The Spark - A Fictional Short Story About Awakening to One's Destiny

The Spark

Once you've given into fate, you find that life becomes so much simpler. You see, I've spent my whole life denying what everyone had been telling me, pretending like they were all wrong, that somehow they had chosen the wrong guy. Sometimes, though, Fate has other plans. I came from a small village on a tiny island in the pacific. That's where I was born and raised, the island of Saipan.

I had always lived a very mundane life, trying to blend in, not wanting to stick out too much. You see, from a young age, I had been the focus of many of my classmate bullies who had decided to make my daily life a living hell. Ever since then, all I ever wanted was to blend into the background and not be noticed. Try as I might, though, all of my teachers noticed me. They always told me that I was a very bright student, and that I was destined for greatness. But the more they told me this, the more I just wanted to slip into the shadows and disappear, unnoticed. The way I saw it, the more attention I got, the bigger a target I was painting on myself for my bullies to land a bullseye shot at me.

Now I'm 23, and Fate has decided that I no longer have a choice in the matter. It all started three weeks ago, when I was camping out at the highest point on the island, Mount Tapochao. It was a peculiarly dark and cold night, but there was no indication of what was to come a few hours later. I had just laid down and bundled up in my sleeping bag, finally drifting off to sleep, when I started to feel the cold, wet drops hitting my face. Rain. But how? There wasn't a cloud in the sky when I closed my eyes! I kept my eyes closed, hoping that this rain was just some weird freak cloud that would pass through soon enough, but then the heavens opened and unleashed a flood down onto me. I jumped up out of my sleeping bag and shook myself off, which I now realize was a pointless gesture, considering the torrential downpour I found myself in.

I started to roll up my sleeping bag, having given up all hope of a peaceful camping night. Just as I was about to head down the steps to get back to the shelter of my car, I stepped on a small patch of mud and grass that was just slick enough for me to slip on. I fell on my back and hit my head with an enormous thud. That's when it came. Before I could do anything else, I saw a blinding flash of light shoot across the sky above me, then a single bolt of lightning shot straight down and hit me square in the chest. My entire body writhed in shock and millions of pins and needles pierced through my veins and muscles. It was the most unbearable pain I had ever felt in my life, and before I knew it, it was over. The world around me faded to black, and I thought I had died.

Not even five seconds after the world went black and the pain disappeared, I heard a voice echoing through my head. "Rise," it said. Confused, I thought, "But I'm dead. Dead people don't just rise."

"Rise," the voice said again, this time more intensely than before. I just lay there, not knowing what to do. Then, the voice boomed out, "I SAID, RISE!!" and before I knew it, I felt my body being lifted up off the ground and reoriented into a standing position. There was a bright flash of light, and then the voice said, "Open your eyes." I inched my eyes open, nervous about what I was about to see. When I had opened them all the way, however, there was nothing there. No one there.

"Where did that voice come from," I wondered to myself. "Hello?" I yelled into the darkness of the night. "Is anyone there? Hello?!?" Nothing. "How am I alive? I was...I was struck by lightning?" I remembered that it was raining, but as I looked around, it was like not a single drop of rain had fallen in the area. Had I been dreaming? I looked around, and saw that my sleeping bag was rolled up, just as I had it before I slipped and got struck by that bolt of lightning. No, it can't have been a dream...otherwise, my sleeping bag would still be laid out on the ground where I was sleeping.

But then...does that mean I really had been struck by lightning? Where did that voice come from? What mysterious force lifted me from the ground? I had a hundred questions zooming through my head, and no possible way to get answers. I decided that I had had enough craziness for one night, so I packed up my stuff and headed back to my car to head on home. So much for a nice night of camping...

The next few days were weird.

[To Be Continued...?]

This was just a short story I threw together real quick for this post. I decided to leave it on a sort of cliffhanger, so that I could continue the story in the future, should I end up choosing to. I don't know yet if I will, hence the question mark above :P I hope you all enjoyed reading it! The picture above is of an area on Mount Tapochau. Please feel free to leave some feedback below :)