The connection of fate

That's right. Sarah was right, when she asked if Riley was a psychic or not. But being called a psychic would be a stretch here, as they would be judging people's behavior, the pattern of their body language, and the psychology influencing their acts. It's all about long-term observation, study, and talent. But hers, was nothing of a talent she gained by hard work, or studying tons of thick books sitting in a corner of the library. She was instead, the type to spend her break times and self study hours in checking out other classes for her friends, hanging out in the cafeteria, indulging in all kinds of talks circulating around the place. Be it school, her college, or her neighborhood. Then how she claim herself to be agreeing with Sarah? Because of an odd ability she has had since birth. She glanced over the café, where people were already done ogling at her, and went back to their own works or chats. To anyone else present here, it was just a bunch of people having a leisure hangout with others, some with their partners having an easy-going date, and some hanging out in groups. But for Riley, the view was quite different. She could see the people, and a great number of threads intertwined with each other, or crisscrossing all over the place, making it look like a huge cobweb. Some just simply dangled in the air smoothly, connected to somewhere else, some forming unique kinds of knots in between, and some were just hanging in the air with its free end not being connected to any of the others.That sounded quite absurd, right? She thought that too, when she first discovered that. She had been seeing it for as far as she could remember from her childhood, increasing more with each passing year. In the beginning, she thought she was having an illusion of some sort, as those threads disappeared as soon as she was being conscious about it, when she was a kid. But the more the duration of it increased, the more she was convinced about it being a reality. And after reaching out to people and talking about it, she learned that it was exclusive to her, along with the recognition to be a person loose screwed on the head. The thread she could see, was the fate that connected two people in the world. Mostly by romantic relationships, at least the type she sees. It was hard to learn about them, and she spent the most amount of time studying about them, in any way possible. There weren't many studies or books about them, and neither did anyone know any type of mythology surrounding it. The knowledge she has for it right now, was purely based on what she experienced over the years, in exchange for getting herself humiliated, and blamed for some really pathetic accusations. Along with that, another bizarre experience she had for the first time, when she was a mere middle schooler."I can see you following me, mister." 14-year-old Riley turned around all at once, staring hard at the woman silently following her for quite a while. Saying it quite a while would be an understatement, as she realized this woman's presence for the past week already."So you really can see me." The woman spoke up in a low voice, but the surprise at the end of her words was somehow clear to little Riley."What do you mean, I can see you?" Pushing the glasses up close to her eyes, Riley asked that woman. Judging by the appearance that woman held, she very well looked like a homeless person. Probably without some screws too."I mean, dead people can't be seen, unless you are a special child."Special child. The word that woman had said back then, stayed with her till now, like a curse. That day, Riley had run away screaming. She tried to talk about it, to her orphanage head, to her class teacher, to her classmates. But no one could see anything but empty space to where Riley desperately tried to point. No one could see the slightly blurry figure, in a miserable state, but with a smirk on her face that chilled Riley to her bones. It took a while for her to calm down, but it was when she realized, she was doomed to have something no one else did. Doomed to be blessed by something she felt was a curse, and still carrying it. Every person in the world is connected to someone, destined to someone. Their destiny is sealed by the red thread of fate. The first thread she saw was the one wrapped around her mother's ring finger, when she was barely able to make sense of it. And the thread was connected to the man who would always take her to school, her father, until she just graduated from her elementary school, forming a really beautiful knot, crisscrossing into a flower-like pattern. Whenever their parents were far away from each other, the thread would be blurred out to the point of not being noticeable at all. And whenever they were close, the thread glowed in such a beautiful light, that view stayed with her even till now. Even if she didn't get to understand much about the love her parents shared, she knows it now. Even if before she would get to ask anything about love from them, they left her all alone in this world, she can understand it now, and relate to it now. Even though she wished she didn't understand people's relationships the way she did. After all, having knowledge about people like this, and telling them how they are not connected by fate or even by love, not only hurts them to hear about it, but also hurts herself. Like how Sarah snapped out at her. If only she could ever make her understand, how she saw a thread around Sarah's ring finger, totally left all alone with its free end hanging helplessly, while the man Sarah loves and possibly might thinking about marrying, had more than one thread tied strongly to somewhere else clearly. It was like that, like how people can be simple with their emotions, and their relationships, and how people can also be twisted and complex with their life. People could create their own fate, they could change it, or go along with it. Like how she has known people being knotted to someone they were always fated to, and also people who changed their fate and tied their knots to someone else, while the previous connection faded and disappeared like they never existed. All of this was confusing to her, being fated to someone, and being able to change it. Some people ardently connect themselves with multiple people, mostly cheating on the one they promised to be devoted to, or maybe willingly from both parties. It all was complex to her, as complex as human relations and emotions were. But she had no clue, or no rescue from it, no one to help her out with a possible solution or even knowledge to go by. She sighed hard, thinking about it. Guess she would at least eat something, since she was already in the café. She walked up to the order table, and ordered herself some drink, before going into the restroom to wipe herself up a bit more.