The Strings Of Fate

'It hurts!'

'Why does it hurt so much?'

'When will it stop?'

A dark and disorderly dream was abruptly shattered as Zach instantly sat up on his bed, his hands on his temple, trying to ease the pain assaulting his head. The pain was so intense it was though as if he was shot in the head by a gun.

No matter how he tried to think of something, his thoughts always scattered away, it was though as if he was trying to grasp fleeting smoke. Intrusive thoughts filled his mind, as the pain was breaking his will to live.

'Someone... Something... help me ease this pain…' Zach was in so much agony, it seemed as if a knife was repeatedly stabbing through his head. He tried to reach out to something in the side of his bed. He wanted to end his life just so that he can get out of the seemingly endless torture he was facing.

He grabbed the handle of the candlestick on top of his nightstand, he tried to bash his head. However, the pain suddenly vanished, just like how the suffering came so fast, it also went away in an instant.

'Haa… Haa… Haa…' Although the pain was already gone, Zach was still panting heavily. He wiped the sweat which gathered in his forehead. He tried to come up of reasons of why he would experience such a bizarre and tortuous experience. The thought of undergoing such traumatic situation was so frightening to him.

'Why would I experience something so painful?'

'Do I have a disease?'

'Impossible, although I am really poor and sometimes eat thrown food, I still clean them thoroughly.'

'If I really am sick, how am I supposed to pay for the cure?'

'I can't even afford rent, much less for cure.'

'Is it karma for all the bad things I've done?'

'No, I've only stolen bread from that person, and he was already evil to begin with, in fact I should be blessed for stealing from him.'

'Now that I thought of that person, f**k, I still have for the remaining debt, I might as well have died from that torture.'

As Zach was unsure whether to be happy that the pain was finally gone or be sad now that he was still alive and had to continue to pay the debt his parents left him, he finally gathered what little strength he could muster and got up from his bed.

He looked around his room and it left him miserable, all he could see was a rundown room. Furniture of little value was all he had in his room, they were all as decrepit as his situation. He wished that the pain would come back and take him away from this hellhole of a life.

He looked at himself at his hand held mirror and saw the miserable state he was in. His clothes were drenched by his sweat, it was as though he had just ran for 10 miles under the blazing sun. His face was full of dried up tears and snot, he was looking like a young man who wasted himself after experiencing something terrible. He wiped his faced and walked to his cabinet.

'Sigh, I might as well go about my day rather than stay here idling, I can't afford to slack one bit.'

He took a spare cloth to use it to wipe his body later, it was was so ragged due to the long usage of about 5 years, he couldn't afford to buy one so he just had to make do and use the cloth until it served it's purpose. His wooden toothbrush fortunately was changed once every two months because he could not stand the thought of using a dirty toothbrush to brush his teeth. His soap which was given to him by his neighbor 2 weeks ago, was already looking so thin and he might need to buy one tomorrow, as he was ashamed of even getting soap from other people even though it was cheap.

He also brought his toothpaste and 2 copper coins which were the only money he had left in his wallet. His heart ached seeing his pair of copper coins, yet he could not bare to be so dirty today as he had just experienced earlier something so intense that it had him sweat so much. He smelled himself and it only further solidified his decision to take a bath even though it might cost him the only money he had left.

He went outside his house and what greeted him was the unsightly slum that was full of trash, literally and figuratively. All you could see around was depression, and the only thing you could smell was the filth and pollution all around. No semblance of light came out even though it was already morning because of the smoke released by the nearby factory where most of the people living in the slums worked, barely affording to pay their expenses due to the low wages given by the abusive merchants and aristocrats.

Although the city he was living in was deemed beautiful by the people who lived elsewhere, it was a different situations in the slums where almost all people living in there lived or experienced a miserable life. You could see it in their eyes that they were only doing what they do for the sake of barely living, the sparkle of life was absent in them. A dark part of the city concealed from the eyes of outsiders visiting the so called city of beginnings, "Initius City".

As Zach lamented his sad fate, he sighed and went on his way, lest he become more miserable.

Zach lived in the slums where bathing was a luxury, people never bothered to observe cleanliness as they can barely afford necessities. They could only wait for the rain to wash their bodies. Zach was a rare exception, although he was poor, he always tried to remain clean at least once a week, to differentiate himself from the dirty people living in the slums as it made him uncomfortable since living in the slums was synonymous to being a degenerate, the trait which he always tried to avoid from.

There was only 1 bathing house in his area, and if someone wanted to take a bath, they would need to pay 2 copper coins, a price which you can already buy 5 pieces of bread. Zach only saw a silver coin once, and ever since then, he always dreamed of having hundreds of them so that he can finally afford to get himself out of the slums.

After Zach paid the old lady watching over the bathing house, he went inside and proceeded to clean himself. He took a wooden bucket and scooped a bucket full of water. As he was carrying the bucket to the area he wanted to take a bath in, he noticed something different.

'How is this bucket easier to lift up?'

'Did I get stronger? It was not like this last week, I still remember almost falling over due to the weight.'

'It must have been because I ate a piece of meat rewarded by that person.'

'I never knew meat could have this effect.'

He chose to forget what just happened, however when he tried to scrub his back, he found out that he could reach farther than before.

'I don't think meat can change something in me, not something this drastic given the meager amount that I ate.'

'Something must have happened to me. I heard that mystical powers are real and not just fiction. I never knew something like this could happen to me.'

'Was it perhaps because of the pain earlier? I guess after extreme bad luck, comes good luck.'

'Am I perhaps the protagonist of this world?'

'Hahahaha! I can finally elevate my status and get away from this miserable place!'

'What powers do I have? Do I have the power to conjure fire? Or can I control water as I like?'

Zach tried everything he could think of that could make his powers come out, but try he might, nothing came out and he only looked like a joke, doing bizarre things that seemed out of place.

After realizing what he did, he quickly finished bathing with shame in his mind. He then went to find a mirror to check his looks. Zach was surprised of what he saw. His sickly body was now what looked like a body of a child who could eat three times a day. His thin limbs now looked like it could gather more strength than before. He was now leaner compared to his past self.

'What happened to me?'

'Was it really because of that headache?'

'Did something trigger inside of me?'

Zach speculated what could have happened to him yet he could not think of anything that could have led to this situation and he could only temporarily conclude that it was due to the intense pain he experienced earlier.

He decided to go home and what he encountered along the way made his hair stand on end.

A dead person was lying on the road. The corpse was deeply surrounded by people, law enforcers, investigators, and 2 hooded people with weird outfits that seemed weird in contrast to the people near them. One of them had a stature akin to a giant standing straight it was though as if the person could shoulder any problems along the way, while the other one's posture was a little bit hunched, the person was exuding the aura of a weary but wise person, he seemed to have had experienced the vicissitudes of life.