Prologue
The wind blows through my naturally medium ash brown shoulder length hair as my blue eyes scan over the woodsy forest at the base of the mountain that me and my friends decided to take a day trip to a couple of months before we graduate. I sit on a rock as my friends laugh their asses off about something I’m not paying attention to nor care enough about knowing. Fifteen minutes go by until I feel a hand on my shoulder. I look up to see Embers. Embers is 6′5 compared to my 5′6 height. He’s lean but muscular, has shoulder length black hair that he pulls back every so often. He has blue eyes and quite a few tattoos and he wants to get more.
“What are you doing off on your own?”
“Nothing, just looking at the forest. It’s beautiful.”
“Hmm, maybe one day you’ll get your own personal forest.”
“That is wishful thinking.”
“You’ll never know,” he says like he’s planning something.
“Yeah...” Embers squeezes my shoulder a little.
“You won’t leave me, will you?” I ask.
“You’re my best friend. I’ll always be with you.”
“You promise?”
“I promise you Aura, I’ll never leave you.”
I would know a few months after we graduated, he would in fact leave me, breaking that promise.
“I’ll keep you to that.”
“I know you will Aura. I expect nothing less from you.”
“Your girlfriend is going to get mad that you’re over here with me instead of over there with her and the others.”
“She can deal with it for a few minutes. I’ve spent most of my time with her today already. I haven’t talked to you much today.”
“If you say so... Well, how’s your bike?”
“I’ll have to get a new one. They’ve replaced everything but it’s just shot.”
“Are you going to get an R1?” I ask him.
“Most likely.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you did get it.”
“On a completely different note. Have you heard that some people have been replaced by clones because their families are selling them to organizations, kidnapped and were never found, or the person ran away?”
“Wait, are you being serious?”
“Completely serious.”
After a while of us talking we head over to where our friends are. He goes over to Ella. I go over to Aspen and sit beside him.
The following months were filled with doing things together like group trips to different places or doing whatever. Then graduation comes, two months after.... radio silence. I would try calling Embers and our friends, but no one would answer.
Every so often I would feel as if someone was watching me, but I always shook it off. The feeling stayed that way until one night while I was walking home from doing a delivery run..
I have heard some rumblings about a new mafia group of Death Wish Angels. Especially the leader Demise. I just hoped that I wouldn’t get on his bad side somehow.
