Alex was leaning against the balcony rail alone after telling them that he needed a space to think, looking down at the beautiful city below. The soft sound of distant conversations and laughter from inside the mini cathedral-like hall was drowned out by the sweet night air. The wind carried a cool, gentle bite, brushing past him as if trying to soothe whatever was twisting inside his chest.
The Elixir was glowing, faintly in his hand. He tilted it slightly, letting the city's luminescent light pass through the green liquid, but the moment the light touched it, the Elixir swallowed it and then turned brighter. It reflected in his eyes, turning his thoughts blank slowly as he felt tempted to drink it.
Alex then sighed before looking away from the bottle, then he stared at the horizon where the city lights met the impenetrable darkness of the sky. Alex stared at it for a long few seconds with a complicated feeling.
He tried to imagine, for just a moment, a life without the Sphere… A real sky, real stars. A world that wasn't filtered or sealed, a world with more lands and more people. A world that didn't isolate him from all the wonderful things he heard tales about. The thought made his heart beat faster. He wanted it. God, he wanted it so badly.
His desire for it grew even more as he thought about all the wonderful things beyond it, but beneath all that desire, a hint of uncertainty slowly crept in as his smile turned dark.
'What if it wasn't safe out there? What if the scientists and those weird Sphere worshipers were right, and the outside was nothing but poison and storms and a planet long dead?'
This thought pressed against his mind for a long time. Alex stared at the dark sky, unsure what it would be like to live outside without the Sphere.
Alex exhaled slowly, then his gaze drifted back to the Elixir. The green glowing liquid was stunning to look at. "If this thing… if this thing truly worked…"
If strength like that existed… a strength that could punch through solid walls, shake the ground, maybe even tear the sky, then maybe, just maybe… this was the first crack in the cage.
Though things like this Elixir weren't uncommon. There were lots of drugs that could do the same, some could last even for months with great side effects, of course.
Though Alex didn't know why he felt so bothered by this one and why his desire felt more like a belief that this could be the first key to open the sky. But the thought didn't make him happy at all. It terrified him. "What are you doing?"
Alex's thoughts were abruptly cut off by a sweet voice behind him.
"Just taking in the night air," he said, but he didn't turn his head to look at who he was talking to, fearing what they would think when they saw his troubled face.
The person with the sweet voice walked to stand beside him, leaning against the balcony rail. Though Alex refused to turn his head toward them, he looked at them using his peripheral vision.
It was the beauty with the dark mask he had seen while dining. She was as beautiful as ever… she looked even more beautiful now that Alex was standing closer to her.
"Yes, it feels wonderful out here," she said with a playful voice. "And the city looks as beautiful as always from up here." Alex stopped focusing on her and looked back at his Elixir, thinking about nothing.
"You seem to be in deep thought. What are you thinking about? Wait. you aren't thinking of drinking that unsightly Elixir, are you?"
Alex looked away from the Elixir and glanced at her. She looked somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn't think where he had met her. Then he shook his head. "I might. It looks very tempting," Alex smirked darkly.
She tilted her head slightly at him. After making that not-funny joke, he looked away from her and sighed.
"Isn't it better to be free from this Sphere?... But what if it's all a lie, and nothing exists beyond the Sphere?"
As someone who had spent his whole life inside the Sphere, the world outside was a mystery to him, although he had watched all kinds of movies about it he couldn't begin to think how life would be like out there.
While busy with that thought process he smelled a very intoxicating scent. He then turned his head to look at her, she was smoking. The smoke was blue instead of the natural gray color he was used to seeing. Alex raised an eyebrow.
She puffed more blue smoke out and glanced at him. She then smiled, took out the bizarre cigarette from her mouth, and pointed it at him. "Do you want some?"
Alex shook his head, fearing what kind of cigarette this might be. "No, I don't smoke."
She chuckled a little, which did indeed somehow help Alex's mental state in that moment. "It's not a cigarette. Trust me, it would do you good."
