COTE one shots

Changing fate

I tossed and turned in my bed, my mind aching and my eyes sore. I had insomnia. I couldn't sleep for days on end. 

I walked downstairs, entering the kitchen with groggy steps. I slid open the cupboard, desperately pulling out a bottle of alcohol. I laid down on the sofa, and intoxicated myself. I had  been drinking a considerable amount more, and I was aware why. Or was I? Why did the regret come to me now? I had already done what I had done.

The past cannot be changed. 

As I drank, I squinted my eyes to the corner of the room, making out a figure in all black. I dropped the whiskey bottle, the alcohol contents spewing on the floor as I reached for my phone. 

But before I could grab it, a cold, domineering hand unclasped my wrist, and a chill creeped down my back. I looked up at the figure, making it out to be a man in a mask. I couldn't see too well, the alcohol was getting to me already.

"Hello.."

I responded back warily, trying to search for an escape route.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

Yeah right, I wanted to blurt out, but the little sense I had held me back. I looked on at the figure, as he snapped his fingers. 

****

"You can change the past." He whispered, before dissapearing into the midnight air.

I looked around a barren waste of land, wedged in between 2 mountains. I stared on, trying to make sense of the situation. And then it struck me, struck me hard. I stared at the mountains again, just to confirm my worries. I was right.

I walked around aimlessly, searching for something more. I then caught eye of a white building. Pure white. 

My heart hung in my throat as I walked over to the building. It looked new, as if it was still being built. Then the words of the man washed over me. 

"You can change the past." 

I felt a sense of determination wash over the paranoia and anguish I was feeling. I walked over to the door, cranking it open. I stepped inside, exhaling as I prepared to confront my trauma. 

But I was unaware, it was only going to get much worse.

I looked on to see the bodies of children, piled on top of one another. Bloodied and dishevelled. Lifeless and putrid. I stared at their white gowns as I felt a lump in my throat, before I vomited a handful onto the floor.

I looked into a child's eye's. They were lifeless and void, stripped of the curiosity that made humans...Humans. 

I fell to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably. The man from before then emerged from the shadow, his bony hand wrapped around the arm of a boy. He walked forward, and the boy, brown haired with orange eyes, walked with him. 

I knew exactly who this boy was. I remember his mother too. Never did I think, after I had slept with her, that the boy would undergo a life like this one. But he was grown now...It was too late. And as I dreaded, the man spoke exactly what I didn't want him to speak.

"You can't change the past Atsuomi" 

He then ripped the head of my son in front of me, before he snapped his fingers.

*********

"Atsumoi?"

"Yeah?" I asked, turning to my chaufer.

"You've been smoking, and drinking a lot. Is there...Any reason to that?"

I looked on at him, before dropping the bud onto the floor and stomping it.

"No...There isn't. You know..."

"Yes?"

"I used to believe in second chances, but after so many failed attempts, all that's left is the silence of giving up. And now...I've just given up."