"Well, that certainly did not go as planned."

That phrase was one that most find themselves familiar with once they reached the end of an event or maybe an action or a day that did not occur in the way they planned. Sometimes, this phrase is muttered accompanied with a sigh or is pronounced after a raging tantrum followed by a bruised body, broken objects and a physical and mental exhaustion that makes one truly wish they could just stop wherever they were or head as fast as they could to space where they could just lay down and sleep or maybe cry for a while in frustration and the sleep.

This phrase, however, was something quite peculiar in a certain young man's life.

His name was Lucas and he was twenty-two years old, and from what he could gather, he had to be the unluckiest person alive. He was not one of those miserable cases of poverty one would often find on the internet about African children starving of hunger or maybe those of the populations controlled by a tyrannical dictator that dined the best and lived to the utmost whilst his people starved on the streets and had to eat rotten food or straight up trash in order to survive.

No, this was not his torment. His, at least in his perspective, was a much more complex problem than just straight out survival. But don't believe that just because he had this conviction in mind that he was arrogant enough to say that he was miserable. Oh no, he knew full well that misery was not one of his problems.

He had a somewhat good life in fact. He lived in a small house with his mother and his younger siblings, which were respectively his sister that was at the age of seventeen and his two younger brothers that had twelve and eleven. His house was an old one that housed two generations of his family.

First, there lived his grandfather and his grandmother with their children, and then after many years, his mother brought them to live there together after they lived for two years in a European country and were forced to come back to his country due to judicial problems with his recently born brother. Ever since they came back they lived in that house for ten years already, and despite the many problems they faced over the years, they could never say that they were miserable. They may have faced problems just as everyone else with finances and disease and all of that normal jazz, but never were they miserable.  

His plight was one of the mind and his, as he liked to call, "Curse" was his overactive mind that would often wander off into other worlds where he knew he could never reach or alternate realities that he knew where too absurd to exist or too difficult to even dream of achieving. This mind of his was one that could spend hours on end wondering about possible universes and mysteries about life that despite the frequent challenge of the subject, he could not figure out at all despite his best efforts. He knew full well just how far he could go if properly motivated or under the right circumstances but as you could most likely already guess, him being motivated or under the right circumstances were events so rare that he could almost affirm they never existed. 

He was always a creative person with a gift for writing. He never won an actual prize or anything of the sort, but he frequently received compliments for his poems and texts be it at school or amidst his friends and family. Aside from that, he didn't have many things he could, in his perspective and understanding, be proud of.

As far as he could tell, he was as average a man as he could be and, unlike in his formative years, his ambitions were as peaceful and grounded as they could possibly be. He did not have a wish to be extraordinarily rich or gain immense political power, rather, what he desired most was peace for his troubled mind and a place where he could live in tranquillity as he passed his days doing what he loved most whilst occasionally travelling the planet in order to witness more of the wonders hidden in the big deformed geoid humanity had to call its home in the amongst the stars of the cosmos, or simply, Earth.

When younger, he dreamed of acquiring power and one day dominate a large piece of land and even build his own country or dominate the world! But, as reality dawned on him and his perception of the world improved, he reached the conclusion that grandeur was not for him and that he would rather spend his days in peace doing the one thing he appreciated the most, reading!

When it came to reading, he was a fanatic! he did not discriminate against anything and read all kinds of books. He read books about fantastical adventures and explosive action, books that told of legends and mysteries of the world, works that displayed blazing romances and the complexity of relationships, countless texts that informed about technical matters and studies on the most varied subjects. As long as it was readable and he could understand the language, he would read it no matter what it was.

Reading was the one thing that helped him through his days of depression that perpetuated its impacts on his persona transforming his personality into a far gloomier version and made his mind dance in thrill as he read something new or revisited something he appreciated. He was, as many would call, a bookworm.

However, that part of his personality was not often displayed to the public. He was a very reserved young man with few friends that would mostly keep to himself and avoid exposure as much as he could manage. It was not known if it was due to his experience of with society or if he was naturally such a "quiet" person, but as far as he knew, he hated crowds and being exposed to them the most! and if he had to make a presentation in front of many people? he would not freeze, but he would hate the person that put him in that situation to the bones whilst imagining countless ways of how to destroy that person's life.

But why did he hate being exposed to the public you may ask? well, that's quite an easy answer. that answer is the fact that Lucas's figure was not one he appreciated.

He did not hate his body per se as it was the only one he had and the single thing that tied his existence to this world and allowed him to experience this world and the many books he so much loved to read, but he certainly did not like his looks. His height was above average but not exaggeratedly tall as he was 1.84m (or 6 ft tall for those of the imperial system preference), he had a short and somewhat bulky light brown hair that he would either let his pillow brush for him or  just simply brush it all sideways giving him a strange hairstyle that was stuck between an executive and a nerd.

His eyes were light brown with faint hints of green in them that were very difficult to discern without proper lighting, and to his dismay, his left eye had a discoloration in the skin below it that made it seem like he had a white stain on his face when compared to the other eye. Although it was not a huge issue, every time he looked himself in the mirror and saw the thing he would more often than not sigh and curse his luck in his mind.

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His mouth was somewhat small and his cheeks were normal except for a single detail. Due to a curious condition that made them have a bigger concentration of blood than normal, his cheeks a red flush to them that went from slightly aside the nose all the way to his neck in a diagonal fashion that made him look healthy to most people and also made him look like he was always slightly blushing despite whatever mood he was on the moment. Also due to that same condition, whenever he made any sort of heavy effort, his face would grow scarlet in seconds and would stay so for a considerable time after the effort was over.

