Short Stories by Me

Fate and Chance

Fate sat a long black table in a large black room in a lengthy black dress. She glared at her sister, Chance, far on the other side of the room. They often came together like this, staring each other down, until one of them broke the silence and made a wager.

You see, there couldn't be two more unlike sisters ever. Fate wore her dark hair in a tight bun, adorning herself with dark jewels and forcing burdens upon others.

Chance left her golden hair down in wild ringlets, and prefered to wear flowers over her loose white gowns. She gave people many choices, with many paths to take going there.

"Well?" Fate snapped, sneering at her sister. "I don't want the smell of your withering, worthless plants to clog up my home! Get on with it, what do you think will happen next with who?"

But Chance simply smiled. She seemed to be emitting a soft glow into the rest of the dark room. "Let's do something with romance. Triangles are getting boring, so how about we find a pair of reluctant friends?"

Then Fate scoffed. "I was thinking of some war. A big one. Not those puny ones that they chase on daily. Those are too predictable. I say we find the next revolution leader."

Chance pouted. "We did something like that last time. Please, Sissy? Can we at least try to combine them?"

A judgy sneer spread across Fate's twisted face. "It's too hard to combine war and love."

"Oh no it's not. We find a pair of friends -one secretly loves the other, and vise versa- who are destined to have something to do with war. If I could, I'd keep all lovers as far away from war as I could! But you have to go around condemning people to violence. Would it kill you to just give them choices, like I do? Or do you have to make all the paths twist in the middle to drag them to the same terrible spot, despite all the hard work they do to stay away?" Chance took a deep breath, and sharply nodded her head one time. Fate rolled her eyes before responding.

"You know I can't die. But if I could, making the same decision would cripple me inside, and I'd be as good as dead. But would it kill you to use a brush once in a while?"

Chance's hand darted to her blonde mane, and her sweet face twisted into a scowl -a rare sight indeed.

"Fine!" Chance shouted, trying to detangle her hair with one hand, and snapped once with the other. A large, simering, brass globe lowered from the ceiling. Chance jumped up and rushed to stand by it. She pulled out a magnifying glass three feet wide and three feet tall. She positioned it in front of the globe after carefully spinning it to where she wanted.

Her sister was at her side now, curiously watching over her shoulder.

Chance peered through the magnifying glass, and there, in a tree that was now up close and clearly visible, sat a boy and a girl, barely over the age of ten. They had smiles on their young faces, cookie crumbs on their cheeks, and were chattering to each other happily.

"There!" Chance smiled triumphantly. "Future lovers, and destined leaders."

"These are children," Fate argued. "And there's hardly a wager available. What is there to bet on?"

Chance smiled again. "See the girl in this yard, and the boy in the next? See them staring at the two in the tree? This is a square if I ever did see one. I bet the two on the tree will end up together forever."

"That only has your romance in it. Where's my war?"

Once again, Chance smiled. For she had something for that, too. "It's all in the square, Sissy. The two in the other yards are destined to lead rebelion, too. But who will lead with pure intentions?"

"No one leads with pure intentions. That's why the world is so broken. No one cares enough to devote themselves fully to it."

Chance shook her head. "I don't believe that, Sissy. I bet that the two in the tree will be happily together, and they will lead with the purest intentions."

"And what are you willing to pay, should you lose?"

"I won't lose."

"You say that every time, yet you've only won twice. What are you willing to pay?" Fate was tapping her foot now.

Chance tapped her finger against her chin. "I'll give you the Core Key."

Fate gasped. The Core Key unlocked the Earth, letting everything inside spill out. And the things inside are not what mortals believe. There are monsters, mythical creatures, deceased living, and secrets.

So.

Many.

Secrets.

Every whisper ever uttered, every answer ever found, every truth ever hiden.

If Fate had the Core Key, she could find out how to control her sister's power. Chance had always had the Core Key, but she had never had any desire to use it. Why steal from the earth when she could be giving?

Fate decided that she wanted very much to possess the Core Key. And she would not ignore ite power like her sister had. So she turned to face her sister.

"And I'll never have the chance to take it again if I lose," Fate announced. "Not even another wager can change that."

Chance nodded happily and stuck out her hand. Fate shook it quickly

"It's a deal," they said in unison. Then Chance turned on her bare feet, and skipped out of the room, out of the castle, out of Fate's territory.

"Chance may have hope she'll win, but I have pure determination."

And with that, Fate went up to her bedchamber to rest.

She had a lot of meddling to do in the next few years.

I wrote this in Idaho. Yeah, there are a lot of stories like this. Now, read on, because there are more stories of other kinds up ahead!

Thank you and GOODNIGHT!