Sixth Sense

Surprisingly, given the circumstances surrounding him, Julian found himself in a cheerful mood. His friends were all on board with helping him get his man. He got his feelings off his chest. And moreso, Dafne made his favorite desert. Schwowebredle! With that in his belly, there was no chance of a crappy evening. And it wasn't. Julian found himself laughing so hard, his chest began to hurt. As the evening grew longer, Julian finally chose to leave. Dafne was kind enough to drive him back to his apartment. Before allowing him to leave her presence, she said what she always did. "It will all turn out, you'll see." And she hadn't yet been proven wrong.



Julian tidied up before bed. Somehow, living alone still meant having a huge mess to clean up. But Julian suspected that in his absence, his sister would regularly come mooch off his free cable. After his shower and enjoying a nice warm cup of cocoa, Julian retired to his bed. Tomorrow, he knew, he'd have to probably either ignore Gabriel like the plague and hope the boy's short term memory kicked in or find the words to explain it. It wasn't something to look forward to, so he wanted to make sure he had enough sleep. But even as he drift off, something kept bothering him....

He was dreaming of nothing. That wasn't it. He regularly had dreamless nights. There wasn't much noise, just the occasional drip from the bathroom. Ah, yes. He had to remember to get that sink fixed. So what was it? Hum...well, had he left the bathroom light on again? He felt a warmth on his eyes. Opening them slightly, he realized it wasn't the bathroom. From his open door, he did see light, though. Rising, he slowly approached the doorway when he recoiled as smoke slid into his throat, causing him to cough. Fire. That's all that registered.



Julian ran past the kitchen on his way to the front door. The stove had erupted in fire. He wasn't sure how, he wasn't sure why. But he didn't stay to find out. Along the way to the stairs, he did manage to pull the apartment's fire alarm. He was the cause for the fire, yes? He wasn't going to cause anyone else harm. In seconds, the various residents all hurried out of the building, standing across the street as they stared at their home being burned. The fire spread quickly, Julian gulped, as he stood among them. One floor devoured...Two....Three...



Julian must've zoned out, sitting there on the cold concrete. He looked up, surprised to see there were already firefighters on the scene. The fire was diminishing but what was left was obvious: nothing. Everything he owned was probably a big pile of ash now. "Geez, you have crappy luck, huh?" Julian looked up, but quickly looked away when his eyes met a pair of breasts poking through a satin gown.
"Aleera, why are you hear?"
"I was asleep, you know...but I kept havin' this badgering feeling. You know, the kind where it feels like someone is poking you in the neck every three seconds? Yeah...Wow...think anything survived?"
"Probably not...Fate must hate me."
"Mmm. Maybe. I guess it is because you fuck with destiny on a day-to-day basis, what with making people what they want to be and not what destiny intended them to be."
"True."
"Alright, le'ts go. It's cold."
"Hm?"



"You deaf? I said let's go."
"Go...where?"
"To my place, stupid! What? Do you think I'm that cold hearted, I'd make you sleep out here on the sidewalk?"
"Oh, but Aleera, I couldn't impose..."
"Nonsense. You paid for the place, it might as well be yours."
"But what about Gabe?"
"What about him? You think he'd mind? Psssh. You're his best friend. What kind of friend wouldn't give their best friend a place to stay?"
"If you say so, then..."
"Alright, then. Let's get goin'. To Casa de Akamatseru we go!"