His body was somewhat overweight but had a good distribution that usually passed people the impression of strong instead of fat, and the impression was mostly correct as he was indeed a strong guy despite being sedentary. The problem, however, was that combined with his sedentarism he also had asthma which, and that combination worked in a way that made his overall energy lower and his stamina just trash. And to his dismay, he really liked to run, but every time he did so his asthma would flare up and easily make him stop whilst gasping for breath as his throats muscles contracted and made the simple act of breathing a labor he could not easily surmount. But thanks to modern medicine, he always carried with him an inhaler for those annoying events where he would stop in the middle of the street gasping for breath thanks to a reckless dash or simply when his allergy to dust flared up and activated his asthma in a combo where he would sneeze for a few moments whilst his throat closed and made it that much harder for him to breathe.

And today, was such a day where the phrase mentioned before and his self-attributed reputation of the unluckiest person in the world came proved themselves in his mind once more.

His day started out pretty normal as he got out of bed around ten and got up feeling like he had taken a beating the day prior as his body ached all over due to his less than optimal sleeping position that gifted him with a stiff pair of shoulders coupled with a stiff neck and his back hurting more both combined. 

He lifted himself slowly as he felt his muscles work and his bones and joints snap emitting popping sounds as his body propped up and stood erect whilst his mind made an effort to catch up to his habitual moves as it was slightly dazed due to having slept two hours less than usual due to his excess in his nocturnal reading efforts the day prior. He let his head fall to both sides, only to turn it making a full circle with his head as his neck let out several cracking sounds before a wonderful sensation of relief washed over his neck and made it heat up somewhat as a smile grew on his face.

His good mood didn't last for long as seconds after his ears perceived the ever so annoying voices of his brothers and mother gossiping about his sleep and complained that he ate the last few slices of pizza during the night. Despite getting annoyed, he spoke nothing and just went straight to the bathroom.

He walked slowly out of his room leaving the mess his sleep had caused for later and with but a few steps he reached the grey bathroom door, gripped the doorknob and pushed it down opening the door before entering and immediately after closing and locking the door.

He looked at the mirror that he was ever so familiar with and gazed at his own face. The white discoloring in his left eye made him frown somewhat as he sighed before opening the tap in the old cream colored sink beneath him that stood at the height of his waist and cupping his hands to gather some water. He bent down and washed his face with water a couple of times before grabbing the towel that was placed on a thin metal bar stuck to the wall right next to him and drying his face. He then proceeded to grab the soap that was next to the tap and rub his hands with it before washing and drying it with the same towel.

He then walked back to his room and after tidying it up he walked to his, formerly known as the secondary bathroom of the house and now known as, makeshift closet and chose his a pair of pants and shoes promptly throwing it on his bed and shortly after browsing his dresser to choose a shirt, socks and underwear as he prepared himself for a bath after he ate his breakfast.

Today was Saturday, and since he did not have any classes in college due to the recent holiday in the day prior and he did not have to work since he was unemployed, he decided to go to the local library to spend his days browsing the various books there and perhaps find something interesting to take home afterwards and further feed his habit of reading.

Now, since it was long past the usual breakfast time in his home Lucas did not have much luck with breakfast. After his brethren devoured the delicious sweets his mother had prepared to eat with fresh bread and a freshly squeezed orange juice, all he was left with was a single bread with margarine and a cup of pure milk since he disliked coffee and there was no other option available to mix with the milk.

He ate quickly and after cleaning the table and washing the dishes, he returned to his room and grabbed his clothing, entered the bathroom and locked it.

Fifteen minutes later he got out fully washed and dressed. He wore his favorite band shirt that was black and had a huge stamp on the chest with the band's art, and on the back, he had that year's dates for the band's tour which he had a few months prior watched the show that was on his country. He also wore washed blue jeans that were slightly big for him and would make him sometimes step on their bar, also, he wore black sneakers.

After that, he spoke to his mother about going out, went back to his room and fetched his keys, wallet, earphones and phone as well as his glasses and quickly walked out of his home.

The town he lived in was a modest one. It was somewhat close to the rural region and existed a hundred kilometers away from the state's capital having only a one hundred thousand people in population. Despite that, it was a well (ish) developed town that thrived in the tourism business and had its main product the wine and a strange plant whose name he could not pronounce correctly that could be eaten and was quite well known in the region as an expensive delicacy.

As he walked he plugged his phones on and started browsing his phone to choose a soundtrack for his walk, and after a few minutes of browsing, he ended up choosing his favorite band's custom made best hits playlist. He slowly walked through the streets, and as usual, he observed the people around him.

He watched as they went about their lives, be it hurriedly or leisurely and imagined how different their lives could be, judging from their behavior and speech. As his mind wandered off to the possibilities of these beings he ended up tripping and although he didn't fall, his glasses did. He hurriedly bent down whilst cursing his mind for his stupidity and picked up only to find out that his previously pristine glasses now had scratches on the lenses that did not impair his vision but made the sight quite annoying.

Then, as he traversed a crosswalk a reckless driver almost ran over him and if it were not for his timely reaction he would have at least quite a number of broken bones or even died as the imbecile ran over a red light. Afterwards, the sky that was tranquil filled with white clouds quickly changed into a dark grey sky that threatened to rain that rumbled as thunder exploded and lightning crackled, soon after, the rain started to pour massively as if the sky was enraged.

"REALLY NOW!? RAIN!?" Lucas shouted angrily as he started running.

He had not grabbed his umbrella when he left his home, and since the weather was quite good, he never would have imagined that such a ferocius rain would actually hit him.