What would you do if you had a second chance?
I lay on the freezing cold concrete staring into the starless night sky. My life flashed by as my eyes began to feel heavy as I drew in my last breath, and everything went dark...
-that morning-
*beep beep beep*
"Ugh"
*beep beep beep*
"Fine I'm up, just shut up already!"
I grumbled awake as my alarm clock continued to beep. I slammed the snooze button then got up and out of my bed. The blanket slid off me as my foot touched the cold ceramic floor.
I looked through the window as I felt the scent of warm pancakes creep in through my nose.
I walked down to the dining room finding my family eating their breakfast silently. I sat down next to my brother and began eating my plate of breakfast joining the quiet feast.
”Why is everybody so quiet?” I whispered to myself.
“So son how’s school treating ya?” my dad asked me breaking the silence.
“Oh it’s fine, no bullies around so that’s good,” I answered. The house became silent again.
I quickly shoved the rest of my breakfast into my mouth, which I regretted doing five seconds later. I was forced to slowly chew it.
I prepared for school like usual, making sure my pocket money was there. Did I say pocket money? Yes I did. I had a part-time job at that time at a fast food restaurant. I should get a full-time job to earn more income.
After finishing my school bag, I walked into the bathroom and looked into the mirror.
I was lucky enough to be able to live in a house provided with food and everyday needs. There are people out there who are not as lucky as I was; who needs what I had.
I threw off my clothes and walked into the shower scrubbing myself, the warm water sliding down my body upon impact. I exited out of the shower drying myself, and although the warm water blurred my vision a bit, I picked up my toothbrush and began brushing my teeth as I normally do. My school uniform was always a pain to put on. I had to button up my clothes, which I sometimes messed up and had to start all over again. Not to mention the tie...
The sound of my family laughing from downstairs disturbed me. I grabbed my bag and put on my shoes. "I'm going to school now!" I called back at my family, bursting through the door like the house was on fire without knocking the door down. (That fancy oak wood door cost thousands of dollars, and if I’d even get a tiny scratch or dent on it well… Yeah you get the picture).
I ran out of the front yard, and jumping over the fence I continued my run for a while until I slowed down to catch my breath. Shortly after, I began to walk slowly, then picking up my pace a bit. The walk to school was only half an hour away. I saw my friend walking to the convenience store to buy something. I increased my pace and greeted my friend:
"Wadup, Jake!"
"Oh what's up?" he replied.
"Nothing much I guess."
"So… buying cheap stuff again?" he asked.
"Yeah," I replied.
He looked at me and smiled. "Dude, you know you can always borrow money from me."
"Yea I know, but it just makes me feel bad for leeching off you." I looked into my wallet finding a single ten-dollar note. I picked up a packed sandwich on the refrigerator. Smoked chicken sandwich for two dollars fifty? That's a good deal but I’m risking the quality here… Eh I’m sure it’s fine, I thought. I walked to the cashier.
"That will be two dollar fifty please.” I was about to hand her the money until...
"I'll pay for it!" Jake came out of nowhere and gave her the right amount of money.
"Dude n—" I felt something pinched my lips, stopping me from continuing. Jake took the food and handed it to me.
"Sssssshhhhhhh," He put his fore finger against his lips, then quickly ran out of the store and waited for me.
Uuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh. My mind went blank after what just happened. I eventually walked out of the store and glared at him.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Yes, to stop you from telling me that I don't have to give you money."
“I just can’t stop you, can I?” I face palmed.
“Nope!” he chuckled feeling amused as we continued walking down the road to school. We walked through the gates seeing the campus perfectly fine, not like that incident when all the students decided to trash it. It took a couple of weeks to recover what was either burned or broken.
"I hope that incident never happens again," I said.
"Yeah. After the riot died down, we had to stay away from school for weeks until the new shipment of desks and seats are in, plus the school fees raised up about twenty five percent more than the original,” Jake agreed. “Also we missed summer holidays because of it, no way am I going to do that again."
The bell rang, startling me. Note to self: don't stand near the speaker, it might just make you go deaf.
I opened my bag to check my timetable, using my finger as a guide. After tracing the date and time, I discovered that history and geography was the first and second period’s subject.
I journeyed my way into the first class and sat on my chair. The lecture began talking about the medieval times of different countries. Well this is boring, I thought as the history teacher continued the lecture. I glanced at the clock and back at the teacher, then back at the clock. The sweep-hand only just moved; what felt like three seconds was only a mere second. Man I'm hungry as hell. My stomach grumbled, and just as I was about to get whiny, the bell rang.
