The world ending on a Monday felt strangely appropriate, as if the universe were telling a morbid joke. No one saw it coming, despite how poetic it was for the most despised day of the week to be the last. The irony was too perfect to ignore, proving once and for all that Mondays were indeed cursed.

  At least, Galen would agree were he not being pulled into a tear in space, a glowing white void hellbent on swallowing him whole.

  Naturally, he was terrified. Especially with a bird’s-eye view of his hometown crumbling beneath a massive earthquake. As if that wasn’t horrible enough, the sky above was shattering, fracturing with glowing white cracks, as if the heavens themselves were made of glass.

  As the void dragged him in and the certainty of death closed in, Galen’s regrets, not many given his short, fifteen year life, rose to the surface. He thought back to what led to this day.

  ***

  A few days before the end, he’d had THAT dream again. It was a recurring one that haunted him for years. However, it always slipped away upon waking, leaving him with nothing but the sweat on his brow and a gnawing sense of loss.

  People forgot their dreams all the time. However, the sensation he felt after having that dream was completely different. He could almost feel his memories of it being wiped, as though his mind were a chalkboard with the writing being erased. Little bits remained, but they were so minuscule that he couldn’t discern anything tangible.

  Yet he tried his best anyway to recall details as he sat upright in bed, wiping the cold sweat that usually accompanied that accursed dream.

  And, like always, he was left disappointed.

  He sighed with frustration. Though his efforts were mostly fruitless, he did manage to, at least, cling to one thing.

  He got up, walked to the drawer on his nearby desktop, and pulled out an intricate, laminated drawing.

  It was a portrait of HER.

  A year or so after he first started having the dream, he’d tried to remember details. The dream was important. He knew that much, even if he couldn’t explain why.

  This young woman was in that dream, and he felt that she was the most important thing to remember. It had been a slow process, but he’d managed to hang onto bits and pieces of her appearance, and would quickly add them to a portrait he’d personally drawn. Eventually, he had enough to draw a face. That last portrait was the one in his hands now.

  A girl with fair skin, golden blonde hair that was short on the back but with bangs and locks in the front, beautiful sapphire blue eyes, and a calm stoic expression. It was a decent picture, but he felt the portrait fell pretty short of the real thing.

  That’s assuming she even is real, Galen reminded himself.

  He shook his head.

  He had a morning workout to get to. He was an early bird, as one could tell from the time. A very early 6:10 AM. He noted he was in danger of falling behind schedule. Not that that would be a bad thing given the season.

  And so, he got ready for the day. He was glad he could take his time since he didn’t have to go to school today.

  God bless summer vacation, he thought with a smile.

  ***

  His morning run was uneventful save for the fact he almost died.

  After his workout, he walked towards one of his favorite resting spots to cool down. He stopped at a crosswalk, and pushed the button at the light to signal his crossing. Once the familiar stick figure lit up, Galen began to walk across.

  His heart rate spiked as he heard the loud roar of an engine that quickly grew in volume. He quickly jerked his head in the direction of the noise, and saw a speeding truck rapidly closing in on him.

  Time seemed to slow as the large vehicle neared. Galen’s eyes widened in their sockets, and fear gripped him as he realized he was going to be run over.

  He shut his eyes tight, waiting for death.

  He felt something ram into him. Only, it wasn’t a truck. It had felt like a person, and for the briefest of moments, Galen felt himself being picked up and plopped back to his feet.

  When he reopened his eyes, he saw he was, somehow, safely on the end of the crosswalk with a tall man he’d never seen before standing next to him. The driver of the truck that had nearly ended his life had the nerve to honk at him as they sped past, running the red light.

  “Oh screw you!” Galen found himself yelling with indignation.

  He put his hand to his chest as he tried to calm down.

  He’d nearly died.

  Damn, I was nearly killed by Truck-kun… Galen marveled.

  He felt a chill down his spine as he made the joke. He chuckled, using levity to cope with the near death experience.

  What a terrible way to start the day…

  After gathering his wits, he turned to the tall man next to him.

  “Uh… were you the one who saved me back there?”

