S1, E10 | Lies

Season 1 Finale.

} The following events take place between the months of April and December 2030, and the 18th January, 2031 {

> 25th December, 2030 <

“Sophia?” Morgan groggily calls for, her voice breaking through restraints in a groan-like moan as she rolls over in bed, her arm draped over the empty side of the mattress where she’d expected her daughter to be. “Sophia?” Morgan repeats, opening her eyes at the empty spot on the bed, a moment to process the lack of her daughter’s presence required. “Sophia, honey?” Morgan calls again, pushing herself up to a seat in her bed, looking around the room, finding herself alone.

“Sophia, honey, where did-?” Morgan begins again, looking to her window as flashing red and blue lights arrive on the scene, traveling the long dirt driveway before arriving at their destination. “Sophia… What did you do?” Morgan mutters to herself, throwing the covers off her person and hurrying down the stairs, the minimal moonlight that peers through the blinds allowing her to spot her daughter, curled up in a blanket beside the front door.

“I’m sorry, mom” Sophie replies, curling further into a ball on the ground as the police exit their vehicles, a flurry of officers running for the front door. “How could you do this?” Morgan remarks, a tone holding more wrath than she’s ever allowed Sophie to hear, her hand reaching for the gun on her waistband and firing three shots through the window. In a moment of terror, Sophie bolts away from the wall and attempts to run further into the home, her mother’s order stopping her in place.

“Don’t move!” Morgan shouts, another two shots being fired through the window before the gun is taken back toward Sophie, the young girl holding her hands up at her mother’s will. “I tried to give you everything!” Morgan groans, tears running down her face as her voice takes on a growl, her face shriveling as the acceptance of what her daughter has done settles in, “-how could you take it all away from me like this?”

“Mom, we couldn’t get away with this for much longer” Sophie replies, admitting that she knew her mother would never allow things to go back to normal after her last attempt at leaving. “That’s bullshit- we were happy!” Morgan remarks, she and Sophie ducking upon return fire from the officers outside, another two shots being fired out at the unit from within. “Stop!” Morgan shouts, giving the officers their orders, ones that are met with similar demands, none of which she follows.

“How could things have ever gone back to normal after this?” Sophie asks, challenging her mother to consider the options at their disposal, “how could we have ever viewed each other in the same way again?” Head tilted to the side, Sophie lets the tears and snot run from her face, her head shaking as a somber smile comes over her. “We could’ve done it! we found a way before!” Morgan replies, her tone now carried in a whisper-like reflection, “we would have done it again!”

Ducking additional return fire, Morgan lets out another five bullets toward the officers, a second plea for them to stop leaving her lungs. Her arm trembling, Morgan sucks in a deep breath and looks into her daughter’s eyes, one final demand being made. “Turn around and close your eyes, honey” Morgan demands, her daughter breaking into tears, pleas cut short before they can even be properly made.

“Turn around!” Morgan shouts, her daughter’s silent face hanging with the rest of her head, her slow turn suggesting the end of her time on this earth, “...and close your eyes.” Sucking down the last gulp of air, Sophie whimpers one more plea for her life, the sounds of what follows suggesting a dark answer. “Mom… please” Sophie tearfully begs, the shaking of the gun’s inner mechanisms rattling with the anxious aim of her mother’s arm, the trigger being noticeably rested upon.

“I’m sorry, honey” Morgan remarks, the last word of that coming out with a hum, her eyes closing tightly as she squeezes down, an empty click answering her action. Eyes shooting open, Morgan looks to the gun, her daughter immediately taking notice of this empty follow-through, a quick second attempt at pulling the trigger coming up fruitless immediately thereafter.

Her face shaking with rage, Sophie turns to look at her mother, the older woman immediately glancing away from the gun and toward her daughter, a shake of her head out of disbelief the only thing she can answer Sophie with. A deep breath escaping her lungs, Morgan and Sophie duck further return fire from the police outside, Morgan running to the kitchen with Sophie close behind, the knife she takes into her hand quickly being knocked away.

“No!” Morgan shouts, she and Sophie battling for possession of the weapon in the moonlight-bathed kitchen, the knife clattering along the floor and into the living room. “Please!” Morgan shouts out of desperation, Sophie running toward the knife before she can even get upright, the control she has on the situation quickly fading. Ripping the knife up from the carpet floor, Sophie turns toward her mother and side-steps the oncoming woman, her mother toppling onto the ground.

