Shattering Humanity-Chapter 93: The Ultimate Test For True Competitors

{8PM. Roronora City.Evening before "the Invasion"}

Dom, still with his injuries from his school fight, is at the door of his empty apartment home, backpack dropped. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Two police officers, one black and one white on the other side.

W.Officer: "Are you sure you’ll be okay, young man? Will your mom or dad be home soon?"

Dom shakes his head and is giving the cops a cold shoulder.

Dom: "I’ll be fine. I’m used to being home alone. My Pops works 2nd and 3rd shifts until 6 in the morning and if you guys ever find my mother, can you tell her both of the men she abandoned, think she’s a bitch and a coward. Then can you throw her and that racist store owner in jail for me?"

B.Officer : "I wish we could, son. We’re sorry for what you had to go through this afternoon. Please understand we had to take you back to the station for help to find your friends killers. Get some sleep and stay home from school tomorrow. For your own mental health."

Dom still unfazed by the sincere suggestion isn’t making eye contact.

Dom: "Thanks."

W. Officer: "If you don’t mind me asking, Buddy, why are you all beat up? If your father is never home while you are, and your mother is an unfit dead beat, are you getting bullied at s-"

Dom cuts the officer off in anger, finally looking in their direction.

Dom: "I don’t get bullied, I fight back! I got jumped by a pack of punks at school today not an hour before my best and my only friends, got gunned down, all because of ignorance!"

The cop gestures for the distraught high schooler to calm down.

W.Officer: "I’m sorry I asked. Well, if you’re ever in need, from now on, we’ll be keeping watch around the school and that area of the shooting when school lets out."

Dom grips the door tighter.

B.Officer: "Don’t worry, you won’t need to ’snitch’, just keep your nose clean kid. Of both crime and your own blood."

Dom: "Okay."

They both turn to walk down the apartment steps.

B.Officer: "Have a good night Buddy."

Dom shuts the door and stands in the darkness, by himself, in silence. His teeth clenched, he punches himself in the face and tears fall to the floor.

Dom: "You ’SHOULD’ have been there to begin with. Pigs, thinking they’re doing something after my friends are already dead."

The depressed fifteen year old shuffles into his kitchen, opens the freezer and pulls out a frozen dinner. He unboxes the meal tosses it in the microwave and notices the microwave timer isn’t on. He checks the back to see if it’s plugged in, it is. He then checks the light switch. No light.

Dom gives a disheartened sigh.

Dom: "The old fart is too busy getting drunk to pay the electric bill to the landlord. I wonder if the shower will even have hot water."

He pulls out his phone and texts his father, "The milk will go bad if the refrigerator doesn’t get electricity."

He hits send and puts his phone in his pocket.

The young man lights a candle and makes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in the dim light. With the candle in one hand, he eats the sandwich while walking through the dark dining room to a cabinet with 2 towels, grey and black. He tosses the black towel over his shoulder before entering the bathroom and closes the door behind him.

From the dark dining room, the water can be heard turning on with the sounds of clothes hitting the other side of the door. After a few seconds Dom can be heard, clearly upset.

Dom: "God. Damn. It!"

He quickly washes in the cold water and turns off the shower. He walks out of the bathroom, basketball shorts and no shirt. His dirty, blood stained clothes in his hand.

He’s looking at his phone, scrolling through pictures of his deceased twin friends. The collection of pictures has him with one of them individually or all 3 of them together.

Different places, times of day, and memories.

Dom(thinking): *Ever since I can remember, I was hated by most kids for being too ’overconfident’ and ’loud mouthed’ whenever someone tested the ’manhood’ that my hardworking father entrusted me to protect and continue being proud of. Sometimes I think...actually, I ’know’ my mother abandoned my father and me, because I was probably a loud and annoying baby. ’Usually it’s the other way around’, people say. Usually, it’s the father that leaves the mother to live life as a single parent. For a mother to have a child, a human life, physically grow for 9 months, inside of her. Go through the pains of labor, and still not care for her baby’s well-being is more than just selfishness. She’s mentally ill’.*

He walks into his room, tosses his clothes adding to the weeks’ pile on the floor, and lays on his bed.

Empty bowls stacked on his side table and cups still full of liquid.

He swipes to a picture of Morgan and himself 2 years younger, in the gymnasium with a basketball.

Dominic talks to himself and smiles while reminiscing about Morgan and Patrice. The cherished memories in his mind play like a crystal clear video.

Dom: *I met ’Captain Morg’ freshman year during the first gym period. The first few gym classes are just free periods and we could play basketball around on the courts or toss around footballs outside, if it wasn’t raining. He saw me taking 3’s by myself and he challenged me to a one on one. The way he taught me how two people can play caught me off guard.

’Game to 21’, 3s are 2s, 2’s are 1’s. If you make it, you get to shoot free throws until you miss or make 5 in a row.’

He absolutely ’tooled’ me the first game.

22-1.

The cocky son of a bitch even ended it on a half court ’2 pointer’ AND called ’boards’ on the bank shot off the backboard.

Over time his dialect, and what my old school Pops refers to as ’ebonics’, grew on me from the different ways of phrasing things and the creativity within. Every single one of his friends made fun of me, but then that pride my father gave me exploded and I bounced the ball towards him. Morgan was surprised by the force of the checked ball and then we gave each other competitive glares, with smiles.

Our gym class was the last period of the day. The school allowed athletic recreational activities on the premises after school. That’s a fortunate thing, because our second game to 21, lasted 2 hours.

We both played heavy defense and both of our prides as men were on the line. By the end of the two hours the score was 21-3. The rule is, winner must hit a ’2’ to make 21. But my relentless defense and energy made the game mode without a time limit, a battle of attrition. Which is the ultimate test for true competitors.

All of Morgan’s friends had left over an hour before the ending shot. He gave me a handshake into a one armed hug.*

Morgan: "We’re ’boys’ from now on. If anyone fucks with you, let em know you ride with me. I’m gonna be someone whose name will be all over TV."

Dom is looking at the live local news report on his phone, showing the young faces of his two murdered friends, with their names underneath.

Dom(thinking): *Then when I saw Patrice, I thought it was just Morgan with glasses and without his cool shiny studs in his ears. Thinking back, they must’ve been used to the misunderstandings by how well he played along, until the real Morgan showed up and explained through laughing tears."

Dom’s smile then goes to grimace.

Dom(thinking): *Patrice was a genius. Not only academically but philosophically. He would have punks at school, pick on him daily. I would always help try fighting them off. When we would eventually get our asses kicked, Patrice would ask me to never tell his brother.*

Patrice: "Morgan is so athletically gifted, he’s already getting scouted by D1 schools for basketball AND football. Unfortunately, in our messed up world Dom, even if it’s for a justifiable reason, there would be no winning. If Morgan, a black man, had beat those guys asses. He would be ridiculed more harshly by outsiders who don’t know him, just because of his skin color.

But, the coaches scouting him wouldn’t be at fault either, they would have to question whether or not they’re wasting a scholarship on someone who is habitually violent. People live disregarding the ’Why’ to the most dramatic situations and not the ’Point of View’, the reported news can’t replicate."

Dom falls asleep thinking of his happy and cherished memories with his "gone too soon" pals.

...

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Forgetting about the candle he left on top of his closed toilet. The lit candle, right underneath the black towel hung on the rack, underneath the open window.

The "alien snow" already lightly falling through the window above the towel as it catches fire.