Monstober 2025

Accident prone.

That's what your mom always said you were. Your father always described you as 'clumsy' and 'having been born with two left feet'!! You didn't know how to feel about the situation at hand at all. He's dreamt about having a son who'd one day grow up into something spectacular like the next famous football star or the smartest doctor who made earth breaking breakthroughs in medicine or a famous actor who's fame and fortune would be known worldwide! Instead he was given a daughter who seemed to attract nothing but bad luck. Hell! When you were brought home from the hospital your parents nearly collided with a drunk driver! Your father was unhappy with it from the beginning, but your mother always remained optimistic.

"She'll grow up to do great things! You'll see! Just give her a chance."

Well you can't say he tried. So you were thrown into a world of female lead roles and positions your father would've been proud to have a daughter in. Beauty pageants and ballet were his two biggest tries. Except for the fact a young girl that needed giant braces and extremely awkward didn't exactly appeal to judges who didn't give you much of anything except a bored glance. And being born with the ability of always tripping over air didn't exactly make for the best dancer either which eventually meant your father's dreams of a famous beauty queen ballet dancer daughter was crushed. That's ok. He still had hopes. How about gymnastics?! You could be an Olympic medal winner! That'd be great ..if you didn't keep falling from the ropes and bars and broke you arm..Twice.

Perhaps the world of woman's sports would be kinder? You seem to always end up falling down anyways so maybe you could fall while actually competing in something successful!! Women's basketball? Nope. The team voted you off after the seventh time you accidentally shot the ball into your own team's basket. Soccer? Not with how much you tripped and slowed everyone down. Swimming? You couldn't even manage to float. Maybe tennis? Track? Figure skating? Golf? Safe to say none of your fellow students or coaches were too happy seeing the girl who'd always mess up or fall down come to try outs and you weren't welcomed after accidentally hitting a golf ball into your principles car window. Your father felt a similar way when he had to fork over the money to pay for the damages you caused and then punished you after by banning your electronic usage for an entire year.

He still didn't give up yet! There must've been something you could do?! Maybe you could become a famous chef! Women were supposed to be amazing at cooking! You had to change your class schedule after you accidentally lit up an entire table during culinary class and no one trusted the school's clumsy girl around knives. Well that's fine. You might do better in something else that didn't require kitchen knives or physical movement or high beauty standards. You could have brains! After all even some of the most brilliant minds in history had awkward quirks! The monster danger you'd get from books is a paper cut anyways!

If only your grades could just come above being a few Cs and a D in math. You tried studying your hardest and had many tutors come in to teach you. Even your mom helped you with your studies. You were so happy when a few of your Cs turned into Bs...but they weren't As. And no matter how hard you tried math and numbers never made any sense. Your father completely gave up after he tried getting you into painting, even hiring a really talented art student from your school to help you with learning..but everything always came out funky and warbled. It was at that point he completely gave up on you after you tripped over the stand your painting was sat on and fell face first into wet paint soaking into your clothes.

"My boss's son is about to inherit his entire trading company. My coworkers daughter nearly went to the semifinals for her team. Even your younger cousin managed to win a medal at the county fair! So why can't you do something besides cost me a fortune in repairs and misery?!"

You tried. You really did. In everything. So when you came home from school one day only to find a packed backpack being shoved into your arms on your eighteenth birthday and your father angrily pointing at the door giving you only one demand.

"Get out! I don't have any children! You brought me nothing but misery!"

You found yourself alone sitting at a bus station with nothing but the clothes on your back and whatever your father brothered to throw in the backpack before he literally shoved you out the door. ...You were officially homeless and now you didn't have a clue of what to do. Should you ask around for a homeless shelter? Call a family member or friend and ask to crash there until you graduated? That'd be the ideal thing to do but your father didn't let you take your phone or any electronics because technically he paid for them and therefore you couldn't take it with you. You didn't even have any money for a payphone.

So the only thing you could think of doing was to sit at the nearest bus stop with a roof so you had somewhat of a shelter and rummage through your backpack for something useful....Nothing but clothes, your toothbrush, and some carelessly thrown in hygiene products. Nothing that was really useful. So you just sat there and looked at the road with blank eyes as the cars went passing by occasionally. What were you going to do? You hadn't even heard the footsteps or lack there of until you heard a voice.

