001: Ezikiel Angeles

The grey walls haunted the room in which a teenager was living. The floor tiles caked with dirt were cracked, and some were even missing, creating an incomplete pattern on the floor. The ceiling was not spared either, as some spots were turning yellow and had holes. These were caused by the rain that managed to leak into the room. Needless to say, plenty thunderstorms came and went in this city.

The cuboid room can only fit one small bed, and even then, it occupied half of the room. The other half was left barren except for the wooden cabinet beside the bed. The wooden cabinet couldn't serve any other purpose bar from being a trashcan. It was too broken to properly hold anything, as even the trash inside was spilling out like a water-filled vase full of holes.

On the other hand, the bed looks brand new.

Under the dim light bulb hanging at the center of the ceiling, the white sheets of the bed shone like a firefly at night. The white pillows were similarly clean and kept, and even the wooden bed frame was devoid of cracks or dust. On the bed lies a beautiful teenager with healthy, neck-length white hair and smooth, unblemished porcelein skin. His fingertips were a little pink, and so were the soles of his feet. The teen was wearing an oversized, pastel blue t-shirt and a pair of white pajamas with prints of cute birds strewn across the fabric.

If he had a pair of white wings, he would look like an angel fallen from above, living amongst commoners in disgrace. However, the pile of dirty and clean cothes surrounding the sleeping teenager shattered that illusion.

BEE—BEE—BEE—BEEP.

BEE—BEE—BEE—BEEP.

BEE—BEE—BEE—BEEP.

With his eyes jolting open, "?!", the boy awoke to the sound of a bomb itching to explode… or at least, that's what it sounded like to his sleepy mind. When his brain caught up with his eyes, his brows furrowed as he began fiddling around the bed. His hand turned to a serpent slithering amongst the pile of clothes in search of the bomb. Regretfully, that bomb would explode soon as the snake couldn't find the bomb, though it seemed that his temper would explode first.

"Ugh, damn it," the teenager cursed, using his elbows as support to half sat up. He looked around his post-apocalyptic-like bed, his head smoothly moving from left to right, and then again to scan around like a human CCTV.

However, "Tsk," the teen was not happy when the bomb was still nowhere to be found. Who told him to keep his bed like this? Yet everytime he got angry at the mess, he never once thought of cleaning it up. 

That took too much effort, so why should he bother?

"Where the fuck," before he could utter a full sentence, he halted and stared at the glowing monitor of a rectangular object. Naturally, it was his cellphone, playing the same beeping sound over and over again like a malfunctioning timed-bomb.

"Oh for fuck's sake," the teen cursed, picking up his phone and dismissing the alarm. Then, his eyes landed on the time. "Three o'clock A.M… five more minutes," the teenager said, laying back down on the bed and closing his eyes.

A moment later, he found himself on the classroom, dominating in the class and answering every single question thrown at him perfectly. After classes, he went back home and took a nap on his couch. How could he know that a boulder would fall on his house a moment later?

BANG!

"GASP!" Taking a deep breath of stuffy air, the teen once again woke up. This time, instead of a groggy mind, he woke up with a splitting headahe. Seeing that he wasn't in a hospital but in his bedroom, the teen sighed, realizing that his trip to dreamlanld had just ended. Rolling to the other side of the bed with regret, the teen reached for his phone and pressed the power button. When the blinding light assaulted his eyes, he squinted, only to widen them again when he read the time.

6:00 A.M.

'I'M LATE!!!' The teenager screamed in his mind, but even so, his body remained like a slug. After sitting up, he stayed still for a moment, yawning and stretching, before putting his feet on the ground… however, instead of standing up, he sat in silence for another minute. He only made up his mind to take a bath after around five minutes.

That morning, he reached the school at 8:00 a.m., missing two classes and nearly being late for the third one.

"Ezi!" A playful whining of a boy sounded next to his ear. "Why were you so late?" asked one of Ezikiel's classmates. His name was Archie, and he regarded himself as Ezikiel's only friend, while Ezikiel thought Archie was insane for wanting to be friends with him. Nevertheless, Ezikiel went along with Archie's ritual.

"I woke up late."

Archie, a teenage boy with short curly locks of black hair, a pair of hazel eyes, and a pair of round eyeglasses, sighed. He knew Ezikiel was lying.