"Oh thank God I can finally eat."
The bell rang indicating lunch. I waited until everybody in the classroom left because that's the safest time to leave a class of thirty students rushing through a one-person-gap door. Eventually the entire classroom became empty, I began making my way to the cafeteria and sat next to Jake who was busy stuffing his face.
Jake looked up and asked, "You free this afternoon?"
"Yea, why do you think I won't be?" I replied.
"Just asking," he took another bite.
I sat down next to him and opened the packed sandwich. I opened wide and took my first bite. This is pretty good for a cheap sandwich, I continued eating. I threw the packaging into the recycling bin after I finished.
There was silence between us until Jake asked, "Wanna go to that new arcade that opened up a couple days ago in the city tonight?"
"Sure where do we meet?" There's apparently a new arcade in town. I don’t know what it is but something tell me that tonight is going to end badly.
"Meet me at my house after school, we'll meet up there. I already have the money for both of us to play as many times as we want," he assured.
“But that’s unfair, you're the one pa—”
“I said I got it covered,” Jake reminded sternly.
“Fine fine jeez
How do we get there though?" I asked
“How do we get where?”
“To the arcade. I mean I can’t just go around asking my dad to drive us there.”
“Why not?”
“Just imagine yourself after a hard day of labour, then your son asks you to drive them to the arcade just for them to come back two hours later.”
“Yeah I would be pissed if that happens.”
“Well it’s like that if I asks him, so how do we get there?” I repeated.
"Easy, we take the train into the city and walk all the way to the arcade. After we had our fun, we can go home. Easy as that."
The rest of lunch wasn't really eventful, we only talked about our current problems in life. I heard the bell rang again. Aaaaaand next class, I thought, getting up and out for the next class.
I looked at my timetable. Foreign languages… Fine let’s get this over and done with.
-after school-
I burst through my classroom door and ran back to my safe haven (a.k.a home). I walked in the front door, then took my shoes off and put it on the rack.
"Mom, dad I'm home!" I called out walking into my room. I changed into my casual clothes, made sure I had my phone with me, and walked out of the house.
"I'm going to my friend’s house now!"
“Be careful and come back in time for dinner!” my mother shouted from the kitchen.
“Yes, mom!”
It was about quarter to four in the afternoon when I left. Sometimes I wished I had a bike to go around, but life didn’t grant me that luxury. Luckily, Jake only lived three or four blocks away. The train to the city should take an hour, so we’ll have plenty of time to have fun. With that in mind, I began my walk to Jake’s.
Eventually I reached his home, only to find him already waiting for me.
“Finally. How long do I have to wait for you to walk four blocks!?”
“Patience you must have young padawan.”
“Yes master,” he sarcastically bowed to me.
It was a good thing Jake lived close to the train station otherwise we would've come home later than our parents would have allowed.
We walked to the fare machine. Since Jake held all the money he bought two train tickets to the city. We didn't have to wait that long for the next train as the train literally stopped on the station right after he handed me my ticket.
Through the car our conversations was the only one heard. We talked to each other about the new arcade. Jake told me about what he saw in the poster detailing the things in the arcade. The train finally began to slow down to a stop at the city station where me and Jake stepped out of the carriage.
The city was undergoing an upgrade to a new system. A few of the old buildings are getting torn down to be replaced with a new one.
I looked over to my side seeing an old McDonalds building getting torn down by a bulldozer. I felt a slight pang of sadness as I saw the big yellow “M” sign was knocked down.
“And aaaaaaahhhhhh-ii-aaah will always love youuuuuu~” I sang reaching out for the building getting torn down.
“Really?” Jake asked.
“Yes,” I sobbed fakely, "It's been like... how many years have I been away from the city?"
"Two?" Jake offered.
"Yeah that's right. The world changes so fast in a short amount of time." When you get caught up in school assessments and studying for tests it can literally stop you from going anywhere physically.
The changes are slowly spreading throughout the city even in the next couple of years the changes are expected to even finish and spread to our homes.
We walked through the gate separating the station to the outside world. I walked through one of the AFC (automated fare collection system) and inserted the ticket in the slot. We regrouped and walked out of the station.