"Excuse me. Is this seat taken?"

You jolted from the sudden voice. Whirling around to look up and was stunned by what you saw. It was a man...A very.. BEAUTIFUL man. Vibrant purple eyes looked down at you from where he stood there. Black shoulder length silky locks sway from his head as he tilted at your expression, and a gentle smile gifted to you. But the strangest thing was that he was dressed in a traditional yukata. You knew some people still preferred to wear the traditional clothing these days but no one you knew actually did so. He continued to stand there awaiting something. ...Wait. Didn't he ask you something?

"O-Oh. N-No. No one's sitting there."

"Excellent. Do you mind if I?", he asked gesturing at the bench.

"Go ahead I guess."

"Thank you."

You rose a brow weary as he just calmly sat down a decent distance away from you and stared straight ahead. This was..weird. The fact a strange man was there alone with you put you on edge but he didn't do anything besides sit there...He was probably waiting for the night bus like a normal person. So you ignored the man keeping an eye on him out of the corner of your eyes in case. Until he decided to speak again.

"The night is lovely isn't it?", he asked looking at the stars. "The stars are clear and the moon is full."

"...Yeah. I guess it is."

"On nights like this it seems anything could happen. Miracles. Dreams coming true. Truly remarkable."

"Maybe for normal people." He looked back at you as you looked back down to your feet. "I've never had anything good happen to me."

"Oh? Now why do you say that? Everyone has at least one good thing happen to them in their lifetime."

"Then you clearly never seen someone like me. No matter what I do I can't get anything right."

"Well not everyone can do every skill. Other times it takes years of practice to get something down." He smiled wider. "You're young. I'm going to take a wild guess and say you are eighteen?"

..You looked at him. How did he- "I-..Yeah. I just turned eighteen today actually."

"Well as I said, you're still so young. Not even out of your teenage years yet. You haven't even figured out what you want to do with your life yet haven't you?," he carried on before you could even get a chance to answer him. "Of course not. But now that you're an adult, you can focus on what you want to do with your life instead of trying to please others and fulfill their desires."

You just stared at him. "...How did you know that?! I didn't even tell you what happened to me."

He only chuckled. "Call it a lucky guess based on what you said earlier. But I do mean what I said. Focus on your own career path."

"Who even are you?"

"Me? Just a stranger on his way home from his job. No need to think too much into it. Oh." He spoke while reaching into a pocket on his side. "I had almost forgotten about the reason why I was sent her." You tensed up seeing him pull something out into a fist. What was it?! A knife!? Were you about to get mugged on top of your already bad day?! He just calmly smiled at you and held out his balled fist. "You'll need this to get where you're going."

You stared at his hand, then at him narrowing your eyes suspiciously. "What is it?"

"A gift. One you'll surely be needing."

You still didn't move looking at him for anything that screamed danger. ..Until you eventually held out your hand cautiously. He simply placed what felt like paper in your palms but when you looked it was a- A twenty dollar bill and two quarters?? You rose a brow looking at him confused before looking down at your hand.

"...What is this?"

"Well that should be enough money for you to call your grandparents and buy a bus ticket to their house. Oh. And happy birthday, Y/n."

"How did you know my-?"

....?!

Where'd he go?!

You froze stunned as there was no one there on the bench next to you ..Where did he go?! Your head swiveled around looking behind the bench, around the bus station, and you even strained your neck to look down the street. But there was no signs of him anywhere. How could someone vanish into thin air like that so quickly?! You might've written it off as a daydream if you still weren't holding the money he gave you, the only evidence of him ever being there.

Who was that?!

You ended up staring at the money in your hands for a long while debating on what to use it for. Could you even use it? It wasn't your money. But in the end the situation hanging over your head won out and you ended up using the quarters at a nearby phone booth to call your grandparents and tell them you were coming over. They seemed confused but you didn't want to explain why over the phone. The money was more than enough to pay for the bus toll all the way over to their side of town where they looked shocked to find you standing there with nothing but a backpack in your hands.

