A young man just barely older than eighteen sits on the railing of a bridge, staring down at the green-stained water of the city river. Kael used to come here often during his childhood, but after he became busy taking on day jobs to help his struggling family, the frequency of his visits slowly diminished.
Ever since the entire economy collapsed a few years ago, his family was struggling to make enough money to even put bread onto the table. The Fracture was the reason for all this. It ripped apart the world he knew and created a second, the fractured world. A place littered with monsters and vile abominations. Occasionally, rifts would tear open and create a gate to the fractured world. If these Rifts weren't cleared, there would be nothing stopping the Riftborn from entering his world.
With the appearance of said rifts, special people slowly started emerging. The branded. Once someone clears the trials within a rift, they get bestowed a special power, shaped after their very soul.
Kael let out a sigh and swung his feet over the railing, then landed on the hard concrete of the sidewalk. At the same moment, his phone buzzed. It was a simple message from his mother.
"Hey, darling. I'll pick up something from the store.. so don't wait for me with dinner. And make sure your brother eats too! Love you."
He pondered for a bit, then answered with a quick "Okay.", after that he started walking down the road, back home.
Whistling a sweet melody of his childhood, he pondered a bit.
"I wonder what it would be like.. being one of the branded. What would my brand look like?"
He let out a quiet chuckle.
"Knowing me, it would probably be something embarrassing.. such a shame I wasn't born in a great family."
Kael raised his head and looked at the blue sky, in the distance there were dark clouds approaching which indicated that it would rain soon.
"What am I even thinking... ever since dad passed away, mom and Eli have been relying on me... I can't afford to enter a rift, nor can I afford to die."
Continuing to whistle the melody, he kicked a rock and thought more about becoming a branded at some point. It would certainly be beneficial, the government pays well for sealing rifts, he would have to start slow, yes, but at some point, Kael could even make it into a great family. Just thinking about it made his mouth drool.
The walk home took twelve minutes. It always did. Kael approached their shabby house, if you could even call it that since it was more a little hut, and knocked on the door. There was no answer for a solid minute when the door opened just a tiny bit. A young face peered through the slit.
"Whatd'ya want, Wallwalker."
Eli smirked up at Kael, as he always did when his brother came back from work. Kael payed it no mind and just pushed open the door, easily overpowering his little brother.
"It's a bit rude to call your brother Wallwalker, I'm not that much of a coward. Anyways, mom will be late, she's out for a grocery run. Said I should make dinner, as if I could cook."
Eli skipped after him towards the kitchen, laughing at his brothers words. Kael hung up his coat and put on an apron, what he said about not being able to cook was true, matter of fact, he was average at mostly everything, the only thing unordinary about him was his hair color and his eyes, both being a light blue. As Kael served dinner, Eli's face grimaced.
"Noodles again? Seriously, Kael! Don't we have something else?"
Kael's face remained the same as it always is, utter cold. It's been like that ever since his father was taken by the greycoats for some stupid reason, at the end they sent him to coal mines where he slaved to death. A pitiful death, really. At that moment, the front door clicked open and their mother walked in.
She stared at the table, let out a sigh, and then put the groceries in the special storage container.
"Eli. Have you looked at what time it is? It's bedtime, young man."
Then, she turned towards Kael and smiled a little. It was a beautiful smile, really.
"And you... well, thank you for cooking. I appreciate it, Kael."
Kael shook his head and sighed, then stared back down at his half eaten dinner plate.
"It's fine, really. You know I don't mind helping out. I'll also go to bed now, my next job is at five in the morning."
With that, he stood up, washed his dishes and then placed them in a drying station. He turned around to his mother and looked at her eating. She really did not deserve this, before the fracture, she had such great ambitions, but all were crushed because of some coincidence.
"Will you be fine eating alone, mom?"
She didn't even answer and just nodded, then she stuffed her mouth with more food as if she hadn't eaten in days.
The next day at a new job was similarly uneventful, just like the previous days, he did something irrelevant like carrying a few things or filing some reports. In the evening he sat on the same railing as yesterday. This time, however, there was no text from his mother, nor his little brother. He glanced at the time on his phone, it was already eight in the evening, normally a concerned message from his mother would've already showed up.
Kael didn't think too much of it and started walking back home. After the usual twelve minute walk, he arrived at their shabby hut and knocked on the door. There was no answer, even waiting a few minutes there was no answer. This time, he knocked harder on the door, waiting for a sign. Still nothing. He stared at the tiny shed where his mother's bicycle is parked. He knew she was home, yet for some reason she doesn't open the door.
He turned back around and looked at the lock, he saw the usual marks of people trying to break in but this time, the door seemed unlocked. Kael slowly pressed down the handle. Everything he saw inside was red, blood splattered across the walls as he slowly took a step inside. There were slight burn marks littered across the wall. He made his way forward, cautiously peeking inside the living room, then walking towards the kitchen.
On the kitchen floor, he saw his mother lying on the ground in a large smudge of blood, her face had already gone pale and all light was gone from her face, in the corner of his eye, he saw something move and ducked on instinct, a knife out of fire whistled past him as two eyes stared at him from the darkness.
Kael staggered backwards and was about to run when he saw his brother on the ground, he was visibly okay, but not if he left now... however, Kael was exactly how his brother described him: A wallwalker, a coward. He whispered in a soft voice.
"I'm... sorry, Eli."
With that, Kael took off running, however, another man stood at the front door and blocked him off, the only path was upstairs into his bedroom. Inside, he locked the thin door and pushed his closet before it, straining his weak muscles. He slowly backed off against the wall as he heard banging against the door, then he heard fire burning outside.
Only seconds later, the cheap closet moved out of the way and allowed entrance to the strange man. In the same moment, Kael suddenly felt a tear behind him, a deafening bang echoed through the room as reality itself tore open. In that moment, rumors that he once heard at a job came back to him. Apparently, if someone that has the potential to be a branded is in an extremely dire situation, the universe itself gives them a chance to prove themselves, creating a rift near them. These people are called "Universe's chosen".
Everything was happening so fast that Kael didn't even think, it was either die here or have the chance of living by entering the rift. And Kael chose life. He took all his might and sprinted towards the rift, behind him another flame knife flew past his head but he was already inside. Back in his room, the rift closed.