CONTROL

It was just another night at home with Maya and her family watching TV. Suddenly, an advertisement caught their attention, "The new dish made of steak has become the world's most popular and most loved dish, and it is free for those who are trying it for the first time." Hearing that, they decided to try it. Since Maya was allergic to steak, she decided to stay home and order something else. A while later her family left.

Her mother had a cover in her hand when they returned. “What is in it,” she asked. After she asked about it and they didn't respond, she checked it herself. The cover was filled with the steak dish. She asked them about it. However, no matter how hard she tried, they did not reply. Her family's sudden change in behavior confused her. The next morning as she sat at the table, all she was able to see was the steak dish, so she went into the kitchen to get something for herself. Someone suddenly grabbed her hand. The sudden touch made her flinch. She looked back, and it was her mother. She was holding a plate with a steak dish on it. It shocked her when her mother forced her to eat it, so she ran away.

 Silence surrounded the city; the only sound she heard was people eating steaks. She decided not to return home until she solved the problem. She was worried. She had no idea what was going on around her. Everyone was acting strange. They were acting as if they only needed a steak to leave. Knowing the reason behind all this was the steak dish, without wasting time she quickly went to the main center, and luckily, it was nearby. The chef was what upset her the most. Her celebrity crush and the favorite chef was him. But she didn't think twice. In order to bring everyone back to normal life, she decided to go there and end-all of this. As a child, her parents always taught her that through truth you will always win over falseness, and no matter who is facing you, be it your parents or someone you deeply love, you will always stand up for truth.

She finally arrived there after some time. It's clear to her that they need someone who won't eat steak no matter what. The reason for this is that once you eat it, you can't stop eating it whenever you see it. Hearing about her allergy, they accepted her. Then for the first time, she met Eric (the chef). She felt butterflies in her stomach. However, she knew that those butterflies were useless since she was here to end his business. Then she started working there.

 After three days, she heard Eric was going out for work. She decided to follow him instead of staying in the hotel because having been his fan for several years, she knew that his family lives abroad so he's sure to get something or meet someone. After taking a leave from work, she followed him. The way he was going was familiar to her. When he stopped in front of her house, she was shocked. Her family opened the door when he knocked. Since she was standing a bit far, she could not hear them. All of them turned towards her hiding place and began to walk towards her. It was Eric's trap, she understood. Followed by her family, she ran as quickly as possible. She ran towards the familiar forest. She ran there because she was the only one who knew the forest well. But Eric blocked her way. He began to walk towards her. Because her family will catch her, she cannot walk back. She stood there clueless as to what to do. That's when she noticed Eric's hat. She knew Eric was not a fan of wearing a hat. But he's wearing it now. Because of this, she thought the secret must be in his hat. As soon as he got close to her, she punched him in the face and grabbed the hat, and ran away.

 She entered the hotel by running but froze when she saw Eric. "Oh, you look tired, why were you running? You were on leave today, right?" he asked. Nodding, she ran away. For the next two days, she didn't do anything. Even when they were alone, he did not attack her.

 Her first action on the third day was to check the hat. A paper was all she got. Because she was confused, she decided to check Eric's library. At night when she was checking Eric’s library. Suddenly, she felt a presence behind her and turned around. Once again, it was Eric. He walked towards her and attempted to hit her with a book. Her first reaction was to punch him in the face, and then grab the book from his hand because she knew that the book was not from the library, so she figured she could get any clue from it. When she reached her room she tried to match the piece with the pages of the book."She screamed in joy. She had learned about the secret ingredient called -1 and how it can be ended by another secret ingredient called +1 and how she could obtain it. The book talks about getting +1 in the jungle. She was reading the book. Suddenly she heard a knock on the door. She opened it expecting to see some workers, but that she was wrong. It was Eric. Again, he behaved like nothing had happened."Is everything alright? I heard you screaming. You can call me if you need anything," Eric asked worriedly. "I-I am alright" she replied. He smiled at her and returned to his room. She decided to leave after two days.

 The next day while they were working, he whispered in her ear, "Your punch is great, and meets me right after work." She was confused. She met him after work. She approached him with a scary face. He talked like he usually did, "I saw you practicing punching against the wall and it looked really good - can you teach me too" he asked with a shy face. As she was shocked by his question, she nodded and ran away. "He is a real psycho", she thought to herself. He smiled softly.

 After two days she decided to take a leave in order to find+1. She talked to Eric about it, and he gave her leave. Then she took her things and went to the forest. She followed the book's instructions. When she heard a rabbit's voice, she stopped walking and turned in the direction it was coming from. The animal was trying to escape from a terrible trap. She helped it escape the trap. Suddenly, the creature transformed into a human, but she couldn't see his face because he was covered, but the figure was familiar to her. Her kindness was rewarded with +1. Then he vanished. She didn't think about the suspicious guy. She instead ran to the hotel, but then bumped into someone and fell. Unfortunately, that man had a bottle in his hand as well. The two of them were in a hurry so they took the bottle and ran to their destination.

 When she reached there, she heard a sound coming from the basement. Her eyes were shocked when she entered the basement to find out what the noise was. There was not just one Eric, instead, there were two. In exchange for their honesty, she promised to rescue them. When they began arguing, she became annoyed. She screamed at them, telling them to stop arguing. Finally, they decided to tell her everything.

Eric started “Maya as you know I am one of the youngest and biggest chefs in the world. We have been chefs for generations. Everyone thinks I'm my parents' only child. It's not true I have a twin brother named Leric. We kept him as a secret because he was responsible for protecting the magic ingredient”.

