Do you believe in fate?
Most people do...
...I do.
Some people believe fate is something that life -the most difficult thing we have to go through- has planned for us, and is out of our reach to perceive, change or control.
How is it that something like this, so precise, and at the same time, so powerful, can be established upon us?
Plenty of people think that fate is something that is written for us at the moment we are born, either by divine intervention or pure nature, and no matter what we do, no matter how hard we try, we can’t intervene with fate.
If you are one of these people, let me tell you a secret:
You can.
You are completely able to change your fate.
In fact... you are even capable of changing the fate of everyone around you.
...
Doesn’t that make you powerful?
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Friday, November 12th, 2021
Mitsuo took a big bite of his yakitori, and instantly felt a super strong heat in his mouth. He opened his eyes wide and looked at the vendor, who was laughing at him. The vendor, named Jirou -a charismatic retired chef-, always smiles when Mitsuo asks him for the spicy sauce jar so he can dip the yakitori in, and eat it like a malnourished dog.
But the vendor doesn’t judge him, in fact, he always welcomes him with a big smile, a refreshing grape soda, and a small talk. After all, he’s Jirou’s favorite and most loyal customer, since Mitsuo is basically addicted to his food and that delicious drink, for what he comes every day.
“I added some extra spice last night.” -Jirou said with a grim smile, and laughed shortly.
“I wasn’t expecting that! You like seeing me suffer, don’t you?” -Mitsuo replied with a smile, and started coughing again.
“I love surprising my customers, especially my favorite one.” -Jirou said while handing him an ice-cold grape soda.
Mitsuo drank the whole can in two exaggerated gulps, and finished it with a big “Aaaahhh…” followed by a deep breath and, of course, a chain of coughs caused by the spicy sauce.
He checked his phone and saw several unread messages from his best friend, Kenshin. Normally, Mitsuo would read them and reply right away, but today, he felt like it was about time for him to stop being so dependent on his phone -since that’s what got him fired yesterday- and thought “I’ll reply to him later.”
Mitsuo waved at Jirou -who waved back with a big smile- and started walking down the street.
Then, his phone started vibrating in his pocket. It was Kenshin again, but this time, he was calling him.
“What do you want?” -Mitsuo answered.
“Nice way to say hello, idiot!” -Kenshin replied, which made Mitsuo laugh- “Did you see my messages?”
“No, I was trying to get off my phone for a while.”
“Ok, listen, listen: come meet me at my home, quick! I have something really cool to show you.” -Kenshin said, very excited.
“Uhm... can you wait for an hour or two? I just finished eating and I wanted to walk some time alone so I could digest the chicken I just ate.” -Mitsuo replied.
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“Ah, idiot! You’re wasting all of your money in street food and you don’t have a job anymore! Don’t be so dumb!” -Kenshin said angrily.
“It’s just for today, I swear, I just wanted to eat there for the last time!”
“Stop lying to yourself, chubby. Come home and we’ll drink something to wash that trash down.”
“Okay, okay. I’m going. Bye, idiot.”
“Bye chubbyyyyy, chubby chubby chu-”
Mitsuo hung up and started walking down the street.
On his way to Kenshin’s home, a small green light reflected from the floor into his eyes, making him curious enough to look down for its source.
As he drew closer to it, he noticed that right next to the sidewalk, there was a shiny light-green ring laying on it. Mitsuo picked it up, and saw that it was a beautiful piece of jewelry that looked incredibly well-made, surely it was done by a very skilled jeweler. The ring was extremely luminous, more than any other ring that he had ever seen, almost like the ring itself was emitting light.
“Someone must have dropped it.” -he thought.
Mitsuo saw two women standing at the bus stop nearby and couldn’t help but ask if it belonged to one of them.
“No, it’s not mine.” -said one of the women.
He gestured with the ring to the other woman next to her, who replied with a head shake. Mitsuo took a second to realize that he had an opportunity to keep the ring for himself, so he said:
“Oh, okay… Sorry to bother you! Have a nice day!”
Mitsuo turned back, gave the ring another good look to appreciate the excellent craftwork of it, and slipped it into his finger.