  The man nodded. Galen tilted his head as he took in his savior’s appearance. The man had sandy blonde hair that looked a bit disheveled, and tired looking sky blue eyes. He wore a long coat in spite of the summer heat, with dark pants, boots, and a camouflaged shirt. He had a look about him that made his age hard to place. He looked to be around his late twenties, but his eyes… they had an ancient vibe to them, as though he were much older than he appeared physically.

  “Thank you,” Galen told the man sincerely, “I mean it. You saved my life. Though… how did you to do it? I could have sworn I was already about to be run over-”

  “Just got lucky is all,” the man responded with a shoulder shrug, “and think nothing of it, kid. I just did what anyone in my place ought to have done. You best be careful now. The world’s getting crazier by the day.”

  The stranger began to walk away.

  “Wait!” Galen called, “what’s your name?”

  The man paused, then responded without looking back, “Doesn’t matter. Best you forget you ever saw me. Not like we’ll ever see each other again anyway.”

  With that, the stranger continued walking until he turned a corner and was out of sight.

  Well, that was weird, he thought, shuddering once more at his near death experience.

  Despite barely avoiding being run over, he was in a more chipper mood.

  There are few things better than the gratitude of being alive after almost dying.

  ***

  On his way home, someone he hadn’t expected found him.

  He felt someone tapping him on the shoulder. He turned and was surprised to see Serenity, his little sister of all people. She was currently wiping clean the finger she had used to tap him on the shoulder with a look of disgust.

  Serenity was two years younger than him. He himself had brown hair and brown eyes. His younger sister had a lighter shade of hair, to the point that it was almost blonde, and it reached down to the middle of her back when she let it down. She usually had her hair in a ponytail, however. Her eyes were also a lighter shade than his own. They both took after their father’s side of the family, and they both carried a strong resemblance to one another. Their parents often joked that if Galen ever wanted to know what he’d look like as a girl, that he need only look at her.

  He frowned, wondering to himself, What’s she doing here?

  “Serenity?” he asked.

  Serenity perked up and smiled brightly, “Galen! I figured you’d be here.”

  She ran up to him and hugged him. He hugged his little sister back, though he was still confused at her presence.

  “How did you know I’d be here?” he asked.

  Instead of answering his question, Serenity suddenly pushed away from him, “Ewww!!! You’re so sweaty!”

  She began to wipe her arms clean of his sweat. He raised a brow, “You JUST tapped me on the shoulder and wiped your finger clean.”

  Serenity flushed, “Yeah well, I forgot!”

  Galen chuckled at his sister’s air-headed lapse, and repeated his question, “Anyway, how’d you find me?”

  “Because you take the same route back home whenever you go on your one of your little fancy runs,” she answered.

  “It’s called Parkour.”

  Serenity rolled her eyes, “Whatever.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Galen looked around, “Where are Mom and Dad?”

  She didn’t answer as she broke eye contact with him.

  He raised his brows incredulously, “You’re alone?! Do they know you’re here?!”

  She did her best to look innocent.

  He sighed, “If Mom finds out you left the house on your own, you’re dead. You realize that, right?”

  “Only if she finds out. Which she won’t!”

  “Suuuuure. But anyway, what’s the real reason you’re here?”

  Serenity’s lips formed a thin line as she frowned and looked pointedly at the ground. He waited for her to answer.

  “Well…” Serenity began, looking bashful, “I guess I just… wanted to hang out with you?”

  Well, he hadn’t been expecting that.

  “If that’s what you wanted, you could have just asked me,” Galen pointed out.

  Serenity huffed at that, “Every time I’ve asked you’ve brushed me off!”

  “I’ve been busy lately.”

  “Busy following grandpa’s training regime that he forced on you for years! Why are you still going along with his crazy plans for you anyway?”

  Galen ran a hand through his hair as he thought, Here we go again.

  Their grandfather, Nolan Daxton, was a touchy subject in the family.

  “It’s been over a year since grandpa passed away, Galen,” Serenity reminded him, “you don’t have to keep going along with his weird plans for you!”

  “No, I don’t,” he agreed.

  “Then-”

  “You’re right that I don’t have to. I do it because I want to.”

  “You serious?”

  “Very.”

  “Okay… so the reason you’re still doing all that training is because you want to? And not, let’s say, because you miss Grandpa?”

  That was a low blow…

  He changed the subject, “You said you wanted to hang out, right?”

