CHAPTER 1: IRONY OF FATE

this is a fictional story by realTensai

“I...I’m pregnant!”

Huh?

When I heard those words from my wife, all I could do was stare at her belly. It did not look any different to me so I was not sure what to think. I guess it was because reality had not really caught up to me that all I could do was stare at her belly.

Probably feeling anxious about me not saying anything, my wife spoke up. Her voice wavering.

“Damion... I’m pregnant?!” she said again, nervously grasping my hand. “We’re going to be parents! We will have a child!”

It was only now that my brain caught up to reality. I’m going to be a father!

My body acted on its own, and I took my wife into my arms with tears streaming down my cheeks.

“Thank you, thank you, Sarah!”

——

We both calmed down after some time. The best news of my life came to me early in the morning. It still felt surreal, but I didn’t have time to process it. That was because I didn’t want to be late for my first day of work. Today was the day I could finally start my dream job. Today was my first day on the job as a police officer.

I looked in the mirror one last time, styling my black hair and arranging my glasses.

“And how do I look?”

“Perfect! You look great in the uniform.”

Before I left, I kissed my pregnant wife one more time.

“Return safely!” She expressed her concern to me.

“Of course!” I promised.

I would never have left my wife if I had known what was going to happen that day!

I went and left the house. The police station was about a 15-minute walk from my house. The streets of Berlin were as crowded as they had always been, but that didn’t stop me from drowning in my thoughts.

Because of my job and my future child, my life was about to transform for the better.

Given my childhood, this was hard to believe.

While we’re at it, I should go back to my parents’ grave to tell them the good news.

Many people greeted me as I walked through the streets. They were all cheerful.

Of course, I was now an official police officer. A protector. A fighter for justice. A person who will go out of his way to save anyone.

This was the person I aspired to be. Maybe as a police officer and soon-to-be father, I would be able to forget my past. Maybe I could become someone with value. Not like the old me, who lived solely for vengeance.

I despised my life. I despised vengeance. I despised myself.

But now I was different. I didn’t need my vengeance to live. I had plenty of other compelling reasons to live. Yes, I would forget about my revenge from now on.

I‘m sorry mom, I’m sorry dad. I hope you can forgive me.

After freeing myself from the chains that bound me to vengeance and hatred, I could see clearly again. I was no longer the same. I’d live a fulfilling life!

A suspicious-looking man ran past me just as I had that thought.

I recognized him despite his grey jacket and hood covering most of his face.

That scar on his eye, his pale skin, and his psychopath’s eyes. It clicked right away. Without a doubt…

He was the one who killed my parents!

My blood began to boil, and memories of my parents’ corpses and this man’s devilish smile surfaced. I clenched my fist so hard that I only noticed my palm bleeding when I heard the blood dropping.

He was the reason I became a cop. I gave all of my life to catch this man!

I’m going to kill him!

Was this fate’s irony? Even though I had just broken free from the shackles of vengeance, they had reattached themselves to me.

How could I possibly dismiss this now? I had no choice!

I’m going to kill him and break those chains!

I immediately turned around to look for him in the crowd. I found him again, despite the fact that it was extremely crowded. He didn’t make it very far. I sped up and followed him.

I secretly shadowed him in order not to cause mass panic and not to miss him. Despite his quickness and caution, I stayed.

My hatred told me to pull out my gun and shoot him, but I couldn’t hit him in that crowd, so I didn’t.

He abruptly entered an abandoned alley. I pursued him, but he didn’t notice me. The alley appeared to be the epitome of a criminal alley. Graffiti covered the filthy, drug-smelling alleyway. There was trash everywhere, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I discovered a dead body right away. I made a mental note to return and investigate this alley further later.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I suddenly realized we were alone in the alley and had a clear shot. I pulled out my gun and pointed it at him. Normally, I was not allowed to shoot anyone unless I was threatened or someone else, but I didn’t care anymore.

I just wanted him to die!

But before I could fire, he vanished through a side door.

I chased him, but came to a halt at the door. I knew it was risky to follow him through that door.

Who knew what awaited me there?

But I couldn’t think rationally any longer. I opened the door, motivated by hatred.

When I opened the door, I found myself in a pitch-black room, though it wasn’t really a room. It was only an entrance to a cellar. Stairs leading down were in front of me. It felt as if these were the stairs to hell, but still, that couldn’t stop me.

I walked down the stairs, armed and cautious. I tried not to make any noise. My heart rate increased with each step, but then I noticed something moving. I wanted to shoot right away, but luckily realized it was just a rat.

After what seemed like an eternity, I saw a light. When I got closer to the light, I noticed a room at the bottom of the stairs.

He’s there. The man who killed my parents is in this room!

I stormed into the room, my gun drawn. However, what I saw terrified me.

It was a room full of weapons and what appeared to be toxic chemicals. These were things that could only be used to kill people.

However, he was not there! I couldn’t find the man I was looking for!

Suddenly, I felt something cold and sharp on my throat and knew instantly that one wrong move would mean my death.

“Raise your hands and drop your gun!”

I did exactly what the voice behind me said.

“I knew someone was following me, but who would have guessed it was you... Damion Brooks!”

As he mentioned my name, I broke out in a cold sweat.

How? How did he get my name?!