The ring flashed a blinding green light, naturally forcing him to close his eyes, while feeling a powerful shockwave emanating from it, almost like a bomb just exploded in his hands. All of this happened during the time he blinked.
Mitsuo put his left hand on top of the ring to prevent it from emitting that blinding light -which worked- but now he heard a colossal sound, followed by a giant echo, coming from beneath him.
He gazed down to what it looked like a never-ending portal, similar to a black hole, spinning clockwise at his feet.
Mitsuo panicked and jumped back to prevent falling into it, which made him trip and fall on the floor. Then, he suddenly realized two horrifying things:
One, the women at the bus stop collapsed on the floor like ragdolls.
And two, the center of the portal was still below him, but he didn’t fall through it. In fact, the portal was following him.
Mitsuo rushed to aid the two collapsed women, who were completely lifeless and pale. As soon as he reaches them, he looks up and sees another man coming to help, when he suddenly drops on the floor, like someone has turned him off.
Another man is crossing the street to help, and shares the same fate as the other three people. Dropping dead like a mannequin.
As Mitsuo starts to panic, he begins to hear people screaming very loudly. Not only around him, but inside of him.
He gazes down into the portal, which still remains below him, following him like a spotlight, getting bigger and bigger.
He looks at the ring, which now starts exhaling a light-green smoke. Mitsuo opens his eyes, thinking that either he was going crazy, or this ring had a curse in it.
When he looks up again, he starts seeing people drop dead on the floor in every direction. Sirens are heard in the distance, but it was too late… for everyone.
Mitsuo starts panicking even more than before, almost hyperventilating, while desperately trying to remove the ring.
It won’t budge. The ring is completely stuck to his finger, almost like it incarnated into his skin.
An ambulance turns around the corner. Once it stops turning, it begins to honk endlessly while accelerating down the street. Mitsuo stands up and waves at the ambulance, but it doesn’t seem to slow down at all. Then, he backs up a few steps and glances at the inside of the ambulance passing by, almost like in slow-motion.
Both paramedics inside were dead, and the driver was resting his lifeless head on the honk.
Mitsuo screams at the top of his lungs:
“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!” -but nobody seems to be alive to aid him.
“HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!” -he screams again.
He reaches for his phone, his hands are shaking, his heartbeat is spiking up, and the voices inside of him are becoming louder.
He instinctively wants to call 911, but his voice of conscience speaks to him in a moment of brightness:
“Why would I call 911, if they are gonna die as soon as they get here?”
Mitsuo was terrified. He felt like a killer. A genocide.
He looks down at the portal -which had grown in size- and gets down on his knees, trying to touch it with his left hand. He feels the texture and heat from the asphalt, like the portal wasn’t even there.
Was it an illusion? Was he delusional?
No. He wasn’t.
In a desperate need of anger relief, he clenches his fists and hits the asphalt as hard as he can, realizing that his left hand was indeed hitting the ground, while his right hand passed through. He looks at it, confused, while feeling a soothing cold sensation.
Mitsuo removes the hand from the portal, unintentionally dragging a trail of light-green energy from it, which slowly starts taking the shape and size of a human body, almost like a spectre, facing away from him. He walks in front of the human-like spectre, and Mitsuo’s mouth opens in shock.
It was Jirou, the food vendor. He was staring directly into Mitsuo’s eyes, showing no facial expression nor emotion.
Mitsuo looks at his left, only to see Jirou’s dead body lying in the distance, next to the food stand. He cannot believe what he’s seeing, and starts to think he has gone mad.
“MITSUO!” -Jirou’s spectre screamed at him, in a deep and furious tone, reverberating like if it was inside an empty stadium.
Mitsuo screams back in pain, as a massive headache is starting to consume his brain. He drops on his knees, grabbing his head and mourning at the same time. Jirou’s spectre kept screaming at him, but he couldn’t hear him properly. The spectre’s voice became muffled and distorted, but it started to sort of multiply, hearing it from everywhere around his head.
The unintelligible voice from Jirou’s spectre had overtaken his whole head, blending in with the voices he was already hearing around him, and inside of him.
Mitsuo starts feeling dizzy, almost nauseous, feeling his blood pressure dropping, eventually leading him to pass out and fall inside the portal.