Alec Buckley + Meaningful Relationships: Nikolas Pierce
The digital clock in Alec’s dorm room had just stuck three am when his cellphone started to buzz. It was mid-terms week and contrary to popular belief Alec actually took his school work seriously. Which is why he debated just letting it go to voice mail until the name flashing on the screen of his iPhone caught his attention.
“Mrs. Pierce?” He questioned to himself. Sure that his eyes were playing tricks on him. Why would the human neighbor of his parents be calling him so late?
Rubbing a hand over his tired eyes Alec let the pen fall from his hand as he reached towards the phone. Managing to hit answer right before it went to voice mail. He hadn’t even managed to get a word in before the woman was speaking to him. “Alec….Alec do you happen to know where Nikolas is?” She asked her voice sounding shaky.
The question was enough to turn Alec’s blood cold. Nikolas was missing? Little Nikolas Pierce? The younger boy who had grown up next door to him. Who at just five years old had deemed Alec Buckley his hero for some unknown reason to anyone but himself? Nikolas Pierce, a junior at St. Agnes who had been lucky enough to be too sick to attend the ball and suffer the same fate as most of his classmates.
Nikolas Pierce, the boy Alec considered to be a little brother.
Alec’s silence seemed to have been enough for the answer for the woman because pretty soon she was sobbing into his ear. “God Alec, you were our last hope. We’ve called all of his friends….the ones who are still alive anyways. No one seems to know where he is. He left this morning saying he was going out and he hasn’t been back since!” The woman was frantic now particularly screaming even as she sobbed and he couldn’t blame her.
After everything that had happened lately to know your only child was out there unaccounted for must have been terrifying. Even Alec found himself fighting off a panic attack. Where in the world could Nikolas be? “I’ll go out looking right now, Mrs. Pierce. He has to be somewhere, we’ll find him.”
With that the dark haired boy hung up. Thoughts of studying and his English midterm tomorrow completely gone as he grabbed his jacket and slipped out of his dorm. At this point he wasn’t even sure where he was going. London was a big city, Nikolas could have been anywhere. The thought to text him crossed his mind but the likelihood that the boy would text back seemed to be slim.
Instead Alec found himself praying for the first time in a long time.
“God please lead me to where he is.” He muttered under his breath as weaved through his quiet campus to get to his car. “God please make sure he is alright. The last thing any of them needed was another death. Another tragedy. While the Pierces has nothing to do with the Blue Blood Society, Nikolas was a good kid. Stubborn and sarcastic when he wanted to be but he was still a good kid and Alec saw him doing great things one day but he could only do those great things if he was alive and still breathing.
Guided by pure instinct the angel found himself driving to the park. A park that their parents had always taken to boys to for play dates. The same park Alec took Nikolas to the first time the younger boy ditched school. And the same park they had gone to every day for an entire summer to build their secret tree house in the forest.
Most people who came here never ventured from the clear open spaces but Alec and Nikolas had found their solace in the forest that surrounded the park. Deciding on a whim one day to build a tree house there and to make it their ultimate bro cave. Alec hadn’t been to the place in almost a year, the legendary tree house almost becoming a distant memory.
But just like that he found himself in standing in front of it and just in time to see a broken Nikolas standing on the edge of the open doorway. If the tree had been a building Nik could have easily been three stories high. If he jumped the chances he’d die were higher than what Hamaliel was comfortable with. “Nikolas Andrew Pierce don’t you even think about it.” He commanded the younger boy making his presence known.
“You aren’t my father you can’t tell me what to do.” The dirty blonde countered back defiantly not even sparing Alec a glance. “Do you honestly think this is going to solve anything, Nik? Do you? I’ll tell you what’s going to happen. You are going to jump off of that tree. You are going to die. We’re all going to have a funeral for you. And the world is going to continue to spin. You’ll just become another name on that list of many St. Agnes kids who died this year. You’re death isn’t going to bring them back. It’s not going to right any of the wrongs in the world. You’ll just be adding more pain and suffering to the lives of the people you love.”
Alec took steps closer to the tree as he spoke. Taking advantage of Nikolas being more focused on Alec’s words than his sudden suicide attempt. “You won’t be doing any of your friends a favor. Because the ones you join in death will be pissed at you for willingly deciding to leave and the ones you left on earth will be angry at you for being a coward and succumbing to your sadness. So you’re right, I’m not your father. I can’t tell you what to do. But I can tell you that this is a mistake, the kind that you can’t take back.” By now Alec was already up the tree and behind Nikolas. Completely ready to catch him if his speech didn’t do the trick.
In a move so sudden Nikolas was spinning around. No doubt having come to his senses and changing his mind but the human boy had moved too quickly. It caused him to lose his footing and in a blink of an eye he seemed to be falling. Acting quickly Alec did something he rarely did, used his blue blood speed and grabbed on to the boy. Pulling him back to safety before he could fall too far.
Once they were both back on to solid ground he let go and suddenly found himself laughing. It wasn’t funny that Nikolas had almost died but the irony of it all was something he couldn’t look past. When the boy had decided he wanted to live it was then he had almost died. Thankfully Nikolas seemed to be laughing along with him.
But it didn’t take long for the younger boy’s laughter to turn into tears and pretty soon he was crying. “I just can’t believe they are gone, Alec. Daniel, Catherine, Stephen, Brittney. They are all suddenly gone and no one has a god damn clue why and it’s so fucked up. I keep blaming myself. I keep asking why them and not me? What did they do to deserve it huh? They were good people and now they are just god. Half of my circle of friends just vanished in one night. How is that fair?”
It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair at all but instead of adding fuel to the fire Alec reached out to bring the younger boy in for a hug instead.
“It may not feel like it but everything’s going to be okay, Nik. Eventually it’ll be okay.”
