“Trust dies but mistrust blossoms” – Sophocles

Throughout his life, Janus wanted nothing more than an average childhood. On the weekdays, he attended school and hung out with his friends like any child his age. On the weekend, he would lie in bed all day and read, occasionally getting up and going to the backyard to relax and enjoy the scenery.

Fortunately for him, for 18 years, that was the life that he led. He had parents that loved him; but due to their work, he rarely saw them around the house. He had a lovely sister, Lily Silverlake, 6 years younger than he was, that adored him. She would often ask him to read her bedtime stories before they go to sleep and would always be sure to greet him at the door each time he came from school. Together, the pair of siblings was inseparable.

Janus, for his part, loved his parents. He missed them when they were away as any child would, but he soon discovered that with their absence, he had more freedom to do whatever he wished. He also adored his little sister, Lily, often spoiling her more than their own parents. He tried his best to fulfill her wishes and make time to hang out with her whenever their parents were not around. All in all, Janus’ childhood was an idyllic lifestyle that most people wish for.

In his mind, his family, the Silverlake, was an average, well-off family. They had a large house adorned by a flower garden that was maintained daily by their live-in gardener. In the backyard was a small lake that he and Lily would go swimming in on the weekend until his maid came out bringing with her lunches that their family chef prepared for the siblings. If there was a book or a game that he wanted, he would ask one of his family’s helpers walking around the halls of his house and they would purchase it for him. Janus wanted this lifestyle to continue forever; but, he knew, that eventually, it would end.

Long before, as soon as he turned 12, his parents informed him that upon midnight of June 19th of the year of his 18th birthday after his graduation ceremony from high school, he would need to formally begin work to take over the family businesses. This was no surprise to him as he already saw his parents prepared for this throughout his life, hiring tutors of every discipline to teach him everything he needed to know. Luckily for him, he was a quick learner. He digested everything they taught him and even proposed ideas that his various tutors could not believe could come from a boy his age. As he got older, his father started to delegate more of his duties over to young Janus, and Janus completed most of what was required of him without batting an eye. After all, his job only consisted of managing his family various businesses.

Like every morning for almost a few years now, Janus’ routine was the same. He woke up, showered, got dressed, then opened his laptop to read the various reports that appeared in his email. After glancing them over, replying to everything that needed his confirmation, and designating various tasks to those responsible, he closed his laptop and left for school. Today was no different. The routines were the same; the only difference was that he got things done earlier to make time to say goodbye to his friends at school before the graduation ceremony.

As he made his way down the stairs from his bedroom, he saw his sister Lily waiting for him at the entrance to the house. She hugged him as they said goodbye for the day, then returned to the dining room to enjoy her breakfast. After watching his sister disappeared into the kitchen, Janus walked to the front door to the car where his driver was waiting and got inside. They drove down the path leading away from their house for 10 minutes before reaching the security gate. Once the car was at the gate, the guard stationed at the guardhouse nearby promptly opened it to let them through.

After leaving through the front gate, the vehicle sped down the road and stopped at a large stadium, the site of their graduation ceremony. According to his friend, this stadium could seat more than 50,000 people and never open to the public. Their school only used this place for its private event or rent the property out to anyone that can pay its exorbitant fees. From the outside, the stadium looked like a giant white dome, large but relatively unimpressive. However, inside was a world of its own.

The roof of the stadium can be opened at will to let in more lights as needed or closed to show a starry sky painted on its ceiling. Its floor, on the other hand, can be opened to reveal a large swimming pool underneath. Its seats were arranged in a circular manner around the center with private rooms at every seating level for important guests. Around the edge of the roof, cameras were set up so that a floating 3-D image can be projected at any time to any section of the stadium. No matter the season and no matter the time, this stadium can be used for every event possible, from skiing to swimming, from basketball to soccer, as long the organizer can pay for it.

Standing outside the stadium walls, Janus saw his two friends arriving in their own car. Despite his family name being well known, throughout his school years, he did not have friends beside these two. Most people tried their hardest to avoid him and, wherever he appeared, all the students around him would immediately stop talking and looked away. Due to this, he was always isolated until his first year of high school when these two friends of his approached him as if it was a natural.

