THE PRICE OF CHANGING FATE
946 Words
THE BOY WHO REMEMBERED TOMORROW
Episode 4: The Price of Changing Fate
The envelope lay open on Ethan's bed.
The words refused to leave his mind.
DO NOT CHANGE HISTORY AGAIN.
He read them over and over until the ink seemed to blur into the paper.
Who had delivered it?
How had someone entered the house without making a sound?
More importantly...
How did they know what he had done?
A knock on the door startled him.
"Ethan?" his mother called softly. "Your father wants to see you."
He folded the letter and hid it beneath his pillow.
When he stepped into the living room, his father sat on the old couch with his injured leg wrapped in white bandages.
The doctors had called his survival a miracle.
His neighbors called it luck.
His mother called it God's mercy.
Only Ethan knew the truth.
His father smiled.
"Come here."
Ethan walked over quietly.
The older man pulled him into a hug.
"If you hadn't come looking for me..." he whispered, "...I wouldn't be here."
For a moment Ethan closed his eyes.
In his previous life, he had lost his father years too early.
Now fate had given him another chance.
He promised himself he would protect this family no matter the cost.
But fate was already preparing its payment.
Three days later, the news spread across town.
A school bus had crashed into a river outside the city.
Twenty-three children were dead.
Ethan's face turned pale.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
He remembered the future clearly.
The bus accident had never existed.
Instead, those children had grown up, found jobs, started families.
Now they were gone.
His stomach tightened.
Had saving his father caused this?
The numbers echoed in his mind.
One life saved.
Many lives lost.
Was destiny balancing itself?
That night, sleep never came.
Every time he closed his eyes, he saw children trapped beneath dark water, reaching toward the surface.
He woke before dawn, drenched in sweat.
Outside, fog covered the streets.
Unable to bear the silence, he wandered into the nearby forest.
The deeper he walked, the quieter the world became.
No birds.
No insects.
Not even the wind.
Then he found it.
An ancient stone circle hidden among towering trees.
Seven broken pillars surrounded a black monument covered in symbols older than language itself.
As Ethan stepped closer, a strange warmth spread through his body.
Memories that were not his own flashed before his eyes.
A battlefield beneath a crimson sky.
A kingdom swallowed by the sea.
A child crying beside a burning temple.
A man wearing a crown of silver thorns.
Thousands of years.
Thousands of deaths.
Thousands of lives.
He staggered backward.
"What... is this place?"
"You remember pieces of them."
The voice came from behind.
The boy in black emerged from the mist.
His expression remained calm.
"You've stood here before."
Ethan clenched his fists.
"Tell me the truth."
"Who are you?"
The boy looked toward the monument.
"My name changes every lifetime."
"But once..."
"...they called me Lucian."
"Are you human?"
Lucian remained silent.
"Why did you save my father?"
"Because you weren't meant to lose him yet."
"What do you mean 'yet'?"
Lucian's eyes darkened.
"In every timeline, your father dies."
"In some, he dies in the factory."
"In others, he dies protecting you."
"In one timeline..."
"...you kill him yourself."
Ethan stepped back in horror.
"You're lying."
"I wish I were."
The air suddenly grew cold.
The black monument began to tremble.
Cracks spread across its surface.
A deep voice echoed from inside the stone.
"THE SEVENTH HAS RETURNED."
The ground shook violently.
Trees bent as if pushed by invisible hands.
The symbol carved into the monument burst into brilliant white light.
Lucian grabbed Ethan's wrist.
"We have to leave."
"What is happening?"
"They found you."
"Who?"
Lucian looked toward the sky.
His calm expression disappeared for the first time.
"The Watchers."
Above the forest, seven dark figures floated among the clouds.
Their faces were hidden beneath white masks without eyes or mouths.
Each carried a long black spear.
None of them moved.
Yet Ethan felt their attention fixed entirely on him.
One of the masked figures slowly raised its hand.
The forest fell silent.
Every leaf froze.
Every branch stopped moving.
Even the mist hung motionless in the air.
Time itself had stopped.
Only Ethan and Lucian could still move.
Lucian's voice was barely a whisper.
"Listen carefully."
"They exist outside history."
"They erase anyone who threatens the timeline."
"And now..."
"...they know your name."
The first masked figure pointed its spear directly at Ethan.
A crack of black lightning split the sky.
The ground beneath Ethan's feet exploded.
As dust and shattered stone flew into the air, Lucian shoved him aside.
The attack missed by inches.
The ancient monument behind them shattered into thousands of pieces.
Hidden inside its center was a glowing crystal unlike anything Ethan had ever seen.
Within the crystal floated a tiny golden flame.
It pulsed once.
Then a voice spoke from inside it.
"Find the Last Gate before the Fifth Eclipse... or every timeline will die."
The flame went out.
The crystal turned to dust.
The seven masked figures vanished.
The wind returned.
Birds began singing again.
It was as if nothing had happened.
Ethan stood frozen, his heart racing.
He looked at Lucian.
"What is the Last Gate?"
Lucian stared at the empty space where the crystal had been.
After a long silence, he finally answered.
"The place where death sends back the souls it refuses to keep."
And for the first time since his rebirth...
Ethan wondered if he had ever truly escaped death at all.
- Writer