"What happened?" Archie asked again. This time, it was Ezikiel who sighed. He knew he couldn't shake off the other boy without satisfying his curiosity… but he didn't mind humoring him.

"I woke up, and then fell asleep. The rest is history," Ezikiel said curtly, before putting his head down on the table. The professor for their last class is always late, and Ezikiel would take this time to get some shut-eye. Another reason was because their last professor for the day only taught them weird subjects, and not only him, but the entire class was unwilling to listen to that professor.

"Hey, don't fall asleep now," Archie nudged Ezikiel's shoulder, only to get no response. After a few more attempts, he peeked under Ezikiel's desk, realizing that the latter had already fallen asleep.

"Sigh… you're gonna be in trouble again, aren't you?" Archie mumbled, before taking a quick look at Ezikiel and turning away even quicker. 

Just as he turned away, the classroom door opened, catching all the students off-guard as the usually thirty-minutes-late professor Archfield arrived on time today.

"Shit, Ezi, wake up!" Archie whispered into Ezikiel's ear and waited… "Ezi, wake up, quick!" He said again, grinding his teeth while nervously tapping his foot on the floor.

The class was clammoring to get organized, so Ezikiel was hidden for now. However, this smokescreen won't last for long.

"Ezi! If you don't wake up right now, I'll come to your house and burn your pillows!"

Suddenly, Ezikiel's eyelids shot open, revealing his bloodshot eyes. When he lifted his head, he was met with the professor's amused gaze.

"Umm… good morning, professor?"

"Good morning, hmm. Who are you again?" There was a pause, when someonem meekly mumbled Ezikiel's name. The professor heard the student, but acted like he remembered Ezikiel's name instead. "Right, your name is Ezikiel Angeles. Do you mind standing in front of the class for me?"

When the class with their strange professor ended, all the students left the school. Meanwhile Ezikiel wasa forced to do his "punishment". His punishment was going to the library and copying at least fifty pages of one book.

"I'm hungry… and sleepy… urgh," Ezikiel sighed. He didn't take more than a few minutes to reach the library and by then, he already had a book in mind to copy from. He planned on copying an art book. 

"That art book is relatively simple, but damn. Where the hell is it?" Ezikiel muttered to himself. 'Might as well ask the librarian where I should look… or maybe the book was already borrowed?' Ezikiel thought grimly.

Feeling as though his life was on the line, Ezikiel walked briskly to the librarian's desk only to find that the librarian was M.I.A. 

'You rarely see that guy leaving his desk. He always reads that strange book whenever and wherever he can,' Ezikiel thought.

'Speaking of which,' Ezikiel's eyes glimmered in a mischivious light. 'He left his favorite book defenseless. A rookie mistake,' Ezikiel snickered and grabbed the librarian's mysterious book from the counter.

The book didn't have a title, so Ezikiel had no idea whatsoever as to what the book may contain. To further add to the mystery, the book cover was a plain white color. 'I'm surprised that this thing is not grey with dirt and dust,' Ezikiel praised.

"Let's see," Ezikiel held that book as if it was a priceless treasure. His heart was beating so fast that Ezikiel had a hard time breathing. Everything around him also went deathly still and silent. Maybe it was his imagination, but he couldn't care less. Right now, all his attention was on this mysterious book.

"Yawn~" Just then, the door to the library opened silently, and the librarian made his entrance, but Ezikiel didn't notice. Looking at his desk, he smiled. There he saw a boy crouched behind the desk, reading his book with a face that told a hundred tales.

'Is it that interesting?' The librarian thought in amusement. Then, he sneaked behind the boy who looked as if he was reading a perverted book. Raising a machete above the boy's neck, he smiled. "Good night and thank you, little rabbit."

"Huh?" Looking up, the last thing Ezikiel saw was the cold, sharp edge of a machete.

"Ah," stepping on the pool of blood, the librarian bent down and took a handful of his victim's blood. "So sweet, like a fine wine," he mumbled, smothering it on his nose and sniffing it like a drug addict, his cheeks were flushed red, and his mind was intoxicated.

"What a beautiful gift, good job, Eva," the librarian said to himself. A moment later, he smiled, lifting the boy's head and kissing his forehead like a loving father. "Eva said it was a pity to lose you, but why should I care, right?"