end.

end.

It was a rainy day. Not so much a rainy day in terms of weather, although it had been sprinkling on and off for the past few hours. More of a rainy day in terms of emotion. The kind everybody has, but almost nobody seems to like to admit to. The kind you say you’d rather have skipped over the day entirely. The kind of day that is most hated, despite teaching some of the most important lessons you could ever learn.

I approached the shadowy figure where he told me he would be waiting. He was holding an umbrella, typical of him. I prefer to let the rain fall down my face. Blends in with the tears that way. He’d been giving me tasks day after day, and I’d been told that today was his greatest challenge.

The thing you need to understand about me is that I could do anything. They say anyone can do anything if they put their mind to it. While that’s a good rule to live by, it stops for everyone at some point. But not me. I was capable of anything. Well, maybe not anything. Certainly not everything. But if I put my mind to a goal, you could be certain it would be accomplished.

I could’ve cured cancer if I wanted to. But that wasn’t my place. Doctors had spent their lives working towards that goal. They deserved the credit. Not some twenty-something figure clothed with nothing but a hoodie, baggy sweatpants, and worn-down sneakers that’d been getting themselves in and out of trouble for the past five years.

At that point, the figure started talking to me, in his signature tone-- a tone that seemed perfectly and precisely engineered to annoy me. His words were this. “I’ve got your next challenge. And it has something special. A time limit. Of one day. Think you can handle that?”

Naturally, I responded with “Yeah.” But then came the next few words out of his constantly smirking mouth. “Here’s your mission. I want you to end the world. Are you capable of doing that?”

“Yeah.”

Of course I was capable. Someone like me could end the world in a day. But the problem was the decision. I considered myself a selfish person. And I wanted to prove to him that I could. But at the cost of the whole world? I knew that no sane human being would do that. He knew it too. But we both knew I wasn’t sane.

I set off to my home to get prepared. I’d long been preparing for the day that my task would be something like this. Studying, training, practicing… Really, I had this in mind as my ultimate goal. But it was here, and I started to doubt myself.

I loaded my revolver with a single bullet. It was an old revolver, and one I had been saving for this occasion. It was by no means a famous antique, and certainly hadn’t been in the hands of a famous cowboy or mobster. But that’s what made it special. It held stories that only it knew. And it was about to hold mine as well.

I set off for some country. Not large, but not small. Weapons capable of causing the sort of worldwide chaos I was looking for were abound in this country. But, really, they are in most countries nowadays. This just happened to be the one that caught my eye.

I infiltrated a maximum security facility, the details of which are much more boring than one might think. Boring to me, at least. I’m sure there was a time when I was thrilled and scared to pull something like this. But those feelings had long since waxed cold.

Walking down the hallway, I saw that country’s ruler, and could’ve quite easily shot them down with the revolver on my left hip. But I didn’t. That would have been too easy. Instead, I continued into the most secure room of them all, the one where the simple press of a button could cause chaos.

The men at those stations did their best, but they gave up as soon as they saw me. They must’ve saw my eyes. People say there’s a fire in them. One they know they can’t beat. That day, not just the soldiers in that facility, but the whole world sighed in defeat.

My hand froze, inches away from the button that would end the world. A button that was made never to be used, but to be looked upon for the potential of what it could do. That button had the power to cause chaos, or to cause peace. I saw myself in that button, and realised something.

What would this prove? I already knew I could end the world. I was inches away from it. And that cowardly figure in the shadows, he knew it as well. I’d never prove my point to him this way. But I knew how I could.

At that moment, I packed up, and went home. I unloaded the bullet from my revolver, and put it back into its case. It didn’t deserve my story. Everyone knew my story. And it wasn’t the story of a hero. As midnight approached, the rain continued to fall, and I headed back towards the spot where I met with the man in the shadows.

I walked up to him, knowing full well how I could prove my point to him, and I knew equally 9what the consequences of my actions would be. It meant nothing to prove to him that I could end the world. I was about to prove to him something much greater, much more about humans in general.

“Can you end the world? Time is running out.” Those were his words as I approached him, and my words echoed back. “Anyone can end the world. Anyone can end your world.” Next thing I knew, he was lying on the ground, and I spotted a small figure behind him. It was a child, with eyes full of life, contrasting the lifeless body in front of me. I walked up to that child, and prepared to say the words I knew all too well could be my last.

“Kid, you’ve got the power to end the world. Use it the best that you can. For all of us.”