“Sup,” one of them yelled loudly as he waived his arm in the air.

“Good morning,” the other greeted him while giving a bow.

“Hey,” he replied. “You’re here early Isaiah.”

“What do you mean early? I’m here the same time as Hua,” his friend replied, thumb pointing to the person to his side.

Isaiah Toiracsi has been Janus’ friend for your years. They knew each other since the beginning of high school when Isaiah first invited him to go karaoke after class. After hanging out with Isaiah at and outside of school, Janus could hardly believe he was the oldest son of the Toiracsi family, one of the wealthiest family in the world with connections to every industry globally. Isaiah was a fool in every sense of the word. There was no student with more tardies and absents than he had in the history of the school. There was no class he could not sleep in and no projects he would not deign to skip. It is a miracle the school agreed to let him graduate. Yet despite all that, Isaiah was one of Janus’ closest friends. They often gathered at Janus’ house to go fishing in the backyard lake or get into shenanigans if Isaiah became bored. Their antics often get them scolded by Janus’ guardians and Isaiah dragged back home by his caretakers.

“You should ignore him Janus”, Hua chimed in. “It’s not worth paying attention to an idiot like him.”

“Hey that’s terrible of you to say miss Iron...”, right before Isaiah could finish his sentence, he suddenly grabbed his side and fall over, groaning in pain.

“What were you saying?” Hua asked.

“Absolutely nothing…”, Isaiah replied through ragged breath. “Ugh that hurt you evil wit… nothing, I didn’t say anything”, Isaiah shook as he backed away quickly after seeing the look on Hua’s face.

“Good boy”, she smiled. “Now where were we?”

Hua Zhen De, the first daughter of the Zhen De family, one of the oldest continuous family in the world and the other of Janus’ good friend. Compared to Isaiah, Janus found her easier to get along with. She was always calm, reasonable, and friendly to those she approved, though there are admittedly not many.

In public, many students called her “L’ange” out of respect, both for her looks and her wisdom. She would always resolve all disputes to the satisfaction of all parties involved, earning her the respects of not only the students, but the adults of the school as well. However, in private, though Janus would never admit it out loud, he and Isaiah had a second nickname for her, the “Iron Maiden”.

She was nigh impregnable to those that she deemed unworthy of her time while possessing a force that could down anyone that think they could challenge her authority. It was out of absolute fear that Janus took to calling her “Iron Maiden” in secret while Isaiah, on the other hand, used it as an insult, which quickly earned him an unseeable punch to his side each time he used it.

“I think the ceremony starts in a few hours,” Janus replied. “Do you guys want to go in and take a look around?”

“I’ll pass…there’s no one in there right now. I’d rather be outside, it’s much nicer out here. Beside I’ve seen it enough times that I’m sick of it honestly” Isaiah remarked.

“I’m with idiot on this one,” Hua added. “I was part of the committee setting things up, so I’ve already seen everything.”

“Ah that’s a shame…we have about an hour before things start. What do you guys want to do?”

“You should practice your speech Janus,” Hua replied. “You are the valedictorian for our year and I’d rather you don’t make us look bad.”

“I think you should be saying that to that guy right there instead of me.”

“Are you two seriously just ganging up on me now? Give me a break, it’s the last day. Let me enjoy it in peace.”

“You didn’t get enough break during high school already?” Hua chided him.

“You can never get enough. Honestly, if my old man didn’t force me to attend this, I’d be off on a vacation somewhere by now.”

“Where are you planning to go after this?” Janus asked.

“Somewhere far away from here. I honestly don’t want to be around this place after today. You Hua?”

“I have to go early after Janus’ speech. My family is calling a gathering of all members to discuss some matters. Sorry”

“Don’t worry about it. We’ll still see each other around in the future,” Janus reassured her. “So, any of your parents are here today?”

“Not mine”, Isaiah replied. “Old man had other thing to do so it’s just me.”

“Mine are busy organizing the meeting.” Hua explained. “What about your Janus?”

“Oversea. Going to have to fly out to join them there tomorrow.”

