The Passage of Fate

When Wilhelm realized he could pause time, he only had a five-second window to act.

The enemy infantry cut down his door and surrounded his family. A soldier plunged his sword into Wilhelm’s direction, in range of his eyes. And it was then that time stopped. His heart clambered his throat. Was that how his power would enact, when he was most vulnerable?

As that single thought crossed his mind, three seconds had already passed. It was now either his wife, Lenora, or his two daughters, Rebecca and Amanda. Pushing the blade of the sword that could’ve slain him, he charged to the one family member his heart cried out to first.

He seized his arms around them, pushing them to the floor. And after a ruinous cry he knew he was going to hear until the day of his death, his two daughters collapsed.

Lenora had banished Wilhelm from their bedroom. Both of them cried like they never had when their daughters died. Initially, Wilhelm grabbed their family shovel to dig a two-set grave, but Lenora pushed him away, making him drop the shovel.

‘’A monster like you shall never bury my daughters!’’

‘’They were my daughters to- ‘’

‘’They ceased to be, when your weak, pathetic will got them killed.’’ Lenora looked down as she picked up the shovel from the rain-dashed mud. ‘’I would’ve forgiven you in the afterlife for saving them than me. But you made the choice of a heartless coward.’’

Close to the bank of the river, Lenora wrapped their daughters in blankets and carried them one by one to their shared grave.

To think that by stealing a loaf of bread from a merchant in the capital had caused all this. If only Wilhelm had learned of his power much sooner, the infantry division would’ve been the ones in the grave.

Lenora held her hands in a prayer, and in a tearful song, she managed to complete a quarter of her farewell, before she kneed by the grave. The rain roared with a menacing thunder burst, but Lenora’s cries were louder.

In the evening, Wilhelm had cooked a traditional family meal: a large bowl of mashed potatoes mixed with chopped carrots. Rebecca and Amanda would’ve banged their hands and give their famous chant:

‘’Carrots, carrots, down for the count! Very soon, very soon, you’d have to say goodbye!’’

Now, the meaning behind the lyrics had changed for the worst. When Wilhelm used to laugh, he now contained his sorrow as he stirred the mashed potatoes. He threw his head back, as one tear almost fell into the bowl.

Unloading the food into each of two bowls, Lenora seized hers and sat by the fire, away from the dinner table. That whole time, she didn’t even face her husband. A paralyzing dread was in his stomach. Each spoonful of mashed potato felt like stuffing bugs in his mouth. When he did chew on his food, his teeth went slower the more he chewed.

Rebecca and Amanda laughed, spilled their food on the table, before they disappeared before Wilhelm’s eyes.

Lenora had abandoned her bowl, staring into the dusk-grey sky that drenched their dirty windows with a sea of rain. Her bowl looked as if she had only taken two bites before laying her spoon aside.

‘’You have to eat, hon.’’ Wilhelm said.

Lenora pushed her bowl further away.

‘’If Rebecca an- ‘’

‘’Don’t – say – their name!’’ she yelled, still facing the window.

Though, by Wilhelm’s mention of their daughters, Lenora’s lips quivered as tears pressed from her eyes.

‘’You’ve… co…’’

The rest of her sentence became sobbed mumbles.

‘’What?’’ Wilhelm said.

‘’You’ve… coul.. could’ve saved them…’’

‘’I-I didn’t kn – ‘’

‘’Remember when Rebecca was small, as you held her?’’ She looked at her husband, her face infested in sorrow. ‘’Do you remember?!’’

‘’Yes, I remember.’’

‘’So you do remember what you told me back then? We’d put Rebecca to sleep after hours of trying, and you said what I thought you took to heart without any doubt.’’

Wilhelm sipped. If he said the words, he would only force more tears out of his wife.

‘’’I’m gonna save her first, no matter what. Her life is more gifted than ours.’’’ Lenora paraphrased. ‘’Those were your words.’’

Thinking back to when Rebecca was a baby, Wilhelm looked shamefully at his wife. Those heroic words that any father would proclaim dropped as soon as Wilhelm came face-to-face with the infantry soldiers. He should’ve seized his five-second opportunity to save his girls. But instead, he cowed before the pressure that pointed swords at his family.

Doubt always showed its face the first time Wilhelm pursued something new. The second time was where his true intentions could shine through. He would know that, if the infantry barged in again.

Lenora rested in their bedroom, but Wilhelm lay awake in the living room by the dying fire. He stared at the ceiling, contemplating his second bread-theft, for which the infantry would be most welcome to his home this time.

Throwing the door open, Wilhelm dropped a whole sack of bread on the floor.

Lenora flew from her seat at the table.

‘’What have you done?!’’ she screamed.

‘’Doing the right thing.’’ he called back.

‘’What ‘right’ thing?!’’

Her screams encompassed both sadness and fury. She would slap him and fall to his knees at the same time for what he did today.

‘’I’m guilty for what happened to Rebecca and Amanda. I’m gonna make it right by saving you without hesitation.’’

‘’They’re dead, Wilhelm! What possible way could you retribute for that?’’

Wilhelm couldn’t repay his debt by saving his wife again. In a way, that would only make the pain worse. But he had to try. It was his hesitation that killed his daughters. He waisted three valuable seconds, which gave the infantry more leeway to pierce them. He was going to be the man he wasn’t when the soldiers arrived again.

And so, they did, with a ground-shaking thud at the door.

The soldiers burst inside as if they had found the hideout of a ruthless terrorist. Their swords looked sharper than they did yesterday. Wilhelm had put his wife in harm’s way, but this time, his daughters was going to see how their father would act.

A soldier pushed Wilhelm on top of his table, holding him by the throat. Two others lunched Lenora to the floor. It was strange they didn’t slow down. They were supposed to. His power wouldn’t work in life-threatening situations, only moments. The five seconds should start about now.

Lenora screamed as one of the soldiers pinned her with his foot. Then, he raised his sword. No movements slowed down, not even when the soldier held his sword at a piercing position.

Why are they not stopping?!

He ducked his head, which helped relinquish the grab on his neck. Before the soldier could strike him, Wilhelm threw a fist straight at his nose, and he fell. When his fist landed, he swore he heard a sound, like someone stabbing an apple.

Looking at the two other soldiers, Wilhelm nearly dropped to his knees, as if they had lost breaths of their own. Lenora glared at him, her eyelids pulled up. Her gorgeous, green eyes were open like she had awoken from a nightmare. But, she wasn’t awake. The spark in the green was gone.

It all happened so fast, too fast. Why didn’t his power enable itself?

The soldier he had bashed got up and seized him by the throat again. Wilhelm made out the words ‘’done for’’, ‘’no escape’’, or ‘’no mercy this time’’. His adversary dumped more threats to his face, but they were like meaningless needles in a haystack. If anything, Lenora’s dead green eyes spoke loudest to Wilhelm, slandering him for the monster he was.

When he let his girls die, he was like a monster that anyone in a fable could picture. But now, before his adversary struck him, he became worse than a monster, a wicked devil that even the Gods would condemn.