Every day that passes brings me despair. To leave for France was not among my best ideas. I had hoped that when I left the country I would get a better life than the one that my family wanted to impose on me.
I was once again a dismal failure. I ended up with a shabby job, questionable neighborhood and cheap apartment. To leave all my friends, family, in short, to flatten everything for it left a dirty taste in my mouth.
I woke up as usual that morning by the cold that still ran during the night because of that damn window that refused to close. By chance, rain and wind outside came with a certain force at the apartment.
The floor was soaked and the wind froze my bones despite the thick blanket that was on my broad shoulders. My bed was so bad that I had to get out of a niche.
I was heading to the kitchen just steps in front of my bed and began the usual process of wiping the rainwater from the floor.
While I took a shower the rain erased all traces of my labor. I shouldn't be surprised to have to take a cold shower so often. After a quick wash that did nothing to help my mood I got dressed.
I took the leftovers of yesterday's dinner, a sandwich, and went to see the neighbor below me, the stern figure explaining that the water seeped through the ceiling and soaked their own apartment.
I shrugged, having already explained the problem, and walked away without even a hello, or asking why she lived there.
I took my gray car and drove to my office. It is a dark turn that could be a mad scientist's if it were not my director's. A fairly normal man apart for his clothes, which were too colorful for this place. He tended, and also admitted, to use people as pawns.
He called himself 'The Great Master Manipulator'. It suited him perfectly, as he turned people against each other with hardly believable rumors. With him, I was entitled the rumor that I was a foreigner who spends his time criticizing the country in which he lives.
It didn't take long for everyone to hate me and refer to me only as the diminutive 'Plaintiff' or the slightly better 'English'. I passed through the underground parking garage where the old guard, one of my only friends here, was. He greeted me and opened the gate. I took a parking space and proceeded up to the offices. A group of my colleagues were hanging out in the corridors talking to each other and staring at me haughtily as they saw me coming out of one of the elevators in the tower.
I moved into my compartmentalized space which was a duplicate of all the other offices next to me and began my long day of welcoming directors from other companies wishing to see their brands on television with bribes.
I was used to it and systematically refused the tips from them to see their brands broadcast more on TV after a quick check of the broadcast content.
At lunch, I took another bag out of my lunch bag and ate it in my office away from the criticizing looks of my coworkers.
Toward the end of the lunch break the director called me into his office. I realized pretty quickly what would happen to me when I saw the sneaky smiles of the staff.
The director greeted me in a formal tone and then switched to a bored tone when explaining to me that I was dismissed following a so-called 'serious mistake' of accepting the file from the brand Kel-Vîn for a sum less than what he expected.
He explained, almost complaining about the hours he had spent rectifying his record with the company. This only took him twenty minutes worth of cash.
Disappointed and scared to find myself without a source of income here, I prayed on my knees crying to be forgiven. He called a security guard who picked me up by the hips and carried me out the entrance where he rested me gently. He wished me good luck and then went back inside.
The rain kept falling on me as I got up and walked back to the parking lot where I explained with tears in my eyes to the guardian, Gordon, my predicament.
He hugged and comforted me before telling me with some embarrassment that my car, also owned by the company, had been seized and all I had left from it was a box that Gordon had kept.
Sad like the rain in which I stood without an umbrella, I took shelter in a hypermarket where I waited for the downpour to stop, but it didn't. I eventually left the store to go home after buying poor quality wine.
The concierge grabbed me by the collar at the entrance and took me to my apartment, where the neighbor from below was furious. He snatched the bottle from my hands and pushed me to the floor, ordering me to clean the damp floor.
After my humiliation and boiling from anger since my neighbor stole the bottle as compensation. I lie down on my bed and begin to talk to myself so that my nerves, raw since the beginning of the day, could relax.
My anger got worse and worse. I had been working tirelessly all my life, only to have it ruined by my family and job, forcing me to live in a shabby apartment.
This idiotic band doesn't deserve me any more than I deserve to live this life of misery. All those stupid selfish people only think of themselves when poor people like me live in sadness. Sorry my friends, family, although it's your fault I disappointed you all.
During my ruminations, I heard a loud explosion in the bathroom. I stopped my train of thought and watched frozen in fear of that noise. Then all was silent, I dared not move for five whole minutes.
The handle slowly turns with the door's long, plaintive grinding noise. In the bathroom, everything was pitch black when I heard a metallic grating different from the door's.
A creature in red armor moved with incredible velocity to me in all of its splendor.
I stared at him without without daring to even breathe. The creature turned his head toward the window and entered the kitchen, examining the furniture as he peeled an orange from the basket now devoid of its only fruit.
Using a calm but falsely sweet tone, the creature proclaimed, " I don't want you to be scared of me! "
I didn't respond.
" I repeat, I don't like you being scared of me! " the creature roared.
" Sorry..." was all I croaked out.
" Do you know who I am, or even better, why I am here?" it announced.
" Not really... Sorry, do not hurt me!" I answered back.
The creature noticed me staring at the long, bleeding sword in his sheath. "I could kill you with that but it would be completely stupid of me," said the creature.
"Totally agree."
"You're right to be scared but you have nothing to fear, I'm not going to kill a being powerful enough to have resurrected me; and thank you, although it pains me to tell someone living in such a sordid place," explained the creature.
"How did I resurrect you?" I asked it.
"Let's start with the introductions first. I'm Lord Hatred and I both see and feed off your hatred; now who are you?" said Lord Hatred.