“That does not sound fun…business?”

“Yeah”

“Yikes…Anyway, enough of the boring stuff, I take it you won’t be here after the ceremony Hua?”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“Not a problem. Welp Janus, I guess I’ll be the last person you see today. Want to meet up here afterward?”

"Sure. My driver picking me up immediately after, but I have time to say goodbye before you go on your vacation.”

“Awesome. So…what’s the plan now?”

As the three friends stood outside and chatted, the amount of the people arriving at the stadium gradually increased until crowds of people could be seen outside the stadium’s door. At exactly 9:00 A.M. the stadium opened, and people gradually made their way inside, moving to their designated seating for the event.

Saying goodbye to his friends who promptly made their way to their respective room in the stadium, Janus walked to the center of the floor and took his seat amongst his many teachers on the stage.

Once everyone was seated and the place was quiet, the principal got up first, thanking everyone for coming and gave a speech about how it was his honor to be at this school. He offered the students below a few pieces of advice and handed his mic over to the next speaker in line. After a series of teachers stood up and gave their speech, it was Janus’ turn. The speech he wrote was a standard one, nothing special; something he rehearsed countless times; however, despite that, the occasion still made him nervous. Standing in front thousands of students and their parents, his heart started to palpitate, his hands began to sweat.

“You can do it”, voice echoed through the stadium drawing the attention of all attendees.

Janus looked up and saw his friend Isaiah, inside his private room, pumping his fist in the air cheering him on. In contrast, Hua was in her own room on the opposite side of the stadium waving at him and smiling.

Encouraged by his friend’s cheers, his nervousness faded away and he proceeded onto the podium to give his congratulations to the graduating students and returned to his seat, breathing a sigh of relief that his role was over.

Despite a few more technical interruptions here and there, the event went on mostly as scheduled. A few more speeches, students walking up to the stage to receive their diploma followed by a school anthem, sung by the school choir, to end the ceremony. When people started getting up from their seat and walked around after the ceremony to take pictures, Janus slowly made his way through the crowd of people and returned to the entrance.

At the door, Isaiah was waiting for him, arms folded while leaning against the door, a rare serious expression appearing on his face.

“See you later then?”

Smiling, Janus extended his hand and nodded. “Yeah, see you later.”

Isaiah grabbed his hand, pulling it to his chest as he embraced Janus and patted his back a few times. “Stay safe, man. I’ll see you around when I can”

“You too,” Janus replied, patting Isaiah’s back and letting go.

After saying goodbye to his friend, Janus made his way to the car waiting for him at the front of the stadium. Before getting in, he looked back one last time only to see that his friend had disappeared into the crowd. Taking his place in the backseat and closing the passenger door, he instructed his driver to take him to the airport where his parents’ plane was waiting for him. Then, the world went silent.

A hole suddenly appeared on the driver’s side window followed by his driver slumping forward, forehead falling on top of the wheel, his arm falling lifelessly to the side. Unsure of what was going on, Janus attempted to leave the vehicle only to discovered that all the doors were locked. He tried kicking the window to escape but was bounced backward by the reinforced glass. He banged his fist against the car’s door hoping to draw the attention of any bystander, but no one pay him any attention.

Then, before he could do anything else, a large explosion rang out on the opposite side of the car. Terrified, Janus attempted again to escape only to be blown backward by the force of another explosion. A third explosion quickly followed, then a fourth. The impact of these explosions flipped his car and pushed it against the wall surrounding the stadium, lighting it on fire.

Inside, Janus was slowly losing his consciousness, rocked by the back-to-back blasts that occurred. He could no longer move, his arm pinned against the space between the seats. Outside the car, he could hear screams of people yelling for help and running for their life. However, that no longer matter to him. He could feel his life slowly leaving his body. His stomach was pierce by a piece of shrapnel and blood was slowly dripping on the floor. He could feel the fire engulfing his car slowly crawling closer to his body.

Trapped in his seat, he looked up only to see images of his life flashing before his eyes as if he was watching a movie. He saw his parents, his sister, his friends.

“It was a short life”, he thought to himself as a final utter escaped his lips.

“See you later.”