It had been raining that day. Dark skies that held nothing but the fleeting promise of summer clouded the horizon. It was usually uncommon for bad weather to occur in the midst of June, but then again, this was England. There was no absolute truth in this country, except for the fact that soon it would rain again. Luckily, this was the standard, so there was little surprise when these things occurred. It was only mid day, but a mantle of darkness that was the weather darkened the streets of this normally bright city. The only sources of light in the near vicinity were the shivers of illumination that were provided by the gaps in curtains that protected the in-numerous windows from the outside. Now and then, a dark, metal shape could be seen, speeding by on the road: people longing for the sweet embrace of home, not minding their surroundings, as there were almost no others in the streets.

As the streams of water were slowly flowing down the streets, a lone figure could be seen, running in the dark. Wearing some soggy trainers, a matching training outfit and a baseball cap, the young man sprinted down the road. His path was towards a big building with giant windows, releasing a welcoming feeling and a promise of escape from the horrors of the outside weather. His blond hair stuck to his head, due to the amount of water that seeped through his hat. He squinted his green eyes as he tried to make out the best way to run towards his salvation that was a shelter from the rain. Giant muscles, defined by his clothes sticking to his body, created a dark shape that many would be envious of. If it not had been for his face, which was noticeably mediocre, he would have been dreamy for both men and women.

As he finally arrived at his destination, he pushed open the glass door and entered the building he had been longing for. Generic pop music entered his ears and he vaguely recognized the song, as for so many pop songs this day and age. He approached the desk and flashed a smile to the girl behind the counter.

“Hey Alice, how are things today?”

The black haired girl grinned slightly as she replied with a look of boredom:

“Same as always, except for that god awful weather. I'm surprised you came.”

Noticing her lack of interest, the man quickly replied:

“Yeah, but I couldn't let you die of boredom! Anyway, I'm heading in.”

“Later, Elliot.”

She replied, whilst raising her hand and waving in an unsophisticated manner, still parading her look of agonizing boredom.

Elliot took out his membership card and swiped it across the scanner, so that the small, metallic gate would open. As he entered the gym, he noticed that there were not many people around, like he had suspected. A few guys at the loose weighs, as usual. A single old man that was using an inefficient machine and would probably keep doing that until he became tired and stopped to rest and read a magazine. Last but definitely not least were a couple of girls, probably also students here, discussing which exercise to do while actually not doing anything.

Same old, same old.

Elliot went over to the changing rooms and quickly took out his still dry workout clothes. Good thing he had invested in a good waterproof bag, otherwise he'd have had a terrible time. As he took out his old and beloved Epod that he had kept for almost six years now, he justified to himself why he still had that thing instead of buying a new and better one. It still worked, so why would he spend money on such a trivial thing? His favorite music was stored there and, to be completely honest with himself, he was just trying to avoid all the hassle that came with purchasing a new device. He booted up his favorite playlist and shut himself of from the outside world. As the first sentence of one of his favorite songs entered his ears, he started his routine.

~ Far, far beyond the island. We dwelt in shades of twilight. ~

His workouts usually took around two hours, but because he still had a paper to write, he finished early. As he showered in the small cubicle, his mind was already with his paper. He had been writing about the perception of young adults on mental illness and how that affected the amount of people that sought out psychologists and psychiatrists for their problems. He'd gathered some interesting data, but he had yet to draw a conclusion. Sadly, he had to perform really well with this paper, as his stay depended on it.

He had never put in large amounts of effort in his work and therefore had always barely passed with a C. That was, of course, after he had been accepted into Cambridge, as he would have never been allowed in if he had had all C's. Good thing secondary school was easy and his parents had quite the amount of money, otherwise he'd never been able to enter. The reason that he'd stopped working hard was that he had simply gotten bored. There was no real reward for him to strive towards and the promise of a good job was not enough.

His personal life was also lacking, he felt. Not because his family was far away, but because he had no romantic life whatsoever. That was probably due to the fact that he had never been good with women. Or men for that fact. In secondary school he noticed that muscular, handsome guys always were immensely popular, so why not start working out? He found, however, that there were two factors that made them popular and sadly, he only had one of the two now. Even though he was quite muscular, he was not handsome at all. Not that he was ugly, he reasoned, he was just very plain. On top of that, he had no real social skills, so that made for an extreme combination of people trying to have conversations with him and him, just responding awkwardly. Not that he felt lonely or depressed, as he still had friends that did not judge him, immensely, for his behavior. He was at Cambridge, there were far weirder people around! At least, that's what he hoped others thought.

Looking back, he realised that that may have been the reason he'd went on to study Psychological and Behavioral Sciences, as that gave him a gigantic insight in the human psyche.

