Ethan Carter was an unlucky teenager, and he always knew that.
Not unlucky like Marinette Dupain-Cheng from Miraculous Ladybug, where something bad happened to her and she could fix it with magic, and much less unlucky like Kamijou Touma who literally had to, in the simplest way to explain, erase all the luck that existed around him.
No, Ethan was unlucky in a different way. His bad luck consisted a lot of the situations he was in, because somehow he didn't understand, the universe always managed to put him in the most impossible situations possible.
For example, when he was 8 years old and was crossing the road.
He was on the walkway, there was a red light, a fucking red light preventing the cars from passing, and he had still made a point of looking at both sides before crossing as any normal person would do.
But just when he was crossing, some hurried son of a bitch decided to say "Fuck you, I'm going to pass this red light and as a gift I'm going to run over that boy" and accelerated with everything he could towards him. Specifically him. There were at least 12 people crossing that same walkway, and yet he was the only one hit by the case.
Oh, important detail, he, an 8-year-old child, was hit at an extra 90 km/h by an SUV. When he woke up, he was in the hospital with a scar on his forehead and the bastard was never found.
Or when he was 11 years old and was attacked by a wolf. Yes, a wolf.
He and some friends were playing in a forest near the neighborhood. Pay attention, close to the neighborhood. They hadn't even entered the deepest part of the forest, you could literally see the neighbors' houses a few meters away. And yet, still, A FUCKING WOLF APPEARED IN FRONT OF THEM!
And another important detail, that was the first and only wolf ever seen in that forest, and he ran directly to Ethan. Not for his friends, not for the fat guy with about 80 kilos of lard, but for the skinnest of the group.
Luckily for him, who still worked from time to time, an armed hunter was near that area, heard the screams of the children and managed to shoot before the others got hurt.
And the others mean all but Ethan, who was bitten in the arm, got a scar and had to do a lot of tests and take a few vaccines.
Or the time he fell down the stairs of his grandparents' house during Christmas.
It was the first day of Christmas, the house was decorated, the food was being prepared and he was going down to have breakfast.
But, by some cruel work of fate, there was a banana peel placed precisely on the first step of the stairs, and in the greatest cartoon style possible, Ethan stepped on it and began to fall step by step.
When he woke up, he was in a hospital bed with his whole body bandaded and it was already January 10th.
And these were just some of the many inexplicable incidents in Ethan's life. No matter where he was, who he was with or how he was, something simply impossible to happen to someone normal would happen to him and only to him, and not to the others around him.
He reached a point where his friends were no longer with him for fear that the next incident would be fatal to them. He didn't judge, if he were in their place he would also do the same.
He was literally the living personification of Murphy's Law.
Over time, Ethan simply gave up trying to avoid it and just began to accept the shit that life gave him.
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February 14, Valentine's Day, Love Day.
For couples, the most magical day of the year. For Ethan, another ordinary Friday night, a boring day followed by some random misfortune.
What a disgrace? He just received a message from his girlfriend saying that they broke up, that she was cheating on him with an older man and that she was running away with him, that Ethan was not supposed to try to look for her, Blah blah blah.
The same blah blah blah generic as Mexican soap operas. The thing seemed so rehearsed and so false to read, that Ethan was rubbing his face with so much shame present in that message.
Like, seriously, she had been unnecessarily specific with incredibly unnecessary things, such as the appearance of the man in question, his "catching and strong" personality, how her attraction to Ethan was dying little by little and how much better he was in bed compared to Ethan.
If the latter had the slightest intention of hurting him, then he failed miserably, because they hadn't even had sex yet.
Ethan just sighed and shook his head with such shame of others while thinking about what he would do for tomorrow's dinner. Was he minimally hurt, sad or angry that his girlfriend broke up with him that way? No, just not.
After 17 years of misfortunes and incidents, Ethan got used to expecting all the worst coming from the people and things around him. Her cheating on him was the least he expected her to do. Besides, he didn't even like her that much. Like, they dated for 6 months, and they only started dating because Ethan needed someone to accompany him on the street and who could use as a shield in case his bad luck attacked again, and decided that a girlfriend would fulfill this role well.
It was just to find out if any girl of your year liked him and ask her out, simple as that. Not that he was ugly, he was definitely above average, but most people walked away from him whenever they found out about his bad luck.
Oops, I'm rambling again.
Returning, Ethan simply replied to the message with a simple "ok" and went to the kitchen to get snacks. He didn't even care about blocking or deleting the number, because... well, he just didn't feel like it.
Lazy.
When he came back from the kitchen, probably having spent about 5 minutes looking for the perfect snack flavor to spend Friday night, he was greeted with a lot of messages appearing on his screen.
The first was from his friend, Mike, the fat man of the wolf incident, who even after so many near-death situations with Ethan never got away from him. Upon reading the message, Ethan let out an angry sigh that seemed to come straight from the depths of his soul.
"Hey man, I heard what happened to Cassandra, I'm sorry for you. You must be devastated now. But don't worry, there are many girls in the world, you just had bad luck with your "
Great, just fucking great. If Mike knew, then surely half of the school should also already know, because for that uninformed shit to know about it, someone should have told him.
And his suspicions were confirmed when he saw the dozens of messages directed to him, all from colleagues, friends, acquaintances, even teachers, all referring to what had happened to Cassandra.
Even his mother, who was on the other side of the country now, had sent a message because of this incident. Seriously, how the fuck had she found out about that!?
Wanting to save himself the headache, Ethan just hung up the phone, sat on the couch, chose a random Netflix movie and started eating the snacks while watching the movie.
He could already imagine the headache. The whispers, the conversations they would have behind his back about him, the false condolences he would receive from everyone around him. Monday would be the worst day of your life.
When the movie ended, Ethan turned off the TV, finished the snacks and went towards his room, basically jumping on the bed and closing his eyes while trying not to think about how horrible his Monday would be.
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Waking up was always an amazing thing for Ethan. Sometimes, he woke up feeling like an unlucky piece of garbage that would die before 20. Other times, he woke up telling himself that he would survive until 21.
This time, he woke up lying on the wet floor of a dark alley. So far, nothing new.
Getting up and stretching a little, Ethan left the alley and felt the sunlight touch his skin as he watched the place where he woke up.
....
Yeah, he wasn't in Chicago. Maybe he had been kidnapped again? Last time he woke up in New Orleans, so it wasn't such a big surprise.
Looking around and seeing a man smoking next to him, Ethan gave a few light touches on his shoulder to get his attention.
"Excuse me sir, could you tell me where I am? "
"You're in New York boy" replied the man looking strangely at him, probably thinking that he was under the influence of drugs to not even know where he himself was.
"New York, hum? " thought Ethan grateful and relieved for not being on another continent " So- "
BOOOMMM!
Before he could finish speaking, an explosion sounded from behind Ethan as screams began to spread down the street and the man he was talking to ran away while dropping the cigarette.
Ethan just let out a sigh watching his luck attack once again.
And as soon as he raised his head he saw the building above him starting to collapse while wreckage went towards him.
"I hate you universe" Was all Ethan thought before everything got dark.