That Fated Day

“They’re almost here!”

A faint shout from the kitchen echoed through the cramped apartment, permeating the closed and locked bedroom door.

“I’ll be out in a sec, Caleb.”

Reese finished slicking back his long brown hair and stepped back to observe the final product, a 7-foot-tall mirror plastered to the back of the door reflecting his look for the evening. Rolling up the sleeves of his blue collared button-down, he flashed a wry smile as he noticed his earrings gleam on either side of his head.

Mom would have an aneurism if she saw these, he thought to himself as he fastened his leather belt around the waist of his Khaki dress pants. He chose to complete the look with his best, and only, pair of coffee-colored leather dress shoes.

A spritz of cologne. A check of the silver watch fastened around his right wrist. 4:56.

Opening the door to the bedroom, Reese sauntered out into the living room and approached the imposing figure standing in the kitchen. A face like his, but more stoic features, a serious disposition that often served as one of the only differentiating factors between the two of them. They were twin brothers, after all.

Caleb checked his own gold-plated watch on his left wrist and shook his head in disapproval, his own shorter brown hair flopping from side to side.

“I thought you were going to make us late – again. And take those earrings out, you look ridiculous.”

Caleb pointed towards the side of Reece’s head, gesturing with disapproval. He certainly had more presence than Reese did, bulkier in his black pleated shirt and gray dress pants.

“No way, man. I’m trying to look my best considering you-know-who is going to be there,” Reese retorted.

Caleb deeply sighed. “Another new girl you have your eye on? You really can be such a sleazebag.”

Upon his brother’s pointed response, Reese laughed heartily and slapped him on the shoulder.

“Lighten up man! We are turning twenty-one, it’s time for you to live a little!”

“I don’t need to play the games you do to have a good time. Now c’mon, the boys are pulling up out front right now.”

Caleb beckoned Reese toward the door, looking at the time illuminated on the stove clock. 4:59

“Hey man, I just wanted to be the first to say – Happy Birthday,” Reese said with a smile, extending his right arm to initiate a “bro hug.”

Caleb’s face lightened, flashing a smile of his own at his twin brother’s gesture of love and extended his arm to reciprocate.

“You too, bro. Let’s make the most of it.”Their hands met in the middle, as the clock fatefully turned to the time of their birth. 5:00 PM.

They were officially twenty-one years old.

A sudden bright light engulfed their clasped hands, extending beyond their union to engulf the brothers and their surroundings. A brilliant, piercing illumination, a light with no source that swallowed up everything they could see.

Both fell back, experiencing a writhing pain in the arms that had touched just moments ago. The space was filled with a deafening screeching sound, akin to an express train slamming on its brakes and never letting go. A sensation of falling, their bodies going numb, with nothing to cling to in this expanse of luminescence.

What the hell is going on???

True terror that had never been felt before suffocated them. An intense pressure crushed them down to a molecular level, tearing away at their existence. Screams of agony drowned by the deafening tone, sight stolen completely by an indescribable brightness, and –

Silence. No, not quite silence. The soft chirping of birds. The slight whistle of a cool breeze that could now be felt on their skin– wait, no more pain. The brothers sat up, nearly simultaneously, still dazed and disoriented, and began to digest their surroundings.

What had once been their cluttered city apartment mere seconds ago stretched into an expansive grassy field. Flowers of unknown variety, in full, colorful blossom of white and yellow and red, stretched toward the sky around them. A daunting forest of thick foliage lay beyond that, encircling the plain in which they had landed themselves. Beyond that, a boisterous horizon of imposing mountaintops stretched for what seemed like miles.

“How…is this possible?”

Caleb shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut before once again peering at the unfamiliar landscape, as if dispelling a hallucination. This was no fantasy – this was really happening.

“Reese, what is going –“

Caleb’s voice trailed off as he turned to meet his brother’s gaze, stunned by the bewildered look that stared back at him.

“Why do you look like that? Why is your hair black? What the hell happened to your arm??”

Still in a state of confusion, Caleb followed his brother’s gaze to his right arm and gasped in horror. What had once been a normal human arm was anything but that now. The skin all the way up to his right shoulder was engulfed in a dark, leathery texture with a silver circle on the palm of his hand. Silver trimming ran up the arm in a pattern of symmetry, so textured that it nearly looked fake.

Upon whipping his head back up to look at his twin brother, he realized for the first time that he barely recognized him – at least, the way he was appearing now. His hair still remained at its typical length, but the similarities stopped there. It was messier, curlier, and, most notably, whiter than snow. His right arm bore the same strange anomalies that his did, albeit with its own differences. The skin was unrealistically smooth and bleach-white, with gold trimming running up it in a symmetrical pattern. The sphere pattern on the palm reminded him of Iron Man, a fictional comic book character whom he’d seen in movies. A pattern just like the one on his own arm right now.