In firm control, Sophie kicks her mother in the side of the stomach, prompting the older woman to turn onto her back, the sight bringing an instinct over Sophie she could have never expected to have. “No!” Morgan shouts again, her daughter’s knees pressing down on both of her arms to keep them at her side, her face staring into her mother’s own. Her grip relentless, Sophie kneels atop her defenseless mother, audible shouts from beyond the home heard clearly

Nowhere left to turn, nothing left to explain herself with, Morgan lets out a succession of three words as her final plea for release. “Let me go!” Morgan shouts, an animalistic howl sending the words through the air, Sophie’s eyes widening as if they were urged by the flip of a switch. With one deep breath, Sophie’s red hair blows away from her eyes and leaves the view of her mother completely undisturbed, the blade in her hand, held just beside her face, swinging down with merciless force.

As if stabbing at a head of lettuce, Sophie listens to the blade sink into her mother’s chest with a hollow hum, the growl of a voice from the woman beneath her quieting instantly. Eyes wide, a light splatter of blood covering the bridge of her nose as she removes the knife, Sophie feels herself unable to stop, her vengeance unadulterated and uncontained.

With her own resounding wail, Sophie brings the knife down again, removing it from her mother’s chest before swinging down once more, repeating the process as she watches the life slowly leave her mother’s eyes. Soon covered in blood, her hands and face stained red, Sophie pulls the knife from her mother’s chest cavity, holding it above her head before letting it fall to the ground, toppling to the side and falling onto the carpet just before the officers break through the front door.

“Two people- both wounded!” an officer shouts into his radio, a fleet of law enforcement flooding into the home with their guns drawn, a smile emerging upon Sophie’s face, her red locks strewn about the floor, arms fallen to her sides as she stares wildly toward the sky.

= Generation Alpha is created by Zachary Serra, all rights to the series belong to Zachary Serra and the entity of Pacer1 Media from the start of Season 1 onwards =

> 18th January, 2031 <

Puffing her cheeks, Sophie lets a deep breath leave her lungs as the red light on the camera goes off, it's clear bulb facing her, both Andrew and Caden ready to consider this day one to put in the past. “So that’s it?” Caden quips, his shoulder shrugging, hands folded in his lap upon returning the clipboard to the girl sat before him, “that’s your story?”

“That’s the story” Sophie replies, flashing the boy a weak smile, his eyes wandering to the depths of the room, unable to stare directly into those of Sophie’s own. “I think we’ve all had enough of this for one day” Andrew exclaims, patting Caden on the shoulder as he passes him, both arms wrapping around his daughter and pulling her into a hug. “Yup” Caden remarks, pushing himself out of his chair and walking up to the door, Sophie’s call for him the only thing keeping him from leaving.

“Caden- come back!” Sophie exclaims, the boy stopping himself in the doorway, Andrew turning around to see Caden begrudgingly turning back, looking at the girl. Spreading her arms, Sophie waits for her friend to return to her, Andrew stepping aside to allow the kids to hug out their past traumas. Visually not interested in the embrace, Caden walks into Sophie’s arms and feigns the best hug he can, his voice carried like a whisper, hidden from Andrew’s ears.

“Let’s go for a drive” Caden speaks into Sophie’s ears, the girl’s expression remaining unchanged as the embrace is broken apart. “Hey dad- can I drive back with Caden?” Sophie asks, her father, seeing no problem with this, easily agrees. Flashing the older man a smile, Sophie follows Caden to his vehicle, the pair climbing in without a word, silence pre-empting the drive.

“Why did you wanna go on-” Sophie begins to ask, her question brushed aside and ignored by Caden, the boy interrupting her before she can finish. “Don’t speak yet” Caden replies, the girl’s unamused expression worn without a care of who sees it, the friendly expressions the pair have exchanged throughout the entire day giving way for something less welcoming and more ire-driven.

Allowing the car to continue forward on its own, Caden breaks through the automatic guide by pulling his seatbelt over his chest, his hand easily gliding to and turning the key in the ignition, cutting the warning short. Following a brief countdown, the control of the car is given to Caden, Sophie sat in the passenger’s seat, without her seatbelt, watching on without a care, only pulling her restraints over when the car begins telling her to.

Veering off the main road, Caden pulls onto the nearest exit, a vast sea of unused farmland surrounding them in every direction, their vehicle directed away from Jefferson City, now toward Illinois. As minutes pass, Caden finally slows the car to a roll, its speed continuing to decline without a question raised by his passenger, finally stopping just beside a large field, the spot of no particular interest to either occupant.

