Ring of Fate

Surreal Dream

Year: 2029

"When are you going to submit your monthly due Shiro!?"

"I'll pay it by this week for sure, Miss!"

That was the third time in a row Shiro got shouted for not paying his monthly renting due. He lives in a small apartment just enough for a man to survive on its own. Though he might be comfortable but his body won't show any ecstacy. He lives by his own since the last few months and is quite adapted to the surrounding specially his "special" neighbour Riko, girl of her same age living herself besides his room.

"Wanna go on a walk after dinner?" Riko asked Shiro while they returned from their work.

"YES!!....I mean sure we can go" he plungily replied.

"As if i will reject that offer. No way." He smiled while quietly thinking.

"What happened? Smiling so much aren't you?" Riko teased him  smikring her face towards him.

"Uhh whatever!!! I'll meet you then" He got teased easily.

They both met after dinner.

"By the way, what did you eat? You're not looking pretty good these days. If you're having a problem, I can cook for you. Don't be shy"

"I appreciate but I'm fine. Not really a problem though." He replied, forcefully giving a smile on his face.

It was a cloudy night. Wind was blazing through the dark giving heart a peace of moment.

It was Midnight. No Sound, no car honking. Just the two members of the night walking
t

ogether.

"You think there is someone who is always watching us? From somewhere far away. We are merely a dust compared to the many stars in the sky yet we are the only ones to experience and observe their extraordinary beauty?" asked Riko

"Yeah.....there must be someone. Someone who is always right by our side. right Dad? right mom?" He looked up in the sky. Pale silence fell upon them. It felt like he has nothing in him but everything in his shoulders.

"Riko....tell me. Is it really possible that i won't regret a decision I've made? Because I think i have made only regrets instead of decisions since I am born. My friends left me, my family left me. Wiping my shit out of the daily wage so I could get a proper meal" crystals of tears fell from one side of his eye.

Riko grabbed him and hugged him tightly. Her eyes rolled down tears as she remembered her past too.

"Life is unfair...isn't it Shiro? My friends got graduated from one of the most precious colleges and here I am, rotting with my apartment and spending my time for doing atleast one thing right in my life where I can stand up to myself and look in the mirror and say that finally I have done something. I was just a kid, yes , a kid when I realised that nobody waits for your process but everyone will  still want your result.

"Sorry. I gave you a hard time" she pushes herself back to hide her tears from him.

"It's ok to cry. You can cry as much you want. Nobody is looking and nobody will judge you." He held her as she tried to push her back from his chest. She cried like a kid for a minute straight.

The clouds slowly became dark and started raining. The city blanked out and lights were gone. Shiro and Riko ran towards a Shrine. The shrine was lighted up with small candles.

They both smiled looking at each other as they got wet after running.

"When I was a kid I used to go to shrine like these alone to make wishes whenever I felt low in my life" said Shiro.

They decided to enter the Shrine untill the rain stopped.

" I haven't seen this shrine before. This is my first time here." said Riko

"Yeah. Mine too." replied Shiro

The floor was of wood and had a very attractive decor.

There was a small Buddha statue inside lit with some candles. They both prayed and made a wish.

"What wish did you made Riko?" He asked nervously.

"Well....Wish aren't said in open. What wishes did you make then?" She smiled.

"I wished you'd stay with me longer...You are the only person I can rely on ..."

They both blushed in the dark.

Suddenly wind became more harsh and sheds were moving to and fro as if there were a tornado coming.

"Come!! Let's go inside. Fast!!" shouted Shiro.

He grabbed her hands and both ran inside untill they witnessed a golden light coming out of a glass box kept beside a flower vase.

"Shall we look inside?" Shiro became curious and asked Riko.

"I don't think it is a  good idea that we peek onto something strange."

Unnoticingly they still held hands . Shiro opened the box and saw a beautiful golden ring with bright sparkle that could light up a small room.

"It's so beautiful! I wonder if i could ever afford it for the one I love." said Shiro.

"Yes! yes! The one you love! isn't it?" She reubuked him and became a little angry .

The ring had a red diamond on it that looked like it could be pressed. Shiro grabbed the ring and wore it single handleldy.

"Looks beautiful isn't it?" His hand shone like a gold.

He pressed the the diamond as he was just checking the ring's textures.

"Shit!!!! What is it!!! "

Suddenly a drop of blood fell out of his finger from where the ring was fitted and just as the drop of blood touched the ground they both traversed through a strange hypergalactic space for a fraction of second. They were at the exact same place.

"You saw what happened?!!" asked Riko furiously

"Yeah.....Hey....Riko.. .."

"Shiro!!!" he fell on the floor.

"Hey!!! Shiro! Wake up Shiro!!"

Shiro opened his eyes lying on her laps and saw Riko's face as she was scared.

"What happened?" he replied waking up from her laps

"Stupid Shiro! I am scared here! Everything seems different from what we have seen in the last few minutes!"

"He gazed around the Shrine and he was in shock."

The old Shrine which they were present in since hours in the rain was now a whole new one.

"What time is it!" asked Shiro.

"It's 2:33 AM"

"The time doesn't seems to have changed! What could've happened here!?"

They saw the rain was not going on as if the rain never happened. The shrine, the ground all seems to be dry.

"Shiro...is there something wrong?..."

Shiro stood quietly. He opened his phone and looked into the date.

"Riko......we are in the past...."
he spoke without giving any emotion.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

-
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"We are in the year 2019. 10 Years in the past"

Metamorphosis

..End of part 1..