AUGUST 17TH, 2023
Ravine kisses Alex on his shoulder. They were in Ravine’s mansion as the man was seeking comfort from his girlfriend. He had tears in his eyes as he cuddles her body.
“It’s okay. Shush…” she too was reminded of the fateful deaths of the Johnson Family. First was Cassandra and Zayn who had a fatal car crash historical incident in South Korea.
“Why is this happening to us?” He asks Ravine. As if she would know.
“I don’t know, Alex. Please calm down. Your match is in the evening. Don’t risk yourself to emotional instability anymore. Please. It’s already a wreck that we are here, despite the challenges. It’s a national-”
“I don’t care RAVINE! I… I don’t care…” he sniffles, kissing her shoulder to apologize. Ravine was used to his yells. He was susceptible to becoming emotionally unstable really quick. He is what she calls as a walking red flag.
But her mind always ignores those, because Alex would apologize to her even if heaven becomes hell.
“Things aren’t the same as they were before when Louis was alive. Now we’re all just broken people. Nick has an affair. He and Dan are close but as soon as the world saw him as gay with his own adopted brother…” Alex shakes his head. Everything was surfacing through his thoughts. He couldn’t handle the pressure, especially since the national football championship.
This championship and winning was pressing down on his shoulders. Not only did he have to compose himself and strike the best shots, he also had to carry his whole team on his shoulders as the best player. He thanked God that he wasn’t made captain. Things would have spiraled into a different trajectory and Alex would have probably willed to take his own life.
Somehow, Ravine was there to prevent that from happening. She gave him solace. She understood all of his melancholy and tried to be there for him.
Some things just cannot be under our control.
Accidents happen everywhere around the world, all the time.
The family is still unaware of Louis’ cause of death. They all believed it was a malfunction within the aircraft.
And sometimes… enemies are everywhere and wanting us to perish.
Just like it happened with Louis.
“Come on. Wash your face. I’ll feed you lunch.” Ravine states. She wakes up and sits on the bed while tugging Alex with his arms to sit up.
“I don’t want to play this Game, Ravine.” She sits back down beside him. Understanding him has become one of her personalities. She carefully caresses his face and enquires, “Why don’t you want to play for this championship, Alex? You have been dreaming about it ever since you knew how to talk. What happened?” She softly enquires.
The man shakes his head and looks up at the ceiling.
“I have a bad feeling about this.”
His eyes held tears and as soon as the last word was uttered, the transparent crystals rolled down his cheeks. He stares at Ravine with an expression that spoke, “I have a really, really, nasty bad feeling about today’s event. The championship was something I dreamt about… but not under these circumstances.”
Ravine clicks her tongue, pitying the man as she hugs him tightly.
“I’ll be cheering the best I can. Later, we will visit their graves. Is that fine with you?” Says Ravine as it boost his morale. Just a little.
“That sounds great. I wanna talk to Louis. How dare he leave me like that.” He grumbles as Ravine couldn’t help but chuckle lowly.
“That’s my man. Now let me feed you.”
After their lunch, Alex was called down for a meeting with their football coach.
They were all stationed in the backstage accommodation of the stadium. It was a good football stadium in New Jersey. (These are imaginary places lmao I’ve never been to NJ)
Ravine was waiting for his arrival for hours. The match will start in half an hour or less. The production company, journalists and reporters all have arrived at the scene.
Ravine hears the commotion of the groups passing by the accommodation rooms as she hears muffled voices.
“Did you know? Framton Johnson’s son is going to participate in the event! Oh, I can’t wait to see him! I’ll interview him too!”
“That’s right! He’s the best hot topic right now! Boy’s lost his sister and brothers and the Johnson Family is facing like the biggest controversy in familial history. How can this even happen dude?” The voice gets thinner and thinner.
“Maybe they want publicity.” The last sentence was said as their conversation disappears into thin air.
Further conversations went unheard, because Ravine was stuck to the words of those two men.
“For publicity?” She scoffs. She finds it bizarre that between the deaths of their loved ones, the media tries to enlarge everything and rebel against every privacy rights ever known to humans. She wonders how Nick and Dan are coping with their disappearance from media’s reach. She already knew Framton Johnson was a clever man. He couldn’t risk neither his company nor his kids’ reputations.
Alex barges inside while throwing the gloves and his jersey on the floor. The room was eerie and filled with his anger as Ravine flings to her feet out of concern.
“What happened!?” She yells at him who yells back.
“Stay away! You have nothing to do with this!”
Instead of getting back at him, she takes a deep breath and clenches her jaw.
“Okay.” She utters softly.
“I’m sorry…” Ravine knew this was coming. Keeping him at a distance, she sits on the couch while he sat on the bed.
“Our captain fucking ran away. He’s such a chicken.” Ravine’s eyes bulge out of her head.
“And they made you captain now?” She asks as he hums.
“What the fuck? I mean- did you agree?”
“I had no other option. They all look up to me now. Just What I didn’t want. Fuck!” He bangs his fist on the bed.
“Shush… calm down. It’s going to be fine. I promise.”
Soon, all the cameras around the sports field begin to roll. The flashlights are switched on. It was blinding.
