As long as anyone can remember, nothing has ever gone exactly to plan. Many people are treated unfairly to the point where the lives of some are even stolen because of greed, wrath, pride, lust, and more. The only thing they could do was hold onto the desire to be saved, hopes for salvation, and wishes to prevent unfair tragedies from unfolding further in the future.
These desires, born from the hearts of countless individuals who have passed on, coalesced into a singular, crystalline, powerful artifact as time passed on. The universe, or whoever was up there, had given a second chance to the weak.
The "Gem of the Dead," or "Crystal of the Dead"—the name it had been given by its first founders when it was planted somewhere in the universe, when translated to English. The crystal passed through the hands of many. Some used the power it granted to the beholder for personal needs; others used it for the protection of their loved ones.
But now, the Crystal of the Dead was making its way to a planet in the solar system of the Milky Way for the first time, bringing mysteries and chaos with it.
The family van drove down the sunny coastal road. The wheels made a quiet sound, with the waves crashing in the distance toward their destination—a beach.
Mr. Jenkins drove carefully, looking ahead at the curving road. It was very quiet inside the van. His wife sat quietly in the front seat, and Reggie, their teenage son, sat in the back looking out the window at the passing palm trees and beach signs.
To break the quietness, his wife moved. She reached out her left hand to turn on the radio. "The road seems quieter today, doesn't it?" she said softly.
Mr. Jenkins responded, "Yeah, with what's happening lately, many people are behind closed doors, but we can't do the same... it's better we clear our minds with a perfect beach day."
The man over the radio started speaking, ending whatever he was talking about.
"...and these are the implementations some nations are putting in place to fight the extraterrestrials moving into our planet."
He continued with a recap of what had happened so far, in a saddened tone.
"As we all know, two weeks ago, as we carried on with our normal earthly matters, a strange creature—one with the resemblance of a millipede—fell in New York. With its huge size and plentiful legs, it moved swiftly with grace, destroying structures that stood in its trajectory. But luckily, with the quick actions of the army, it was taken down, though not without many casualties. In the attempt to end its life, it shot surprise after surprise. Clearly, it wasn't from this world. Now it's safe to assume that schools and other institutions will open soon, since human forces have gotten used to ending the extraterrestrials with minimal casualties...."
As the Jenkins family stepped out of the van, they spotted another family packing up their belongings and heading toward their car. Reggie was lost in the rhythmic crashing of the waves when his father called out to the family hastily walking toward them—the Watsons. Upon hearing the surname "Watson," Reggie spun around quickly. And there, among the Watsons, was Rose Watson, Reggie's classmate and his first and only crush. She stood poised and elegant, her long hair swaying gracefully in the gentle ocean breeze. She cast a fleeting glance at Reggie, and in that brief moment, his heart began pounding harder. Struggling to find his voice, he fumbled to put the right letters together to say something—be it "hi" or "hello."
He had never spoken to her about anything other than school matters.
Reggie lost his chance as Rose started to walk toward the changing room. He stared at her, lost in the moment as he admired her in her swimsuit.
As Rose entered the changing room to change, Reggie turned and spotted her twin brother already in the car—he was one of the talk of the school because of his athletic skills. Indeed, these twins were somewhat legends at the school—Rose, for her obvious beauty and participation in several clubs and events, while Fred was known for his athletic skills. Their parents were talking to his.
His parents had met theirs once or twice at the school's parental meeting events, and somehow they got along so well. The Watsons drove off.
In the bright afternoon at Kokrobite Beach, the sun cast golden rays over the shore, and waves lapped gently against the land. Reggie's parents went to the changing room, changed, came back, and entered the water, enjoying the cold liquid that splashed and engulfed their bodies, laughing as waves tickled their skin. Reggie stood still with his legs buried in the warm sand; sand grains were between his toes, and the salty breeze tousled his hair. The sound of seagulls filled the air as Reggie stood, watching a tiny crab scuttle sideways into a hidden burrow.
Just then, he felt a vibration from the ground—like a faint hum of something underground. Due to the difference in vibration propagation in the two media—the sand and the water—it was less detectable by his parents, who were now waist-deep in the gentle surf, splashing water at each other. The birds in the faraway coconut trees started fleeing seconds before Reggie felt the vibrations. His curiosity rose to its peak, so he decided to venture toward that direction since it was clearly the source of the vibrations. As he took his first step, the sun glinted off a shell half-buried in the sand, catching his eye. At this point he began to wonder: what if it was one of the alien species? He stood there for a moment and finally put two and two together. If it was an alien, then he should go and confirm early so he could call the defense team and leave this place safely with his parents, he reasoned.
