Chapter 1 — Pretending To Be God

He lay on the ground, struggling to move an inch, but his body wouldn’t budge; it was old and frail.

But through that water puddle, he saw the figure with a black robe and a scythe on its right hand reflected on the water, but as he looked away from the water, the figure was not there. It existed only in the reflected world.

He knew this because this figure had been following him for his entire life,

Through the reflection of the water, the figure raised its hand and pointed with its bone finger pointing at his forehead.

His vision slowly turned from blurry red to white. Reliving his last moments again.

He was in a cafe, and in front of him, another man, who wore a simple but obviously expensive office suit, his face smooth and his hair gray, but we’ll tidy. And just like any movie businessman, his eyes were sharp and his jaw wide.

Meanwhile, he was the total opposite, he looked old, and although he had never taken drugs in his entire life, he looked like one of those people who were addicted to meth. Those bottles and hours of sleepless nights didn’t do him very well.

His hair was untidy, and his clothes were torn and stitched all over and over again. And his face was not shaved.

“So, what is life doing for you?” The man asked while adjusting his silver watch.

“Uhm, you know, it’s okay. I’m getting by.” He replied, trying to raise the cup of coffee to his mouth. However, his hands were shaking, and it inadvertently led to the cup falling on the table.

But instead of the coffee spilling out of the cup, an almost invisible barrier that looked holographic with a tinge of blue blocked it, keeping the table clean and dry.

“George, it’s pretty obvious you are not doing well.” The man commented he was his younger brother, named Lyle, and although they looked identical, the clothes and the detail on George made the both of them a night and day comparison.

“Yeah…” He replied before taking a sip of his coffee that had been heated up to the perfect temperature to drink. He couldn’t help but close his eyes and enjoy the texture of the milk and the coffee.

He would not be able to afford this kind of coffee these days, and it would be best if he enjoyed every little bit of it while he still could.

“Got a job yet?” His brother asked.

“Uh, no.” George answered while placing the coffee back, “I tried applying, none of them accepted.”

The world had shifted to learning and depending more on Artificial Intelligence to solve most of the problems, and it turns out it was the right choice. Most companies saw a boost in profits, and with AI managing more than just companies but also the government sectors, the everyday citizen was also able to live comfortably with everyone who was able-bodied worked, and everyone in the country was able to eat three times a day, putting their homelessness and hunger crisis to rest.

George, however, was the 0.000000301% of the population who had no job. Don’t do the math because the only able-bodied person who didn’t have a job was him.

Lyle shook his head, “Maybe you shouldn’t have tried taking down the entire world’s AI!” He gritted his teeth.

The cafe owner quickly took out a remote before pressing it in their direction, quickly activating an invisible barrier around them similar to the one that blocked the coffee from spilling, but this time, it was meant to block any noise from coming out of there.

“Not this conversation again, Lyle…” George lowered his head.

Lyle continued complaining for a few minutes straight, and it had been years that he had been complaining about this that George had somehow managed to learn to ignore everything that he was saying.

But deep down, he knew that his brother was right,

“We had this conversation just a few weeks ago, and this hurts me more than it hurts you, so can you give me a break?” George finally said.

Lyle closed his eyes, taking a deep breath, then letting it go, “Yeah,

George lowered his head as he received the letter that was filled with money to get him by till the next time the both of them met.

Lyle stood up, his eyes still on his watch while turning his back on his brother, ready to walk towards the exit, but as he checked his pocket, he stopped, “Wait…”

“Hmm?” He raised his head, keeping the letter in his only working pocket, wondering why his brother had just stopped. “Lyle?”

He turned his back, taking something out of the front pocket of his suit; it was a gold ring with a ruby cut so finely on top, and raising it for his older brother to see. He sat down before a smile appeared on his face, “Do you remember this ring?”

George stared at, trying to recollect his memories before a smile appeared on his face, “Yeah… I do. It’s father’s.”

Placing the ring down, Lyle nodded. “Remember the times when he would do his magic tricks and call this ring his magic ring?”

“Hah, yeah…” George choked up while chuckling lightly, “And we both bought the act till we entered highschool.”

