"Have a great night Derrick. Drive safe."

Derrick waved as he grabbed his apron and went through the door. I looked at the one remaining guy at the bar, a trucker sipping on some coffee. I started on a fresh pot of coffee then walked over to him.

"Its getting pretty late, and you probably have somewhere to be. Do you want a to go cup for that?" He looked up at me, and I saw his eyes were red and puffy.

"I- I don't want to. Aren't you open all night?"

The lights dimmed a bit. I looked at him and cursed in my head.

"Yes we are. Just promise you wont freak out."

He looked down at his coffee and chuckled. "Thats why I'm here. I think she wanted me to freak out, to know that I still loved her. Why else would she call me in the middle of it?"

My heart ached for him. I was about to speak when the lights started flickering. I looked around as the shadows stretched across the ground. The shadows darkened until they were pitch black, and creatures started rising. They hurt to directly look at, 4 foot tall voids of nothingness roughly shaped like people. They all ran towards the counter and hopped up onto bar stools.

"The usual please." The creature closest to me, Alcazard said. It then looked at the trucker. "Is this Derrick? I've heard so much about you!"

The trucker looked directly at Alcazard. "No, my name is Johnnie."

The creature looked him up and down. "Are you hurt? Your looking right at me."

"Only hurt on the inside." Johnnie sighed. "I found out today my wife is cheating on me."

"Doesn't wife mean you two made an oath of loyalty to each other?"

"Thats what it used to mean. I don't really know anything anymore though." Johnnies eyes started to tear up. The creature reached out a hand, and I saw a shiver run through Johnnie when Alcazard put it on his back.

"Thats rough buddy. What are you going to do to the oath breaker?"

"I don't know. Beg for forgiveness?"

The creature stood up on the stool. "No. You don't need forgiveness. She is the one who broke you. Look at you, looking at me like I'm normal. Her evil needs to be exposed to the world."

Johnnie let out a small chuckle. "I guess that was pretty evil of her. I should probably get back to driving." He looked over at Alcazard, and winced slightly. "Thank you, this chat has helped me a lot."

Johnnie gave me some money and left. A few of the creatures left after him.

"Where are they going?" I asked Alcazard who was facing the door.

"They are going to find his wife." Alcazard turned back to me. "Anyways, lets get to the important stuff. Did you ask out Derrick yet?"

Haha true I just copied the date from my computer and changed the year.

I felt air blow on my face, and heard the woosh as the door opened. My mind was still foggy from the hibernation, but I could think clear enough to know it was time. For the first time ever, humanity was about to colonize another solar system. I stepped out of the pod, and looked around. Out of the dozen pods in this room, mine was the first to open. I took a quick glance at the other pods starting their regeneration cycle before waking up, and then headed to the door. My joints were stiff from being suspended for years, but I managed to get to the door just fine.

The hallway on the other side had windows all along one side. I tried to look out, but my eyes were blurry from the hibernation. I couldn't even see the stars, but I wished I was on the side of the ship that the planet was on. I stumbled down the hall, forcing my legs to move to the conference room. A door opened to my right, and an old man stumbled out of it, with excitement on his face.

We hugged out of pure joy, and then went to the hall together. There was already several people waiting, but when I looked at them I paused. They all appeared over the age of 60, even though there was only supposed to be a few people that old on this ship. After all, old people aren't very helpful when it comes to manual labor for setting up a colony.

The lights flickered, distracting me. I headed over to a screen on the wall, and brought up a readout of the ship. The results that came up made my jaw drop. The ship was barely limping along, the main reactor was offline and the backup reactor was outputting minimum power. Two of the three engines were down. Life support was working fine, but everything else had at least one error message. I sent a message to the AI in charge of the ship, but got an error in response. I tried again, and same results. I was about to try a third time when I heard a voice croak from behind me.

"John?"

I turned around, to see an old woman standing there. She smiled at me, and then I recognized her. This was Debbie, but she had somehow aged 50 years while in suspended animation. Her pod must have malfunctioned, since humans did age in them, but at most only a couple of years. Realization dawned on me as I looked around at the room of seniors around me. I turned back to the screen, and manually started a sensor sweep of the area.