  Serenity lit up and nodded eagerly, her eyes shining.

  “Then lets hang out. We better head home fast, though.”

  “What?! Why?!” Serenity complained.

  “Because if we don’t, Mom and Dad will start to worry. Luckily…” Galen checked his phone, “neither of them have called me yet. What about you?”

  Serenity checked her own phone and sighed in relief, “Thankfully, nothing.”

  “Then we have time to make it back before they start calling. But one last thing...”

  “What?”

  “Race you!” Galen took off in a run.

  “Hey! No fair!” Serenity giggled as she gave chase.

  ***

  Galen beat Serenity home, obviously. She glared daggers at Galen as she had her hands on her knees and panted with exhaustion. Galen felt a little smug as he met her glare with a cheeky grin, both entering their home.

  Galen could already smell the breakfast Mom was making. His stomach grumbled, famished from all the exercise he’d done. Judging from the smell, pancakes were on the menu.

  He allowed his stomach to steer him to the kitchen.

  Sure enough, Mom was there, cooking breakfast. Surprisingly though, Dad was there too, glasses and uniform on as he read the news on a tablet whilst quietly sipping his cup of Morning Joe. Normally he would already be at work. Though, there were times like now where his father was called to come in later than normal.

  “Morning Mom! Dad!” Galen said as he sniffed the air.

  “Morning Galen!” Dad cheerfully greeted as he read the news on a tablet, his eyes never leaving the device.

  “Galen,” Mom greeted with a stoic expression, though a small smile was on her lips.

  His father, Andros Daxton, was a man of average height, with close cropped black hair, a five o’clock shadow, and happy brown irises. He had smile wrinkles around his eyes, which indicated the joyful man that he was. He was rather easy going, which made him well liked and respected by the community. He worked as a police officer, and despite his mellow nature, he took his job seriously. He was known as one of the hardest working people in the force.

  His mother, Olivia Daxton, was a woman of above average height, making her nearly as tall as Galen’s father. She had dark blonde hair, to the point of almost being brown, and blue colored eyes. She was a stay at home mom, but would occasionally find work whenever they were saving up for a trip or some other event. Unlike his father, his mother was a very stoic woman, and he always had a hard time figuring out what she was thinking. He hoped he’d never have to play a game of poker against her. Not that he’d ever play, of course, since his parents disapproved of gambling.

  “What’cha cooking, Mom?” Galen asked.

  “Scrambled eggs, turkey sausages, and blueberry pancakes,” his mother responded.

  He loved pancakes. So soft and fluffy… his mouth began to water.

  “Close your mouth Galen,” his mother scolded with a light frown, “and stop drooling.”

  He didn’t realize his mouth was wide open, and that he was, in fact, drooling. He snapped his mouth closed and wiped the saliva from his mouth. “Sorry,” he said with an embarrassed smile.

  Olivia rolled her eyes, and shook her head, “Honestly Galen…”

  Andros snickered, “One would think we never feed you if they saw you drooling over your mother’s cooking. Honestly, you and your sister can be quite the gluttons. Something you inherited from Olivia, I’m certain.”

  Olivia flushed and shot Andros a glare. Galen didn’t know how his father had the spine to laugh in response. Whenever his mother gave him the same glare, he wanted to crawl into a hole and hide.

  “Speaking of your sister,” Mom said, “where is-”

  “I’m here!” Serenity hurriedly pushed past Galen while having her hand raised, as if she were in school and being called for attendance.

  Olivia nodded, and asked, “And where have you been young lady?”

  “Uh…” Serenity glanced to Galen for help.

  “Did you sneak out of the house this morning?” Olivia asked with a calmly raised brow.

  “No! Not at all, Mom!” Serenity squeaked as she lightly elbowed Galen, “I was with Galen the entire time! RIGHT GALEN?!”

  She said that last part a little too loud. She was sweating nervously, and she gave Galen a pleading gaze.

  Galen had to hold back the snorting chuckle that threatened to come out.

  “Is that true?” Olivia asked, turning her stern gaze to him.

  His mother didn’t raise a liar. However, for Serenity’s sake, he would give a partial truth. If that wasn’t enough to save her, then there was nothing more he could do to save his sister from their mother’s calm fury.