“A magic ingredient,” she asked curiously. Eric continued, “Yes, it was regarded as the secret recipe of our ancestors to give their food greater flavor. There is only one remaining bottle of the magic ingredient, but nobody has used it for ages because no one has ever found its secret ingredient. So we are protecting it for a long time. It can’t be used in steak. Nobody knows what will happen to it if someone finds a way to use it in steak. For a long time, no one doesn’t know about it, but now someone has figured it out and is trying to use it for a bad use”. He apologized saying “Maya, I'm so sorry you had to go through all this because of my brother. My brother likes to do everything in a violent manner. He tried to convince me to do this, but I was against him. So I trapped him inside a rabbit with a trap in the forest, and he locked me inside the hotel.”

 If his twin was trapped, then who did she see, she was confused again. She asked them the questions.  Leric replied “Whenever my brother does magic, he always made mistakes. Like that he did it again. I was trapped inside the rabbit, but the mistake he made was that my soul was free to travel and Eric couldn't see my soul, speak to my soul, or hear my soul, but others could, so I did my job well. Knowing that you are the only one who knows the forest well, I chose you. That advertisement appeared on the TV because I made it. I knew you were allergic to steak and I knew you were very brave and you would do anything for the ones you love. Then, as I thought, you went to the hotel for work as I instructed my workers to let you in. Knowing that you are well informed about Eric, I told my workers to give you the wrong information that Eric is going out to work. You decided to follow him but you actually followed me. In order to give you the piece of the page, I blocked your path wearing a hat while your family ran after you. As I thought you punched me and took the hat. You did a great punch, however. That punch would have brooked my face if you hadn't punched my soul. When you looked into his hat, I thought you would check his shelf, but instead, you checked his library. I realized then that you are an idiot”. Hearing this she got angry and slapped him, causing his lips to bleed. “That was a good one, I deserve that” he continued, “so I appeared in front of you, again and again, you punched me, then took the book and left. As I thought, you decided to go into the forest. I don't know why you waited for two more days. However, you followed the direction I wrote. I knew you would rescue me, and you did. I gave you the +1 and left”.

 Just before she was going to speak, Eric cut her off to say that the story is not yet finished. Taking a seat on the chair, she waited for him to continue. Eric continued, "My brother thought that everything was under his control. It wasn't in his control, he was wrong. It was Rag who was controlling everything he was really intelligent. He was the one who brought my brother to see you and let him know that you are the only one who knows the forest well. He was the one who made us argue. And it was he who made Leric do the things he did to you. He did so because he had discovered how to add that magic ingredient in stake and make people under his control. Leric was the only one who knew how to make people eat only one dish. To make Leric a fool like he made me was impossible, and so he made me trap him. That was the only way to defeat Leric. When we break each other's spells, we are unable to use our magic for four days. I immediately went to the entrance of the forest from the city when he informed me that you are in trouble and that's when Leric emerged from the forest to the entrance. Rag then trapped us together. He will now use that spell on stake to make people his puppets”.

As Maya heard this, she smirked and burst into laughter. Eric and Leric were both confused about her behavior and asked her why. She replied that she knew it from the beginning. She said that their main enemy Rag was her friend. Her replay shocked them. She continued “Rag is my classmate, and you are right he is intelligent. No one in school was able to get out of his trap. Only I was able to defeat him. This slowly caused him to hate me. So he put me in his trap indirectly. Only my closest friends knew I used to go into the forest. He used to talk about finding a magic ingredient when we were friends. As soon as I became against him, he began making trouble for me. In order to defeat me, he had to turn my loved ones against me. The advertisement came in the middle of a news report. I checked the stakes when my parents returned, and I realized something had been added. The reason I stayed that night was to check on my family's reaction. As soon as I arrived, the workers acted weird towards me and Eric. I punched your face and ran away, but came to Eric, who was unharmed. So, to figure out what's going on, I spent some time alone with Eric. I realized that the writing on the paper was not printed when I checked the hat. To learn more about his family, I went to his library. I punched you in the face again and realized that you are his twin brother's soul. Taking the book from you, when I matched the page, I knew that it is written by you, and I kept it for two more days to fake my fear. I knew it was you as soon as I heard your voice, so I rescued you and got +1. To make my family and others free, I played along. So don't think I'm a fool. They are going to be free in two minutes!".

 “Your family will be under his control, instead of being free” Leric said angrily. With a smirk, she said, “I like to make Rag's plans backfire”. Again, Eric and Leric were confused. As Maya saw their faces, she laughed and said, “Are you guys really thinking I am a fool? By doing all this I will let him win? I knew he would come to the forest to see whether his plan was working. So when he came, I ran towards him in order to make it seem like I am racing to rescue everyone. I did this so that the bottles in both of our hands fell to the floor. Because we only had stickers to identify them, I exchanged our stickers. Then he picked up the bottle that had sticker 0, which was actually the +1. Within two minutes he will add it to the stake and give it to all, and everyone will be back to normal. He will be arrested then, as you know”. Eric and Leric were shocked because they believed that she was being controlled. But in reality, she was the one controlling everyone. After two minutes, Rag did as Maya thought, and after two hours all was back to normal. Police came to arrest Rag. Rag was confused until Maya explained everything to him. She once again defeated him. When everything had cooled down, Maya told the twins what they had been searching for years. Maya said “You guys are really fools! You were looking for the secret ingredient in books when you had had it since birth. So as not to confuse you again, let me explain it. -1+1=0. Thus, Leric’s -1 can be made from his negative energy, and Eric's +1 from his positive energy, and the 0 is the magic ingredient, and so both of you have that from the moment you were born. Now that you've got it, I need to go, or my parents will be worried. Okay, bye”.

 Eric made Maya feel Maya felt butterflies in her stomach once again as he said, "Meet me tomorrow here. I'd like to have dinner with you. Please don't forget to teach me your special punch”. Maya knew that the butterflies were not useless this time.