The results came back almost instantly. No planet, no stars, nothing around for at least half a light year. I checked the date, and my heart dropped when I saw 12/15/502894. Somehow, this 50 year trip had lasted over 500,000 years! We must have been knocked off course, and the AI had kept us in stasis as long as possible. But with the reactor failing, there was not enough power to keep us in stasis, so the pods started the regeneration cycle automatically.

I turned back to Debbie, realizing the slowness in my joints wasn't from hibernation sickness. I opened my mouth, and managed to croak out to her:

"How old am I?"

I hope to, I just gotta come up with something interesting for part 3. Not sure whats gonna happen.

I've added a second part: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/z8wsyf/comment/iyf9hdm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

Josh focused on the candle, and sent out his magic. A large fireball formed again, and this time his bed had been lit on fire too. He quickly patted out the flames, and cursed at himself. Elizabeths words kept ringing through his head. Decide to be a good person. Wasn't he a good person? He was choosing not to kill people. He decided to head out and grab some food.

He reached the mess hall, grabbed a tray and sat down. He was about halfway through when his pudding bowl started to float off his tray. It zoomed over to a table, and Josh saw Catherine sitting there alone summoning several other bowls from other people. One person stood up, but his friend put a hand on his shoulder and he sat back down. Catherine smiled at the two of them, then locked eyes at Josh. A professor walked up to her table and started to say something to her, but without looking she flicked her hand and he flew into another table. Josh got up and walked out.

He arrived at Elizabeths door a little later, and weakly knocked. She opened the door, suprised to see him, and gestured inside. He sat down on her bed and hung his head.

"Do you really think I'm a bad person?"

She moved next to the bed. "You have the ability to stop her and help people, and you choose not to."

"I could kill her."

"She would have killed me if you hadn't been there. Do you think she cares about that?"

Josh looked up her. "I don't want to hurt anyone. Is there a way to stop her without hurting her?"

Elizabeth sat down beside him and thought for a minute. "What about if you scare her? You know, show off your power and put the fear of god into her. Make her think twice before bothering you or anyone else?"

Josh thought for a moment then nodded. It was getting late, so the two of them agreed to figure this out tomorrow.

​

The next day Josh was at breakfast when Catherine walked in. She got up on a table, then put her fingers on her head. Josh and everyone in the room got a mental message. The floor is Lava. Josh jumped on the table with everyone else, and looked down at the melting floor. He then looked up at Catherine doubling over in laughter. The conversation from the previous night went through his head. Josh put his fingers on his head, and sent her a message. Stop.

Catherine froze in place. The floor slowly started to return to normal, but she stood there mid laugh not moving a muscle. He jumped down from the table, and others started to jump down too. Josh walked over to Catherine, and looked up at her face. Though she still looked like she was laughing, her eyes showed she was panicing inside.

"I'm sorry, I only wanted to send you a message." Her eyes turned from panic to anger. Josh turned and ran out the door as a professor walked up to the frozen woman. He ran behind a statue and collapsed onto the ground. A few minutes later Elizabeth found him there crying.

"Look what I did to her!" Josh screamed at the approaching woman. "Who knows if she will ever be okay!"

Elizabeth sighed and sat down next to him. "If it makes you feel better, shes gone from laughing to snarling. And she has the ability to threaten people again. If anything, your mind control wasn't strong enough."

"But I didn't even try to control her. All I did was tell her to stop." Josh stopped talking as he felt himself rise off the ground. He looked over to see Catherine storming over with one hand raised.

"What did you do to me you bastard!" Catherine screamed at him.

"I sent you a message! I swear that was it!" Josh screamed back. A crowd had started to form, and Josh saw several professors as well as Headmaster Ahagan standing nearby. Catherine looked around at the crowd, then threw Josh to the ground. She leaned close to him, and whispered:

"Better watch your back. You are fucking dead you little brat."

