Chapter 1: Dark Horse

Chapter 1

Click… Click… A clicking sound reverberates from the heated battle between two people. One was an old man with a goatee and the other was a middle-aged man with glasses. The battle continues as the table rattles and between both of them is a Chessboard with a timer beside it, chess pieces seem to be scattered here and there. Both of them hurriedly placed a Chess piece, tapping the timer after placing a piece.

"Grumble~" The Old man with a goatee grumbled as he blundered a move.

"Hmph" The middle-aged man snickers and smirks to the Old Man.

The heated battle continued as the Old Man looked more troubled, but still fought with all his might.

"Tch~" The Middle-aged man clicks his tongue because of his blunder, easing the Old man's troubled face.

"Hohohoho~, I got you there, here another one for your trouble" The Old Man smirked and placed a piece, that made the Middle-aged man scowl.

Now, the one making a troubled face is the Middle-aged man, but upon seeing something, he stops for a moment.

Looking at the timer, he sighs as the time is still on his side.

5 seconds passed…

The Middle-aged man smiles as he finds a way to get out of the situation.

Seeing this, the Old Man got rid of his smirk and got back to his poker face. Then the Middle-aged man held his last pawn and placed it one step ahead.

The Old Man is in shock, he didn't notice that move, which spiraled his thoughts

The Old Man touches his goatee with a frown and clicks his tongue at every move he plans to make.

"Sigh~" A deep sigh escapes from the Old Man, with his frown replaced with a face of defeat.

The two shake their hands, indicating the end of their game.

"I'm really too old for this. The world's really changing too much, if even young people could beat me." The Old man sighed as he grabbed his wallet, and took ten dollars.

The middle-aged man chuckled at what the Old man said and grabbed the ten dollars from the Old man.

"That was a nice game, Old man. One thing though, if you start telling me about your old days, I'll be leaving you." The Middle-aged man placed the money in the front pocket of his jacket and started rearranging the pieces.

"Sigh~ Young people these days. Then If you care to listen to my story, I'll give you a dollar. Looks like you need the money, more than me" The Old man smirks waving his wallet. The Middle-aged man perks up and stays quiet for the Old-man to start his story.

The Middle-aged man smiled and laid his hand out, signing the Old man to pay up first.

The Old man sighed again, showing how much he could control his temper.

"Then, I'll listen to you while playing, I'm still getting the money anyway. Can't hurt to practice your playstyle" The Middle-aged man finishes rearranging, and rotates the board. Now the black is on the Old man's side while the white pieces is on the Middle-aged man's side.

"Sure" The Old man replied.

The Middle-aged man moves first and picks the pawn in front of the King piece, and places it two squares ahead.

With the start of the game, the Old man started speaking.

"I remember people used to hate me playing the black pieces. As I know every counter against famous moves, and even new moves" The Old man placed a piece that surprised the Middle-aged man, he was confused as he didn't see that move, It made him question where that move came from.

"Then, my opponents would start to cheer, if I get the white pieces. Then I would proceed to beat them even if they try" The Old man placed another piece after the Middle-aged man. This time the Middle-aged man saw his blunder too late and proceeded to hate himself for not seeing it.

"As I won, my name spread and I became more famous than before. I remember laughing at what my fans called me, 'The Dark Horse', because I was unbeatable unless I played with the white pieces. Also, why put that there?, you know that I'm targeting this side" The Old man continued his story and pointed out the Middle-aged man's mistake.

"What!? Where did that come from!?" The Middle-aged man holds his head in confusion as to why he couldn't see that.

"Then, as I got older, I couldn't keep up with the modern chess, it was more balanced. Even If I was playing the black pieces, I couldn't win, it was the end of my career." The Old man placed his piece but was looking a bit sad about the memory.

The Middle-aged man was in awe he hadn't seen this type of play before, it was amazing, but also suffocating. Every move he makes, he gets countered, it was way more different play than he has ever seen.

"Woah, That was amazing, can you teach me?" asked the Middle-aged man.

"No, but I will give you some advice. There are always better people than you, even if you are at the peak for a long time, others will climb that peak more faster, better, and more smarter than you did. So the better way to stay at the top is to make another peak that others could not climb, and if they reach that peak you are already ahead, building a mountain on a mountain" The Old man looks at the Middle-aged man with a serious face and proceeds to pick a piece and placing it on a square near the king.

"Checkmate" The Old man smirks and stands to leave.

The Middle-aged man was speechless and also looked at the other side of the table. It was the dollar bill, under a chess piece that was a black horse.

The Middle-aged man had so much to ask the Old man, but as he looked at the Old man.

Whoosh~

The Old man was gone, he was stupified and asked himself.

