“I REGRET TO INFORM YOU, SIR, BUT…. YOU ONLY HAVE 4 MONTHS LEFT TO LIVE.”
Matthew just stared at him blankly for a couple of seconds, before blinking, as if processing the weight of the words the doctor said, then opening his mouth in a mix of confusion and bewilderment.
“....What?” The word escaped his lips, barely above a whisper.
He couldn’t even remember how it happened at first. He was driving down the street, when out of nowhere, a truck barreled around the corner, tires screeching, metal twisting as it lost control. But used to bad luck such as this, he was just narrowly able to dodge the path of the truck, swerving out of the way. But before he could catch his breath, the ground shook violently and a deafening roar filled his ears as a train inexplicably derailed, hitting him in the side of his car. The doctors said it was a miracle that he was even alive.
But here he was, being told he was going to die soon. Had his luck finally run out? No, in truth, it had already run out long ago. Or did he have any luck to begin with? Matthew had already become accustomed to this life, living without risk. At just the age of five, Matthew had learned the hard way just how unlucky and cruel the world was to him. That fateful day when a container would carelessly dislodge from a distant vehicle and crush his parents’ car, completely flattening them whilst they were still in the car and snuffing out their lives in an instant.
In life, nothing ever went his way. And any risk or chance he took to rise, only ended disastrously for him. So, he lived his life without taking any risks or chances. Keeping possibilities to a minimum had become his mantra in some sort of way, a poor and desperate attempt at protecting himself from the world that wanted him dead.
Hours dragged on after the doctor’s announcement of his “death date”, leaving him to contemplate what to do with his life. Should he simply sit in this white-walled room, awaiting death with nothing but waning memories? That was grim, and frankly, also boring.
‘What a way to end a life.’ He thought.
Suddenly, an unexpected sound snapped him out of his spiraling thoughts, something falling— a sharp noise that cut through the silence of the sterile room. He leaned over the edge of the bed to see what had fallen, squinting. Lying on the floor, and peeking out just a couple of inches from under the bed, seemed to be some sort of card. He hesitated for a moment, reaching out before picking up the card with the tips of his fingers. The edges of the card were tattered and scratched, as if it had been run through a battlefield. Upon turning it over, he noticed it was a business card, decorated with a theme of gold, black, and purple.
The business card read, “Do you feel as if the universe is against you? Do things never seem to go your way? You could be suffering from a serious karma imbalance! Call us today to restore your cosmic harmony!” And then a location on the bottom.
Matthew was speechless.
“.....What load of bullshit is this?” He scoffed. “How shameless can you be, trying to scam money out of a dying man…”
He placed his arms behind his head and leaned back into the bed, tossing the card onto the desk beside him.
‘But… does it really matter? My life has been boring anyway, and since I’m doomed to die, I should at least try it out, right?’
He shrugged. Alright, he made up his mind to go to that weird business place.
….Right after he would be discharged of course.
…
…
Matthew cleared his throat a four times as he puffed up his clothes. He was finally back in his comfy attire rather than those clothes the hospital gave him. He walked outside and sighed with a smile on his face, umbrella in hand. With one fluid motion, he opened the umbrella and directed it forward, just narrowly blocking an assault of dirty water that splashed towards him when a car drove past.
‘Hah. That was too predictable.’ He smirked, rubbing under his nose.
Just then, someone walked past him, accidentally bumping into him and spilling some coffee on his clothes.
“Ah, crap, sorry for that mate.” The man apologized as he gave a handkerchief to Matthew before walking away.
Matthew just stood there, a tear rolling down his face.
“God damn it.”
He swiftly wiped away the tear with the handkerchief, there was no point crying about it now. Though, he still couldn’t help but curse the world for this absurd luck. He patted down where the coffee had spilled onto him, although it had already absorbed into his clothes by then. He folded the handkerchief and placed it in his pocket, before taking out the business card from earlier.
“Ah… lets see…. It should be this way? Fuck, I’ll just use the GPS. With my luck, I might just go the wrong way and get shanked.”
He mused to himself, unable to stop himself from smiling at the ridiculous thought. Just then, his stomach growled.
