The Perfect Illusion

Corruption

If you could listen to "The Hands Dealt" by Micheal Giacchino for this chapter, please. Thank you :)

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Narrator's POV

"Hah..." He sighed as he stepped back into the temple, quiet as ever. He kept his hands in his pockets.

The hall was empty. The oil lamps remained on.

He made his way down the hall quietly, hoping he'd make it to his room before he ran into anyone. He wasn't far from his room when suddenly a hand holding a fan popped out of the shadows and stopped him.

He sighed.

A yellow robe revealed itself out of the shadows.

The Ancient One.

"Stephen." She said.

"Hello." He said.

"You've been gone for quite some time." She said.

"Yes. I ran into some issues." Stephen said.

"Wong thought you had left for good." She said, fanning herself now.

"No, no." He faked a smile. "Just ran into some problems, that's all."

"Mm." She gave him a sarcastic smile. "Show me."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Stephen said.

"Stephen." She said.

"Yes?" He looked at her.

The Ancient One raised a brow and put her hand out.

Stephen sighed and removed his hands from his pockets, showing her his further damaged hands.

"My, my..." She said, inspecting them. "This is worse than I thought it'd be." She said. "I was hoping you'd stop after the forth procedure."

"Well I-" Stephen stopped. He looked at her. "You knew." He said.

She looked up at him. "Yes."

"You knew this would happen." Stephen said. "You knew!" He shouted.

"I did." She nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me? I could've avoided this!" He said. "You could've prevented this from happening. I could've had my life, my work." Tears of anger filled his eyes. "You could've warned me."

"Stephen." The Ancient One said.

"No." Stephen said. "You knew this would happen. Why didn't you say anything? I could be happily walking around the temple, practicing magic and helping the others. Why didn't you say anything?"

"I couldn't tell you because it would've never happened." She said.

"Wha..." Stephen gasped, tears threatening to fall from his eyes.

"You see. I knew this would happen. I had seen this in the future coming your way for years."

"The why didn't you-"

"I couldn't interfere with the timeline." She said. "Stephen, everything happens for a reason. Good or bad, everything has a purpose."

"You're okay with me getting into an accident?" He asked. "Weren't you worried I could've died? Do you even care about me at all?"

"Stephen." She stopes closer to him. "I do. I care for you endlessly, but you have to know this isn't the end. This will get better."

"No." Stephen stepped away. "You could've stopped this, but you chose not to."