Alex stared at it for a few moments hesitantly before extending his hand to take it from her. Then he sucked on it slightly, trying not to choke himself, but the moment he did, his mind suddenly went blank…
The taste of that strange blue cigar was ridiculously delicious, better than anything he had tasted before. So he started to suck on it even more.
"Hey, calm down or you're gonna choke yourself," said the girl as she giggled. "By the way, I saw you staring at that Elixir. What were you thinking about?"
Satisfied, Alex gradually decreased sucking on the blue fog, then said: "That guy… Julian Cross, the CEO of that rising conglomerate Xyrenix…"
She tilted her head slightly, thinking for a few seconds before asking playfully. "What about him?"
Alex sighed as his mood darkened again. "Their new prototype that could potentially free us from this place…" He moved the Elixir closer to his face while looking through it.
"And their new Elixir that could temporarily enhance a person greatly… just after publicly announcing their project he distributed this here… I feel kinda bothered by it all."
The girl stared at him for a few seconds, then nodded as if she had decided something before asking: "Why?"
Alex sighed again, then pressed against the rail, in deep thought.
'Why am I so bothered by it when no one has ever been able to pierce through it? Why do I think that guy would be able to? It's not like I don't want to be free from here… but why am I so against it? Wouldn't it be better if it was broken?'
Alex looked up at the shadowy sky, hoping it could help him clear his mind, hoping to understand why he feared not being protected by it. But that wasn't helping him at all, unlike how it usually did.
He sucked on through the cigarette deeply before puffing it out then responded shortly. "I just hope I could see what was beyond this impenetrable darkness…"
'Yes, that is what I want. Why can't they focus their technologies on building something that lets us see through it? Why try to break it… then again, they might have tried that multiple times and gave up, just like when they tried to break it.' "You want to see what's beyond that?" she asked, pointing at the sky.
Alex nodded at her energetically, hoping she understood. She then started chuckling even more. "Oh Lord, how could you see through that thing? It's basically impossible."
Alex looked away from her and kept staring at the dark sky, uninterested in looking anywhere else.
After a few minutes, her laughter faded, and she found herself staring at the sky with him.
Alex's throat began to burn like fire now. It had been burning ever since he smoked from that blue cig, at first it felt good, but now it felt like he had swallowed an actual flame. Every second he spent here, his throat burned even more, distracting his thoughts and making it hard to think.
Then he heard the girl talking again. "Though… not easy, but I could help you with that, Alex."
Alex was momentarily stunned, not understanding what she said, but the only thing he managed to register was his name. He raised an eyebrow at her.
"How do you know my name?" She tilted her head a little before taking off her mask. "What about now?"...
Before him was a gorgeous woman who seemed to be in her early twenties. She had violet eyes and shadowy hair that flowed down her shoulders like a waterfall.
Alex blinked for a few moments. 'She looks very familiar even now… but… where did I meet her?' Thinking hard, unsure who she was, he shook his head.
"Sorry… it's hard for me to remember where we've met before." She frowned slightly before saying:
"What? How could you forget someone like me?" Then she chuckled before looking back at the sky.
Just then, just as she did, a string of memories started to flow into his head, where they'd met. It was just hours ago, after he left the bus. He even tried to get her NOVA, but she refused, saying she doesn't use it. He blurted out: "Cera?" She glanced at him, then smiled slightly.
"Now you remember. Ah, how could you forget someone as beautiful as me?" She shook her head.
As she said all this, Alex was dealing with something else. His throat was burning even more, it felt like he was swallowing molten flame. He started sweating a lot too.
Cera then smirked at him darkly and said: "You said you wanted to see what was beyond that, right?"
She pointed at the sky once again, this time with a bright smile, before continuing: "Then your wish is granted."
Alex was momentarily blinded by the pain in his throat. He couldn't even hear what she was saying. Before he knew it everything turned dark