The Philosopher's Stone: An Escape from Reality

Prologue

Sometimes, people forget how to spend the life that was given to them.

They spend their lives in counting money, searching for fame and even reaching for power that we aren't suppose to do.

Some of us only focus about those things. Not thinking about the importance of other things around us.

I am a mangaka who focused in making Japanese comics. I loved fame, power and money. But suddenly, my career fell down. My life became miserable. I can't focus on writing a story again. How can I take back my career? I don't even know how to start with. Until the light bulb on my mind lit up.

I had written a lot of stories. Fantasies, dramas, romance and many more, but nothing has I've been written about my story. But now, I will share to you a few pages of my life as a mangaka.

******

Reminiscing the past...

I closed the sketchpad where I had drawn seventy pages of my manga that I will submit to a publishing house for the release of its new volume. I can't believe that it reached this far and there are a lot of otakus that want to read it. They love my stories and they also love me. And that made me proud of myself and that also made me more eager to work hard for the next volumes of my stories.

I went out from my apartment. It's raining like there's no tomorrow but that didn't stop me to my appointment. I went inside my car to start the engine and drove it towards the publishing house. As I was on my way, someone's calling on my phone. So I answered it without looking who the caller was.

"Hello" I said while still looking on the road because it's already dark and there's just a few vehicles that passes by.

"Change your principles in life. Don't let that fame, money and power eat yourself," a very loud voice commanded.

I don't know why I felt shivers down to my spine but it also made me confuse about what the voice said. That voice isn't familiar to my ears and also, I can't comprehend what the voice is really talking about. So I asked, "What are you talking about?"

"Use your talent for good and---" the call ended because my phone suddenly shut down due to it's empty battery.

"What a good timing it is," I said sarcastically to myself and threw my phone into the dashboard of my car.

But to my surprise, a ten wheeler truck is heading to my car so I tried to avoid it without knowing that there was an acacia tree in the direction where I turned my spinning wheel.

And the last thing I knew was that there were a lot of people around me. Some are giving a sympathizing look, some are murmuring and the others were shocked. I don't know what's happening around me and then suddenly, everything turned black.

As I opened my eyes, everything around me were white. Even the man who was standing beside my bed, wears a white coat and that made me realize that I'm inside a hospital. But a thought came to my mind.

"What am I doing here?" I asked to the man who is standing beside my bed.

"You accidentally bumped into an acacia tree and got a lot of injuries. But don't worry, you will be discharge soon if your injuries are all fine," he said and smiled. "But...." he bowed his head down and the he suddenly looked at me with a sad face.

"You are not capable of using your right hand for three months," while he was saying those words, his eyes looked worried and sad.

I felt like I was hit by a very heavy object that can turn my life into a miserable one. I told myself that these things are not really happening. I can't draw for a few months, so how can I earn now for a living? What should I do now?

Three months had passed. Three months of staying in the hospital and taking a lot of rehabilitation in order for me to recover my usual self. But when I tried to make a story for the next volume of my comic, the company where I used to work didn't accept my story anymore.

The CEO said that my story is not as good as it was before. I can't believe that this is happening to me. How can it be that my story is not so familiar to the public anymore? It was just three months. But in that three months, the manga's popularity decreased a lot. I'm really doomed.