L`Univers:

Act 1: The kid with a dream

“Are there any deaths yet?” asked Khan.

“Yes, and the situation is getting worse, we need to find a solution,” replied Adam.

“What do you reckon we do?”

“We can`t wait, I have an idea…” Adam looked at the blue sky, both of them standing on a balcony that overlooked the artificial lake in the backyard of that giant institution.

“Cursed mineral we never should have messed with it.”

“Too late for that now… All we can do now is break the rules and save the human civilization, is the prototype ready?” Adam turned toward Khan.

“We need volunteers,” nodded Khan. “We cant send real astronauts.”

“No we can`t, we need to keep a low profile, do you have anyone in mind?”

“No… but something can come up, you never know,” Khan also looked toward the sky. “Small problem though.”

“What?” Adam gazed at him.

“Jane…”

“We will tell her they are just test subjects for the mineral,” Adam offered a solution.

“You can`t be serious! She will think we are some kind of psychopaths,” Khan got disturbed by the idea.

“Of course we are not going to test on them, it`s just a cover-up story,” Adam looked at him and looked away again. “Besides you know Jane… You know that she will actually agree with that idea,” Khan remained quiet as both of them looked in the distance towards the lake.

☼☼☼

A figure with short dark hair that parted his hair to the left, the bangs combed backward and frozen there with hair spray, rectangular glasses a pointy male jaw, thin lips, the figure walked down a dimly lit corridor with the light bulbs flickering and it smelled as if someone had just finished smoking a cigarette. He stopped and knocked on a wooden brown door. “Hey dude,” said Benedict as his friend Simon opened him. Simon had short brown hair, middle height, a manly bearded jawline, thin lips, small nose, and eyes so black you`d think that no light reflects off them.

“Hey man, come in,” he greeted him. “You were a beast today.”

“Ah… it`s nothing,” said Benedict as he walked in Simon`s big dark room with the sun rays struggling through the curtain and little to no furniture with no carpet but only the parquet that was not tidy at all, the room had clothes on the chairs and some were on the floor and the bed was not even tidied up as Benedict ignored it and sat down on the blue couch.

“Sorry for the mess,” Simon apologized as he approached the refrigerator.

“Don`t worry about it, it`s not like my room is any better,” said Benedict “I mean what about you, you also got a diploma for cooking was it?”

“Yeah,” Simon opened the fridge. “But you know I don`t want to pursue that profession,” Simon pulled out two beers and opened them.

“Really how come?” Benedict asked him as he accepted the beer.

“Yeah you know, I’m into coding these days I have a cousin who recently opened a company I think I might be working for him,” Simon sat down on the couch as well.

“So how did it go?” Benedict asked him.

“How did it go what?” Simon was confused.

“The award…did you tell them?”

“Well I did tell my father…” Simon answered lamely.

“And?” Benedict looked at him with curiosity.

“He was like congratulations and now get out of my face,” sighed Simon

“What about you?”

“Haven`t told them yet…I mean all I will get will be a bunch of congratulations and they will get back to their fighting,” Benedict looked away.

“Our parents suck man,” Simon leaned on the couch.

“Hear, hear,” Benedict lifted the beer as they cheered and sat down as none spoke a word for a while. “I keep expecting that there will be a great idea that will come to me, something that will change my life,” said Benedict.

“Well, you just did get an award for science.”

“No, I mean like something big, something that will really shake things up and change our life`s completely,”

“Yeah, I think I know what you are saying," Simon starred at the floor.

"You do?" Benedict looked at him skeptically.

"You want to rob a bank..." Simon looked at him dramatically. "If you are down I am down."

“No that`s not what I meant,” smiled Benedict.

“I am serious because we can do it, we just have to do a bit of planning first and then blueprints of the bank, and we are all set,” Simon kept talking.

“Wow,” smiled Benedict.

“What?” Simon asked him confusedly.

“I really admire your confidence.”

“Yeah you should try it sometimes, senoritas really dig it,” said Simon.

“Oh really?” Benedict was kind of surprised.

“Yeah, I kid you not,” Simon drank from the beer. “You also have to act happy in front of them, even though your life is pretty s**t” the happiness from Simon`s face vanished instantly.

“Yeah…but that doesn`t mean we should take it for granted,” Benedict looked down at the floor.

“See that`s the thing between both of us,” Simon stood up.

“What is it?” Benedict asked.

“Well I am the one with the chicks and you are the nerdy sidekick,” explained Simon.

“Why the f**k am I the sidekick?”

“Because why not?” Simon laughed.

