"Get off here," I ordered the driver. "Take it," giving him a bill. As soon as I stepped outside, I ran toward the hospital, opening the door.
Excuse me, miss, my mother's doctors called me. It's her son." I took a document out of my pocket.
"Room 23," the receptionist said.
I quickly ran toward that room, knocking on the door a couple of times.
Opening the door, the doctor spoke, "Boy..." Ignoring him, I went straight to the stretcher where my mother was, who turned her head weakly.
"Son... come here," my mother could barely speak due to a terminal liver disease.
"Mom... I..." I didn't know what to say. I wanted to scream and do anything, but..."
Calm down... son... I'll be fine... okay, don't... worry about me... use the money I left you... also your father's... I know you can get out of this situation... you're too... smart... my little one..."
"MOM... No!" I raised my voice so she could hear me, but her pencil fell from her hand and landed on the notebook she was writing on. The sound of the machine connecting her vital signs dropped abruptly and reached 0.
"I'm sorry for your loss," said the doctor who was looking at the machine.
Leaning against her body, I moved roughly to get her to make some kind of signal, but nothing happened.
MOM... WAKE UP!" DON'T DIE!!
MOMMY
PLEASE!!
MOMMY!!
My tears were streaming down my face. I can't stop crying. The pain I feel. My life doesn't have much meaning anymore. The doctors started crying behind me, also "sharing the pain and sending condolences." I stayed in the hospital all night, receiving several calls and messages. If it weren't for the hospital staff, I would have spent several days there without food or drink, and they sent me straight home.
------------------------------------
Knock, knock, knock, knock
Johan, are you there? Open the door. You haven't answered my messages or calls. A woman with white skin and black hair spoke up, tall for her gender.
(It wouldn't be a good idea to go through the back door... well, I'll try.)
The girl walked behind the house, managing to jump over a wooden barrier that wasn't that high. "(It's open... but everything is dark)," the girl thought, quietly climbing the stairs to the second floor of the house so as not to make a noise.
Getting closer, she heard a noise. The girl immediately ran toward the sound and abruptly opened the door to see a terrifying scene.
Johan... what are you doing!!! He ran straight toward me, grabbing part of my legs and holding me. The girl quickly spotted a chair near my desk and placed it on top of my feet. She easily untied the rope that connected to my neck. I wanted to commit suicide.
I lost much of the meaning of my life.
WHAT WERE YOU DOING!!!" she screamed, then hugged me. She cried in my arms.
WHY DID YOU WANT TO DO THAT!!!" I didn't respond; I remained absolutely silent, tears streaming down my face.
"I... I don't know what to do. I LOST EVERYTHING!!!" MY FAMILY, NO ONE IS HERE!!!---
YOU STILL HAVE ME, NICO, AND SEVERAL PEOPLE, YOU'RE NOT ALONE!!---
"I didn't want you to come," I said in a trembling voice.
"How could I not come?" she replied firmly, though her eyes were filled with unshed tears. "You're my best friend, Johan... I'm not going to leave you alone in this."
I shifted my gaze toward the window. Outside, the night... watching the full moon.
I didn't want anyone to see me like this... I didn't want to be here anymore.
The girl felt her heart break a little more upon hearing those words. She breathed deeply, searching for the strength to keep from breaking down.
"Johan, I know it's all too much... that the pain is unbearable," her voice trembled a little, "but... you're not alone, I'm here... I'll always be here when you need me."
I closed my eyes tightly.
"I'm so scared, Sofi... I tried so hard!!! I felt so desperate!! So desperate!! Those people fired me from my job!! I was totally desperate!! I was so scared!! And I don't know why I hate myself for feeling this way!!!" My voice was breaking.
Sofi, or rather Sofia, leaned over and hugged me with all the love and strength she had.
"You don't have to face this alone," she whispered in my ear. "I promise we'll get through this."
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The next day, my best friend Nico, who was Sofia's boyfriend, had a great history together for several years, since we were kids.
"I'm so sorry, brother. I'm sorry with all my heart." I know there are no words that can fix this, but I'm here too apart from Sofia.
"Thanks Nico, I think I'll move on," Nico ran his hand down my back, gently hitting me. "You have to be strong now. It's okay to feel this way, it's completely normal."
Thanks, bro. I don't know what I would do without you..." I replied calmly, holding back my urge to cry.
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3 months passed where I recovered but inside I was still someone ... I don't know how to say it .... the last year of high school was approaching to graduate, I wanted to be someone in life as my family said, for now that I think about it because me, and not the garbage of people who are not human or rather inhuman remain free without being judged, those who do not contribute anything .........
The second week of September arrived, Sofia and Nico on the last day talked about their vacation week, they invited me but I did not accept I wanted to be alone, a solitary space, I told them that on the first day they should go alone and we would meet in the assigned classroom which would surely be the same as the previous year, I woke up, prepared my light lunch, got ready, grabbed my cell phone looking at the time there was almost half an hour left, I had to go out, I was going to walk, walking near an alley that leads faster to the institute, almost no people passed by here, but I I stopped. Something caught my attention: a woman with dark hair and a red jacket was struggling with two men. The woman was trying to protect a small child with her—a boy no more than six years old, apparently her son—who was crying as he tried to get away from the men holding him.
