Everything was dark around me. The last thing I remembered is getting attacked by a tall man. It all happened so fast, I couldn’t even fight back. He grabbed me, pushed me down and choked me until I passed out. Then I found myself here in this dark space. I explored the space around me with my hands, trying to find out where I was. I searched around for what felt like an eternity, without finding anything my fingers could hold onto. I wanted to go back home, lay in my bed and read a book. Suddenly, my surroundings transformed into my bedroom. I was laying in my soft bed, with an open book next to me. This had to be magic.

“This has to be magic! That’s what you’re thinking right now huh?”

I jumped when I heard that voice. Nervously, I looked around the room, trying to find out where it came from. The door opened, and an older woman entered. She was wearing a black cloak, and high black boots. She looked like an older version of me, with longer hair, a scar on one of her tipped ears, and a few wrinkles on her forehead. Her expression was grim, and she looked like she didn’t smile or laugh in a while. She seemed to be in her mid-thirties to mid-forties, with streaks of gray featuring her reddish brown hair.

“Did I leave you speechless, girl?”

Even her voice was the same as mine, though she sounded more mature.

“Uhm, who are you and where am I?”

I cut straight to the point, asking the important questions.

“Who am I…. that’s indeed a good question. I guess I’m you. Or at least a possible version of you in the future. A version, that chose the wrong path forward and lost everything in the process. As to where we are, this is the inside of your mind. The very place every single one of your thoughts and feelings come from.”

A version of me that chose the wrong path…

“What happened to my physical body? Did that man take me with him?”

If I was in the hands of this man right now, I needed to wake up quickly and find a way to escape.

“Man? You mean the puppet? No, we were saved by Ryu and the old man Gilbert. Ryu brought you to Kuro’s house, you’re safe. The Puppet that attacked you belonged to one of the henchmen of the Eternal Darkness. They are with Kuro right now, trying to extract an ancient magical artifact from him. When you wake up, Layla will have arrived in town. Tell her to go help Kuro and Kiyara as fast as possible. And… stop Ryu from following her at all costs.”

Stop Ryu from following her? I didn’t know If I could do that. He was so much stronger than me, if he wanted to go, there was nothing I could do to stop him. And the Eternal Darkness? What the heck was that?

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“What… is the Eternal Darkness?”

A look of both sadness and anger crept into my older version’s face.

“They are… an organization of strong warriors. I don’t know what their goals are, but they’re up to no good. A confrontation with them usually ends with death. They’re easy to identify though, so you won’t have any problems avoiding them. Their trademark is a golden symbol that represents a setting sun.”

She approached my bed and sat down next to me. I could feel the warmth of her body on my leg. She gently put her hand on my chest, just above my heart.

“Follow your heart. Don’t follow the others’ expectations. I ignored my heart and it took everything from me, don’t make the same mistakes.”

Her hand on my chest radiated a comforting warmth through my body. I wrapped my hand around hers and squeezed it gently.

“You say that you lost everything, but what do you mean by that? Please tell me about your past, so I can avoid your mistakes.”

The warmth radiating from her hand into my body grew stronger and my room and the bed transformed into a new scene. I was now standing in front of a Gravestone next to my older self. The inscription on the Gravestone read: memorial of Hiko Silverleaf, a proud mother and the best fortune teller of Greenwood.

I had barely read the inscription, when the scene changed again. It changed again and again, showing me only glimpses of what was about to happen. The sceneries changed so fast, my head started spinning and hurting. I was feeling nauseous all of a sudden again. I saw so many faces, I couldn’t even remember all of them. Some of them were familiar, like Kuro and Ryu, or Nick, the son of one of the town’s guards.

Most of them I had never seen before. A dragonkin girl, bent over a lifeless body, crying. A teenage boy, just a little older than Kuro and Ryu, rampaging on a bloodied battlefield. Adventurers and soldiers fighting, killing, dying, and burning.

The last person I saw was… myself. Down on her knees, crying and mourning her loss. The lifeless and destroyed bodies of Kuro and Ryu, and many others I didn’t know. It hurt my heart watching this version of myself and knowing that I’d share her fate if I strode down the wrong path.

My older version next to me started trembling, and I could see the tears that rolled down her reddened cheeks. I grabbed her hand and gave it a light squeeze.

“Tell me what I can do to avoid this… To make a difference.”

My voice was a little hoarse, and I couldn’t stop the tears falling myself. Seeing the dead and mangled bodies of my friends… I had to fight the nausea before, but now it almost felt overwhelming to me.

“I already told you. Follow your heart. Don’t try to meet their expectations. It’s your life. No one has a say in it.”

She sounded to be on the verge of breaking down crying, so I decided to not push her further. She’d told me what I needed to know.

“Thank you for sharing this with me. I promise… I promise to change this horrible future!”

My doubts and fears that lingered inside me were nowhere to be found any longer. I’ve made up my mind. I will join my friends on their adventures and prevent this insufferable future from happening. I was so weak, I always thought I could never make a difference… It was time to get stronger now. I would show them who I am, protect my mother, my friends, and the future.

“I hope we’ll never cross paths again.”

She turned around and marched away, disappearing into a thin mist, seemingly blown away by a gust of wind. She was gone. I threw a last glance at the picture of her trembling form on the ground, crying, before I turned away as well. This future didn’t interest me enough to throw it another glance. I was set out to prevent it after all. The instant I turned away from the disturbing scene, a clacking sound appeared in my head.

CLACK! CLACK! CLACK! Congratulations! You have met the requirements to upgrade your skill [foresight (F)] to [foresight (E-)]. Your upgraded skill/s will be updated in your status window.

I checked my status window, but the description has stayed the same. The only thing that has changed was the displayed rank. I closed my status window, and Imagined some of my old and fun memories to indulge myself until I woke up.