Right, he didn’t eat much at the hospital, and whatever they did feed him was pretty terrible. He retrieved his wallet from his back pocket and opened it up, feeling as if a fly had swatted him in the face.
Only a ten dollar bill… and four quarters.
“Was I robbed? I could’ve sworn I had more money than this!” He felt like crying.
He groaned. He would just have to make do with this.
He quickly put the wallet back into his pocket, a little out of frustration. He took in a deep breath to calm his frustration before continuing his stroll down the street. Eventually, he came across a street vendor, where an elderly woman stood behind the stall, her silver hair pulled back neatly into a bun. In front of her, laid a mid-sized food that resembled a dumpling he would see in the movies.
He walked up to the woman’s stand with a smile, “Hey ma’am!”
“Hey there dearie,” The grandma smiled softly. “Would you like a meat bun?”
“Meat bun?”
“Yes, meat bun. Have you never heard of it before? Back in China, they’re called Bāo zi.”
Matthew nodded, his mouth watering at the sound of meat. ‘That sounds enticing…’
“How much do they cost?”
The grandma held up two fingers, “$2 for each bun.”
He coughed in surprise, momentarily choking on his own spit. The price seemed reasonable, but even taking out two dollars right now felt like taking out a huge sum of money. He hesitated, weighing on buying food or saving it for that scamming business. But before he could’ve even had a chance to finalize his decision, without warning, a hooded figure dashed past him. And before he could react, the figure reached into his pocket and expertly snatched his wallet.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Matthew swiftly turned around in shock, locking eyes with the hooded figure as they sprinted away, “HEY-! Oh come on!” He shouted in frustration and disbelief as he watched the thief disappear into the crowd.
He didn’t even feel like chasing that bastard of a thief.
“.... I’m sorry that happened to you, have a meat bun on the house.”
The grandma handed one of the meat buns over to him. Matthew was almost moved to tears.
“Thank you ma’am… you’re too kind…”
…
Matthew sighed in relief as he looked at the small building in front of him. After a few minutes of walking and bad luck, he managed to make it to that business. It looked quite shoddy from the outside, like a clean slate, although it wasn’t exactly clean.
‘I’m starting to regret coming here…’ Matthew grimaced. ‘Maybe it’ll look better from the inside.’
Walking inside, he was immediately met with an empowering sensation washing over him, feeling as if his mind had been refreshed. The room was decorated, maybe even cluttered with strange thread objects and unusual crystals and other spices—if they could be called spices, lying on dusty shelves. A purple light shined brightly over the room and bathed it in its light. Of course, no one of these gave Matthew a good impression of this scam business.
‘This is all so weird. It reminds me of those… fortune tellers, right, fortune tellers.’
But just as he contemplated leaving, he heard a voice call out from one of the other rooms.
“Come in.”
Matthew blinked in slight surprise. Reluctantly, he walked into the room where the voice originated. Sitting behind a desk, he spotted a man, who was most likely in his late thirties, glancing towards him from the corner of his half-lidded eyes.
The man removed a cigarette from his mouth and held it between his fingers, exhaling smoke in a long sigh.
“Sit down, or stand up if you’d like. It doesn’t matter.”
Matthew nodded before sitting down in the seat in front of him.
“So… you are?”
The man coughed like a devout smoker, “Carter Jackson. What brings you here?”
Carter spoke coldly with a tint of exhaustion in his voice, as if he was on the brink of collapsing right then and there. Matthew pulled out the business card, and presented it to him, which seemed to grab Carter’s attention somewhat.
“You tell me. I found this in my hospital room.”
Carter sat up straight, staring with a raised eyebrow, “No, I don’t recount leaving that.”
He shifted his focus down to his desk before pulling out one of the drawers, reaching around for something Matthew couldn’t see. Before Matthew could voice his confusion, Carter continued speaking.
“Ah, it must’ve been one of those dolls.” He said, almost distractedly. “Please remind me your name again.”
Matthew was slightly bewildered at how Carter could speak to him as if he’d already known him, but he complied nonetheless.
