Woe is Me... (Midas)

“I don’t remember you being so indulgent.”

My, uh…caretaker was commenting on my currently debauched lifestyle, as I lazily sat on the couch, eating potato chips and binging this one romcom I wanted to finish before I died.

“Leave me alone, Siel. Even guys like me can enjoy girly love stories.”

Yes, this caretaker’s name was Siel Malric.

Ever since I—or the Devil within me—located him five years ago, he allowed me to stay in his place and live under his care. He was Romka’s coworker from before she joined the cult. Once I told him about my story, he shed a few tears and graciously offered to let me stay here. He had no idea about my clairvoyance, though, nor did he know about my upcoming death. All he knew was that I had grown up in a cult and was saved by Romka.

“No matter how you look at it, you’re living the life of a depressed middle-aged man. You should really pull yourself together, boy,” he said, shaking his head.

I chuckled. “You’re acting like my mom or something. I’m practically an adult now. I can do what I want.”

Siel walked over and sat down on the couch next to me, taking a bag of potato chips from the pile on the table in front of us and opening it.

“Man,” he said as he took a handful of chips and ate them, “I miss when you were just a little kid. You were all innocent, walking up and asking to stay with me.”

“...Well, disregarding all the spooky cult stuff, at least,” he added.

“Time flies,” I responded. “I’m way past puberty now, so I’m no longer a cute little boy. Next thing you know, I’ll be dead.”

He laughed. “Haha! That would be lovely!”

I looked over at him. There was no way I’d actually die before this old man…right?

Ah, what an unfortunate life.

I grabbed the remote and selected the next episode of the romcom, making sure to do it as quickly as possible. I didn’t know how much time I had left, exactly, but it was definitely very little.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

As soon as I selected the episode, the doorbell had begun to ring.

“Can you get it?” Siel asked.

“I’m a little preoccupied…”

“Children should serve their parents, you know. You’re committing a major sin by not listening to me.”

“Do you really think of yourself as my parent? You’re more like…my chauffeur.”

“Your chauffeur?!”

“Yes, now please go and answer the door for me.”

He looked at me in frustration for a few seconds, then scowled, reluctantly getting up and heading for the door. “This brat…” he muttered under his breath.

It was always pretty easy to manipulate him. He did probably know that he was being exploited, but a stubborn child like me had a lot of perks. This was one of them.

“Midas! Some people claiming to be your friends are here!”

I jolted up in shock. It couldn’t have been…

This future telling ability of mine had been rendered useless ever since I saw my own death a day or two ago. Normally, I would see a bunch of upcoming events in the next few days and draw conclusions based on that, but all I could see now was my own bloody ending. I probably would’ve been able to predict this catastrophe otherwise.

I got up and walked over to the door. I saw three familiar people waiting there along with Siel. They were Adella, Soren, and Kat. Each of them, for some reason, was carrying a backpack.

“...Why are you people here?” I asked.

Siel laughed. “That’s how you talk to your friends?”

“He’s always like this,” said Adella.

“He is sometimes impolite. I don’t think he was raised well,” said Soren.

He and Siel made eye contact for a long moment.

“Sorry, Sir,” Soren said.

Siel smiled. “No, no, it’s fine! I’ll admit, I didn’t raise him well. He turned out horribly. But still, it seems like he’s doing something right, seeing as how he has two beautiful young women and one, erm…dude as friends.”

Kat chuckled. “One, erm…dude. He’s talking about you, Soren.”

Soren scrunched his nose. “I know that.”

“Well,” Siel said, beginning to walk away, “I’ll leave you four alone now. Midas never has friends over, so I’m probably just embarrassing the little guy by hanging around here. If you need anything, just let me know.”

As soon as he left, all three of my friends looked at me. It was quite awkward.

“...Does cilantro taste like—”

“You’ve asked that before,” Adella remarked.

“Did I?” I questioned, smiling and rubbing my neck.

“You and Siel are really similar,” Soren said.

I smiled. “Please never say that again.”

It might’ve been out of character, but comparing me to the likes of him was something I just wouldn’t stand for.

“To be honest,” Soren said, “for someone who’s going to die soon, you seem quite calm.”

I immediately looked over at Adella.

“So you told them, did you? You really do have a big mouth.”

She smiled. “Sorry, I just thought it was the best thing to do. Maybe the four of us together can come up with something to help you.”

…To help me?

I glanced at all of them with tired eyes. I was over it, really. That’s the mindset I settled on after deliberating over it for hours on end. My conversation with Adella the other day was nice, and it did inspire some type of hope within me, but that was all it did. Sure, I wanted to live, but how would that happen? I’d thought it over and come up with no answers.

So the best thing to do was simply laze around and watch my favorite romcom.

The Midas from that old, abandoned village wanted to see the outside world and, more importantly, wanted to do it with Romka.

Well, Romka was gone, and I had already explored the outside world to my heart’s content. It had gotten quite boring. Perhaps it’d become attractive again as I got closer to my end, but I, a vessel of the Devil, would probably also be absurdly making prayers to God asking for one more day in this life as blood drained from my body. It was only human nature to fear death. That was no reason for me to believe in a miracle.

So what purpose was there in having hope, despite my imminent demise?

…

Oh.

I suppose it was Adella…and perhaps even the other three here in this house.

I knew that already. It was a cycle—I’d realize, then remind myself that there was no solution, then lose all hope once again.

Woe is me, truly. Woe is me.

I eyed the three in front of me, my curiosity leading me to ask a question.

“Why are you all wearing backpacks?”

Adella grinned. “Oh, I forgot to mention. We’ll be sleeping over. Siel already agreed to it just now.”

I gritted my teeth. I knew something like this would happen. It was why I didn’t want my little secret getting out in the first place. They’d probably watch my every waking moment to make sure I didn’t end up dying on them.

Fate was much stronger than a couple of highschoolers. I wished they knew that, but…oh well. The last days of my life would be quite interesting.