“Where do you want to-” Sophie begins to ask, again cut short on her delivery by the driver, Caden telling her to follow him without a word until otherwise instructed to speak. With a grimace, Sophie opens her door and emerges from the vehicle, Caden carrying only one thing in his hand, a large, battery-powered light, as his feet direct him into the field.

Remaining silent as told, Sophie follows the boy further into the open expanse, their feet refusing to stop until the moment Caden turns around, the light placed upon the ground between them, turned on to illuminate the sky. With an exhale, Caden turns toward Sophie, looking her in the eyes as the light between them brightens their faces, the only thing visible in the large field being themselves.

“Where did I go wrong?” Sophie remarks, Caden shaking his head as if to tell her she has yet to be given permission to speak, the girl refusing to indulge his silent-wishes any longer. “I’m not an idiot, and you know me too well for this not to be obvious” Sophie replies, Caden’s face dropping, giving up on his efforts to quell her voice, letting her speak freely, “so what was it? You’ve clearly realized something by now.”

Feet pressing into the snow, Caden tucks both hands into his pockets, his breath fluttering through the air as he nods, both through his mouth and nose. “The lack of ability to tell the date was a good start… I saw plenty of ways to figure out what month it was when I was there” Caden remarks, his first example already a fair one, “not to mention, of the multiple times I broke in… Not once did I see any cameras… The police didn’t find any either, so…”

Her head hung, Sophie nods to herself, Caden continuing to speak, nothing he says adding onto the realization Sophie’s come to further than what already has been. “Pair that with the investigators finding no sign of a struggle, the bunker largely clear of DNA- the same with Morgan’s van… I figured it out a few hours ago” Caden concludes, nodding as Sophie looks at him with a guilty smirk, “you’re lying about everything.”

Chuckling to herself, Sophie swipes her red-colored hair over her ears as she nods, genuinely pleased with how convincing she managed to be. “You’re damn right I am!” Sophie replies, breaking out into a laugh as Caden looks on with disgust, his nostrils flaring as Sophie takes in the sick joy of her supposed accomplishment.

“How can you be happy about this? About any of this?” Caden asks, the girl changing her attitude, looking toward the boy with a puppy dog visage, pretending his reaction brings a tear to her eye. “I want the truth… No dicking around” Caden remarks, the girl bringing her over dramatic reactions to a minimum, “what actually happened? What the hell has been going on for the last nine months?”

With her hands in her coat, Sophie lowers her head, giving into the question raised as the story begins for its start once more, the honest events of her year finally prevailing from the secretive confines the girl had sentenced them to.

> 3rd April, 2030 <

“Wh- What the fuck!?” Sophie shouts, curled in a ball against the wall of the bunker, Morgan sat in a chair directly ahead of her, her voice as soothing as she can muster it to be. “Honey, calm down… Please, calm down!” Morgan pleads, her daughter quickly hushing herself to a peep, her eyes squinting in an effort to get a better look at the woman. “Why do you look familiar?” Sophie asks, her mother beginning to let a smile peer through her lips. 

“I’m… I’m your-” Morgan begins, trying to find the courage to say what both girls are thinking, Sophie being the one to fully introduce her own mother to her. “Your my mom” Sophie blurts out, Morgan finding a smile breaking through her lips, a nod being offered in return to the girl, her eyes immediately retreating into empathy, “I’m so sorry to have done this, sweetheart!”

Pushing herself up, Sophie holds the back of her head, stumbling into the wall as her mother races out of her chair to help keep her daughter still. “I gave you a worse shot than I thought I would, honey… I didn’t mean to” Morgan explains, flustered at how quickly she’s being forced to react to things, her anxiety causing a need for events to slow rather than speed up, “I just didn’t know what else to do.”

“You kidnapped me?” Sophie replies, her mother staring into her eyes without anything to respond with, a few wordless gasps leaving her lungs. Finding her own footing, Sophie pulls away from her mother, looking toward the older woman with judgmental eyes, her head still clutching at the back of her skull. “I… I just sort of reacted” Morgan remarks, already aware of how poor that answer is, “it was a spur of the moment sort of thing, Sophia.”

Lip quivering, Sophie walks through the bunker and out into the yard, Morgan following quickly behind her, making sure to stay close by. “You live here?” Sophie asks, looking around at the majestic scenery of the wide, lucious farmlands surrounding her in each direction, “like… this is your house?”

