Fate
There she was across the hall. A mere twenty feet it looked, yet seemed a thousand miles. All I had to do was get to her, and then everything would be perfect once more, so I thought. She’s so beautiful; all I had to do was reach her. Let me tell you how I got into the position I’m in right now, so you may comprehend what I’ve gone through. I am a skilled swordsman, of the samurai blade. I am one of the best with the blade, and still young, only 24. I was with this girl, with eyes that would light up the darkest soul and a heart made of pure gold. She filled me with a joy that only the gods are allowed to enjoy. She has tan skin with beautiful long brown hair, truly a sight to behold. She is kind hearted, loving, caring, truly wonderful. Now where this dream becomes a nightmare; I was given a job, hired by a wealthy business man to take care of an assassin that was hired to kill this man. I did so with out knowing the assassin’s background. He had family, three older brothers, and with each brother two swordsmen. They traced the killing back to me and attacked me at home. I was with Jasmin at the time they broke down the door. I quickly drew my blade cutting down two of the six swordsmen. As I took out three more, one of the brothers stood behind Jasmin with a blade to her neck the other two in front of them. The swordsmen stood behind me. “Throw down your blade or she dies.” The eldest brother, behind Jasmin, said. My sword slipped from my grip as I fathomed what might happen to my beloved. Just as my blade hit the ground, I could hear the swordsmen lift up their blades to strike a fatal blow to my back, and the knife at Jasmin’s neck made a clean cut. I must say that the look in her eyes as I saw her life drain from her is something that terrifies me to this day. I don’t remember what happened other then being filled with an uncontrollable rage that cut my sight. When I regained my sight, there lay all the bodies of the swordsmen as well as the three brothers. Jasmin’s lay there as well and I could not help but fall to my knees and cry. I cursed the gods for delivering me this fate as I fled my home with her body. That night I gave her a proper burial as well as prayed to whichever god that would listen a chance to bring her back. Little did I know that the phrasing of my words would come back to haunt me.
That night I was visited, I believe, by one of the gods. I know her name not, but I believe few know her none the less. She spoke to me, “You have the chance you requested, but if you fail your soul will be trapped in the abyss you must travel through.” When I looked my sword was at my side, and I was in an unspeakable place. The walls seemed to be made of human flesh and I believe I could see people, bodies even, among the flesh. It was a strait hallway and it seemed to open up into a room. I looked back to see more of the disgusting wall, my only option was forward. As I walked cautiously down the hall, the floor molded to my feet and would make squishing noises with each step. About half way down, an arm extended from the wall and grabbed my throat. My sword was drawn in a second and the arm was severed to flop, continuously on the ground. Before I knew it bodies were forming and trying to rip me apart, stretching, grabbing, and clutching at my clothes. I added to the blood on the floor by hacking through the tormenting bodies. Those I did not sever were dodged as I proceeded down the hall into the room. The spirit that had given me this quest appeared in this copper room as iron doors closed off the hall. “I’ve given you the chance to rescue your loved one. This can only be done if you can beat all the obstacles I have set before you. Do you have the will power? The drive?” and just as she appeared she vanished. A lightning bolt struck the floor sending the charge through the floor to my legs. I screamed in pain as my legs collapsed and I stay knelt in the middle of the floor. I heaved in pain as the charge left. I could hear the crackling of the next charge building. I managed to get to my feet only to realize I had no where to run, no where to jump, no place was safe in this room. I saw the beginning of the next bolt and jumped into the air, trying to avoid what I could of the charge. A metal net launched from the wall I was facing to pin me to the ground just after the bolt hit the ground still sending the charge through my body. I writhed in pain once more. With the swiftness of my blade the thin chain was cut and I was to my feet once more. If another bolt was to strike I would not have had the strength to get up. The image of Jasmin began to fade and as I saw her face dwindle I screamed. The scream allowed me to see without my eyes. I focused on the object preparing to give me my final resting place. If I miss with this attack, then I am doomed to live in this room of torture forever. I let my sword fly, and it shattered the glass orb causing me all the pain. Instantly the room became a lodging house, and it seemed I was allowed rest.
