The Systems Prince (DISCONTINUED)

[0.0] origin

Ethan Kline was ordinary.

As ordinary as a young man could be in this day and age. In his early twenties, he lived alone in a small, one bedroom apartment with a faucet that never stopped leaking. When he wasn't busy with college and overdue assignments, he was raging over video games, watching television, and slurping down unhealthy amounts of ramen noodles.

His friend list was non-existent as he spent most of his college years focusing on school. He kept to himself, as he had learned it was better that way... easier.

Ethan Kline would graduate college with a degree in film, only to be put to waste with his obsession with paying off his student loans. He would work at any place that would hire, spending countless hours working. Hours turned into months. And months, years. He would soon abandon his health and wellbeing, and loose sight of what his dreams once were. He would live his life working, forever being unhappy, and would ultimately die miserable and alone.

Ethan Kline was ordinary. Until the day he wasn't.

There was a day that wasn't fixed in history, that would forever change Ethan's future. Back to his first semester of college. Where he lay dying in a pool of his own blood on a sidestreet in the middle of the night. Where his cries were drowned out by the heavy pour of rain. His hand stay clutching his side, where an open wound wouldn't stop gushing blood.

It's funny, he thought. How his life could end so easily. How a simple mugging gone wrong could put a stop to everything he worked so hard up to this point to achieve. He wanted to move, he wanted to scream until his throat burned, but he didn't. He layed there, on the cold, wet pavement, and didn't move a single muscle. His wallet and phone had been stolen from him, and in his attempt to fight back he was stabbed and left for dead. He was pathetic until the end. Pathetic, and alone. He had pondered how his life would end countless times, even considered ending it himself. He didn't think death would be so... peaceful. Ethan spent so much of his life worrying, on edge, he felt he could finally breathe; knowing he would no longer have to live up to anyone's expectations the next morning.

It didn't hurt as much anymore. Instead of the pain, he focused on every small detail surrounding him. How the rain looked like little shooting stars, how if he squinted his eyes hard enough the streetlamps looked like a painting. He rolled little rocks in his fingers, followed the grooves of the pavement where his blood had sept in. The blood that stained his fingers was warm, comforting, in a way.

His vision started to blur, fade away like the end of a movie. Only there was no applause, only deafening silence. He couldn't feel the drops of rain on his skin anymore, or the pain in his side.

He was dead. Ultimately, and utterly dead. Soon someone would come across his body, call an ambulance; but it would be far too late. This was the end for Ethan Kline.

The end for him in this world, anyway.