“Excuse me. Excuse me.” Ravine skims through the crowd of audience through the first ring. She wanted to be as close as possible to her lover. He, as soon as he comes out of the field while waving his hand and accepting the cheers, begins looking for her. He was running aimlessly, which was even captured on the big screen.
“He is waving to someone! Who’s that lucky girl!?” The commenter says as the camera pans towards Ravine. She hides behind her palms while blushing.
“Oh why isn’t that the girlfriend of New York team’s captain!? Isn’t she gorgeous people?” The people cheer for the girl collectively more than they did for the players.
And so, the game begins.
“Pass!” Alex yells, kicking the ball to another player. The player takes it to his chest and changes it’s tangent as he runs towards the opposite goalpost. The goalkeeper kept as steady as possible.
Alex was at the scene as he waves his hands at his comrade. The ball flies in the air. Alex jumps and twists his body mid-air, the goal was surely his after his stunt.
The goal was made, the first goal by New York team. Alex fell to the ground.
The grass was slippery. So were his shoes. He almost tripped against a water sprinkler that wasn’t taken down yet. The attendants have been informed, yet it stayed mechanically up the ground.
“Yeah man! That was a great shot!” His team member arrives closer to cheer along with Alex.
Their captain gives them a giant smile, fisting his hand in the air with victory.
The game goes on, New York team on the lead with their captain’s captainship.
Suddenly, Alex thinks of a bizarre thing within the field.
“What is this…?” His eyes stuck to the ground. He couldn’t move.
There was a young boy in front of Alex. He couldn’t recognise him. In the background, there was a locomotive which was levitating like a Bullet train of Japan. It didn’t look it was from the world he was in.
Suddenly, the image shows him how a ball is struck to his face.
In reality, on the game field, the ball was passed towards him. His senses were clouded as he couldn’t hear his teammate yelling his name to take the ball before the opponent arrived.
“What… is this…?” He couldn’t move a muscle.
The opponent member, in an attempt to deviate the ball from Alex to come in possession of it tries to kick it away.
The opponent’s strong kick was made to hit the ball.
But during the kick, Alex’s face trajectory was miscalculated.
The kick hit Alex’s jaw.
He almost cut his tongue.
The force of impact was unimaginable.
Alex’ neck was the unexpected target of the man’s extraordinarily forced kick.
Alex goes flying as his head strikes to a water sprinkler in the middle of the field.
The kick crushed Alex’s neck, causing him to dislocate his windpipe and crush his oesophagus.
His head hits the water sprinkler.
Ravine, who witnessed the scene live in front of her froze in her place.
Was this even happening? She questioned herself.
The teammates were extremely worried, so were the audience.
He wasn’t moving.
“What!? Call the paramedics to the scene!” The commenter was the first to react. The giant screen showed the back of his head from a distance. The zoomed image observed how there was a little red blotch around the metal and Alex wasn’t moving…
Ravine drops everything.
It was as if she was moving on her own, no conscious efforts and time was flowing as slow as possible for her.
The atmosphere turned chill and eerie. She couldn’t hear a thing.
The woman crazily barges through the security. Her tight skirt was all over her waist, but she damn cared.
She ran towards Alex who was being tended by the paramedics on the scene.
The giant screen showed nothing except for the bodies swarming around Alex.
The paramedic professional looks at the referee with wide eyes. It was such an unexpected happening.
“H-he’s dead… he’s… dead…” even the paramedics was shocked of the incident.
Alex’s eyes were facing the sun above in the sky.
He was losing consciousness. He felt like he had a never-ending headache…
….
“Time of death… 6:17 pm, August 17th 2023. Get his reports done quietly. We don’t need more people knowing about his death so quickly.”
“But it’s already viral all around the globe, doctor.” The senior doctor sighs. He was a family doctor of Framton Johnson, one Framton closely associated with.
Everyone were at the hospital as the surgeon declared nothing could be done.
The family of seven was now down to only three.
Dan, Nick and Framton.
Alex, Louis, Zayn and Cassandra have reached heavens almost immediately. The prayers of their lovers and well-wishers made God accept them into the boring realm.
However, it were those prayers which gave them a chance at rebirth.
Nick didn’t know the woman he had an affair with, to show the media that he was a ‘man’, held a baby in her womb.
The baby would grow up to be Zayn in 2057.
Who would’ve known?
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Framton, during the funeral of his son observes the grieved girl. Alex should have really loved her much. She was beautiful and also charming, with a good heart of gold. He approaches her.
“Hello, daughter.” He puts his hand on her shudder. It was beginning to thunder. Alex’ friends have all left the funeral grounds. They had places to be. All who remain were Nick who grieved sitting beside his tombstone, Dan who was in a delusion that his brother would come back to life from the coffin and the foolish father who hoped to see them as soon as possible.
All the decisions he made turned his children into ashes.
A week before, he remembers.
“Dad! How can you ask me to do that!? Especially after brother-”
“I am not telling you to forget about Louis and attend this championship. Don’t you think if Louis was ever alive, he would have cheered the loudest for you? He was the biggest supporter of your dreams, Alex. Do not bring his wishes for you to a test.”
That night, he pushed Alex into attending this stupid championship.
If he never ever let his daughter run away to another country… none of this would have happened.
They would have lived so happily…