“Yeah, I… Uh… I inherited it from your grandfather when he passed a few years ago” Morgan replies, her hands coupled together by her lap, “it was where I went to cure my addiction back when he was still around.” Turning to the woman, Sophie asks what her addiction happened to be, the foremost answer offered being ‘drugs.’

“I wasn’t in a good place to be anything for a long time, if I’m being honest” Morgan explains, making it clear that she was grateful to have brought Sophie into the world, “but I was in no place to be a mom at twenty… I wasn’t in any place to be anything until a couple years back.” Nodding, Sophie looks toward the large home, asking if there happens to be a second bedroom somewhere within, a question that Morgan briefly laughs at.

“It’s a pretty big house… I’d expect at least a second bedroom if I’m looking at it from this angle” Morgan jokes, a brief chuckle escaping her lips as Sophie glances back to her, the amused reaction ending quickly. “Was that where you planned to keep me?” Sophie asks, her mother looking at her with a concerned look, head glancing down toward her folded hands, little to answer with.

“You don’t really have a plan, do you?” Sophie questions again, her mother quickly looking back up to her, the answer offered in her following silence. With a nod, Sophie listens to Morgan begin to explain how the pair could go about their business and forget about how any of this happened, Sophie’s wide stare toward the home and silent reception the only thing Morgan is speaking to in that moment.

“Don’t do that” Sophie remarks, Morgan stopping her plan in the tracks she’d laid for it, the older woman asking her daughter what she meant by those words. “I mean, don’t try to come up with a way to fix this” Sophie replies, a brief smirk in the corner of her mouth as she continues to look at the home prompting her to turn back to her mother, “we might not need to worry about that.”

> 18th January, 2031 <

“So you were the one that suggested you stay?” Caden inquires, Sophie’s silent nod giving him the answer, her following words only helping to tie up loose ends. “You see, I knew I wasn’t in any danger” Sophie explains, making it known that a mother would never just lose a connection with her child after a short while apart, “regardless of how or why they’d come back, that instinct to just ‘protect, protect, protect’ would kick in right away.”

“So you used her… Why?” Caden asks, Sophie’s shrugged shoulders admitting that there is no clear answer for why she did it. “I’m tired of thinking about college, and finding work after school, and everything about the future” Sophie explains, her friend shaking his head as he rolls his eyes, refusing to find common ground with the girl he’d once considered his closest friend, “this was my ticket out… This was my way to forget about everything and anything… I got to be alive for the first time.”

“Yeah, and you did it at the expense of everyone else” Caden remarks, Sophie’s enthused expression immediately settling down upon Caden’s rebuttal, “I mean, did you ever think- even for one second- about how any of this was affecting me?” Her face going cold, Sophie bites into her bottom lip, shaking her head at Caden before responding with just one word. “No” Sophie replies, Caden’s eyes moving away from anger and closer to hurt, not truly wanting to ask his next question.

“Do you- now that you’ve heard about it first hand- even care?” Caden wonders aloud, his question answered with the same shameless head shake. “No” Sophie replies, the boy’s head dropping, eyes looking back up to the girl’s face, recognizing her lack of expression tell the story of something unspoken as of yet. “Are you happy about that?” Caden asks, the answer again, for a third consecutive time, being “no.”

“I don’t know why, I truly… truly don’t… But I don’t care” Sophie remarks, her words coming off cold, less compassionate than anything she’s ever said to him, an outright admittance to her lack of regard for his feelings. “I think I want to, but I don’t know if I can” Sophie explains, a chill being sent down Caden’s spine, a truth neither had once been privy to now beginning to present itself.

“Do you care about anyone?” Caden asks, the girl’s face remaining stoic, her expression unchanged before, no head shake or nod presenting itself this time around, only the answer. “No” Sophie replies, a defeated breath leaving Caden’s lungs, his heart sinking as the questions left in his mind begin to ask themselves through the power of his own voice.

“Was it you that I saw on Halloween night with the fireworks?” Caden asks, finally receiving a single-worded answer different from the one he’d heard multiple times by that point. “Yes” Sophie remarks, the same tone as there had been in the answers previous, a nod coming off Caden. “And that notebook?” Caden asks, Sophie’s shrug preceding this answer.

“Just something to use for a visual in court” Sophie replies, her story having not only been crafted as a way to garner sympathy, but as a way to future proof any legal repercussions. “And I assume it was you at the supermarket that Izzy convinced herself she saw?” Caden remarks, an impressed nod coming from the young girl. “Yeah, I was there that day… the second redhead was just a lucky break if nothing else” Sophie replies, Caden nodding again.

“And Christmas night?” Caden asks, the holes in Sophie’s story filling, and the points of interest all making sense now aside from the final moments of her ‘capture.’ With a satisfied smirk, Sophie nods to herself silently, pressing her fingers together and giving the air a french kiss. “It was a real masterpiece” Sophie replies, smugly taking delight in her recollection.

> 25th December, 2030 <

In the middle of preparing dinner, Morgan races to her front door at the sound of knocking, a tall white man stood on her porch with an empty pepper grinder in his hand. “Can I help you?” Morgan asks, answering the man’s call for her presence with a cheerful tone. “I’m sorry to bother you on Christmas, I live a few miles out and I ran out of pepper” the man explains, quickly let into the home, following Morgan into the kitchen with a gracious look.

“The store’s a way out, I figured it’d just be easier to stop here real quick and see if I can cut the trip short, y’know?” the man humors, a flattered Morgan assuring him that his presence is welcomed honestly. “I thank you for that” the man remarks, taking a full pepper mill from the woman’s hand, her words assuring him that she has plenty to go without a bottle.

“Well I thank you greatly” the man replies, giving her a nod before approaching the front door, a set of footsteps climbing down from the second level, putting a worried face on Morgan. “Mom, is dinner almost ready!?” Sophie calls out, leaning over the banister and peering toward the kitchen, both Morgan and her neighbor-by-definition stopping to glance back at her.

“I’m star… Oh” Sophie stops, the tall man squinting toward her with a modest smile, his head tilting to the side as if to question himself. Saved by the elapsing timer going off beside the stove, Morgan leads the man through the front door, quickly trying to shovel him as far away as she can, locking the door behind him the moment it shuts. Racing down the stairs, Sophie rushes over to the stove and turns the dial, the door being pulled open and the turkey removed from within.

“Fuck! Do you think he noticed me!?” Sophie shouts, a panic setting in as Morgan looks toward her, arms stretched toward each side of the door, her back keeping it pressed shut. “I don’t know, honey… I don’t know” Morgan remarks, desperate to catch her breath as Sophie fans the smoke away from the kitchen, her mother nodding in her direction, “I think it was a close one.”

> 18th January, 2031 <

“So I guess it wasn’t just a ‘close one’?” Caden interjects, Sophie assuring him otherwise. “Apparently, he didn’t recognize me, he just thought I looked like another one of his neighbor’s daughters” Sophie explains, visually taking disappointment in not having given the moment more time to breath, annoyed she cut her stay with Morgan short by jumping too far too soon.

“If only I had stayed the fuck upstairs- none of this would have happened!” Sophie argues to herself, holding blame against her own shoulders for something far different than what boils Caden’s blood, this visual disturbance in something other than her own disappearance enraging Caden, who keeps his composure well-contained.

“So how did that night actually end?” Caden cuts in, refusing to let Sophie continue to flatter herself with the memory of her most devious scheme. Lowering her eyebrows, Sophie nods toward the boy, her lips puckered in an effort to hold back the smile she knows Caden has grown too aggravated to see any longer.

> 25th December, 2030 <

“Sophia?” Morgan calls out through a whisper, leaping off her pillow at the sight of Sophie trying to sneak out of her room, a weirdly shaped object held firmly in her hand. “What’s going on?” Morgan asks, reaching toward her nightstand to retrieve her glasses, the sight of the signal jammer completely powered down left for her to find, the open-drawer left there to taunt the woman, explaining what is happening without Sophie needing to do so herself.

“Why?” Morgan asks, her daughter immediately bursting out of the room and running for the stairs as the den flashes with red and blue lights. “Sophia- no! Wait!” Morgan shouts, dashing out of bed after the young girl and chasing her into the living room of the home, calling for her to stop. Peering through the window, Sophie finds a fleet of officers emerging from their vehicles, her mother’s disbelief-stricken self entering the kitchen. 

Raising the gun to the window, Sophie fires three rounds outside, her mother quickly turning around the counter with a knife in her hand. “Don’t move!” Morgan shouts at Sophie, hoping to keep the young girl from getting herself shot in the midst of this chaotic scene. “Stop!” Morgan shouts at the officers the moment gunfire is returned, Sophie’s opportunity to further paint her mother in a poor light taken, an additional set of shots fired back.

“Please, honey… You’re going to get yourself killed!” Morgan continues to plead, ducking away from another round of return cover, Sophie firing additional shots back as Morgan continues to plead for a halt to the gunfight. “There’s no way this ends without the two of us dying tonight, mom” Sophie replies, shaking her head as she presses her hand to the doorknob, “I can’t look my father in the eyes again- Not when he realizes what I did.’

“Stop, you’re gonna get hurt!” Morgan wails as gunfire persists, Sophie firing a final five shots at the officers outside, finally storming toward the door, her hand reaching out for the knob. “Turn around!” Morgan exclaims, her daughter inches away from presenting herself, armed and dangerous, to a swarm of police ready to shoot at anything that moves.

“You’re out of bullets” Morgan explains, Sophie’s hand gently falling from the knob as she turns back, shaking the gun to hear nothing of use. “The clip holds twelve bullets, honey” Morgan explains, tears streaming down her face, Sophie’s head hung toward her, the last option at her disposal having been expended. “It’s over” Sophie mutters to herself, a defeated tone carried in her voice, as her mother places the knife down upon the kitchen counter.

“Honey, we’ll get through this” Morgan exclaims, wrapping her arms around Sophie and pulling her close, her chin pressing against the top of her daughter’s head. At a loss for words, Sophie begins imagining just what kind of life she’d be facing once she leaves for home, the truth she’ll have to own up to rendering her completely ruined in the eyes of the world.

In a sudden moment of clarity, Sophie’s eyes fall away from her future and return to her past, attention set solely on the discarded knife. A switch flipping in her head, Sophie shoves her mother away and grabs the blade with both hands, her foot lifting into the air and forcing her mother back, the older woman falling to the ground. “Sophie, no!” Morgan exclaims, both hands raised into the air as her daughter mounts, the weapon lifted horrifyingly above Sophie’s red hair.

“Sophie, please!” Morgan continues, her daughter’s empty apologies being offered, the only way out unscathed presenting itself to the young girl at this moment. “Let me go!” Morgan shrieks, the blade swinging down with force before the final of the three words can even be uttered, her chest oozing blood before her lungs can empty. “I’m so sorry!” Sophie continues, lifting up and lunging forward with the blade over and over, covering her tracks with each incision she makes.

Only when the final breaths leave her mothers lungs does Sophie snap out of her haze-like fog, the sound of the incoming officer's feet shuffling against the patio putting her back into the moment. Throwing herself off Morgan, Sophie collapses to the floor, a brief few seconds of silence filling the air before the large men swarm the home, breaking through the door with ease.

Unable to hide her satisfaction, Sophie lets the brief inkling of a smile peer through her lips, the blood covering her face and hands keeping her warm amidst the midwinter chill.

> 18th January, 2031 <

“You killed her to cover your own tracks?” Caden remarks, Sophie’s shoulders shrugging with both hands still in her pockets, “you’ve gotta do what you’ve gotta do” she responds. Biting his bottom lip, Caden shakes his head, leaving the light behind as he walks past Sophie, the girl left standing with her light in the middle of the field. “Who are you gonna tell?” Sophie asks, her hand clutching onto something beneath the cover of her coat, an exhausted Caden replying in kind.

With his head held toward the sky, Caden lets out a long breath before turning back, his face finding Sophie’s, both young adults keeping their hands tucked safely in their pockets. “Myself- every night- for the rest of my life” Caden replies, refusing to be the one to spill the beans of Sophie’s master plan.

“You’re going to get discovered someday, and someone other than me is going to be the person that reveals everything” Caden continues, a smirk on his face, “but I’ll be there with a big smile on my face.” Lips puckered, Sophie looks away from Caden and nods to herself, the boy remaining stood there, recognizing the look on the girl’s face, her desire to ask him another question written all over.

“Are we still friends?” Sophie asks, the boy watching her eyes lift back to her, his legs carrying him back to the car, their time apart over the last year having provided the young man with an already-comfortable distance. “I hope you rot in hell, Sophie” Caden remarks, the woman’s face scrunching with anger, Caden taking his turn to disregard her feelings the way his once-friend had with him, “never speak to me again.”

Pulling away, Caden returns to his vehicle, Sophie still standing in the middle of the field beneath the cold, starry night, her face surrounded by light as Caden’s car speeds off, returning to the road. Fuming, Sophie turns back, watching the boy’s rear lights veer off into the distance, leaving her on her own, the way she had intended for it to be. Eye twitching, Sophie looks toward the sky and lets out a frustration-induced scream, howling into the chilly night.

== Generation Alpha ==