I didn't mean to follow you.
Really, I swear I didn't. It's just . . . you seemed like
the best father I've ever seen, you know? Like you actually cared and as long
as that 3 year old girl in front of you is smiling, life is perfect.
I wish it was. For you, it might have been. It would've
been, I promise, but not in this world, not in this reality. I wish your life
was perfect and you weren't the goddamn “chosen one”.
I didn't know it was you-or maybe I knew, I just wanted so
badly for it to be anyone else. Anyone else out of 7 billion people to guard
the gates. Anyone else to be the one in that aquarium with shining purple stars
tattooed all up and down your arms.
I watched you smile as you took perfect family pictures in
front of a tank of stingrays. I watched you pick her up and swing her feet off
the ground in front of the jellyfish right before you leaned over and gave your
wife a kiss. I didn't want to watch as you were torn away from them due to the
demand of some higher power no one can control.
I walked up the driveway to your house, my ear-buds in and
my heart pounding. The front steps were hard not to trip over and holding back
tears for you was ever harder. My palms were sweaty and the Snickers I had just
consumed threatened to come right back up as I pushed the doorbell.
A minute later (which felt like a year) you answered and I
opened my hands, my eyes gleaming a bright green, while your family watched
behind you as both of us disappeared.
“What happened?” you said as you woke up, finding the
view of a dark lonely room and one plant pretty unwelcoming. Well there was
that and me-probably the most unwelcomed sight in the room. "What did you do?” you
asked, sitting up and feeling the spikes of your mohawk on top of your head.
Shit. . . that little girl was going to miss those. “Where––”
“I, uh, I––” my voice froze up as I tried to speak, feeling
my lips go numb.
“You have been chosen as guardian of the gates,” said a
booming voice next to me. A sharpened pair of horns was on my left.
“Sara here is your mentor and will teach you the ways of
guarding before she is free to live as she pleases. Soon, you too will be
someone else's mentor and free to live as you wish,” he said, staring down at
you. My fingers played with the charm on my bracelet, and my eyes looked down at
the star shape dangling from my wrist. The one identical to the ones on your
arms.
“How soon?” you asked, desperately wanting to go back to
ten minutes before when you were still living the perfect life. You weren't the
only one.
“A few centuries, soon enough,” he answered, disappearing
from my side and leaving the two of us to lock eyes.
“Centuries?” you asked, incredulous. “I can't do whatever
this 'guarding' is for centuries. I have a family that I have to get back to.
My daughter, her birthday's in a month and I––”
“I know,” I said, interrupting you, and ripping the charm
off of my bracelet. It was now or never. “You have to get back.” I threw the
charm at you, watching you stand up and catch it as the stars on your arms lit
up like they had been in the aquarium. And like at the aquarium, you still
couldn't see them.
“With this?” you asked, holding it up in front of you. “A
bracelet charm?”
“It's a lot more than it looks,” I said, taking another look
at you and a deep breath before I pushed at the stones in the wall behind me so
they opened up the entryway to getting out.