“Man f**k you!” said Benedict as he took a sip from the beer. “So is it working? I mean did you like find ‘the one?’” Benedict turned toward him.

“Nah…man, you know that girl I liked from high school?” asked Simon.

“Yeah…,” said Benedict shortly.

“Well I still haven`t gotten over her,” Simon scratched his forehead.

“Dude I told you, It`s not healthy,” panicked Benedict.

“I know and I am trying but…I don`t know, I guess she was what you call ‘the one,’” stopped Simon. “I fear I may never find anyone like her.”

“You fear that you may never find anyone like her?” laughed Benedict. "What is this eighteen century England?" Simon looked at him seriously, not at all amused by the joke. "I`m sorry, I shouldn`t have said that," Benedict changed his expression right away, realizing that you don`t joke when it comes to stuff like this.

“Yeah just trying not to get my hopes up high,” said Simon. “I can`t go through the possibility of somebody leaving me without saying anything.”

“So what? she just like vanished?” asked Benedict.

“Yeah, she didn`t even leave a message it`s like she went underground,” answered Simon.

“What about her parents?”

“Tried my luck with them too, but they were gone as well probably moved somewhere.”

“It`s just strange how would someone be gone and not leave something behind,” said Benedict.

“Yeah it`s f****d up, I have built this wall around me trying to block off everything that will turn my life to s**t,” said Simon.

“Or…I get this idea and our lives get changed completely for the better,” smiled Benedict.

“Yeah right,” laughed Simon as he stood up and removed the covers from the windows revealing the tall skyscrapers that stretched above the clouds and on top of them flying cars going about their daily stuff. “Just trying not to end up like them,” he pointed toward the office buildings and the flying cars as Benedict stood up from the couch and stood next to him by the window. “Same thing every day, work, home family: work, home, family-I want to travel live an adventurous life, maybe someday visit other planets.”

“Yeah, sometimes I think maybe if we lived in the past things would have been better,” said Benedict.

“Nah it was the same s**t every day,” Simon kept looking outside.

“Here,” Benedict pressed a button and the picture of the window changed into an exotic beach with clear water and clear blue skies “Imagine you are here,” he said.

“Yeah right as if that`s going to help,” Simon covered the window and walked away.

“All right I will be out of your hair now,” Benedict headed for the door.

“Wait I thought we were going to be playing some video games,” said Simon.

“Nah, maybe some other time.”

“All right then, but we are still going out today right?” asked Simon.

“Yeah it`s Friday,” said Benedict. “I`ll call you,” he left the apartment.

Benedict walked home and after some time he reached his suburban neighborhood. It was everything but suburban. You see the word suburban should symbolize green lawns with colorful cars parked on the driveway, freshly painted white houses, cheerful neighbors, and a sunny sky. But his neighborhood was nothing like that, the streets were constantly wet, the lawns with bald patches and brown grass, cheerful neighbors nowhere to be seen, and the sunny sky? Well, you can forget about that one because one-third of the sky was covered with bronze pipes that stretched all across the neighborhood ending up in the big factory that produced weapons for space warfare it`s where Benedict`s father worked, the other two-thirds of the sky were grey, not a hint of blue anywhere it is why Benedict called it The Grey Depression, man he really hated his neighborhood. He was deep into his thoughts from the talk with Simon about the grand idea coming to him that will change his life for the better and splashed his right foot in a pond that was on the rainy street. “For f**k`s sake!!!” he yelled. His right leg was soaking wet and on top of that he was really hungry as the smell of polluted air was making him even hungrier, but on the very top of that, he kind of did not want to return home, because he knew what he was getting into, in other words, he was miserable. You`d think if you win an award for science you will be a tad least happy but that was just not the case with Benedict.

“Hey man!” a figure with short rad dark hair, a small nose, and thin lips appeared out of nowhere and startled him.

“Alexander?” he was surprised.

“Are you okay?” Alexander inspected him.

“Yes,” he lied.

“Well that’s good,” smiled Alexander as he exhaled.

“So where are you headed?” Benedict asked him.

“Well I am going to the playground, Peter, John, and Viktor are there,” answered Alexander. “Would have called you, but I know you don`t like playing basketball.”

“Nah… not a great fan,” Benedict smiled.

“So anything new with you?”

“Well I did just get this award,” Benedict lifted up the parchment.

“Oh…congratulations,” Alexander inspected the certificate.

“Thanks.”

“All right well nice seeing you,” Alexander shook his hand. “We should meet up sometime, have a drink or two, celebrate for the award.”

“Sure,” Benedict smiled as he let go of his arm and parted ways.

“Here we go,” he took a deep breath and walked inside his house.