We avoided going anywhere close to an alleyway and after the more crowded area so that getting mugged was more unlikely.
We eventually reached the newly opened arcade. I could see new arcade machines and white neon lights outlining stairs, walls and even the arcade machines themselves Reminds me of tron, I thought as my eyes looked around the arcade.
"Sweet!" his eyes wandered somewhere else and then he pointed. "look the arcade is so big there's even stairs to go up to another level!"
He pointed at the set of stairs leading to the upper level and a sign next to it which says "level two" this place is bigger than I thought.
"What should we play first?" I asked.
"I don't know, let’s take a look around before we touch anything," he answered.
We looked around for a game eventually finding something that seem to catch our attention.
It was an old racing game. I looked at the arcade machine, the machine looked very worn. There were stains on the surface on basically everything and visible cracks on the screen, even the groove on the plastic steering wheel that was supposed to be there was no more than a smooth surface.
"How old is this thing?" I asked looking at the blocky graphics.
"Well it's made in nineteen ninety-three so it must be pretty old," Jake answered.
After all these years the creator of the game haven't made a 'remastered' version like other games but instead they kept the old version alone to decay into another old to be forgotten game.
I sat in one of the seats and inserted two tokens given to me by Jake. The level select appeared and the music changed suddenly from a chorus of people repeating the word "Daytona let's go away" to a series of guitar riffs and drums. Jake tapped my shoulders and said.
"I give you ten bucks if you can come first in expert mode" he has a smirk on his face which says 'I know you can't do it' but I was going to prove him wrong.
“Y’know this game?” I asked.
“Yep! played it every time I go to an arcade if they have one,” He kept smirking at me.
"Ok just prepare that ten bucks for me, I got this all in the bag," I turned the steering wheel to the right until the expert mode sign is blinking and pressed on the accelerate pedal.
"Select your car" the machine stated, I picked the manual car and the screen suddenly went straight into the game
*ding*
My hands began to sweat as I gripped the steering wheel tightly
*ding*
I put my foot all the way down on the pedal
*DING*
The race began. I only have two laps to reach first place how hard could it be?
On the first ten seconds of the track I decided to screw up and miss the turn causing my car to go off the track. I quickly recovered from my failure and passed the first five cars in a group. I glanced at the mini map finding the first car in place was indeed far away.
I passed the second lap and I'm now in tenth place. I passed a few more cars on the bridge and somehow reached second place.
”Like I said, I got this.” I said cockily
My heart is thumping against my chest and sweat began to pour slowly over my head as the a.i and me raced to the finish line. I missed the same turn and put myself behind the a.i again, I snaked left and right trying to pass it. I accidentally bumped the back of the vehicle forcing me back into second gear in order for me to accelerate faster. I tried gaining the first place but I passed the finish line before I did...
...
...
There was a silence of ten seconds when I just realised what happened "did that really just happened?"
"hehe yep but at least you placed second that's not bad," Jake chuckled.
"Well you know what they say, better luck next time." I said shrugging.
"Let's look around for more games," He said as I stand up from my seat.
“You know what we should do?”
“What?” He asked.
“We should go collecting tickets!”
“Yea and waste it all on useless prizes,” Jake responded.
“Don’t be a party pooper.”
“Whatever,” He rolled his eye.
Skipping ahead three hours of ticket hunting later I looked at my phone to see it was eight pm at night.
"Let's go, I'm tired of playing" we won a couple of useless prizes from winning over a hundred tickets and trading it for things, we got nothing more than boring old key chains and rubber balls.
“Why was it so hard to get the tickets?” He groaned.
“This place has great games but if you want to win a prize well… yeah not worth my time and money.”
We walked down the two storey high arcade and out the door. I looked around the crowded city as we walked back to the station.
Half way (I think it's halfway) to the station we saw a group of four people in the alleyway, dressed in what you would call a thug's clothing. Three of them were staring down a much smaller man in office wear, he looked terrified.
"So you stepped into our turf eh?" One of them who I think is the leader let out a slow and deep menacing chuckle cracking his knuckles, ”well he’s screwed.”
"N-n-no man just let me pass," the stuttering office worker reached into his back pocket and held up his wallet "I'll give you my wallet just don't hurt me."
He looked like he was about to wet his pants, "well thank you but...me and my gang want to have some fun don’t you think?" The leader held his hand up grabbing a baseball bat given by one of his followers. He pulled back getting ready for the swing when Jake snatched the bat off him...wait Jake!? I was so focused on the event that I did not notice him at all.
