A Game With Fate

Chapter 2: A Lecture With Fate

"Rip the page off," He said once more, rolling his eyes at my slow response to his command. "Just grip the top of the page and pull. It's literally just that."

"B-But-"

"Look," He started with a neutral stare. I shivered. "You want this mess to go away, right?"

"Yeah," I answered while looking down at my lap.

He gripped my wrist a little tighter now. "Then do as I say and rip this page off—and every page after. Trust me, it'll just be like deleting an unwanted chapter."

I closed my eyes and took in a breath. "It's not like I'm doing anything wrong. It's just ripping pages from some magical book I found in the forest attached to some tree that sprung up in front of me. It's not like anything'll go wrong."

I nodded my head and then let my breath out.

"Okay."

I took my hand away from his, which was slightly hard since he was still gripping onto it. But after seeing that I wasn't backing out, he let me take my hand back. I then put the book in my lap and observed the page before me.

It almost looked like Henry's book from Once Upon A Time, except this one just had art, no words or context whatsoever. But it portrayed our emotions so well.

My moms eyes were droopy, showing that she was not only drunk, but also tired from the previous night before. The way she loosely clutched onto her wine bottle was a hint of the future of how she'll drop it after she finished with her scolding. And how the way I hunched forward painted the picture of the awkwardness and anxiety I was feeling at that moment. After all, the neighbors were already complaining about my mom's 'night life' noises, there was a chance they also heard what went down in the mornings.

"Are you gonna do it or what?" The man who has yet to introduce himself, piped. "We don't have all day, you know."

I flipped to the last page of the book that showcased a portrait of both me and the officer, sitting and staring at the book with uncertainty and expectation. It was surreal seeing that identical setting already painted in the pages. But I didn't let that distract me from what was gonna happen next.

So pursuing my lips, I held the edge of the page between my fingers and then I sucked up my all doubts.

Rip!

Rip!

Rip!

And I continued to rip the pages till I hit the hard back cover of the book. It took me only a minute to
rip it all off which surprised me since the pages looked so thick at first.

"Well, that was underwhelming," The mystery man scoffed, looking at all the thorn pieces on the ground. "My first time was way more exciting than this."

I ignored him and continued to stare at the book, cringing at the leftover papers that loosely clung to the spine.

"Well, it's supposed to—"

Suddenly, everything stopped.

My movements.

My breathing.

My fear.

I was frozen in time and so was everything else.

And then, it happened.

Like a video being reversed manually, I watched as the past two months erased itself right before my eyes. It was like being played backwards except in my perspective and all I could see was a fast blur and familiar scenes from the past.