I find myself walking along a busy street filled with people conducting day-to-day business. It was a marketplace of sorts, with food stands arranged on both sides of the street and filled with busy shoppers all anxious to purchase that day's meal. They did not even bother excusing themselves, even as much as to look at me.
Not that I'd mind anyway.
I was fortunate I had my journal and pen out, for I had the chance to imprison another worthy tale within its black pages.
~
The marketplace was crawling with people along the sides as they all clamored to haggle over food prices and fill their baskets with their purchases. Carriages came and went at the center of the street, no doubt carrying nobilities that consider marketplace business as something too trifle for them to personally handle.
"How much for a pound of meat, my good sir?"
"These vegetables cost dearly! Is there no cheaper price to it?"
"I'll take half a dozen eggs, and please add a bag of flour as well."
These animated chatter of business was suddenly cut through by several screams of terror as a black carriage pulled by several black horses cut its way through the street, the townsfolk hastily huddling near the food stalls.
A scream. Sounds of clattering hooves. Wood scraping nastily against stone. Cries of horror.
A young man had been run over.
"Someone help him!" a vegetable vendor cried, moving out of her stall as people gathered around the single fallen body now on the center of the street.
"Is he hurt?" a shopping woman asked, looking anxiously from the crowd. "That carriage run clean right past him! It could kill the poor boy!"
"Please, let me through! He is my fiancee!"
A woman pushed herself through the crowd of onlookers and threw herself down upon the fallen man's body, sobbing dearly.
"Oh, my beloved, what has happened to you?!" the woman screamed, tears pouring down her face as she caressed the man's bloody face, the man unmoving. "Please, is there a doctor here?! We need a doctor, please help!"
Another man pushed himself through the crowd, apparently a man of medicine, as given away by his stethoscope that hung round his neck.
"Please give me room." the doctor said, examining the man's body.
~
The marketplace was crawling with people along the sides as they all clamored to haggle over food prices and fill their baskets with their purchases. Carriages came and went at the center of the street, no doubt carrying nobilities that consider marketplace business as something too trifle for them to personally handle.
"How much for a pound of meat, my good sir?"
"These vegetables cost dearly! Is there no cheaper price to it?"
"I'll take half a dozen eggs, and please add a bag of flour as well."
These animated chatter of business was suddenly cut through by several screams of terror as a black carriage pulled by several black horses cut its way through the street, the townsfolk hastily huddling near the food stalls.
A scream. Sounds of clattering hooves. Wood scraping nastily against stone. Cries of horror.
A young man had been run over.
"Someone help him!" a vegetable vendor cried, moving out of her stall as people gathered around the single fallen body now on the center of the street.
"Is he hurt?" a shopping woman asked, looking anxiously from the crowd. "That carriage run clean right past him! It could kill the poor boy!"
"Please, let me through! He is my fiancee!"
A woman pushed herself through the crowd of onlookers and threw herself down upon the fallen man's body, sobbing dearly.
"Oh, my beloved, what has happened to you?!" the woman screamed, tears pouring down her face as she caressed the man's bloody face, the man unmoving. "Please, is there a doctor here?! We need a doctor, please help!"
Another man pushed himself through the crowd, apparently a man of medicine, as given away by his stethoscope that hung round his neck.
"Please give me room." the doctor said, examining the man's body.
~
As I observed I suddenly felt as if I was being observed myself. Like as if someone among these crowd of onlookers could notice what I was writing on the journal.
And there was.
The young man stared out intently at me from a small distance from the gathered people. I need not explain to myself that this evidently has to be the poor chap's ghost.
"What am I doing here?" the young man asked, puzzled. "There was a flash - a mix of pain and force, and all of a sudden I am standing here."
I was about to explain his condition when he suddenly moved to the crowd of people.
"I say, what are they looking at over there?" the young man asked, pushing himself effortlessly through the crowd, me following suit. "What are they - good lord, what am I doing there?!"
The Light spoke.
"Fear not, for what has happened was an unfortunate accident."
We both looked towards the source of the voice, and found the Light, her visage the same as I had seen when she first made herself known to me.
"What has happened to me?!" the young man implored, motioning a hand to his fallen corpse. "Am I... am I dead?"
"Yes." the Light replied. "But not for long. Fate works its ways too fast for mortal minds to comprehend, thus some are caught in her tangles before she could even fix her mistakes. Return to your shell and live life anew, young man."
Before the man could even react, he had already disappeared before my eyes.
~
"He's breathing again!" the doctor exclaimed, after applying pressure to the chest a fifth time. "Thank goodness he is all right!"
The young man opened his eyes weakly, turned them to his fiancee, and stroked the lovely face with a trembling, bloody hand.
"My dear..." the young man gasped. "...for a moment there I thought I had lost you forever..."
"No... do not say such things..." the woman said, clasping his hand hard and kissing them. "I love you so much..."
"So do I..."
The crowd gave a jovial applause as the doctor helped the man to his feet and hailed a carriage to bring them to the nearest infirmary.
"How ever did you manage to bring yourself back to reality after that nightmare, my boy?" the doctor anxiously asked the injured man.
The young man just managed a smile.
"Fate, sir. Fate."
~
"He's breathing again!" the doctor exclaimed, after applying pressure to the chest a fifth time. "Thank goodness he is all right!"
The young man opened his eyes weakly, turned them to his fiancee, and stroked the lovely face with a trembling, bloody hand.
"My dear..." the young man gasped. "...for a moment there I thought I had lost you forever..."
"No... do not say such things..." the woman said, clasping his hand hard and kissing them. "I love you so much..."
"So do I..."
The crowd gave a jovial applause as the doctor helped the man to his feet and hailed a carriage to bring them to the nearest infirmary.
"How ever did you manage to bring yourself back to reality after that nightmare, my boy?" the doctor anxiously asked the injured man.
The young man just managed a smile.
"Fate, sir. Fate."
~
"What do you make of this?" the Light suddenly asked me, as the carriage set off and the people returned to their usual businesses, here and there still talking about the bizarre events a few minutes back.
"I do not understand." I replied. "You said it was not his time yet, yet for mine."
"Yes. Precisely the thought I was expecting you to have. I have said it a while back - Fate works too fast to pay attention to trifling mistakes. She only realizes them when it is too late already."
"Do you mean mine was not a mistake of Fate?"
"No. For some, there are things not yet meant to be, death included. Crude mistakes of Fate that she rectifies almost as instantly as she made them. The workings of Fate are complex business, my dear. Pay no heed to it."
I did not answer. The confusion has settled over me again, just like three days back.
"I can say one thing for you." the Light said again, after realizing my silence. "Your fate is certain, and what you are doing right now is all according to her plan."
The Light vanished, but in her wake she revealed a new path.
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