FFM 2023 15: A Journey of Darkness

No prompts used.

Challenge: The story’s chosen one must first refuse the call. They must either accept it or be forced into it by the end of the story. The chosen one must have a special skill to get them through the story. Optionally, give them some important clothes or gear.

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The coven thinks you do not remember a time without them, a time before you were told of a prophesy you would fulfill come adulthood. That the scarf around your neck is inconsequential beyond you having had it for longer than you can remember. That you still have clarity thanks to it — and the ability to say no.

Your 20th birthday is a banquet, a send-off for a journey that you are told will bring the world to darkness by unleashing the Lord of Evil from its prison within your once innocent heart, the mysterious thing that was capable of storing spirits within it. You laugh and drink with the coven, already knowing that you will seek out your father instead. You will not let the prophesy come true.

At nightfall, you look triumphant as you start making your leave. As much as you would love to rub your autonomy into the coven’s face, you know better than to let them know you can rebel. They will find out soon enough that you will not use your powers of spirit-handling for them anymore.

You turn your back on the coven and walk away. You notice the knot on your scarf loosening too late to catch it. It flutters away from you and the voice that had tormented your nights before the coven speaks to you for the first time in 15 years, About time we get on the road, hun. Let us go fulfill your destiny.

Your limbs gain a will of their own, guiding you to a direction different than what you had planned, never stopping. For whatever reason, nothing stands in your way — not even you. All you can do is watch the scarf your father made to keep you safe flutter in the wind, always a few steps ahead of you, always out of reach, all the way to the sacred land and the slab where you are to release the Lord of Evil.

Your father meets you there, smiling. The scarf lands on his hand.

“It’s time, sweetheart,” he says softly. “The Darkness shall rule us once more.”

You want to scream but your mouth does not obey you anymore. Instead, your head nods and your somehow unweary body lies down on the slab. Your father ties the scarf over your eyes as you wonder how much of your life has been a lie.

Don’t you worry, hun. The Lord of Evil chuckles. Everything will make sense in a moment.

You wonder if you will even exist anymore in a moment.