I didn't reply, stunned.
Lord Hatred tried again. "You are?"
"I'm sorry, my name is Mr. Anon and... that's all," I finally answered.
"Just pathetic. Do you want to know why you're not dead yet?" he offered.
"Not dead yet?"
"There is power here. No matter, I could just as easily kill you and leave, but the hate that boils inside you is most desirable," he explained.
Once again, I couldn't find the words to reply.
"Is it not awesome?" asked Lord Hatred.
"Yes, I think."
"All of this energy is a delight to me; know that I protect and watch to maintain such hatred but this place is really shabby," he said.
"Do you really want to help me?" I questioned.
"In a sense, yes. But I think that like everyone else you'll end up hating me so much, more than even your family," Lord Hatred replied honestly.
I questioned more. "How do you know about my family?"
"One: I know everything you hate and everything that hates you in this world, and two: you've been talking for a good ten minutes. So much that your poor neighbor called the guard that is going up at this very moment to smash you against some furniture," he said.
"What? Fortunately, I'm pretty sure you're wrong, and besides, the door is locked," I denied.
I heard footsteps rising quickly up the stairs.
"Sorry to contradict you, my savior, but he comes up with a key for every room. A strong hatred of you emanates from him, but I suppose that is another subject," Lord Hatred contradicted.
"Pity me, I saved you, so please help me," I pleaded to him.
"Okay then, hide under the table and let me handle this," he ordered.
"Okay."
The guard arrived in front of my door, unlocked it, and entered like a charging bull. From underneath the table I saw him approach Lord Hatred, who was standing and watching with disdain.
"Who are you?" the guard questioned Lord Hatred.
He answered back, "Your worst nightmare, you better clear out of here before I get angry."
"I don't know what this joke is, but a jerk in armor covered in red paint won't scare me," the guard foolishly asserted.
"Know that the last person to insult me was crushed by six different trains before succumbing," he threatened the guard.
At this the guard pulled out his taser and tried to fire on Lord Hatred, who wasn't disturbed as he gently pulled out his blade before slicing off the guard's head. The rest of the body slammed into the ground as the head rolled into the bathroom.
"Are we leaving now?" Lord Hatred asked me.
I didn't say a word.
"Fascinating, is it not?" he asked.
I remained silent.
Lord Hatred then joined me in my silence before I broke it. "You killed him!?" I asked, perturbed.
"Yes."
"But why?"
"You wanted to get rid of them, it's done," he calmly responded.
"But... You killed him. It's bad. You risk prison," I said to him.
"When the police come, neither you nor I will be here," he said.
"What! What will you do to me?" I recoiled as he stared and slowly moved toward me.
"I have to protect my treasures at any price."
Suddenly the embittered voice of my neighbor from below was heard as Ms. Giboulard cautiously ascended the stairs.
"It's okay Ms. Giboulard?" I said with uncertainty.
"Come with me!" Lord Hatred stopped suddenly and held out his hand.
"You scare me!" I refused.
"I hope prison will make you less afraid in this case," he reminded.
I paused. "Wait, no, I'm coming, but get me out of here."
I took his hand and had just enough time to hear that cursed neighbor shriek in horror at the dead guard.
I was suddenly sitting on a stone bench in front of a table in some kind of underground cabaret where Lord Hatred's armor was wearing a very elegant tuxedo. All of the decor was stone and there was a whole world here dancing and drinking heavily.
"Where are we?" I wondered aloud to Lord Hatred.
His reply told me little. "In one of the clandestine underground bars."
"What are we doing here?" I persisted.
"We are talking."
I tried again. "But still?"
"You breathe with your nose," Lord Hatred said.
"You keep me from getting the answers," I stated.
"That's the goal, my poor friend."
"Then I'll leave," I threatened.
"No."
The room was silent as I struggled to get up. I noticed two intense green beams coming out of the holes in his helmet, which actually were his eyes.
"You are now mine and I decide what we do and when!" he thundered.
The earth began to tremble under the fury of this being while lightning rained down.
I curled up and agreed weakly.
"Well, now I'd like you to draw one of those three cards which will decide your fate."
I sat down properly and noticed that everyone else was also returning to their normal activities.
Three cards, each of a different color, were placed on the table: a yellow, green, and black. I took the green thinking that it reflected a sign of vegetation.
He removed this set and made me choose between three forms: a cloud, star, or apple; I took the apple to always have food.
Then, surprise, three more cards of different sizes were offered. I took the smallest to have the least danger.
Finally, I was offered two identical white cards and I took the left one because that's the side of the heart.
"Ready to see your future?" He was now disguised as a seer.
"Why do you never take off your armor and instead disguise yourself?"
"I am my armor and I also really like disguises so let's go. You chose: the green card, therefore you will be green; the apple, so you will be an earth pony; the smallest card, you will be a young child; and the white card on the left, you will be female," explained Lord Hatred.
"What? You want to do what?"
"I've simply decided to send you to a friendly world chosen by a random factor and card taken in innocence. Any questions?"
"Can I leave?"
"No."
"Restart?"
He once again refused. "No."
"Pray?"
"It's recommendable, but I'm an atheist so no."
"Are you the demon? Atheist? If you exist then everything exists."
"Indeed, the most bizarre creature I have seen is a fairy dragon. Here's a picture." He showed me it.
"Pity, why me?"
"Do you want my answer?"
"No."
"So welcome to what I call my creation," he finished.
We both teleported.