“YOU ARE A CRAZY b***h!!!” a manly voice yelled from inside the house.

“JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!!!” yelled a female voice.

“Hey, Dad, what`s going on?” Benedict asked calmly.

“Not much other than your mother said that she is divorcing me,” his dad looked at him. “I like to see where she is going to go?” said his father as he looked away.

“Well I won an award,” said Benedict out of the blue. “If it helps to lighten the mood,” he added.

“It does son, it`s just so hard right now for me.” his father rubbed his eyes with his fingers.

“Our son won an award, and you could at least fake that you are happy,” Benedict`s mom showed up out of nowhere.

“You see what she is doing?” his father turned to him “SHE IS MAKING ME CRAZY!!!” he yelled.

“Right then, I`ll be in my room,” Benedict sneaked past both of them who were busy arguing and entered his room and closed the door leaning on it, he closed his eyes and in the pitch-black, he saw two bright lines crossing each other. “That was strange,” he thought to himself as he threw the award aside and turned on the holographic computer, and put on the headphones as he blasted music very loudly.

Benedict completely lost track of time as he was watching and scrolling past motivational videos and pictures, anything to brighten his day.

“BENEDICT!!!” his mother yelled as she got mad and removed the headphones. “You need to clean your room,” she looked at him as he turned and saw that half of his clothes were on the floor and the other half were on the bed that was right next to the wall that had posters that some of them were torn a little bit just hanging on the wall.

“It`s like entropy,” he said.

“What!?” his mother looked at him.

“It`s a thing in science where things tend to disorder, so no matter how much I tidy my room it will get messed up again,” he explained.

“Well let me tell you something smartass, there`s also a thing that keeps the room tidy at all times,” his mother looked at him. “Do you know what it is?” she asked.

“No, what?” he was confused.

“It`s you,” she answered shortly.

“Oh…” Benedict just sat there looking stupid as he got outsmarted by his mother.

“Clear your room,” she walked away.

“They made everything self-sustaining these days, why couldn`t they make self-sustaining rooms?” he stood up from the chair and started picking up the clothes. Wait, self-sustaining rooms that could be the idea. “Nah… it`s stupid,” he thought as he looked at the poster on the wall that was half hanging, he pushed the poster with his hand and flattened it on the wall. The poster had a portrait of someone named Adam with curly short blonde hair, brown eyes, and a big happy smile.

“One day mate….” said Benedict quietly. “Hopefully,” he electrified the poster, and the poster itself just hanged on the wall sort of like when you rub a balloon on your hair and stick it to the wall, he walked away and cleaned the rest of the room.

“Nobody creates or shapes your happiness, but yourself,” Benedict kept watching inspirational videos for a long time as he looked at the watch, and was already night. “Nobody except me…” he repeated in his head as he picked up the phone and talked to it. “Call Simon,” it started dialing.

“Benedict…hey,” answered Simon.

“So are we going out?” he asked.

“Yeah, surprise-surprise my dad gave me the car so I`ll come to pick you up,” said Simon as he hung up and a couple of seconds later he honked on Benedict`s window.

“What?” Benedict opened the window and saw Simon in his father`s red old model convertible floating right next to his window.

“Well I was going to come to pick you up whether you called or not, now get in we have to celebrate for the awards!” smiled Simon and opened the door for Benedict as he carefully stepped on the gray roof of his house and entered the car as they drove away from the dark barely illuminated neighborhood Benedict was living in.

“So there`s this club I know!” yelled Simon as they could barely understand each other because he was driving kind of fast. “All the cool kids go there and the girls as well!” Simon looked at him.

“Can you just watch where you are going,” Benedict looked at him.

“Here take this,” Simon passed him a silver canister. “Drink up!” he said. “We need to step up our game if we are going to be hanging with the cool ones,” explained Simon.

“I don`t care about being cool all I want is to get wasted tonight,” said Benedict as he took a sip and got grossed out from the drink. “Wow that is strong,” he widened his eyes.

“Yeah I know,” said Simon as he sped up, even more, Benedict started to feel a little funny as all the buildings disappeared, he closed his eyes and opened them again but the buildings were there in plain sight as Simon sped up again and the buildings disappeared again.

“Uh…Simon, what was in that drink?” Benedict panicked as Simon turned to him looking sort of funny and distorted and in a deep voice said.

“Something that will get you really wasted,” he laughed deeply.

“Woah!” Benedict looked up front and saw a flashing light as his vision went black.

“The effect should be worn off by now,” Simon panicked.

“Hey handsome,” said a girl that was hovering over Benedict.