“Yeah, we did…” Lyle smiled before lowering his face on the table.

Both of their smiles slowly disappeared before Lyle nodded and looked back at his time, “I’ll have to go now; Sarah will kill me if I’m not back on time; my grandkids are probably waiting for me there.” He said before getting up.

Seeing that the ring was still on the table, George pointed at it, “Lyle, the ring.”

Lyle turned back before shaking his head, “Keep it. You need some magic in your life.”

George smiled again, nodding, “Yeah.” He took the ring and put it in the same pocket in which he placed the letter.

“I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah.” George replied before seeing the back of his younger brother leaving the cafe.

He stood up with the cup of coffee in his hands, and he barely took a sip on it,

But as he raised his head, taking his attention away from the cup, he saw the building on the opposite side of the cafe, nearly made entirely out of glass; he could see the reflection of the Grim Reaper staring at him,

The figure had followed him ever since childhood, and from how many times he had encountered the being, it took the fear factor out of it. Now, it only made him intrigued.

The Grim Reaper, through the reflection, pointed its finger towards a water puddle.

George stared at the water puddle, but there was nothing that he could see there from the distance that he was at, so he walked towards it, and there he could see the reflection of the bony figure, pointing to the left.

Following the direction, he turned his head slowly, and suddenly, a bright light shined in his eyes, “Oh! Jeez…” He covered it, protecting his eyes.

And only after the light was turned off, he took off his hand, and there he could see a red car with a logo showing colors of gold, red, and black, with the middle having a horse.

It was an expensive car, and it was one of the only cars that used a traditional gasoline engine. In this day and age, it is extremely expensive to even fill up gas tanks. A full tank would cost $10k, with the government putting regulations on it.

But George shook his head, knowing who owned it.

A man came out of the car, his head was bald in the middle, but the side of his head was still full and was combed back cleanly with pomade, his clothes were made up of polo clothes and on his right hand a golden watch.

“No… Not now…” George thought, his legs trembling. “Salvatore, what are you doin’ here?”

“My mother calls me that, you call me Rusty… you demented old fu-,” the man said with a thick New York Italian accent before getting cut off by one of the two men who had just walked back behind him.

“Yo boss… sorry we came a bit late, Benny had a bit of a problem,” the man said.

“The heck I care about Benny! I was talkin’ to the vegetable here, don’t cut me off!” He screamed while raising his fist.

“Sorry boss!”

Salvatore (Rusty) Marino, a loan shark who worked with one of the very few existing Mafia families in the United States, made him a low boss of sorts. They had no political power, and they couldn’t do business that involved criminal activity, as AI had also made it possible to track who was most likely about to kick the bucket.

Behind him were two of his ‘henchmen,’ although it would be more accurate to refer to them as his workers since he pays them a normal salary every month. On his left was Frankie Martino, better known as the Fist, and on his right Vincent Romano or Vinnie.

Turning back to George, Rusty shook his head, “Ya know, I really feel bad for ya, lost your job to those pesky AI’s and whatnot, but yet ya believe in yourself, but ya ruined your life again and again. Now, where’s the money?”

“I… have it here…” He took out the letter with his hands shaking, making sure not to take out the ring accidentally, but the shiver from his hands caused him to drop the letter.

He picked it up before handing it over, “Here.”

Snatching it, Rusty smiled before opening it, “One…Two…Three…Four…Five…Six…Hmm?” He counted the bills that were inside of the letter again before crushing it, “You demented piece of…. AHHH!!! TEN YEARS!!! Ten years of debt!! And you still can’t pay back!! This is $600!!! I told you to bring $5,000 by today!! You old ahh!!!” He screamed before stomping on the ground, stopping and looking, staring at the ground, and drawing a switchblade out of his pocket.

Seeing the blade, George took a few steps back, “Hey, I can get you the $5,000… I just need more time.”

Rusty closed his eyes breathing in, pressing a button to unveil the sharp blade and combing his hair back with the knife as carefully as he could, making sure to not cut himself in the process, before opening his eyes again, staring at George, “No.”