​

Part three here: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/z8wsyf/comment/iyfgon6/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

"If you don't like this, just stop me. Oh wait, you can't. Your star isn't even visible in the night sky."

Catherine taunted as she held Josh upside down in a magic force field. Josh just waited for her to finish, trying to ignore all the blood rushing to his head. Eventually she would get bored, she always did. It didn't stop her from using him to scare anyone new who came to the school. A thin silver haired woman ran up to her and pushed her, and Josh dropped to the ground. Josh looked up at his savior, who was yelling at Catherine about her cold heart. Big mistake. Catherine spun her hand in a circle, and the woman froze in place. Catherine waved her hand, and the woman yelled as she slammed against a nearby statue. A horrifying crunch rang out as the woman went limp and fell to the ground.

"Anyone else want to try? Who wants to fight against the power of Sirius?"

All the other people looked at their feet and stayed quiet. Catherine's star was one of the closest stars to Earth, and her power was unmatched by any known wizard on this continent. The one saving grace for the school was that her skills was unrefined, though she could still brute force anything she put her mind to. She gave out a smug smile and started to walk away. The crowd dissipated after she left.

Josh walked up to the Silver haired woman laying on the ground, staring at her mangled limbs. She was still breathing, which was a good sign. Josh put a hand on her, and felt a tiny sliver of his magic flowing from him to her. Her limbs snapped into place, and the scrapes on her skin cleared up. The black circles under her eyes disappeared, and her body grew a bit as she became a healthy weight. Josh quickly withdrew his hand, he had gone too far with his healing. Her eyes snapped open.

"What just happened?" She exclaimed, as she shot up to a sitting position. "I feel better than I ever have."

"I healed you." Josh stared into her gorgeous eyes, so dark they appeared black like the night sky. "My name is Josh."

"Thank you. My name's Elizabeth." She looked at her arms and legs, then at Josh. "I thought your magic was weak."

"That is what people say. To be fair, you can't see my star in the night sky." Josh got up and started to walk towards his room. He stopped and turned back to Elizabeth. "It was nice meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you too." She said, as she stared at him. She watched him walk away, then glanced up at the hot sun beating down on the courtyard.

​

Josh stared at the unlit candle in front of him, focusing with all his might. He focused on simply lighting the candle, then shot out his magic at it.

The candle lit up in a fireball, blinding him. When his vision returned, he looked at the tiny stub remaining. He sighed, and blew out the candle before tossed it to the side. He set up another candle, and started to focus when he heard a knock at the door. He opened it, and Elizabeth walked through before he could even process who it was. She looked around at the burned walls and the pile of spent candles in the corner. Josh stuttered trying to say something, but she spoke first.

"Nice place. Is it okay if I ask you a question?" He nodded. "Why do you let Catherine treat you like that?"

"She has the power of Sirius. No one is able to stand up to her."

Elizabeth looked into Josh's eyes. "No one?"

Josh shifted uncomfortably on his feet, then sat down on the bed. It felt like she was staring into his soul. "Yes, she has the closest star in the night sky."

"What about the day sky?"

Josh's eyes opened wide, before he faked a chuckle. "You can't see stars during the day."

"You can see one." Elizabeth sat down beside him. "And I think there is someone more powerful than her. So let me ask again. Why do you let her treat you like that?"

Josh stared at her, examining her chiseled features. It took a moment for him speak.

"Because I can't control it. I once used it to push away a bully in elementary school. They found his body 15 km away. I only meant to push him a foot. I never meant to- to do that to him." Josh's eyes started to water as he remembered the poor boys mangled body.

Elizabeth looked at him, then put a hand on Josh's shoulder. "That was a long time ago. You must have better control now."

"No. You see that chess board with a missing piece?" Elizabeth looked at the shelf he pointed at and nodded. "Last week I tried to fix the piece with magic, and it became a fully grown tree."

Her jaw dropped, and she stared at him.

"What about all the people she hurts? Surely it must be worth standing up to her for them?"