"Now listen here mate you don’t wanna do that, he gave you his wallet, let’s all turn around and go the opposite way now," Jake said trying to help the poor office worker out of this mess while, I'm just standing in the background hoping for this would end peacefully.
The thug growled and decided to kick Jake in the stomach, “I don’t know who you are but no one messes with me.”
Jake stumbled backwards and dropped the bat, I stared at the bat as it slowly rolled to my foot as the three thugs began to circle Jake staring him down.
The three stopped suddenly and began to beat him mercilessly.
Cries of pain and agony drowned out the background noises.
At that very moment I felt something inside me awake as I picked up the bat and ran to the group "Jake you owe me five bucks for this."
I swung the bat around wildly hitting the leader in his arm knocking him forward. The group turned and looked at me as if I was crazy.
I prayed, hoping I won't end up in a hospital or worse.
I ducked down low to avoid a left hook from the leader.
A kick was delivered to my sides making me drop the bat “Urg,” I clutched my sides as another powerful kick pushed me to my knees. The thug leader kicked me again as I tried to get up forcing me on my back.
“Let me repeat what I said, no one messes with me.” He said menacingly as he begin to continuously kick my ribs.
Jake stood up and grabbed metal pipe in his hand and joined the fight. He first drop kicked the thug leader pushing him away from me as his followers caught him helping him back up.
“You alright?” Jake pulled me up and faced three of them.
“Yeah, I’m good” I said dusting myself off picking up the bat again.
“Get them” The leader said as the other two thugs came running at us.
I sidestepped as a thug came running at me with a knife thrusting it where my chest was. I turned around as did the thug going for a low kick.
“Oh no you don’t!” I jumped over his leg and swing the bat downwards hitting the thug square on the head, “HYAA!”
The thug dropped down unconscious as a line of blood trailed down his head.
I looked back finding that Jake had knocked out the other thug. His face covered in bruises with an angry expression.
“Remind not to get on your bad side” I said looking around searching for the leader.
The leader reached into his back pocket pulling out a shiny silver revolver while cocking the hammer back to shoot.
“Goodnight,” The leader said with a grin.
I saw what was going to happen and went for it.
I ran in front of Jake as quickly as my legs could take me, I stopped and stood there arms wide open as time slowed down...
*BANG*
I felt a searing hot pain ripped through my chest making it harder to breath all of a sudden as I fell down.
Time slowed down even more as I laid on the freezing ground. There was two blinking light of blue and red, I tilted my head towards the fleeing thug disappearing into the dark alleyway and out the other side.
I used what little strength I have left and looked up, there I saw the starless night and a very shocked Jake looking down on me. I kept staring into the night sky, in the first time in my life I actually felt pure sadness yet not a single tear was shed.
"I-is this what it feels like?" I questioned myself feeling numb. I tried hanging for my life but to no avail as more blood left my body.
“N-no man hang on we’re going to the hospital.” Jake said
“Jake… Tell my mom that… I’m sorry I can’t make it to dinner.” I said taking in breath one last time as everything went pitch black...
...
...
...
I awoke in a black void as white orb floated in front of my face.
"What is your dream?" the orb gently spoke in a both feminine and masculine voice. I can feel my body but nothing else, it's as if I’m floating in space naked.
"To become a programmer," I replied, I still can't tell if the voice was a woman's or man's voice.
"What do you desire?" it asked again.
"What do you mean?" I asked confused.
"What do you desire?" it repeated.
"I-I… I don’t know," I stuttered.
“...”
I was met with a long silence after what I just said.
"If you were to have a second chance what would you do?" The same voice asked.
I wasn't exactly sure how to answer this one.
”When you find the answer come back here and tell me,” it said as blinding light covered my vision...
*gasp*
I gasped awoke finding myself in the middle of a dense forest "how did I get here...?" I asked myself. What? How am I not dead?
I touched where the bullet should have pierced my chest only to find nothing. No wound or pain whatsoever. I stood up on my legs feeling that everything was there.
I heard growling of an animal to my left, I turned around to see the animal to find a wolf like creature made of wood with glowing eye what the... the wooden wolf suddenly pounced at me trying to bite down my neck. I quickly stepped back seeing that it is in fact trying to kill me.
”NOPE!” And with that I decided to leg it.