  He nodded, “Yeah. Serenity pointed out that it’s been a while since we spent any time together, so we decided to hang out.”

  He conveniently left out the part about Serenity sneaking out and looking for him on her own.

  Olivia’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. Galen could tell she was turning over his words in her head. Her gaze slowly turned back to Serenity, who began to sweat even more profusely. The entire time, Olivia had kept on cooking flawlessly, even without looking. She had an uncanny ability to multitask.

  The air was growing increasingly more tense as her stern gaze lingered on Serenity.

  That tension was broken by Andros, who appeared laughing behind Olivia and hugged her from behind. “Relax honey,” he said calmly to his wife as he kissed her on the cheek, “If Galen was with her, then it’s okay. He’s a responsible older brother. He’d never let anything happen to our daughter. You know that.”

  Olivia’s facial expression visibly relaxed and she nodded.

  Galen saw Serenity let out a sigh of relief out of the corner of his eye. It seems as though she had been holding her breath, funnily enough.

  Andros finally looked their way for the first time this morning. His smile faded when he took in Galen’s sweaty clothes.

  “…You’re still keeping up with that training my old man imposed on you?” Dad asked.

  Galen nodded, “Yeah…”

  Serenity looked between them, looking uneasy.

  Thankfully, no argument was had this time.

  To say Andros resented his father, Nolan, would be putting it mildly. From what Galen could gather, Nolan had been FAR more strict in Andros’s upbringing and training him than he had with him. So much so that it had caused a rift between them that took years to even begin mending.

  According to Andros, Nolan’s obsession with training them had to do with delusions of a coming apocalypse.

  Galen still didn’t know what to make of that.

  The training had been intense and difficult to be sure, and he would’ve liked if his grandfather had toned things down a bit, but he HAD liked learning new skills and improving upon what he learned. In that sense, he’d taken to it far more than Dad had.

  But Andros still wasn’t happy about Nolan’s training. And most certainly hadn’t been jumping for joy when the old man had passed away and Galen still continued to train on his own. Dad had viewed it as the ghost of Nolan haunting his son beyond the grave, which was just silly in his opinion. Just as he’d told Serenity, he kept up the routine because he wanted to, not out of some sense of obligation to his dead grandfather.

  Yet, no matter how many times he explained that, Dad refused to believe him. They’d gotten into arguments about it, with Andros being particularly irked since Galen kept up with his studies, giving his father no excuse he could latch onto to force him to stop.

  They’d been getting better, as of late, tolerating each other’s disagreement, but the tension was still there.

  “My opinions on your training still haven’t changed,” Andros reminded him.

  “I know. Neither have mine,” Galen responded.

  They stared each other down, Serenity looking nervous and Mom looking ready to play peacekeeper as she had many times before. Thankfully, this time, it wasn’t needed.

  Andros, changing the topic, said to his two kids, “Before breakfast, both you shower! You both are drenched in sweat. And you stink!”

  Galen snickered, internally relieved another argument wouldn’t spark, but Serenity glared at their father.

  “It’s because of your genes why we sweat so much you know!” she pouted.

  “What? No, can’t be,” their father stretched his arms upward, revealing small sweat rings had already formed around the armpits of his uniform.

  “Uh huh…” Olivia said in a barely noticeable teasing tone.

  Galen’s mother gave his father a half smile. It was the kind she gave to say to Andros, “Sorry honey, but I’m siding with our kids on this one.”

  Andros, rather than being bummed out, took it in stride and shrugged his shoulders.

  Olivia turned back to Galen and Serenity, “Do as your father says and shower. Serenity, you can use the shower in the master bedroom. That way you both can clean up at the same time.”

  Serenity didn’t say another word as she hurriedly went to do as their mother said. Galen nodded at his parents and went to his bathroom to rinse off all the sweat he had accumulated that morning.

  **Author's Note: This is the first story I have ever published. This series is something I have had in my mind for years, and I have been steadily working toward one day uploading it. And today is that day! To celebrate finally releasing my webnovel, I will be publishing all 3 Prologue chapters as well as Chapter 1 all at once.

  From there, for the next two weeks, I will be publishing a chapter a day for the next two weeks. After which I plan to upload two chapters a week.

  I sincerely hope you all enjoy this passion project of mine.**