"Never. I promised myself I would never hurt another human being, no matter what." Josh got off the bed and looked out the window.

"But you have so much power. You could help so many people!"

"You don't get it. I don't have a power, I have a curse. I'm so sorry, but I can't help you." Josh turned and gestured towards the door. "Thank you for visiting, but please leave me alone."

She got up off the bed. "Fine. But if you change your mind and decide to be a good person, let me know."

Josh watched as she walked out the door. He sighed, then started to focus on the candle again.

Edit: part two is out. https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/z8wsyf/comment/iyf9hdm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

I sat in the chair, staring at Agent X approaching with the needle gun. He put it to my neck, and I felt a flash of pain as the giant needle broke the skin. This was the final test, most people would be nervous, but I had trained my entire life for this. When I passed, I would be the newest member of The Society. I knew it wouldn't be long before I would become one of the top assassins, and eventually I would become the leader.

As I rubbed the new bump on my neck, Agent X grabbed a hat covered with wires and put it onto my head. He typed away at the laptop it was connected to, and I started to hear the hat buzz. He set the laptop down and turned to face me.

"There is no turning back now. This machine will determine who you care about the most in the world, and then you will have 24 hours to kill this person. Fail, and your implant will automatically inject poison into your body. Succeed, and you will gain a new identity as one of the worlds top assassins."

I nodded, wondering who it would tell me to kill. Maybe my mother, although I hadn't seen her in a decade. She had never given me enough support anyways. It could have been my ex girlfriend, I still cared about her even if I realized two years ago that I was too good for her. Possibly my mentor, she was the one who taught me how to kill. I surpassed her skill in less than a year, but it still wouldn't surprise me.

The laptop let out a beep and the hat went silent. Agent X frowned at the screen and turned to me.

"Lets try that one more time."

He pushed at the laptop buttons again, and the hat started buzzing. We sat in silence as the hat did its work, then the laptop beeped again. He went to the screen, and muttered "Same results?"

"Show me who I have to kill."

He turned the screen towards me, showing... a picture of me.

I hate my life.

Sure, people think that my life is great. Anything I want to create, I can invent. I make millions of dollars every year for the rest of my life. I live in a giant mansion, and I have every single toy that I want. But I also have millions of deaths on my conscience. It seems like everything I create becomes evil.

I invent an exoskeleton that can lift 10 tonnes so that my brother stops hurting his back at work, and now every military squad has one that carries gattling guns. I clone my dog and his memories after hes hit by a car, and now there are thousands of highly trained k9's thrown as cannon fodder against the "enemy." An upgraded GPS chip that works while spelunking is now used on every submarine in the US navy. I invent freaking teleportation, and those people use it to teleport bombs inside their opponents tanks. My latest invention though, no way it could be used for war.

I take a deep breath and look out at the audience in front of me. Most of them are people from "defense" companies, but there are some people from commercial companies too. Those are the people I want to reach.

"Hello, and welcome to my latest unveiling. Tell me, have you ever gone to your cousins party, and had a little bit too much to drink? Then you realize you have a big conference the next day you need to drive to? Introducing, the soberinator! Simply point this gun at yourself, pull the trigger and it eliminates any alcohol inside your body, as well as any adverse effects it might have done to you! Tried and tested this morning!"

I look out, and to my suprise the defense companies seem most interested. I sigh, wondering how long until I learn how they use this against humanity.

Turns out it was less than two months.

My soberinator apparently works on more than alcohol. It also works if you do something like inject your prisoner with venom. You get a couple bullet ants to bite your victim, wait for them to tell you everything you want, then you hit them with this gun and boom, their pain is gone.

I can't take it anymore. I want to make the world better, but everything I do makes it worst. I decide I won't invent anything ever again. I can't take this guilt anymore. I grab several containers of pills, pop them open and put them down my throat. My stomach hurts immediately, and its not long until I'm seizing out on the ground and the world goes dark.

Then I wake up to see my maid pointing my soberinator at me. God damn it, I hate my life.

Wasn't that second person?