My All Powerful System

It was raining like the sky had something personal against the city.

Heavy storms. Lightning splitting the clouds like scars. Wind howling down the streets, throwing trash and broken signs like knives.

Store shutters slammed shut one after another, cars were parked crooked, half-abandoned.

The few people left were running...not walking, running, either to their homes or to anywhere with a roof that wouldn’t collapse.

No one dared to walk in this kind of weather.

Except him.

Jack. 25. Orphan. Virgin. Failure. Take your pick.

He lived alone, behind a block of stores, in a pitiful apartment that smelled like mold and instant noodles.

His life had one routine: work 22 hours a day, 132 hours a week, come home, watch porn, jerk off, sleep. Repeat until his body gave up.

A girlfriend? Please.. With that average face, bad posture, hunched back, messy black hair, black eyes that looked dead even when awake? and broke. Not ”I’m saving money” broke. Nah he was pitifully broke.

No brothers or sisters, parents, friends and family who’d call him on his birthday. Just him Jack Alone. In a city that didn’t care if he disappeared.

Now he was running home through the storm, soaked to the bone, cursing every step.

”I need to get home super fast, my home’s wreck by now, the roof’s leaking, I didn’t even close the windows properly,” he spat, water dripping from his lips.

”Fuck you, scoundrel of a boss. You fired me because I left the stupid job you gave me to secure my home, to make sure my home won’t be destroyed by this cursed weather and you fired me. You won’t die well, bastard.”

He’d asked for leave. His Boss now ex boss rejected it, told him to work. Jack left anyway because the storm was tearing his only home apart, and the boss.. that rat had been waiting for an excuse to fire him.

Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful.

Jack kept running, kept cursing his boss, kept cursing his existence. He decided to cross to the other side of the road for a shortcut.

Worst Idea of his life, the tiles were muddy, slick with rain and oil.

He slipped and fell really hard.

”Ouch, that really hurts,” he groaned, wiping mud and rain from his eyes. His hands were shaking, his knee was bleeding.

Apparently, it wasn’t his day.

He stood up, limping, head down. Didn’t see the truck. Didn’t hear it over the storm. Just the horn. Loud. Panicked.

”Hey! Wait! You’re not supposed to pass this road!”

Jack froze. The his foot was stuck, caught between two broken tiles. He yanked, pulled, cursed, nothing.

The truck lights blinded him through the rain. The driver couldn’t see him. No one could see him. Not in this weather.

BAM.

Metal crushed bone. The truck didn’t even stop. It just sped off, realizing too late that it hit something.. not someone, something.

Jack’s last thought wasn’t heroic or sad. It was just... tired.

’I failed. Everything about me is trash. This is how I died. A failure. Under the storm and rain. And the worst part? I died a broke-ass virgin. I need another fucking chance.’

He tried to smile. Or maybe his face just twisted. Didn’t matter anyway. His body was scattered on the asphalt, parts of him mixing with the muddy rainwater.

Then his eyes closed.

Darkness.