I stopped dead in my tracks. At that moment, the men, with cold, hard faces, pushed the woman to the ground and dragged her away, while the child screamed for help. I felt my heart race, but instead of reacting, something paralyzed me. The minutes seemed to stretch on, and although her mind commanded her to do something, her body didn't respond.
A strangled scream escaped the woman, but I didn't move. The scene trapped me, as if I were watching something unreal. Fear gripped me; I didn't know what to do.
Should I intervene? Call the police? (At that moment, I thought the police wouldn't be of any use. What would they do?) I just watched in silence, unable to move.
I hid behind the wall. No one saw me. I wasn't a hero. I wasn't prepared to face something like that.
The woman and child were quickly put into a white van and sped off. I just continued on my way, a little puzzled. I finally arrived. He asked me several times in my mind, still thinking.
"Are you okay?" Sofia asked. "Do you feel a little lost, Johan?" Nico spoke, who was next to Sofia.
"I'm fine, don't worry," I said, touching my hair. "It's getting late. We have to hurry." I walked faster. "Wait, we have to go to the auditorium. I got lost. I didn't check my email," Nico asked as he walked.
"In classroom B12, going down the stairs," thank you." Nico thanked me.
"We arrived on time," Sofia said, as Nico and I watched the other students entering the class.
"Excuse me, are you from this class?" the teacher asked.
"It's B 12," Sofia said. "It's the three of us together."
"Come in," the teacher moved to the side, letting us in. Nico and Sofia found a free bench for two; it was almost full. I sat down with a random student.
"I felt something strange in the air; There was a subtle tension I couldn't identify. Maybe it was because it happened before... it's no different.
"It's the last two," said the professor, looking at a list on his cell phone.
"Yes, I'm Janet Harris," a girl spoke. "Can you come in?" said the professor. The girl came in. She seemed to be looking or searching. She turned slightly in my direction, but looked away and sat in a corner at the back.
Come in. "Thank you," said the student, sitting in an empty chair and the one that was left.
As the first few hours passed, Sofia and Nico, my best friends since we were kids, stayed close to me as much as possible to distract me, I suppose.
All morning, I tried to concentrate on class, but it was impossible. Was it probably because of what happened that morning? I wondered to myself. It made me even more nervous.
"Is something wrong, Johan?" Sofia asked him during break time, as they both sat in the cafeteria, accompanied by Nico. She looked at me with a worried expression. "You look strange today, are you okay?" Sofia asked.
I hesitated to answer her, not wanting to worry her, but I couldn't deny that something wasn't right.
"It's... just a weird feeling, Sofi," I said, trying to hide it. "I just had a bad day and that's it."
I noticed that the new girl couldn't take her eyes off you. "Does that girl like everything about you?" Sofia said, nudging me with her elbow. "But she seems very serious." Before I could speak and respond to her comment, the bell rang, and we returned to our respective classes.
The day ended, a day filled with emotion. The next day, the routine was always the same. This was how time passed, spending several weeks, where everything was normal until one day, just as school was finishing, when the bell rang. I walked away from everyone. Just outside the school, I found something shiny. It definitely caught my attention. It was a clock, small, antique-looking, and with details on its surface that seemed to move in the sunset light. It wasn't what I expected to find outside the school. Should I keep it? I bent down and picked it up. My first reaction was to look around, making sure no one had seen me. Inside, I was telling myself that this wasn't something ordinary and was something of destiny. I trusted myself, and put it in my pocket.
Once in the park, where I met Sofia and Nico, the three of us walked together for a few minutes, chatting about the day, but I couldn't get the clock out of my mind. My mind kept spinning, wondering what it meant. When I got home, I said goodbye to Sofia and Nico and went to my room to see that clock that was flooding my mind.
"It's just a clock," I told myself, trying to downplay it. However, a strange feeling came over me as I held it in my hands. With a sigh, I turned on the clock, and a small screen appeared: "New Bearer." I looked at the clock in surprise, wondering if it was somehow some kind of joke or strange technology.
But then, the screen began to fill with more letters, quickly forming a text that seemed never-ending, and it was going so fast that I couldn't even read it completely.
Rule 1: This clock has the ability to alter the destiny of those whose name is entered. A person's destiny can be controlled and manipulated, but not without consequences.
Rule 7: Only a real name can activate it. The name entered will be the only one with power over subsequent events.
Rule 12: If a real name is entered, the associated person will die of any cause. This process cannot be reversed.
Rule 21: The wearer of the watch can decide the time and cause of the entered person's death.
I felt a chill run down my spine as I read the words.
The rules were clear, and there was still more to read—if I enter a real name, that person would die, and I could choose how.
This can't be real, shit—I thought to myself, feeling the air grow heavy in her room.
What do I do? I muttered, almost in a whisper, looking at the watch in her hands.
