Chapter 2: Collapse
Kayden went into the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. The trial had just ended, and a cold sweat was running down his back. 'The next trial I have better be a simple one, or I'll lose my mind at this rate.'
He dried his hands and walked out of the bathroom. Kayden was still thinking when a hand patted his shoulder. He looked up, and the sight gave him an even bigger headache. A ridiculously tall man with a coal-black suit was standing just before him.
"Greetings, Mr. Williams."
"Well done in there, Kayden, another flawless performance as expected of you." He said as he smiled at Kayden.
'I've seen vultures with kinder looks than yours, sir.' Kayden thought with sarcasm.
After forcing a smile, he replied, "It's all due to your advice, sir."
"As modest as usual." The man laughed and started walking away.
Kayden was breathing a sigh of relief in his head when the man suddenly stopped.
He lowered his head to Kayden's ear and whispered, "However, in this world, there are two main factors that allow someone to become successful, and they are being selfish and adapting to the system we live in. And you, Kayden, still need to accept this if you don't want to throw your career overboard."
Kayden's mind was in chaos as he watched him walk away. 'You think I haven't realized how things work in high places, that you can't get high without being part of the corruption that's going on?'
He headed for the exit, immersed in his thoughts, 'Of course, I've thought about it, but I'm scared to accept the part of me that urges me to behave like this and waste all the time I've spent living by what is considered morally right.'
***
Kayden finished eating and went to the living room to watch a series while waiting for the time to train.
Even though he was exhausted after the trial, it was his favorite part of the week. The training allowed him to clear his mind of all problems and concentrate solely on controlling his movements.
He had tried many contact sports since he was a teenager, from the more popular ones like boxing or kendo to others less talked about.
Now, he was practicing the unknown HEMA or Historical European Martial Arts. He had heard of them by chance, which led him to try them, and surprisingly, it became his favorite sport. HEMA had gone from being nonexistent in the United States in the 90s to having several hundred clubs.
Kayden preferred them to kendo or Olympic fencing since the fights were more realistic than focusing solely on scoring points.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and things started to fall to the ground.
Kayden abruptly sat up, still dazed by the tremors. It took him a few seconds to realize there was an earthquake, and he quickly went to get under the table.
Crack.
The quakes continued increasing, the shelves began to fall, and the walls to creak. As sweat was all over his body, Kayden covered his face with his arms to protect it from the glasses.
He noticed something falling on his leg but didn't dare move to see what it was.
After the longest minute of his life, the shaking finally stopped, and Kayden carefully climbed out from under the table.
"Ugh." He exclaimed in pain while he gasped.
He saw an overturned armchair and figured it was the thing that had hit him.
When he took a closer look around the room, he almost stumbled. Entire pieces of furniture were on the floor, broken glass everywhere, and worst of all, the walls had large cracks that threatened to split them at any moment.
'Fortunately, I bought a wooden table instead of a glass one, or my head would have been smashed by now.' Kayden thought, trying to be positive without much success.
He was startled after noticing something falling on his head, he looked up, and his expression drastically changed when he saw dust starting to fall from the crack in the ceiling.
'I've to get out of here now.'
He picked up the cell phone from the floor and went to the door, dodging as quickly as possible around the furniture and decorations that had been knocked over.
He grabbed the keys with one hand and left the apartment.
Kayden reached the stairs and began descending three at a time without spending a second looking at the cracks as he gave his full attention to just two things, not falling and how many floors were left to go down.
'Five to go. Just five floors, then I can relax.'
He jumped six steps with a thud and landed on the landing.
'Four left.'
Dust was falling more and more frequently from cracks in the ceiling, making the stairs more slippery. Kayden started down two at a time to avoid slipping on the dust.
'Three more. I swear that if I get out of here without being crushed by a chunk of concrete, I'll never care again about how people say I should live my life.' He thought as he cursed both, those who continually told him he had to be righteous and those who incited him to be corrupt.
'Two more floors. Two more floors, and I can get out of here.'
"Help! Somebody help me!" A woman's voice reached Kayden making him slow down and look for where it came from.
A vein stood out in his neck at what seemed like the world mocking his new resolve. He had barely finished thinking he wasn't going to be swayed by others before hearing someone calling for help.
On the other side of the door connecting the apartments to the stairs stood a woman Kayden recognized as they had met many times at the entrance of the building, Elena Spiros.
There were two things she stood out for. First of all, her attitude. It was hard to find anyone more arrogant in the entire city of Los Angeles, and every time she spoke, her voice had a constant condescending tone.
Second, her immense pride in her Greek ancestry, which she mentioned in every conversation.
However, at this moment, there was nothing of this pride in her expression. She was sitting on the floor while holding her left ankle, which appeared to be sprained.
"Kayden, please help me!" she shouted as soon as she saw him appear.
He frowned as he debated whether to help her before gritting his teeth, scooping her up in his arms, and running back towards the stairs, careful not to fall.
'It's only two floors. I can't just leave her there.
Kayden knew that seconds of delay could be fatal in this situation but, the fear of breaking the fragile cage of morality he had constructed out of fear of his deepest feelings wouldn't allow him to let an acquaintance die knowing he could have helped.
He continued going down carefully not to trip while the dust started to fall in increasing amounts along with small pieces of the ceiling.
"Faster, Kayden!" Elena shouted at him in a tone that sounded like a command, causing him to grit his teeth as he struggled to calm his rage and make it to the next landing.
'One more floor, and it will be over.'
Crack. Crack. Crack.
He accelerated as larger and larger chunks began to fall from the ceiling. Trying to avoid getting hit, he finally reached the first floor.
Seeing the exit, Kayden began flashing a smile as if he had never realized how beautiful the street he passed by every day was.
'Luckily, we made it in time-'
An earthquake, even stronger than the first, began to shake the building bringing Kayden's thoughts to a screeching halt.
"Shit!" He cursed as he ran for the exit.
"Run!" She said as she flashed a look of panic.
'That's what I'm doing idiot!'
He ran like he had never run before while the ceiling began to collapse. There were less than two meters to the exit when the biggest crack yet sounded, and the world seemed to stop.
Kayden lunged for the exit as he pushed Elena as hard as he could forward in a last-ditch attempt to get out of the building to avoid being crushed in the collapse.
After his hands finally landed on the street, the building came down in a thunderous crash.
Then everything went black.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone