I sat on pavement all confused. “Damn it… Leaf, star, I wonder what comes next?” I thought. I looked at the star many times, but I didn’t find anything more than that note engraved on it… Still don’t believe me?… “Believe what? Ah, this is stupid”, I put the star into my bag and began walking to school, smoking cig on my way. “Hmm, I’ll take the shortcut today” I thought as I walked into an alley. “Oh no, damn it, this day is REALLY getting more and more f***ed up” I whispered when I saw seven forces pointing at me fingers, laughing and whispering about something to themselves. They began walking right into me.

[Remark: In my country, forces are called people, who are bald, wear sweat that is made in China with 4 stripes, are usually muscular, rude and unfriendly. They often beat people and rob them. And they listen to crappy Russian pop and Trance]

I stopped as they surrounded me. “Hey, you little f**got, gimme your mobile phone and money and you won’t get hurt” force with big golden chain on his hand said to me. I saw that all forces drew their knives. “Well, I guess this is it for my “Nokia” I thought. “If I would try to resist, I would surely die”. I was holding tight the star in my pocket a I was planning what to do. “Oh, c’mon, hurry up d**khead until we beat you”. “Well, this day is stupid, so let’s do something stupid, nevertheless, if I would die today, I wouldn’t be mad, because that damn Maple is killing me too” I thought hastily.

“No, I won’t give anything to you, freaks of nature, if you want anything, come and get it” I said very self-confindent as I picked the star from my pocket. I back-flipped and jumped over one force who was behind me. “Who’s first?” I said with a small smile. “Get that sc*m!” leader force shouted. One force ran to me and wanted to punch me in the face, but I dodged and cut his stomach with the star. He felled. Then another came and scratched my chest with his knife. Blood began pouring like hell, but I still cut his throat with my weapon. I knew I won’t resist much longer, but I stil tried fighting. My chest, face, both hands and one leg was cut, blood was pouring and there were three more forces left. They were laughing as they saw that I couldn’t fight them anymore, I was just sitting on the ground, holding star in my hand, afraid to lose consciousness. “Haha, you’ll die very soon, you…” force was saying as some knife hit his head. Other two forces began running but knives stopped them too. I tried to stand up, wanting to look who saved my life, but everything became black and I fainted.

“What a … Where am I?” I mumbled as I woke up. I found myself sitting big leathern arm-chair, my wounds were cleaned and bandaged and I wasn’t feeling much pain. Right opposite of the arm-chair, there was other arm-chair and someone was sitting in there but it was too dark to see who it was. “I see you finally woke up, Lucas. You were pretty beat up so we had heal you. How are you feeling?” low male voice asked me. “Uhh… I am ok, but who are you, where am I, why did you save…” I tried saying but voice didn’t let me finish “All your questions will be answered, Lucas. Wait a bit and you’ll see. Now, I shall introduce myself. I am Chief Stan of Henesys” man said and turned on a small lamp on the table.

I saw quite old man, with blonde hair, beard and moustache. He was wearing some kind of toga. Though he was old, his eyes showed that he has much energy. Even to kill somebody. “Hehe, did my appearance shocked you?” he chuckled as a youth. I felt sympathy for that old man. “No… I am bit shocked that you can actually kill someone in your age” I said. He began laughing even more. “You are a real comedian. I may look old, but I am full of energy, because taking care of Henesys isn’t easy” he stopped laughing and became serious again “So, do you want to know why you are here, Lucas?”.

“Of course I want” I said hastily.

“Do you want to know more about Maple?”

“Maple?! You know something about Maple?” I said with amazement.

“I know everything about Maple and I will tell you everything about it, but you will have to choose”. He said as
he put two things on the table: glass with green liquid and glass with red liquid.

“Now, Lucas, it is time to choose. If you want to live your life here, with no adventures, drink the green liquid.
But if you want to know everything about Maple and even be in it, drink the red liquid. And remember, once you drank, there’s no way back.”

“Hehe, this is like from “The Matrix” I smiled

“You’ve seen “Matrix”? Pretty good movie, eh? Anyway, it is time for decision.” Stan said.

“Well, my life wasn’t bad, though not interesting too, it would be cool to know about Maple, but leaving here my family, friends…” I was thinking very hard for a minute and I finally decided…

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Sorry for late chapter, I was working like hell and was partying (not in maple) on weekdays. Please leave comments if you like it and it never hurts to push “I enjoyed it” button