“It‘s been a long time since I killed your parents. I will never forget this day because since then I just could not stop. This feeling when you feel the warm blood of your victims and then, in contrast, touch their cold corpses. Or when you see the true nature of humans just before they die…. it’s the best!“

I noticed it right away.

…

THIS MAN CAN NOT LIVE ANY LONGER!

From that moment on, everything felt different. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or the fact that I could die at any time, but I developed powers that were not of this world. I knocked the knife out of his hand in a millisecond and gave him a headbutt with the back of my head.

I then wanted to pick up my gun, but he kicked me so hard that I flew several meters away. Fortunately, this was a gun-filled room, so I could grab a gun next to me. However, the same thing applied to him. He pulled out a gun, and the two of us simply pointed our guns at each other.

It was as if time had stopped.

We both knew that if one shot, the other would do so, too. But I didn’t care about anything. My death would save the lives of many others.

“Think whether you really want to shoot. You don‘t want your child to grow up without a father, don’t you?!“

That bastard!!!

How could that be? How did he know I would be a father soon? Even I only found out about it today, so how? How the hell did he know that?

But what bothered me the most was that he was right. I was hesitating right now because I could not just throw my life away anymore. I could not leave Sarah alone!

“Just answer this question.”

He looked at me, intrigued.

“Why did you kill my parents back then, but spare me?”

This question has always plagued me since that day. How much pain I would have been spared if he had just killed me back then?

He started grinning. My blood boiled as the devilish smile I saw that day reappeared.

“Very easy, so that I could devour you later with all your hatred!“

Forgive me, Sarah, forgive me, my unborn child. But this man must die!!!

I made up my mind and wanted to shoot, but out of nowhere, something strange appeared next to me. I never saw anything like this before in my life. It was something purple shimmering that looked like a door but didn’t have a proper shape.

The first thing I could think of was a portal.

“Why?! Why does it have to happen now?!“

He was bothered for the first time. Apparently, he was expecting something like this to appear at some point, but he did not think I would be here.

“If I were you, I would get away from that thing”, he said as he drew closer and closer to the portal.

I knew right away that he wanted to get into that portal and that I had to stop him at any cost. I was just a few steps away and closer to it than him. The two of us were still pointing our guns at each other as he slowly tried to approach the portal.

“One more step and I’m going to get into this thing!”

He stopped and only said, “You don‘t want that!“

Suddenly, he sprinted toward the portal and made a long jump. I used this chance and pulled the trigger. Though the moment I shot, I felt my body getting pulled through the portal.

“NOOOO!” was the last thing I heard before I realized the portal warped me in.

What happened next could only be described as being out of this world.

It felt like I was being pulled through galaxies. All I could perceive was the sight of the universe. As if I was trapped in the vast cosmos. Anxiety, I could not even begin to explain, overcame me. Yet at the same time, I was at peace. It was an odd feeling I never experienced before.

I could not tell if years passed or just a few seconds, but at the end of my journey, I found myself in a forest.

What the hell just happened?!

A thousand questions buzzed through my head.

How could it be that I was in a forest? What was this portal? Was not I just in the universe?

I tried to come up with a logical answer to all of my questions, though the only thing I could think of was “magic”.

I felt stupid for coming up with this answer, but I couldn’t explain it any other way. More questions popped into my head, but I couldn’t think of any plausible answers. Panic arose within me just thinking about what just happened.

I am in a fucking forest!

My mind could not comprehend this situation at all. The fact that the only logical answer was magic worried me even more.

Where the hell was I?

I had to calm down.

I breathed in and out, only focusing on the state of my mind. Only with a clear head I could overcome this situation.

The most important thing right now was to get back home as soon as possible. Therefore, I first had to find out where I was. This was what I had to focus on right now.

With that in mind, I decided to explore this forest a bit.

Hopefully, I was not too far away. Another country, or maybe even another continent, would be very problematic.

—-

Even though I calmed down a bit, my heart was still racing. The image of this man did not leave my head. All the hatred in me exploded after I saw him. Thinking back now, I was not myself. Even though I thought I did not need my revenge anymore, I only acted driven by hatred.

But could I truly say that the me back then was not me?

I lived almost all my life dedicated to revenge. Of course, I could not throw all that away in an instant. The chance was presented to me so I used it.

Even if it was risky and maybe dumb, I would do it again.

No matter what, I will kill him!

Though now I was in the middle of a forest with no way of knowing where I truly was. Luckily, I kept my things. Wild animals in the woods shouldn’t be a problem with my gun. I set off to get out of this forest as quickly as possible, but as fate would have it, I soon met a wild animal.

It was a wolf.

It was a normal wolf, but only its fur seemed a little reddish. This was definitely due to the sun or something, so I didn’t give it any further thought. It didn’t seem to have spotted me yet, so I didn’t do anything. I didn’t want to kill an animal that wouldn’t attack me, but I still drew my gun and braced myself.

The wolf abruptly turned toward me and stared at me with its red eyes. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared, but I had my gun and felt somewhat secure. But then something happened that I’d never seen before.

The wolf started burning.

It was engulfed in flames out of nowhere, and the surrounding leaves turned to ash. I refused to believe it. But it was that moment that made me realize it.

I was in a different world!