My second English-languaged Short Story.
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The Black
Hand
I was born with a gift that’s lets
me know how much pain I can take more. The key is on my left hand. Whether I
feel hurt, both physically and mentally, I see a dash of a black-colored something
that I don’t know, even until now, emerging from my left shoulder. The more
pain I feel, the black matter grows longer, and its quantity rise. Nobody
besides me can see it.
The funny thing is the emotional
pain makes the black matter grew faster than the physical pain. Actually,
actions that people think will kill me, like stabbed, yes, I’ve been stabbed
before, fell from a building, assumption, etc. don’t kill me, and only make a
little addition to the black matter. On the other hand, the emotional pain,
such as sadness, anger, etc. makes much more addition to the black matter. So basically,
if I don’t want to die soon, I’d best keep my distance away from everybody.
Luckily, the growth of the matter
is slow, so it takes more than a year for all parts of my hand to completely
blacken.
A full black hand means unconsciousness
for me. I’ve fell unconscious twice, at the age of six, and other at the age of
12. I assume that the next full black hand means the death of me, you know,
because perhaps there’s only three chance, like in baseball, three strikes and
you’re out, I don’t know. Actually, I’m kind of scared. The rate of growth of
the black matter is increasing for these past two years, and it almost covered
my hand completely.
“Get up, Fred! Get up!” Yep, I’ve
almost forgot I’ve got to wake up, and go to school again. It’s Monday.
“Later, mom. I’m still sleepy,”
said I.
“Do you know what time is it? It’s
almost 7.30 and you’ll be late! So, get up, shower, get dressed, and eat your
breakfast right now!” yelled my mom.
Seeing that I still on my bed, my
mom pulled my feet and I fell to the floor. I know it was only 30 minutes to
school, but you didn’t have to do that, mom!
So quickly, I
showered, got dressed, and ate a piece of sandwiches while I ran to school. After
arriving at school, I was hungry. So, I underwent the first period with me
starving. And luckily, I was able to eat a pizza at the first break. Yep, my
school serves pizza.
“Pig, give me
your math book now! I need to copy the homework assignment,” said Albert, the
bully in my class. He’s been picking me ever since I’ve known him two years ago.
And I’m tired of it. Now, it’s time to stand up against him.
“Er, absolutely not,”
said I hesitantly.
“What did you
said, pig?” insulted Hank. I felt insulted because of his insult.
“I said no. I
would rather you punch me instead you picking me all the time!” said I with the
last of the courage I’ve still got.
Of course he
punched me in the face, but he didn’t stop there I was punched in the other
parts of my body. Also, besides of punches, he and his friends, accomplices, or
slaves, as I like to refer them as it, insulted me more and more.
After that, I
fell unconscious for the third time.
For the third
time.
I guessed that
the first two things that I would see after I’ve regained my vision were the
gates of fire, of the gates with clouds beneath it. And I was right. As I see
the two gates, there’s a voice, very low-toned and very loud shocked me.
“Frederick Clark
Richards, I’ve been waiting for you.”
“What? Who is
this? What is this place? Am I already dead?” asked I.
“You have, but
you haven’t. Your hand, It was the Mark of Knowing. A gift bestowed to the 13th
descendant of The Overseer which names are forbidden for us to speak. You are
the straight descendant of The Overseer. And, you’ve been summoned here,” said
the voice.
The Overseer? I’ve
never thought of it. My parents never told me, so do my grandparents.
“What is The
Overseer, you thought. The Overseer was the only man capable of seeing the
future. Not many possible futures, but only one certain future. But, The
Overseer’s ego was so big. He was a cocky, arrogant man and used the power of
Overseeing for his purpose only,” said the voice.
After that, the
voice guides me through the darkness of afterlife, passing through the gate of
heaven and the gate of hell.
“What are The
Overseer’s abilities?” asked I.
“Everything
related to time. Aside of seeing the future, The Overseer can travel through
time, and can manipulate time itself,” explained the voice.
“And, what does
it do with me?” asked I.
And the voice
told me something that I ignored. Blah blah blah… I only said yes when I was
asked to do something for him.
“Good. He is set,”
said the voice.
Suddenly, I saw a
light and I woke up in a futuristic hospital. I looked at my body and I was
shocked that I’m now a young adult, not old enough to be an adult, but way too
old to be a 14 year-old boy like I used to be before I fell unconscious. Turns
out I’ve been in a comatose state for almost 10 years. I was shocked, at first
but then I realize it’s hard to tell time when you’re passing to the other
side.
I looked at my
left hand, and it’s still black, but now it’s glowing like never before. Several
minutes later, I saw a middle-aged man, looking at me. His left hand was black,
like me.
“Hey, is your
hand supposed to be black?” asked I.
“Good. You are
the one,” said the man.
And my left hand
was glowing faster and faster, as the man tried to kill me with a surgery
knife. Since my hands are bounded, I can’t move, so I just sat back and watched
as the surgery knife punctured my chest and into my lungs.
Then, I
remembered all the things that the voice said before I woke up.
“The Overseer’s
power grew constantly as he fainted for the third time. He started with a black
matter growing in his left hand as he felt pain. After he fainted for the third
time, the power then grew to a limitless power of time manipulation. Actually,
you are The Overseer. And before you create a rift of time and space continuum,
you must be banished before your power grew. Are you ready?”
- A.D.