Should I try it? Should I...? Part of me wanted to ignore it, move on with my life, forget about this strange object. The other part of me, a thousand times over, wanted to test its power.
Looking at the screen again, I thought of Sofia and Nico, what if something happened to them? But I thought of something else: if I used this device, it offered the power to save... and also find that trash?
After a few minutes sitting at my desk, cell phone in hand, I accidentally clicked on Google's homepage, but something caught my attention. It was a news story.
The headline read: "Man kills his wife and children. We still don't know the motive, but suspect it was because of a "dispute." I read quickly, as if the words were burning themselves into my mind.
The man, according to the report, had been living a double life, and after discovering his infidelity, found himself unable to move forward with the family he no longer cared about. Instead, he chose the death of all of them.
"Those are the ones who don't deserve to live," I murmured. "But they let him loose somehow." The indignation I felt reading about the pain this man caused awakened a dark part of my heart.
Without thinking twice, I took the watch and held it in my hands. I felt that strange energy, that feeling that I could control everything. "Erick Parker"
"What's wrong with this guy? How could anyone do such an act?" I murmured. I didn't know why. Something inside me told me I had to act, that I had to do something with the power I had.
"Let him die of epilepsy at 9 pm," I wrote on the watch screen, almost without thinking.
I clicked to send the order, feeling a kind of pressure disappear from the air in my room. Was it possible? I had managed to alter someone's destiny, but... was it real? Could I really cause someone's death that way?
He left it at that moment, as if the watch were simply a curiosity, but inside, doubt began to grow.
Morning afternoon, the news was already circulating, but what I saw left me, and I stopped at the television in my bedroom.
"A man dies suddenly after suffering an epileptic seizure." The cause was still a mystery to doctors, but speculation was rife. Eric Parker, the man who had killed his family, had been found dead in his home, apparently from a sudden epileptic seizure.
Shock ran through my body. I couldn't believe it. The power was real, and I had used it. My mind spun rapidly, analyzing what had happened. I saw the name on the news and the exact date of the incident. It was what I had asked for, exactly as I had written it.
For some strange reason, my body transformed into fascination. I felt adrenaline coursing through my veins, and at the same time, a strange calm. I held in my hands the power of... a true deity. My left eye turned red, and the pupil outside the pupil also turned black for a few seconds, then returned to its black color and its normal white color. I closed all the windows. I didn't want anyone to see me or suspect me.
After closing all the windows, the silence in the room became overwhelming. The air seemed thick, as if the world were oblivious to what had just happened in my little corner. I turned it on and, after a few minutes, sat in front of my computer screen, I determinedly picked up the watch.
The excitement in my chest was a strange mix of adrenaline and anxiety, as if I was about to unleash something I couldn't stop.
I'm focused. I needed to know more. I needed to understand if I could really use this power for whatever I wanted. As if I couldn't help it, I found myself searching Google. My mind, clouded by temptation, focused on something that was beginning to define my new mission. I couldn't forget the news from the day before. Not only was there one human who deserved punishment, but there were many more, many who shouldn't exist because of the harm they caused.
Immediately, I typed "California's most dangerous criminals" into the Google search engine. Then I went from page to page, scrolling through news and reports. Each story, each name, I typed one by one into the minimum clock. I had found almost 20 people on that page. Each one of those names represented an opportunity, a chance to change something in the world.
First, I selected a man who had committed heinous crimes, a figure known in California for his abuse and his total indifference to the suffering of others. I quickly wrote his name on the clock—"Jose Cruz." I paused for a moment, craning my neck. My mind whirled over what kind of death would be fitting for him, what could possibly cause this man to deserve more than everything he had done. I decided he would suffer something slow, but inevitable. "May he die in a car accident at 2:33 p.m." I typed. I clicked, feeling the air chill.
Then I couldn't help but continue. I flipped from California to New York, searching for more names, more stories that would provoke the same feeling I have right now. Right now, I found other criminals, other inhuman beings, and I repeated the process. In Atlanta, a man who had tortured his own family. In Virginia, another who had committed an act of violence against a young woman. In South Carolina, one who had destroyed several lives in his path, without remorse. Their names were entered one after another, my finger moving faster and faster across the clock screen.
"May he die of an overdose at 3:00 pm," I typed for one of them.
"May he die of a gunshot wound at 7:45 pm," for another. The deaths were swift, unpredictable, surely no one capable in this world can predict this. As more names were added to my list, the clock began to vibrate slightly, as if reacting to the magnitude of what he was doing.
Tonight's final victim was a man in South Carolina, a murderer of innocent people. The feeling of power, of control, was much stronger. "May he die in an accident at his workplace at 10:15 am," I wrote with an unsettling calm—okay, I'm 219 now—I sighed, finally finished.
It was already 9 pm, the day was over in a flash. I turned off my computer, left the clock under my pillow, and went to eat. Grabbing my phone, I saw that Sofia, Nico, and some of Nico's other friends were in the group chatting together. They mentioned me, obviously. I didn't respond. After eating, I went to the bathroom to do my things and, quite sleepy, fell asleep.
End of chapter