Panic began to swell in both of their minds – an unfamiliar land, in unfamiliar bodies, in unfamiliar condition. They began to flex and move their extremities, most importantly their strange new arms, and quickly realized that nothing seemed to be amiss.

Even being the carefree type and clearly the more laid back of the two, this phenomenon was enough to rattle anyone, including Reese. His anxiety was palpable as he spoke.

“Did we just get sent to another world..? Like an isekai?”

The brothers were both avid anime fans, having watched plenty of isekai anime in their own world. They were familiar with plenty of stories in which a strange occurrence led to ordinary people finding themselves in an extraordinary world. Circumstances that their current predicament emulated. The light, the changed appearances, the clearly inhuman arms –

But Reese was pointing to something different as he asked. Something far more troubling given their current and very vulnerable situation.

“Because I sure as hell have never seen one of those on Earth before!”

Following the direction of Reese’s point, Cal turned to the east to find a creature unlike anything he had ever seen. An odd being about ten feet in length and six feet in height, resembling a feline of some kind, with a twisted ivory horn on its head. Large fangs protruded from its snarling mouth, thick saliva plopping to the ground as the beast sized up its targets. Electricity crackled and flickered around its horn, clearly marking it as some kind of magic being.

“Run”

Panic turned to fear as Caleb’s survival instincts kicked in. A frigid wave of terror washed over him as he stood to run, his legs trembling. Reese remained seated, paralyzed with the realization that death was imminent. The beast charged, a thunderous growl eliminating from its jaws as it flew across the plain with speed unlike anything either brother had ever seen. The beast had already realized it would not need magic to deal with this prey.

Caleb’s body moved before he could even think, a shield of flesh between his brother and the rampaging monster. Flying through the air, the beast swiped its knife-like claws haphazardly as Caleb shifted sideways, striking his left arm and shoulder as he shielded. Blood erupted from the cavernous wounds the slash created, and Caleb cried out with agony. His vision shaky, his muscles twitching, his left arm feeling numb. True dread set in as he believed his next thought with every fiber of his body.

We are really going to die in this place.

The beast, which had tumbled away after its initial lunge, was back on its feet and rearing up for another charge. Brought to an unfamiliar world against their will, being attacked by a creature neither had ever seen before. This fate was incredibly cruel, Caleb thought, as he readied himself to fight with his life on the line. The monster attacked once more, a mere blur that he could not trace, a one-sided fight that would surely be over with this assault.

A flash of light from the corner of his eye disrupted his train of thought. It came from Reese, who was now crouched on one knee, pointing the palm of his strange hand toward the direction of the beast.

Several glowing gold chains extended from the palm and coiled around the blur, stopping the monster dead in its tracks. Incapacitated with the chains around its hind legs and midsection, the beast let out a wicked roar as the horn on its head flashed a blueish hue. It was going to hurl its first magic attack.

“CAL, YOUR ARM! USE IT NOW!”

Reese shrieked, struggling against the incredible force of the beast trying to break free. How did he know how to use these chains? Where did they come from? Questions swirled, and the world in front of him was spinning. Blood poured from his massive wounds as he felt the numbness spread across his body.

There was nothing else to do. There was nowhere else to go.

Raising his arm like his brother had moments before, Caleb pointed his palm toward his dangerous target. A strange tingling ran down his blackened right arm, the sliver trimming glowing as if it were powering up. A strange instinct was nagging him, guiding him toward his next action. He flexed his arm hard, palm pointed forward, and a tremendous force exploded from the palm of his hand.

Another flex, another explosion. And another. And another.

Out of breath and nearing unconsciousness, Caleb stumbled toward the cloud of dust kicked up where the beast once lay. His vision was fading in and out, and the arm which he utilized moments ago was in searing pain. Slowly, carefully, cautiously, he crept forward. The dust cleared, and both brothers let out a shocked gasp as they saw the destruction before them. The beast, or whatever little remained of it, lay at the bottom of a fifteen-foot-deep crater. Black blood was scattered about the previously undisturbed grass and flowers, a disgusting contrast of life and death.

Reese spilled the contents of his guts onto the plain. Caleb lost his grip on consciousness and passed out just in front of the crater he had been responsible for creating.

“Cal! Somebody help, please, my brother!”

Reese began to cry out helplessly as he struggled toward Caleb’s still body, as the peaceful serenity of the area turned to eerie silence.

As he reached his brother’s body and began to try and staunch his bleeding, a slow clap began to reverberate from directly in front of them. Startled, Reese looked up to see a man approaching from the tree line, stepping around the massive crater.

“Well I’ll be damned” the man declared in an enthusiastic tone, clapping as he walked.

“Looks like the prophecy is true after all.”