4 The Choice is Yours

Aster was confused as he walked back home from the hospital, " The choice is yours." He had said. Now what is that supposed to mean? He walked home with a heavy heart kicking the pebbles he saw on the road. 'The choice is yours.' Those words wrung in his mind again and again. That's the problem. He couldn't choose. He is weak. He knew he was. The doctor was lying. Aster made up his mind. But... Still... He thought the matter over again and again.

He kept on kicking the pebbles he found, when, he heard a sound. No, sounds. A thud, thud sound. His blue eyes immediately searched for the source. It was what he had guessed. Yes, it was them. Those very boys who not hours ago had beaten him up. They were in the public ground, playing. It was a deserted place and if they had attacked him over there, an escape was impossible. Aster wanted to run. He could not take that suffering anymore. But, he was really close to them. If he ran, they would know. So he decided to walk as fast as he could. Aster did not want to face those boys again. He lowered his head and crossed the whole length of the fence which separated the road from the ground. He felt relieved when he could successfully complete his mission. He let out a sigh of relief.

"Hey! How did you recover so quickly?" Terrence pulled Aster's collar and asked with a cruel smile. Aster was terrified at the sight of the gang circling him. All of them were there. Terrence, Spence, Roschow, Derek and Walter. The infamous gang of bullies in school. They were never questioned about anything they did. Whether they killed or robbed no one asked. They had such a huge liberty because of their rich parents and their political influence.

"I thought you would die." Derek spoke with a blood thirsty laughter and slightly nudging Terrence. Derek was a tall, black haired, ugly looking boy. No, almost the size of a man. No one would think, from his looks, that he was just seventeen. He looked atleast a ten years older than his actual age.

Aster looked at them with eyes filled with fright. He felt the same way how a mouse would feel infront of a lion.

"What are you staring at?" Spence asked, moving his muscular body towards Aster. Aster was sure that Spence would attack any moment. Knowing this, Aster kept quiet. But this was a big mistake.

If some pshycopaths asks you something and you don't answer them properly, it hurts their ego. It did. Roschow came forward with all the might he had and hit Aster right on the face. Aster fell down with a croak. They did not stop. Terrence found a stick from the sewer beside the road. He picked it up and hit- the now crawling Aster- on his back. Aster screamed in pain. They had gone deaf to his cries. They beat him again and again one by one without any mercy. Walter's eyes were gleaming with satisfaction when he saw Aster crawling on the road, his body covered in dust and unable to move. The others were smiling at this sight too. They were barely humans. All five of them. Otherwise how could they enjoy such a scene?

Aster, looked them with anger burning in his eyes. He wanted to fight back. But the thing was he, Aster Brown, was weak. But, no. He told himself. "I'm not weak. I can't give up. If I don't fight back now these rascals will do this to me everyday of my life. I'm not their toy. No I'm not. I'm Aster. Aster Brown. And I won't give up. Not now not ever. I choose to fight." Aster tried to stand up. There were cruel laughs from the gang,

"Is he trying to fight us?"

"You think he will dare to do that? He will crawl all the way to his house like a good boy. Won't you?" Laughter again.

Aster couldn't bear this humiliation. He could feel the heat building up in his body. Suddenly, his whole body started burning. Just as what happened inthe hospital. Flames flared from his eyes and hair. He lifted his arms and wished that he had the sword in it. There, he was holding the sword. The silver sword. The same sword which he had held in his hand before. He could feel it.

The boys moved back in fright witnessing the strange sight. They had thought Aster was weak. But he just called in a sword from nowhere. They were confused. They saw the anger in Aster's eyes and thought it better to run. Aster had prepared himself for an attack. He himself didn't know, how he was doing it but somehow he established a channel between the sword, him and his spirit. His eyes shot fire at the boys. They immediately ran for their lives. Aster calmed himself down. As soon as he did so, the sword and the flames disappeared.

Aster now began to believe what the doctor had said. If they were all lies, then, he couldn't have conjured such a powerful spell. But still he couldn't believe it all. He decided to talk to Eren about the matter.

************

"Are you mad? Those things which you just told me, can never happen. " Eren told.

"But what about me bursting out into flames. And...and that sword. What about it?" Aster was pretty nervous about his present condition. Eren was one of the people he trusted a lot. He wanted to believe him. But....

He wanted to believe the doctor. But... There were these buts everywhere.

'Oh God I'm totally pissed off!' He said to himself.

"What you just told has point. Maybe you were that strong always, but you never recognized your capabilities.... That may be the reason too." Eren replied after thinking for a long time.

"I don't know. If something happens tomorrow, we have to make sure everyone's ready for it."

"So you really believe mages from another world are gonna attack us?" Eren asked unable to believe him.

"Not world. It's dimension. And yes, I do. I also think that we should inform the authorities. "

"You are insane. Nobody's gonna believe you even if you tell them."

"But I will try."

For the next one hour it was trying. Constant trying. Different people, different places, different posts....what not. But none of them believed him.Just as Eren told. All of them called him insane. He gave up. The world that does not learn when someone teaches, will learn when it suffer. That was Aster's last stand. He said good night to Eren and went home.

At his home, everyone had slept when he reached. It was so late. He undressed fast and got into his boxers and T-shirt and crept into his bed. He always like the warmth of his blanket. But that night, it suffocated him. The whole world suffocated him. His whole existence suffocated him.

He couldn't sleep. He rolled about in bed think about the coming a day. The day he was waiting for. He was excited that he could meet Daniel Hogman at last. But if what that doctor told turned out to be true, he couldn't even imagine.

**************

Aster didn't know when slept, but, when he woke up it was already late. He hurriedly brushed his teeth and stuffed his mouth with a toast and rushed out of the house. His parents and sister were surprised to see him go to school so enthusiastically. He was glad that he reached school an time. He climbed up the chairs in a rush and got into his classroom. Everyone stopped chatting and stared at him the moment he entered the class.Eren and Sienna were among them too. 'The boys.... What did they? Oh my God!'