Chapter 1: Normal School.

The sound of an alarm echoes around a room which is dark and musty. The lone occupant of the room covers his ears with a pillow in annoyance.

He asked in a lazy manner, "Already?"

The buzzing of the alarm further irritates the young man and it shows as he tosses a nearby pillow at the alarm clock, which fell to floor and made a cracking sound. However this does not stop the alarm from informing the young of the time.

"Ugh," he groaned in annoyance as he rolls over in his bed.

Lloyd sheepishly gets out of his untidy bed and picked up the alarm which showed the time of 6:02 AM with the glass silently cracked.

"Damn it. Imma have to either have this repaired or buy a new one," he muttered under his breath.

He laid the alarm on his bedside table and went about his morning. He took a bath, brushed his teeth and suited up in his school uniform. It was gray with three white lines around the collar, the end of the hands and legs. The uniforms also had a black tie.

Lloyd left his room the way it was and exited the house without anyone else greeting him. That was because Lloyd leaved alone and didn't have any other family that would take him in.

He then looked upon a two-story house.

"(All my parents left me was there house and their wealth, which is a lot.)" Lloyd said in his head with a hint of sadness.

He was trying hide the fact that he missed his parents that he thought he hated because they would tick him off about grooming, chores and his constant clumsiness.

"Fuck. Am I crying?" he asked himself as he wiped a single tear from his face.

From the distance he could hear the roar of an engine and movement of the wind. It was a big, yellow bus which was heading his way.

He began to walk up towards the bus stop as he said, "I'm such an ungrateful brat."

Soon, walking turned into jogging. And then jogging turned into a full on sprint. He was trying to reach the bus park before the bus, afraid that it leave him like last tine after picking up the other kids from the bus stop.

"I hate thinking about that time that I had to walk all the way to school," Lloyd reminisced a embarrassing event.

He didn't manage to reach the bus stop before the bus, but he did reach as the other kids were going into the bus. To be honest, they were some that were 14, 16 and little were 18 years old, which was Lloyd's age. He was on his final year of highschool.

Lloyd was huffing and puffing. "Now I'm sweating buckets like a pig."

He stepped into the bus as the last person and took his seat at the near front - the third row seats.

Soon the bus began to move. The left hand side of the row was unoccupied so Lloyd took it and sat down. He watched the houses and clouds pass by him.

Lloyd pondered to himself, "Bet all those have parents inside, happy that their kids are off to school so that they can have a quiet house."

Lloyd and the other kids were dropped off at parking lot of the school. The wall that was beside the gate had text that said West St. James High School.

"Another day at West St. James High," Lloyd said sarcastically with a heavy heart full of depression.

The school was quite large. It was on a hill with quarter of the school begin at the bottom while the rest was spread across the top. There was also a huge open field at the bottom side of the school and a small church at the very top. The colours of the school was white and bright grey with little hints of black around the place.

Walking up the hill and walking through the hall of one of many buildings, he eventually found his class IT, short for Integrated Technology.

At school, he went about his day. Going to his class and filling his head with knowledge. Despite being quite untidy and responsible, Lloyd was intelligent and was ranked second or third in all class except Physical Education, which he always ranked below thirty, which wasn't that bad compared to all the students in the school.

Soon, the school day was over and he was heading home. But some days Lloyd would get unlucky.

"Yo, lil dude," called out another student. He was muscular and tall, above six feet.

Lloyd was 5'10 and weighed 150lbs. Compared to someone that was 6'4 and weighed 222lbs, he was quite small.

The guy that called out to Lloyd was Kevin. He was quite handsome and had a feminine-like face, which at the same time was quite masculine. His parents are immensely wealthy and incredibly influential in the business industry. His father owns the most largest construction company in Canada and his mother is the Chief of Command in North Korea's Police Force.

Kevin was also not wearing his school uniform. He wore a plain white shirt and a black jacket that he was held by his wrist as he had his hands in the pockets of a black jeans pants. His hair was obviously dyed black with a hint of pink in it and he had makeup on his face that had him look feminine.

Kevin himself is planning to move to Korea to become a K-pop idol.

"(Oh, it's the gay, femboy, Korean that wants to go into the k-whatever industry.) Lloyd said inwardly.

"Can I ask you a favor?" Kevin inquired.

"(Is Kevin even his real name?)" Lloyd asked himself.

He then replied to Kevin's inquiry. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Give me a hundred dollars," he said in a menacing and serious voice. He placed his face closed to Lloyd's and peered at him with wide and scary eyes.

Lloyd was now sweating buckets and there was a giant lump stuck in his throat. He couldn't speak.

"Umm," was the only thing he could say.

Kevin then stood upright but his gaze was still on Lloyd. "Um is the only thing you have to say."

Lloyd just stayed still and looked down at his feet. This was a natural response. He was facing a superior and he was a lowly peasant. A peasant shouldn't look up on a King.

What Lloyd felt was fear. Kevin was purposely intimating him and he knew. The two of them knew it.

"Okay. You could have just told me that you didn't have the money," Kevin said with a hint of confusion but also a small hint of forced happiness. He also pasted on a smile and his face.

Lloyd was also equally confused to this sudden change of mood. "Huh?"

"Well, later," Kevin said as he walked away.

The atmosphere suddenly became lighter, the lump in Lloyd's throat was clear and air was freely flowing through Lloyd's body.

"Guess he wasn't that bad of a guy. There were even rumors of that guy being a bul- Oof!" Lloyd was suddenly cut off.

All the air gusted out of his lungs in a single moment. It was due to a lone back kick that Kevin easily and swiftly delivered to Lloyd's abdomen.

"Bro, do you even have abs. You belly feels like jelly and I barely even put power and speed into that," Kevin commented teasingly with a wide smile on his face. "Make sure the next time I see your face, you better have a thousand dollars for me. Just be lucky it ain't a million."

Kevin walked away from the scene that hundreds of souls had witness. The students were either to afraid to say or do anything else, while the corrupted teachers would just ask Kevin's family for a fee and would be left silly-dilly.

Lloyd sat down on the ground and lean against the wall. He clenched his stomach as he desperately breathe in air. He knew he was dying but he wanted to be dramatic. More likely wanted to be seen.

"Fuck it. No one is going to aid me any way," he said to himself with a hint of self-loath and disappointment in not only himself, but others. "It's not like people look out for the weak, poor and below average in other aspects. But at least I"

Suddenly, he began to cry. He felt weak and hopeless. "I don't even know what I want to do with my life. Sometimes I wish I was a hero and other times I wish was the villain."

Lloyd covered his tearing eyes with his wrist, ashamed of his childish behavior.

"God.. damn.. it.. all," he said weakly.

Suddenly, he heard steps coming towards him. He looked up and saw a girl. She was either goth or emo with her attire, make up and accessories.

She then blowed a buddle of gum and dropped a paper at Lloyd's feet.

"You don't have to come if you don't want to," she said and then left.

Lloyd saw as the girl departed. He took up the paper and looked at it.

"This looks terrible," he said.

It was a poster for some party. The background had a black sky with bats, vampires and a large castle. All the fonts were either black, matching the background, making it hard to read. And others were just dark-like colours.

"Party, party, party. Meet up at - yeah I can't read this," Lloyd said as he wiped the tears from his face. "Or do I now need glasses?"

A smile then came upon Lloyd's face and got up.

"Guess I'll go. When is it?" Lloyd began to read the flyer, forcing his eyes to see the very tiny, black text at the bottom.

"August 24, 2027. Isn't that today?"

To Be Continued...

Next Chapter: Black Gate (1).