When I awoke from my slumber, she was staring at me in a chair. “Impressive. Truly impressive. Now I get to see your endurance as well as how strong your love is for the one you seek. You wish to continue?” And then she vanished once more. The square room I was in now had three doors and what appeared to be a fourth, but it seemed incorporeal. On each door were the roman numerals I, II, and III. Well I figured we should start out from the beginning and so I opened door number I, leading into a field. It was so beautiful, around sunset. The sky was red, a bad omen for a warrior. I never saw it coming, for I thought I was in a field; a tree log swung from something and knocked the wind out of me. I was barely able to move out of the way as another swung pass, but I had moved in the way of another that struck my side. I didn’t know what was going on, but I found myself dodging a barrage of tree logs. Once it seemed that they all have stopped swinging, specifically at me, I took a little breather. It couldn’t have been more then five seconds when spears coming from all sorts of directions flew toward me. It took all I had to cut down the missiles if not avoid getting pierced. I came out of that with minor scratches. This seemed to be getting increasingly harder as the next task was avoiding arrows. These I saw the source; they were coming from ten men with bows. I could only see a shadow of image but that was enough. I started the task at eliminating these “people” only to find that there was nothing to attack. I began dodging the arrows as best I could even though I was becoming extremely groggy. The pain from each arrow piercing my skin would jolt me awake. It wasn’t until I had about four arrows in me, one in my right leg, one in my left arm and two in my back, when the shadows disappeared. My knees shook with exhaustion, my arms felt heavy, and my eyes were loosing their vision. I saw in the distance four figures. They looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t place my finger on it, as I fell to my knees. The figures approached one laughing. I looked up to see that they were the three brothers and the assassin. They all drew their blades and one at a time they wanted to fight me, with the warning that each time one dies the others get stronger. And so I began to battle with what little energy I had left against the eldest, the youngest being the fastest and most skilled of the three. The first fell easily, a simple thrust with my blade into his throat as he approached me ended the fight quick. That wasn’t going to work again as the second began to approach. There was a series of attacks and parries and I felt the bite of his blade in my right arm as I shoved my sword into his sternum. The third was even more difficult wielding two blades at once. I quickly picked up a sword from one of the fallen brothers and used it strictly for parrying. He readily disarmed the parrying arm as I jumped back to escape further assault. I ripped out the arrow in my leg and broke off the shaft. He charged and the fighting started again, this time I could only defend. I kicked him in the chest making him do a back flip to regain his balance. While he was in the air I threw the arrow head where his throat would be when he landed. The head went in and the man clutched at his neck. He charged again only to collapse at my feet lifeless. Now the assassin was supped up from the death of his brothers, and with that power he was granted abilities. He began to dart forward and soon disappeared. At this point I had no energy left and so I fell to my knees once more. A voice in my head told me not to give up, to try just a little bit more. My eyes closed to listen to the voice but all I could hear were rapidly moving footsteps. They were approaching me fast. I tried to raise my arms to get my sword in a place for leverage, in order to get up but I could only lift the blade, the handle stayed at my side. Purely by accident, did the tip of my blade pierce the assassin’s stomach. Once he recovered from his shock, with his last ounce of energy, he swiped is small swords down and cut my chest. I collapsed from the complete loss of energy.
When I awoke I was at my home once more, in my bed, bandaged. My body was on fire and I could hardly move. When the door opened I was scared for my weapon was no where in sight and I could hardly lift a finger. Then I saw Jasmin, holding a tray of herbs and dishes. She tended to my wounds and fed me some of the most delicious food ever tasted. This carried on for days, it seemed, but once I got to my feet and opened the door, I was in hell once again. Jasmin stood in front of me with the blade that slit her neck, and all I could do is stand there and watch it happen over and over again. No matter what I did, the scene played again. Then Jasmin’s body appeared next to me, and in a cold voice cried, “Why did you let this happen to me? I thought you loved me? You killed me? Why didn’t you stop them? I died because of you!” She repeated the berating with different variations as she circled around me while the scene played over and over again in front of me. Just then the knife was in my hand, “Kill your self for me. Show me you love me. Prove I didn’t die in vain.” She continued this harassment, this edging. I put the blade to my stomach, and started to thrust inward, drawing blood. As the tears streamed down my face with eyes closed I pictured Jasmin’s smile. I stopped the blade, and the scolding heightened. I stood up, grabbed what looked like Jasmin and thrust the knife into its stomach. The image melted and I was in the wooden room with the four doors. Two of the numerals were glowing, and the incorporeal door seemed to materialize, yet not enough to be a door yet. I found my sword and headed into the last room.
The room wasn’t a room at all, it was a cave. The spirit appeared once more, “do me this, young warrior, show me the evil that is in your heart and I’ll show you your lover. Loose control like you did when you slaughtered the men before. Give in to the darkness and she will be yours once more.” Yet again she was gone.
“I’ll show you nothing beast.” I shouted, not knowing if she heard or not. In the darkness I heard the responses,
“You’ll show me because I’ll make you show me,” Just then advanced this tentacle like creature. It wasn’t larger then man sized but had about twenty tentacles. They all reached out and started the barrage of an attack. Every time I cut one off it melted and re-sprouted. “Give in,” Came the voice over and over again, “unleash your power.”
“Never,” was my response as I continued the never ending battle between this thing and me.
