The Chosen One

Chosen One

The room was dark, illuminated only by a single industrial light bulb, frantically switching off and on with an annoying clicking sound. The place was empty, safe for an uncomfortable bed with a metal frame and an uncomfortable mattress and its only inhabitant.

The boy was sat on the bed, gripping the bed's edge so hard his fingers had gone white. His gaze stuck on the gray wall in front of him, breath heavy and irregular.

He doesn't notice his surroundings anymore. Just the infuriating, never-stopping sound of the broken lightbulb, not loud enough to drown out his racing thoughts but still present somewhere at the back of his mind, adding to the panicked mess in his head.

Chosen One... Save us... The Savior... Don't trust them... Work with us... The Prophecy... Chosen One... Chosen One... Chosen One... Chosen One...

Their words and the events of the previous day circulating around in his mind, making his eyes wet with unshed tears and his head feel like it was about to explode.

The loud sound coming from the room's complicated lock suddenly forced its way in between his panicked thoughts and sent him instinctively jumping away from the door to the other end of the bed, heart racing and pupils dilated.

After a few long seconds of ominous mechanical rumbling, the heavy metal gate opened to reveal two men in black suits and sunglasses. Although the boy couldn't see it, he knew from experience that they both had protective gear under the tightness of their clothes and magically-powered firearms in their unusually wide sleeves, ready to come in their hands with just a thought.

They stood in the doorway for a long moment with their heads turned towards the boy. He couldn't see their eyes but he could feel their gazes on him, sizing him up. He didn't notice that they were tense but he could see them relax now. Were they scared before?

"Get up! The leadership's finally finished debating about you. We're taking you for your MAA now," said the taller of them, not even sparing him a glance anymore.

The boy didn't make an attempt to comply, instead cowering even more. The other man angrily moved to grab at him, but stopped warily when the boy suddenly raised his hands over himself in a protective gesture. The other's firearm was instantly being gripped in his left arm as he took a step closer to his companion. Are they scared... of me?

"Calm down, kid," grumbled the taller. "MAA is just our acronym for Magical Ability Assessment test. I'm sure you got them done back in school, but we still need to retake them. It's part of the procedure, there's no need to get violent." I didn't. Neither get violent nor get the tests done.

He was hit with a realisation just then. They were scared of him. In a normal situation, guys like them would be violently putting a boy like him in his place after a slightest sign of disobedience, while these two got all tense and tried to calm him down verbally. And the elaborated lock!

"And what if I don't go?" He didn't know how much he could actually allow himself but he didn't have much to lose.

"Well, kid, you don't have much of a choice," said the shorter as he sat down on the opposite end of the bed, "you're the Chosen One. You're going to save us from the impending doom and all that and the Agency's here to plan the whole mission. But first, the leadership just needs to know what you're actually capable of."

"I never asked to be the Chosen One" the boy mumbled irritably. "I don't want to go" he mustered the courage to stare into where he thought the man's eyes would be and tell him.

"Alright, kid, I get it. It's a lot of responsibility to be thrown at someone so suddenly and it surely is hard to handle. Especially for someone like you." He extended his arm to pat the boy on the shoulder but ultimately decided against it when the younger tried to subtly moved away with fear and badly-covered disgust on his face. "But you have to understand. We also would prefer it if the Chosen One was someone else. Someone more capable, someone like us," the boy's eyes narrowed at the subtle insult but the man didn't seem to think that there was something wrong with what he had said, "but unfortunately, it wasn't us or you, that made the choice. So now you just have to at least try to understand that you're our last and only hope. Our doom is coming - the plants are all withering away, the birds are dying. The ocean's rising. And it's causing us a lot of trouble. You've seen it on the news."

"Yeah, exactly. The government lost a lot of money after the Golden Harbour sunk last month. And think about all the people who had their businesses or ships there" added the other man and shook his head regretfully.

"And why should I give a shit?" the boy was calm but it was apparent that he was angry.

"Why should you give a shit?" the taller man now stood above the boy and it looked as if he was close to gripping his shirt and pulling him up in anger. "The world is fucking ending, kid!" he shouted in his face.

"No, it already fucking did!" the younger yelled as he stood up. "It already did for us when you people came here! You took everything from us and brought this so called "end of the world" onto yourselves, when you messed with our magic! It started with you!"

"It doesn't matter who started it! It's not like your people won't be dying alongside us soon if we... if you don't stop it!" the taller yelled back at the boy. Both men were now standing, the shorter now with his firearm out too. He looked weary but ready to have his colleague's back.

"We already are dying. It has just began and your people are already letting us die. They had been, even before they even realised something was happening. And if we're alive, then what good is a life when we're constantly in fear of scumbags like you!"

"What did you just call me?" the taller man gripped the boy's arm tightly and painfully.

"Don't fucking touch me" said the boy furiously. And then the annoying lightbulb finally snapped and shattered into a million sharp pieces.