He opened the white door and entered a similarly colored room. The sterile smell of disinfectant assailed his nostrils, and so did a faint flowery fragrance. He looked at the figure sitting on the hospital bed; she watched the TV overhead in complete awe and excitement.
He quietly put a paper box on the credence table by the door and sat beside her on the bed. He followed her gaze to the TV program. Oddly enough, it was in black and white. So, he surmised that it must be a rerun of an old-timey show. In the show, there was a man upside down, his legs held together by chains. He hung high above the crowd on a crane hook. A straitjacket bound his body.
The crowd had a similar look on their faces – full of excitement and trepidation. The man with his signature parted hair smiled at the onlookers below. His confidence moved both the people watching inside the TV and the girl watching outside.
As soon as the starting bell rang, he quickly started wriggling in his straitjacket. And in over a minute, he was already able to wriggle a bit more freely and loosened the jacket. It was only two and a half minutes when he finally took off the straitjacket and spread his arms confidently to the audience below. The crowd erupted in deafening cheers. The commentators spoke excitedly as all of them had just witnessed a death-defying feat in front of them.
The man watching the TV showed no particular emotion. He wasn’t even watching the TV. His focus was all on the pre-teen girl beside him whose eyes shone brighter than anything he’d ever seen.
She turned around and met his gaze. With an excited voice, she spoke, “Did you see Issac!? Did you see?”
“Yep,” Issac nodded. “He’s good.”
“Not just good! He was the best magician in the world, and no one since then has been able to top him!”
“David Copperfield came pretty close, I’d say.”
She scoffed in disbelief, “David Copperfield? Hmph, he’s nothing but an illusionist. He can’t match up to Houdini in escapes.”
“I guess…?” Issac scratched his head awkwardly. He didn’t care a bit about this topic, but seeing his sister talk excitedly was enough for him. “I mean, you don’t make an escape artist perform illusions and vice versa.”
“Then why’d you even bring him up?”
“I didn’t mean tricks. I meant in terms of popularity.”
“That’s only in the US, other countries might not know about Copperfield, but they know about Houdini.”
“Sure….” Issac nodded. He sighed and said, “Mom’s going to be late today, Lucy. It’s a bit of an important time for her at the office, and she might get a promotion if her project go-”
“Don’t worry, I understand,” Lucy looked at him with a smile. “I know she has to work.”
Seeing her act cheery made him feel sorrow more than anything. He smiled weakly at her. She pretended not to see and asked, “On the other hand, how are you here?”
“I told my boss that I wanted a leave.” Seeing her frown, he chuckled, “Don’t worry too much. Walter’s a kind soul. He’s nothing like mom’s boss. And besides, I wouldn’t miss this day for anything.” He got up from the bed and ruffled her hair.
He walked up to the credence table by the door and made sure his body blocked her from seeing what he was doing. He opened the box and took out the cake. He took the birthday candles inside the box, placed all ten of them on the cake, and lit them. He reached over and turned off the lights.
The orange hue from the flames softly lit his face. He grabbed the cake board underneath the cake and slowly turned around. “Happy Birthday to you~ happy birthday to you~” he slowly walked towards Lucy and put the cake beside her legs as he completed the song, “Happy Birthday, my dear Lucy~ happy birthday to…you~.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
He could see her eyes shining from the soft glow of the flames. He smiled warmly and said, “Well? Make your wish.”
Lucy took a deep breath and blew out the candles. As the last light source went out, he quickly hopped back and turned the lights back on. He clapped excitedly, “Yay! Congrats on becoming ten!”
“Thanks, Issac,” she smiled sweetly. “Now, where’s the knife? I wanna eat already!”
Issac chuckled, “Got it, got it, you-” he caught himself from saying ‘glutton.’ His heart ached when she thought of her skinny body hidden underneath her deceptive hospital gown. The cancer had taken too much from her.
He took the plastic cake knife inside the box and cut the cake into eight slices. He took out some paper plates from his bag and placed a slice of cake on them. He gave it to her with a one-time plastic spoon.
“Wow, you came prepared,” she marveled at the supplies coming out of his bag.
“You haven’t seen anything yet,” he smirked. He dug into his bag and brought out a packet of one-time cups with an exaggerated motion. Then he put his hands in his bag and took out a bottle of Lucy’s favorite soda.
As she ate the cake, she watched him pour the soda into the cups and keep them on the bedside table.
After he was done, he exhaled in satisfaction. He also ate a spoonful of the chocolate cake, “Well, it isn’t much, but it’s the best I can do!” he looked at her, “what do you want this year?”
“Can you do magic for me?” Lucy asked him.
“Uh, I can’t be Houdini. I don’t plan on dying any time soon.”
“No, just show me magic that I can’t guess, and I’ll be satisfied. Copperfield’s magic is boring to me now. Once you know how it works, it becomes stale real quick!”
“That’s a tall order. I don’t think I can get past anything from a genius like you.”
“Please~” she looked at him with puppy eyes.
Faced with her adorable look, he felt his defenses fall apart. Finally, he resigned himself to his hopeless fate, “Ugh, fine. I’ll try. No promises, though, since this is a tall order.”
“Yeah, pinky promise,” she raised her pinky promise in front of him.
Issac sighed and smiled. He hooked his pinky with hers, “Pinky promise! Though I gotta ask, did Ray teach you this?”
“Yep!”
He smiled but said nothing. All he could think right now was about how to fulfill his promise to her.
Issac woke up. The makeshift bed made out of leaves rustled under him, and some stuck to his body but eventually fell off. He rubbed his eyes and looked at the sun that was peeking out from the trees.
“Fuck, I usually sleep like a log. What happened?” he got up and dusted himself off. His body felt itchy. But after a dip in the river, that was no longer an issue. He dried himself off the best he could and wore all of his clothes back. This time, he tied his jacket around his waist because it was very warm.
“Fuck, I need to get moving.” He began walking with his goblin sword in hand.
He walked for half an hour downstream, but aside from the occasional change in tree species, the forest stayed the same. Surprisingly, he didn’t encounter any monsters at that time.
“Just how big is this forest?” Issac felt frustrated. Even if he didn’t feel tired from half an hour of constant walking, constantly staying vigilant of threats was eating away at his mental energy.
Besides, he wanted civilization. How could one admire the forest when it was teeming with monsters that wanted to bite their face off?
He kept walking and would take breaks after walking for an hour. This way, many hours passed. He looked up ahead. With how the sun was shining brightly overhead, he estimated that it might be noon. That means he had five or six more hours until sunset.
After another hour of walking, he went to take a break when he heard that familiar ding sound in his mind. He sat down and looked at the sudden notification he got.
Congratulations! [Danger Sense] has evolved: (Primitive → Basic).
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Basic Danger Sense(Exp: 0/100)
Reactive Skill
Description: Sends vague waves of dread to the mind in response to an attack.
Mana Cost: 0
(Nyx’s Blessing has allowed you to see the highest possible evolution for this skill!)
(Basic Danger Sense → Intermediate Danger Sense → Advanced Danger Sense → Master Danger Sense → Immediate Precognition)
“[Immediate Precognition]? Bruh, this skill’s got to be busted! But what the hell is a-” he pressed on his aching legs, massaging them, “-reactive skill? I’ve heard of ‘passive’ and ‘active’ skills, but what the fuck is a reactive skill? Okay, the description is pretty straightforward in explaining that to me. Is it like it won’t stay on all the time, and I don’t have to do anything to turn it on, but it’ll automatically tell me when I’m in danger? Ugh, this is complicated.”