Guardian Rising Chapter 1 Scene 1 (Damian)

(Damian Drako)


This place... It isn't the first time I've come to the crossing, but each moment I spend here feels like a dream; an escape from humanity. I sat there, for the longest time with my headphones on, immobile, lost inside my own little world. It's better for things to be this way.

To think, that just half a century ago, none of this was real. Crossings like this would incite conversation, excitement, life. People didn't just walk right past one another, unwilling to mutter a single sound. From this idea of community, we had drifted apart, and become a burden to one another. I feel absolutely no shame in saying this: I hate this world. I hate it with a boiling passion. I hate every single cell of it.

I just don't understand how we came about to live like this. Then again, I'm being hypocritical, isolating myself inside my own garden; my personal Eden. Their shoes clop on the pavement the way hooves on a horse do. I heard a common, saddening echo in their steps. "To each their own ideal," one might have said long ago. Consciously, everyone thinks like that. However, I hear the exact opposite. The way they move about, converse with each other; the way humanity interacts with one another has done nothing but degrade over the years. People think they can just push through this crowd, minding no one but themselves.

So then, why am I protecting it? Why was I born the way I was, destined to become what I am supposed to be? I see no point in these people, roaming about, unable to stop and breathe for just a moment. Then again, this is a city crossing; nobody's going to stop, and keep going alive. If you freeze in the middle of this angry pack of bulls, a body bag is most likely what you'll end up in.

The more I think about it, the more flaws I see. Why am I even thinking about this?! I wasn't born like any of these stupid, useless mortals! I could incinerate everyone in this crossing if I wanted to! So then, why can't I do it? What is this feeling, preventing me from reinventing this world? Is it... Dependence? Argh! Who or what could I be dependent on?!

A sudden chill stabbed me in the back. I opened my eyes in surprise, and ran towards the crossing, headphones still on. I saw it in the corner of my eye; a kid had tripped onto the busy street. Hang on! I'm coming! I'm not letting someone useful and innocent like you die! Finally! Someone saw him! No you idiot! Don't jump! NO!

Too late; the car crashed into the middle-aged man, sending him and the child spiraling into the air. I lay fallen on the pavement, watching their limp bodies crash to the ground. Why... Why do I have to fail like this? I don't know how long I've been lying there, but I can hear sirens blaring. The child's mother was weeping, and so was the middle-aged man's wife. Ugh... I don't want to admit the ugly truth, yet I already know what had happened. I... I didn't even know their names...

Some time had passed before I finally gathered enough strength to stand up. Just like that, the crowd was gone, and the crossing life resumed as usual. However, to me, I knew it would never be the same. Bitter tears rustled down my cheeks, yet everybody was too busy to notice me, standing right in the middle of the crowd. This place, the crossing of paths, the gates between one another's worlds; I hate it all.