“Then here’s some assistance,” Came the voice once more. Just then Jasmin could be seen on the cave wall bound. Three tentacles left me and reached for her. She was too high up for me to reach so I tried the best I could to stop the tentacles. This was to no avail; they just kept on going and never stopped. When they reached her they began to slap her to wake her up. When she was raised the tentacles proceeded to strip her.
“Leave her alone.” I shouted at the beast. “Don’t touch her.” The tentacles got a far as ripping the shirt. Then I snapped. I lost sight of what was going on and only felt my arms swinging. I knew I was slashing and hacking something, but I couldn’t see or hear what. I’m not sure how much time went by but I was exhausted when everything came back into perspective once more. On the cave floor was this pile of green black flesh. To my guess I destroyed whatever it was I was fighting before, but I could have just driven it off.
“Ahh yes, good show,” Came the voice again. “Come come, you can’t say you don’t feel good now. Well I said you could see her didn’t I? Go back to the room and go through the door. Then you’ll have just one more test.” Said the voice as it trailed off.
I entered the wooden lodge again to see but one door, a great double door made of gold. I opened the door and soon my back was against a wall and I had nothing but shorts on. There she was, Jasmin, a mere twenty feet away. It seemed like I traveled thousands of miles for this, and now but twenty feet away. I was eager to just run to her. As I took my first step I felt a sharp pain. The floor was covered in glass. Alright, I’ll deal with shredded feet, just to be next to her once more. So I walked on, cutting my feet like a piece of meat in a grinder. I got about five feet when two kendo sticks swung into my stomach. As I hunched over two more came down on my back sending me down to my knees on the glass covered floor. As I yelped in pain, a brick from one of the walls flew and hit the back of my head forcing my hands on to the glass as well. I rose to my feet as quickly as possible and continued down the aisle of pain. I walked about another five feet when two hammers were released and bashed in my shins. I would have fallen on my stomach but I caught myself on my hands, again. My legs pounded the ground and again my body writhing in pain. I got to my feet, though very unstable, and with tears streaming down my face. I walked on. When I walked five more feet, the glass became nails, and my feet became heavier. The nails were spread out to puncture the feet and not nearly close enough to disperse the weight, like a bed of nails would. As my first foot landed on the nails, jets of flame began to shoot from the walls, floor and ceiling. The nails became red hot in not time, and the fire charred my skin. The next five feet the nails became knives, and I could no longer walk on my feet but crawled. As my body started to become shredded like my feet, spears came from the ceiling and stabbed my back. I looked up with eyes full of tears, and it almost seemed like I haven’t moved from where I started. Jasmin looked so far away, and I felt hopeless. I bowed my head and at the same moment I felt a hand rest on my shoulder, then another reach for my arm. When I looked up, she was helping me up. I was on the other side, crying with joy, sorrow and pain all at once. My mind was destroyed as well as my body. I would have killed myself at that moment had she not cleared the tears for me to see her face again.
“You came for me,” she said in the most angelic voice ever. “You went through trials and tribulations, pain and suffering, all for me. I knew you would never stop loving me. I knew what happened wasn’t your fault, I never blamed you.”
“I would do it all over again if I had to,” I replied, now smiling being held in her arms. “I love you, and not even a hell like this would stop me.” The voice then came again.
“You’ve reached her now I’ll give you what you asked. She’ll be brought back.” Then there was a flash of light and I was in my home once more, in my bed. The date was the day after Jasmin died. I bolted out of bed, but my feet were sore, yet there were no marks, my body ached but I was full of energy. I looked all around for her and I found nothing. Where was she? My heart was broken again and my energy dissipated. So I left to walk around. I must have walked for a couple of hours when I saw her, Jasmin. I walked up to the house and peered in the window. As I got to the glass I saw a man walk in the room, take her in his arms and kiss her. What happened? Why was she there? I decided to go home and see if I can talk to her the next day. I went to sleep dreaming of all I went through and what I just saw. The next day I ran to see if I can catch up to her. She was walking through the streets and I approached her. “Jasmin?” I asked.
“Yes? Do I know you?” With those words I saw my world crumble.
“No, I’m sorry. I must have been wrong.”
“Are you sure? Because there’s something in your eyes that tells me different.”
“If I said that we were together and that you and I were deeply in love, you’d think I’m a weirdo, right?”
“Umm yea.” She said with uneasiness.
“Well then there is nothing I can say then, sorry, even if my eyes tell you different. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you the truth and you’d only think me of a crazy man. So I’m sorry, live a happy life, best of wishes, and good bye.” I turned around with tears welled up in my eyes, for I knew that I went through hell to get back my one true love for someone else to have. I remember her name, the spirit that tormented me and put me through hell. Her name is lost by many, but I know who she is now; the ruler of destinies and the tormentor of lives. Now I live on, knowing that she has ruined my life for her own amusement. I teach now, the skill I have with the sword. I have my own school and many students beneath me. And so I live on, alone.