was already pretty rough for Alexander's intimidation factor. But Kyle was also built. Alex was an athletic build at best. He wasn't scrawny, in fact he was quite proud of his phisique. But he also didn't have pecks that bulged from his t-shirt, nor did he have biceps practically the size of his head. So needless to say, Alex felt he was in way too deep the moment he'd decided to speak up.

"Obviously," Kyle said through his chuckles, "I liked her drawings, pipsqueak. I just wanted a few for myself, that's all."

"Oh, don't bullshit me, Kyle. I heard what you said. It was pretty damn distasteful, if you ask me." And yet again, Alex had fired yet another cringe-worthy shot. He could practically hear Taber's facepalm from behind him. Honestly, he couldn't say he blamed him. He'd wanted to hit himself, too.

Kyle let out an amused huff. "'Distasteful,' huh? Look, I honestly don't remember asking you a damn thing, Young." He bent down to Alexander's level so that they were face-to-face. "You might wanna move along, runt, before I shove your other foot in your mouth for you!"

Alex stood there, his fists curled, clenching them so tightly that they were turning white. During his glaring match with Kyle, Alex felt a hand touch his shoulder. "Come on, dude," Taber's voice whispered. "Let's go. You got to play hero, now I wanna eat." 

As much as Alex wanted to keep up this act, he knew deep down that it wasn't worth it. If nothing else, he had bought that girl enough time to slip away, and that was enough for him. Alex nodded and turned around as he and Taber made their way to the cafeteria, Kyle attempting to egg him on from behind.

Alex didn't get to clock him or anything, yet he still felt a sense of relief wash over him. I finally did it, Mom...

...I did the right thing.