"W-where is he? Woah, That... That was weird" The Middle-aged man got goosebumps and proceeded to clean up his chess board and chess pieces.

While cleaning, however, he saw a piece of paper, that was left where the Old man was at.

It said

"Better to be than the other,

All the storm shall gather,

To this side, and beyonder,

All's will gone, as he shudder"

As the middle-aged man finished reading it, a drop landed on the paper, indicating a rain was about to pour.

The Middle-aged man looks at the cloudy sky and says.

"This is getting weirder, I should head home" The Middle-aged man crumples the paper and throws it aside, picking up the board running away from the spot, and heading to his home…

_________________________________

The storm brewed further as the Middle-aged man was drenched in the cold and windy rain.

He reaches his home and heads straight to the living room, placing the board on the table and taking off his clothes.

As the Middle-aged man was walking he couldn't get his mind off the game he just played with the Old Man. Although he won, he felt disappointed as if he just lost.

"The moves of that Old man were astonishing and I hope I can play with him again," he said to himself.

However, as he turned the shower, no water came out confusing him.

"What!?, how is there no water!? It's pouring outside! *Sighs* guess I'll head straight to bed" The Middle-aged man then puts on his sleeping attire and contemplates about his life.

Memories came back like flashbacks in his mind, his past flooded his mind.

"Why don't you be more like your older brother!? He's an overall achiever, top of his class, and already passed the board examination! You keep wasting your time on that stupid board game! You're sullying our name!!" the Father shouted at his 17-year-old son after receiving news from the school saying his son ditched school for a Chess Tournament.

The son looked at his Mother and saw her looking at him with disdain written all over her face, with that look he felt his world shatter, even his own Mother was disappointed in him.

"I won though!, I made a hundred bucks because of that "stupid board game"!. He replied emphasizing his Father's words. Looking down, afraid to make eye contact with his Mother.

A loud slap was heard across the room, it came from his Mother.

"Just because you made money from that game does not mean you will be successful! How stupid can you be!? How can you ditch school just for a hundred bucks?!" His Mother shouted at him angrily.

"I can be successful if you just support me! You're my parents! you're supposed to support me instead you're scolding me as if what I've done is unforgivable!" He shouted back, although he did not want to.

"Leave" His Father pointed at the door

The son was shaken, he never thought a single mistake could change his life.

His Mother on the side was also taken aback and although she was angry, she couldn't help but worry.

"Don't make me repeat myself! I only wanted you to follow my words and now you ruined my trust, you may leave. Don't ever use the Hasen surname ever again, the Hasen's do not know such mistake like you" He heard his Father say. "It's either you leave on your own accord or I will drag you out myself." He couldn't believe what he was hearing. And so with that, his life had changed…

It has been 10 years since then, and he hasn't contacted them and neither did they to him.

The Middle-aged man did not really think about it much, he continued playing chess though, he didn't become a professional player, he still loved it though and now he started getting bored about it, he hasn't even had a girlfriend all this time.

He sighed and sat down on his bed thinking of different activities to do but the sport that he does still makes its way to his mind.

He just decided to sleep on it and before sleeping he wondered what would've happened if only he chose to be what his parents wanted him to be, a Doctor.

I wish there was a way out of this, he slept shivering from the cold…

[In the Middle of the Night…]

Pant~...Pant~

The Middle-aged man pants from the fever he got. He really tried every sleeping position he could think of, but he still couldn't sleep.

A couple of hours later, the fever stopped and now he was slowly feeling cold.

Then he shudders… as he shudders he blacks out…

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"Tweet~... Tweet~..." Carl heard birds chirping from outside which made him wake up replacing his alarm clock.

Sunrays hits his cheeks as he remembered closing his curtains last night, but the heat of the sunray says otherwise.

'Ughh~, Why do I have a hangover? I don't even drink' Carl thought as he sat up from his sleeping position, still with his eyes closed. The Headache won't leave him as the sunrays amplified the pain from his irritation.

As he opened his eyes, he was puzzled.

His run-down apartment is now replaced with a way worse version than he could think of.

He panicked, realizing that the room his in wasn't his, he looked around and got to his bedside table to get his phone but there was no bedside table and his phone was nowhere to be found.

"Where the hell am I!?" he asked himself. With a throbbing head, he approached the window, leaving the bed with sheets that looked dirty white.

He groggily stands and tries to balance himself, but it seems like he is trapped in another man's body (Literally).

Every step was increasing the throbbing pain he was experiencing.

But eventually, he reached the window and the sight was a total confusion.

The only word he could describe is that it was medieval, with carriages, knights, peasants, and some people with pointed hats.

All the uncomfortability came crashing down on him as the throbbing pain in his head was lifted but was replaced with darkness…