God’s Cube

Thesi stood by the window, gazing out as dusk bathed the city in its subtle colour, his mind drifting away into peaceful thoughtfulness. Augusto, his old friend from high school, crossed his mind. It hadn’t been that long since they’d last spoken, when Augusto tried to convince him to attempt the Red Cube that he would attempt as well, he had verified his survival, which came as a confirmation via text while he was on the train, and prompting to further conversation when he’d come back to Pescara. 

In highschool, Thesi had just reentered human society. The kid who built walls too high for anyone to bother scaling. That was, until Augusto. While some would see this aloof, detached boy, Augusto looked through the façade.

The first time they'd met was during their freshman year. Most of their classmates did well to avoid Thesi, either voluntarily or after short interaction with the latter, but Augusto didn't. He was different, easygoing, open, and quick with a joke, skills you’d attribute to the social type, which he was, but was still also seen as reserved as he was extremely selective with his friends as well. Thesi was used to being left alone and knew well how to like it that way. But Augusto had ignored the walls Thesi put up, sitting with him in class, making small talk, making bad jokes that eventually called reluctant smirks from Thesi. Augusto's persistence didn’t feel forced, it was real. 

Bit by bit, an exchanged glance here, an understanding smile there, and the barriers Thesi had put up so fastidiously began to crumble.

He could still see that sky, gray on that day they sat under the old oak tree outside the schoolyard, now somehow a moment in time. The whole thing had been infused with this silky, gray light. Thesi had been quieter than usual, lost in thought. 

"Why do you even bother with me? "

Augusto had smiled at that question, for him it was very simple.

"Because you’re fun, sure you try to keep everyone away, sure you have some past you always refuse to talk about, but you feel more human than many others, and I have fun around you.”

Thesi hadn't expected to make a friend, let alone one like Augusto, who didn't seem to mind the walls he put up to defend his past. Augusto probably didn’t realize what everything he did meant for the direction Thesi headed in, but emotionally and physically, but he was, even before Flavio, his first chain back into the world of humans.

Now, in the halls of his now passed highschool, everything felt smaller, more confined. It had barely been a week, but it felt like another life altogether.

"Crazy, huh?" 

He mused out loud as Augusto's voice brought him back into the present. He was grinning as they meandered past their old classrooms, nudging Thesi’s shoulder in a playful manner. 

"Feels like we were just here yesterday.”

"Maybe because it’s been just a week, but it does feel like peering into an old chapter."

They had come back to the school on a whim. It was Augusto's idea, and he eventually talked Thesi into it. But everything just felt really weird now they were back. They had graduated, gone to the Cube to challenge it and come back. Afterall, this was the objective of this school, to prepare those willing to challenge these mysterious objects and acquire the enhancement they provided.

"Hey, remember that time we snuck into Mrs. DiMarco's office? Man, she had no idea."

Augusto chuckled, bracing himself against one of the lockers. Thesi rolled his eyes. 

"You mean you snuck in. I was just collateral damage."

"Details." 

Augusto grinned, brushing it off like always.

Along the way, they reached the old science laboratory. It was open, and inside, they found Franco, one of their old classmates, chatting with a teacher. Franco was one of the few from their class that ultimately refused to attempt to challenge a Cube, after his only sibling, Luca, had passed away the year before. He continued class, but with the school was able to come to an agreement and stick around and work there instead of attempting, not wanting to give his single mother the weight of losing another child.

Franco spotted them and waved. Thesi paused a moment before lifting his hand in reply. Augusto was much more casual, wandering up to him and leaning against the doorframe, before starting the conversation.

"Hey, Franco, good to see you still hanging around."

Franco gave him a tired smile, though it didn't quite reach his eyes. 

"Yeah, still here. Someone's got to keep things running."

"How have you been holding up?" 

Thesi asked softly. Franco shrugged and looked down at the floor. 

"Some days are better than others. But you know how it is."

He had stayed in school to help out with the post graduation work, like every year a few stayed behind and they’d be the bearer of bad news in many cases for the families of those that didn’t make it through the challenge. The survival rate wasn’t all that high afterall, and they had put on those that stayed behind the job to collect the military's reports on the fallen and bring them back to the families of their classmates.

Sensing the slight tension his words had created Franco burst into a short chuckle.

“Feels like everything's changed."

Thesi nodded and Augusto replied.

“We should catch up sometime. Grab a drink. Talk about. anything but Cubes."

Franco gave a sad smile. 

"Yeah. Maybe. Just a bad week, and yet, here we are reminiscing as if it’d been an eternity ago. Well I guess for some it was the case, see you at the memorial."

The visit today at their old highschool had been planned on a whim, but this wasn’t their last visit here. There’d be a memorial for those that didn’t make it past the Cube’s trial in a few days.