They were even MORE shocked and appalled when you told them WHY you were there. In fact if looks could kill, your grandpa might've killed your father from far away with how red in the face he was. You're grandma just gave you some dinner before ushering you to bed and telling you not to worry about anything else.

They always said karma was a b*tch.

They didn't tell you that karma was also the speed of light!!

The very next morning you were woken up by yelling. You thought perhaps that someone left the TV on downstairs too loud but quickly recognized your grandfather's booming voice anywhere snapping you awake as he cursed and shouted at someone.And it sounded like you some up to catch him in the middle of his rant missing the beginning of it

"-THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING PUTTING A CHILD OUT LIKE THAT!? I knew I raised you to be stubborn in your decisions but I didn't raise you to be STUPID!! ....WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH YOUR FUCKED UP ABILITIES AS A PARENT!? ...WELL THEN!! If you have no daughter then I have no second son!! As soon as I get a hold of him, I'm telling my lawyer to exclude any mentions of a second son from our will!! ...NO!! You don't have a daughter remember?! If you try to contact anyone in this house again I'll call the police for harassment!!"

Things only continued to go downhill for your father and uphill for you after that. He had officially been disowned by your grandfather and both of your grandparents had called to scold him about what he did. Your grandmother much more gently than your grandfather had been telling him she was disappointed and hurt by his actions and insisting that he owed you an apology and offering to pay for family therapy if he ever decided to come to his senses. You didn't think your relationship could be saved however. Even your uncle had been appalled with his younger brother's behaviour and had stopped by personally to get your things with your grandpa where both proceeded to loudly chew him out in person for his cruelty towards his only daughter.

On the bright side you'd gotten all your belongings back and your family's support as you officially moved in with your grandparents. You were able to finish up your last year of highschool in a different school which felt like a fresh start, started therapy, and began to slowly make positive changes without pressure. A year after you graduated your uncle offered you an internship at his office and you accepted. Maybe it wasn't what you were looking for YET but it would be a start. And who knows? Maybe you would enjoy working in an office.

****

The clacking of heels followed your form as you walked down the hallway from the elevator. Purse thrown over your shoulder and your face determined to get the day's work done.

"What's scheduled for today, Loid?"

You didn't have to look behind you to know that your personal assistant had started following you already arms full of papers and the earphones connected to his phone to answer incoming calls as without the trouble of juggling the phone.

"You have a meeting with a representative of the parent company to discuss possible avoidance of future layoffs and the CEO is scheduled for a snap inspection tomorrow." The rustling of papers behind you as you both came out of the hallway and passed by office booths. Many people walked around carrying papers, furiously typing away at computers, or answering calls. "B-But the sales department are reporting that the sales have declined since the launch of our new antivirus program."

"Get the marketing team up to my office right this second to discuss a new advertisement for Virus Begone before my meeting with our parent company. While you're at it bring me an order-"

"Shrimp pasta with a side of salad no dressing and a large green tea with honey! Got it!," he spoke your favorite lunch quickly before you could finish talking.

"I knew I could trust you, Loid. You always know what I need."

"Just doing my job, Ma'am."

You were nearly thirty now. In charge of your Uncle's entire sales department. Having spent years tutoring under him and rising up in promotions made from hard work alone earnt you the title of Department Manager of Sales over a very successful tech company. Way more than your father ever expected of you. ...In fact the very last you've heard of him, your mother and him had divorced after she found out what he did but that was years ago. You've heard he had been forced to move into a shabby apartment because he lost the house in the divorce and no one would let him stay with them after what happened but you didn't care if that was true. You just focused on yourself.

You had your grandparents and Uncle to thank for your success. And one other man. That mysterious stranger you met over ten years ago. Out of curiosity you tried to find him. Hired private investigators and searched yourself by any means. But no one seemed to match the description of him. It was if he truly was a ghost that materialized into thin air only to disappear again. Which only seemed to make him all the more mysterious. Perhaps that's what he was in the end.

A ghost. Spirit...Or perhaps maybe even your guardian angel.