“Hey dude, you gave me a scare there,” Simon was breathing heavily but at the same time relieved.

“What the f**k?” Benedict stood from the bed and looked around him; he was in the club that Simon was telling him about. “How did we get here?” he asked.

“Well we drove here of course,” laughed Simon who was somewhat drunk.

“Seriously what was in that drink?” he asked him, but Simon didn`t hear or rather ignored him.

“Hey, have you met my friend Benedict?” Simon said to a girl with a long dark that was messy all around and blue eyes, as he pointed toward Benedict who was sitting on the leather couch.

“You seem confused,” the girl sat next to him.

“Yeah…” he laughed nervously. “My friend gave me a drink and the next thing I know I am here” he explained whilst struggling to maintain eye contact.

“What`s wrong?” the girl asked him.

“I don`t know…” he looked at the floor. “I am shy I guess,” he finished.

“Well it will pass,” she smiled. “Here drink up!” she passed him a glass of vodka.

“Uh…I really shouldn`t,” he said.

“Come on,” the girl tried to persuade him.

“What the hell,” he looked at the glass. “We create our happiness and it`s time to be happy,” he grabbed it and drank it to the bottom as he grabbed another one, and another one. Half an hour hasn`t passed yet and he was drunk again, he is freer with himself when he is drunk, he is not shy and more sociable but he knew that he can`t always be drunk. Simon and Benedict danced all night and had fun until Simon ditched him and hooked up with a girl that had pink hair and pink eyes if you can imagine, certainly, Benedict couldn`t, especially since Simon was his ride home.

"I said I am sorry," Simon tried to talk to him but Benedict was giving him the silent treatment.

"Two hours! Did you have s*x with her for two hours? Because that`s how long I waited for you!"

"Okay, there`s no need to yell..."

"f**k you!"

"Okay," Simon nodded and kept driving. The drive home was filled with pretty much nothing but silence. Thankfully it was over because Simon floated the car next to Benedict`s house roof and turned off the engine, Benedict looked at him as he starred at the steering wheel, he opened his mouth trying to say something but then closed it again.

"What?" Simon noticed him.

Benedict sighed. "You fear that you may not find anyone like her again?" he looked at him. "What was that?" he laughed. Simon looked at him seriously for a moment and then he burst into laughter too.

"You wanna know a secret?"

"What?"

"Nothing happened..."

"What!?"

"Nothing happened... Between me and her... Nothing..."

"So... two hours..."

"I know..."

"What went down?"

"Well, apparently I may have said something only a person like me would say... And then she may have gotten angry and I may have begged her to give me another chance."

"Woah... Well s**t," Benedict looked into the distance. "But for two hours?"

"Yep," Simon tapped the steering wheel.

"I am not even going to ask what transpired."

"You shouldn`t..."

"I know you are stupid, but you are not that stupid."

"That`s the other part of the secret."

"What is?"

"I... I am drunker than I am proud to admit, in fact, I don`t clearly remember some of the things, and there is a high chance that I won`t remember this conversation in the morning that is..."

"So... you drove drunk?"

"Yep."

"Without a driving license?"

"Yep."

"And the fact that we could have been stopped by the police?"

"Pure luck that one..." he looked at Benedict. "We would have been f****d, I am not even kidding about this one, we would have been in serious trouble," Benedict remained quiet. "You are not gonna say anything?"

"Well I waited for you for two hours, might as well have waited in line for the guillotine with you."

"Oh... Come on! We lived!"

"Right well, I have this crazy feeling that our luck has run out and that is why you are crashing with me tonight, there`s no way you are driving home in this state," Benedict came out of the car and stepped on the roof pulling Simon outside from the car and leaning him on his shoulder.

"You know what? Our luck ran out when I blew it with that girl." Simon lay down on Benedict`s bed. "Now that with the car, and us surviving, that was just the afterburners."

"Hah... Well, aren`t you full of it..." Benedict tucked him in and he fell asleep immediately. "Then again... Thanks for tonight man.”

"I heard that... I am not asleep yet, does that mean you forgive me?" said Simon with his eyes unable to open.

"We will talk about it in the morning. But a word of advice, don`t hook up with girls that have pink hair... Or green, or purple or blue for that matter... Brunettes and blondes are fine..."

"Alright, cheers mate," Simon snored.

Benedict walked outside on the roof and sat down his face pointed towards the center of the city, towards the colorful big corporate buildings, and him outside from all of that a kid with a dream of one day making it to the big leagues. He reached in his inner pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, he looked at the pack and hesitated. "We lived to fight another day," he looked towards the city again and lit a cigarette. He looked towards the city.