Still having his Epod in, he left the changing room in his still quite wet training outfit. Walking down the path towards the exit, he suddenly stopped in his tracks. What he'd failed to notice when he first left the changing room, was the fact that everyone that was still present in the almost abandoned gym was staring towards the big TV screen, that was stuck on the wall. Surprised, he took out his ear pods and caught the last few sentences of what was being broadcasted.

“So far, no news on these strange, black, giant monoliths, Mary. We can only hope that they do not spell out anything negative for the future. Back to you.”

On the screen, footage of a gigantic black spire was shown from the perspective of a helicopter. Several white tents could be seen nearby, which clearly represented the involvement of the government. Having missed most of the news, Elliot turned towards Alice, who'd left the counter and was staring at the television screen.

“Hey Alice, what in the world has happened?”

Slowly, she turned her head towards him, while her eyes did not leave the screen.

“Some giant, black stones have appeared all over the world! All capital cities have one and apparently there are also some in the middle of nowhere! Elliot, you know what this means, right?”

Elliot, however, was less enthusiastic about the whole ordeal. He frowned as he replied:

“I don't, is this some sort of prank? How did those massive things get there without anyone noticing?”

Abruptly, she turned towards him completely, whilst exclaiming:

“It's aliens! It's fucking aliens, Elliot! The spires appeared out of nowhere, exactly at the same time! How could that possibly be done by humans, it's impossible!”

Alice spoke with a look of bewilderment, which quickly influenced the rest. Panic, excitement and confusion spread across the group, which ultimately lead to everyone, except Elliot and Alice, rushing towards the changing rooms. They probably had their phones in a locker and wanted to check things for themselves. Having nothing to say, Elliot smiled awkwardly and made his way to the exit.

“Elliot, wait up! Where are you going?”

Turning around, he saw Alice, still quite shocked by the whole ordeal, but she also sported another emortion he had not seen before. Unrest.

“I'm heading home, Alice. I have a paper that needs finishing.”

“Could you wait, maybe five minutes? I'll just close early, so we can head home together.”

Alice had moved in to one of the small apartments opposite to his hall. Even though he barely knew her, they had been having little chats about the weather and such when he came in to exercise. One day, she had spotted him, leaving his hall and she'd called out to him, therefore she knew where he lived and vice versa.

“I guess. Hurry up though, I really need to hand my paper in on time.”

Smiling briefly, she turned around and ran to the back, probably to lock all the doors and turn off the lights. While Elliot waited for her to finish, the people that had previously been exercising now quickly left the building, defying the monstrous dark clouds and their innumerable tears.

“Hey, thanks for waiting. I really appreciate it.”

Looking up from his Epod, he saw Alice standing before him. She was wearing dark blue waterproof clothing, revealing nothing but a small gap for her blue eyes. Elliot slightly jumped due to the abruptness and her close proximity.

“Whoa, you scared me there for a bit! Don't sneak up on people like that.”

He heard a slight chuckle, but the massive hood did not reveal anything. She slapped his back with her bare hand and started walking towards the door.

“Come on, big man. I don't have all day!”

Frowning and also cursing under his breath, he quickly followed in pursuit. That slap had really hurt! You'd think it would not have, due to the fact that he was very muscular. Sadly, these were all muscles used for lifting heavy weights, not for fighting or receiving punches. He would probably go down very easily if he'd ever had to fight someone who was not intimidated by his stature.

“Give me a second to close up.”

As he casually waited for the girl to lock the door, he again looked at her unflattering image. She was covered from head to toe with heat insulating, waterproof clothing. Probably very comfortable, compared to his already soaking wet training outfit. He had definitely chosen poorly with his clothing.

“Done, let's get out of here.”

Alice let him know as she sprinted into the rainy dark.

After a while, they came to a stop. Alice was definitely not used to running for a long time, so they took a break, seeking shelter in front of a Tisco's. The green lights illuminated their surroundings, as Alice leaned heavily on Elliot's right shoulder, panting.

“Man, are you not concerned with those black spires that were on the news? We've been visited by aliens and still you're so calm?”

She said, gasping for air. Now it was his turn to chuckle, as he formulated his answer.

“I'm quite fine, thank you. Of course I'm concerned about what those things are and what their purpose is. Having said that, there's currently no real threat or problem, is there? If it really were aliens that placed those things there, they would probably also have the power to destroy us, they didn't though. I reckon that whatever those things are, they're not dangerous.”

Surprised, Alice turned her head upwards to him as she said:

“Has it not crossed your mind that those things may be the tools that will be used to destroy us?”

“Oh shit”

*

Have to start somewhere! Let me know what you think, I may or may not take in into account whilst writing!