“Matthew Nokins.”
Carter glanced up at him for a brief moment, “Nokins? That’s a strange last name you have there.”
“Yeah, my parents thought it would bring good luck, or something of the sort.” Matthew nodded, slightly chuckling in response.
Carter nodded silently as he extensively searched through his drawer. After a few brief moments, he pulled out a blank sheet of paper and a pan, gently sliding it over to Matthew.
Matthew looked at the blank sheet of paper in confusion.
“So, what now?”
Carter took a puff of his cigarette before responding, “Write down your name, age, birthdate, ethnicity, year, and your parents’ birthdate.”
“What? Why do you need all of this stuff?”
“All of these are relevant to your results. You’re dying anyways, so does it really matter?”
Matthew sighed, massaging his head, less out of frustration and more to ease his anxiety. But nonetheless, he swiftly wrote down his information. Then, he realized something.
“Wait, I haven’t even told you what I’m here for, and how did you know I-”
But quickly, he was cut off by Carter, who simply gave him another instruction.
“I’m getting there. Down a few spaces after that, write the reason why you’re here, and a brief summary of your life.”
Reluctantly, Matthew began writing down his information once more. But then, Carter stopped him halfway through.
“Stop.” He sighed. “I forgot something.”
He grabbed the piece of paper and crumpled it up, much to Matthew’s annoyance. He tossed it behind him and pulled out a new blank sheet of paper, placing it on the table.
“Don’t write anything yet. Be right back.”
He stood up and walked out of the room. A few moments later, he returned with a small bottle of something reminiscent of metal shavings. Carefully, he sprinkled the shavings onto the paper directly from the bottle, not a fool to gather them in his hand. He swiftly pulled out a brush from one of the drawers, brushing the shavings to the very ends of the paper.
“There, now you’re good to go.”
Once more, Matthew swiftly jotted down all the required information.
“Finished.”
Carter nodded and grabbed the paper, shaking off the shavings before ultimately ripping it into four pieces, furthering Murata’s annoyance. He paused for a second, then ripping one of the pieces of paper one more time. He left the room again, returning after a few moments holding a “base” in his hand, the part under a snow globe. Setting the base down, he grabbed from his drawer a couple of small rocks of coal, lazily placing them onto the base without much effort.
Matthew could only look in disbelief.
‘I’m definitely getting scammed, aren’t I…?’ He grimaced, feeling his heart contort when he recalled he didn’t even have any money on him.
Carter pulled out a match and swiftly lit it before flicking it into the bundle of coal, setting the base ablaze.
“Fade into ash, burn into truth.” He whispered, dropping the pieces of paper into the fire.
He stared at the paper deeply, watching as it burned to ash and excreated smoke that rose into the air. Matthew was still looking weirded out by whatever was happening. With a sigh, Carter dropped into his chair and leaned back into the soft cushion.
“....Just to let you know, I don’t have any money.”
Carter replied, his expression never-changing, “The first reading for new customers is free of charge.”
Before Matthew could respond, he continued.
“What do you have to worry about being scammed?”
Matthew embarrassedly rubbed the back of his head, “Was it that obvious?”
Carter nodded. “Though, you’re the first to treat me as some sort of loan shark that’s going to hunt you down for his money.”
Matthew cleared his throat as if trying to ease his embarrassment, glancing towards different corners of the room. Then, Carter spoke up once more.
“Come back tomorrow. Your readings won’t manifest until then.”
Matthew nodded, “Alright.”
He decided to come back here, even with his lingering suspicion of being scammed, since it was free and didn’t cost him anything. He stood up to leave, but then, Carter suddenly stopped him.
“One more thing. Have you lost anything of value belonging to you recently?”
Matthew nodded once more, slightly confused, “Yeah, my wallet.”
Carter silently nodded, taking a puff of his cigarette.
“For the time being, try to avoid it. I can’t explain why to you yet, it’s better that you shouldn’t know.”
‘How am I supposed to do that…?’ Matthew almost felt like laughing out of ridicue.
Nevertheless, he nodded again.
“Understood…?”
And with that, he left.