The Choice Casket [Ziall Horlik AU Fic]

C h a p t e r . O n e .

A/N: Mmhmm... Get outta here and read, you crazy kids...

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Everybody has a choice. Whether it's the right one or not, it's theirs. It is the choices we make that defines us as a whole. Choices are different for everyone. Some choices are about whether to forget endlessly.. or hold on even tighter then before... others, whether to take one path or another, each leading somewhere completely different.. each having dramatic tolls around the way. It is there that we have to choose which of these tolls we are going to be able to actually handle, or if taking a certain one could tear you apart at the very start.

Choices.

Everyone has their own personal story behind each of their choices. Whether large or small, each story is significant in it's own way. Each story has it's place in this world. You take away a single story, it'll make everything stop.

It's like a dominoes set. They all need each other, or else it won't work. 

You take your time setting up each of the pieces, lining them up in their own way. If someone then comes along and takes one out or moves it out of place and you knock over the first one and wait patiently for them to all fall down... in the place where that said person took the one domino away... well.. the trail just ends there. No more dominoes can be knocked over, because they took away that one, single piece that could have connected them all together.

Sadly, that is just how it works. Everyone will have to make a choice like this at least once. For many, they're screwed facing choices like these every single day of their lives.

Unfortunately, for reasons that I wish would disappear, I am one of those people.

I adjust the bag slinging across my shoulder out of my way as I walk down the empty school hall-way, glaring at the loud sound of my footsteps. The clock hanging up above on the wall taunts me with the current time. I, to my total displeasure, have arrived late. 

'What's the problem with that, Zayn?", you might ask... Well, it's my first day. If that isn't enough to just scream a answer in your head, then I don't know what will. I hate being late to class in a school that I've been in for years, let alone in a place I've never stepped foot in until now.

The feeling you get when you walk in late... when every eye in the room lands directly on you.. It's like they're peering into your soul... or judging you silently... That feeling... it's just absolutely cringe worthy. That's why I always try my best to arrive everywhere on time. 

But that wasn't the case this morning. Nope. Because it just so happens one of those 'choices' that most only have to go through only a couple times got in my way once again. One of those God forsaken choices. Funny I should say it like that... seeing what I had to face was the complete opposite of anything God-related.

Confused yet? You should be. I can barely understand it myself. Some people call it a gift... I, however.. find it to be nothing but a curse.. and a real pain in my ass.

"You're helping people, Zayn! Saving people's lives!" They told me. "You have nothing to worry about, you'll be perfectly normal."

Yeah, I scoff in my head, unfolding a piece of paper in my hand, waking up to a bloody, raged spirit trying to claw your face into scraps is completely normal, all right.

Yeah, you read me correctly. Go ahead and do a few double takes if you want. Yeah, I'm cursed. Cursed with all these demons... cursed with all these ghosts... cursed with all these taunted spirits that arrive at my door-step on a regular basis.