Now that he had successfully convinced himself with his excuse, he continued walking hastily in that direction again with a half smile.
Sooner than he expected, he arrived at his targeted area in a not-so-thick coconut tree grove during the day. Shadows danced across the sand as the atmosphere thickened with an eerie tension, threatening to swallow him whole. Reggie walked further, his footsteps quiet on the dune. He stopped at the unsettling sight of a man struggling to survive near a crater from a crashed aircraft shrouded in smoldering flames. Perhaps the man was a pilot of a malfunctioning aircraft, trying a desperate crash-landing on the shores.
Deciding to help, he went closer with the intention of assisting the man to the hospital, a few meters away from the beach where they were.
He tapped the shoulder of the man—who at this point was on his knees with his back facing Reggie, wearing a weird, unidentified suit that covered all of his body, with his cyan, hairless, rough head as an exception. Suddenly a purple light from in front of the man shined brightly. In a panic, the man spun toward Reggie and, in a split second, was armed with a sword in his right hand. In a blink of an eye, blood was gushing out of Reggie's pierced belly.
Upon realizing what species Reggie was, the man immediately became so dreadful that he was unable to pull back the sword. Reggie was still shocked at how a five-second reaction with this man—who, up close, did not look human—had written "the end" in his life story. He was in extreme pain. With a giant eye instead of two small ones, a cyan-colored, bruised face, and his mouth covered by a mask of the same material as the suit he wore, the extraterrestrial held his belly where very thick blue liquid—his blood—oozed.
Perhaps whatever it was had been hunted down and perceived Reggie as a threat, or it had come to harm humanity like all the other extraterrestrials that had appeared so far. Either way, it was too late now for the teenage boy. His eyes were becoming heavy, and he was starting to lose consciousness.
The world was losing its vibrant colors. Darkness was pouring into his sight as he thought his last words and wishes to himself.
Just then, the extraterrestrial man's suit started glowing with purple light. So did the sword that had appeared out of nowhere in the man's hands and was now pierced in Reggie's belly. Then a purple crystal, transparent and ghostly, appeared before the alien, floating, with trails of purple light. As all the purple, smoke-like light seeped into the crystal, it began to seem more solid and physical. It glowed more. Soon the sword pierced in Reggie's belly and the costume the alien wore disappeared, forming more of the smoke-like light and following the same path toward the gem—another scene, aside from the sword appearing in the extraterrestrial man's hand, which made Reggie regret not taking fiction and fantasy stories and movies seriously. Now the man, now in underwear and visibly shocked from what was happening, attempted to stand on both feet. Reggie, still in pain from the wound, brought his concentration back to the floating crystal.
The extraterrestrial man seemed even more confused than Reggie, to Reggie's surprise.
Just when the silence was starting to get louder, the crystal, now very solid and purple, shot itself and pierced Reggie's heart. He screamed in pain, but no one else could hear him from that distance. He gave up on life and fell to the ground. The alien, still confused, could not help but feel sad, almost tearing up.
#Story writer: I guess this is where I publish this chapter and end the novel.....wait, what's happening.....#
Reggie opened his eyes. He jumped back onto his feet, blooming with immense energy. As the wound left behind by the gem healed, a bright purple light emitted. A patch of skin, perhaps cloth, which had initially formed around the wounded area, started to grow and spread all around his body like a nanotechnology suit straight out of a sci-fi anime or movie. The spreading substance, similar to the one that had hidden the cyan-skinned extraterrestrial's half-nakedness a moment ago, wrapped his body like a suit—comfortable but an armor from the outside. Upon completion, it surely looked like the same suit that was initially on the extraterrestrial, but this time it suited Reggie's taste and size and looked like the suit of a comic hero.
Just then, the extraterrestrial handed out a round device. "The explanation you seek will come as a result of this. They will use this to find you and explain it all to you. You were chosen by the gem itself—a phenomenon. Now leave this place before you are detected by those who pursue me. Run," he said with his last energy.
Reggie had an edge to trust the extraterrestrial. He took the device, neglecting his attempts to question him on who the "they" that would find him were and why the transformation that was taking place had reversed.
He saw his parents, who had packed up and were waiting for him in the van. Reggie got in the van and urged his dad to drive faster, with the excuse of wanting to see the new part-time job of his friend that he had picked in order to gain experience in trade for their postponed class due to the intrusion of the extraterrestrials.
Just like that, the Jenkins drove off.
The End of this Chapter
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Next Chapter: Revelation and Acceptance
The chapter will feature Reggie getting to know the reason for all these sudden happenings and accepting the responsibilities that comes along this great power.