"Ben, will you say something? Have I been talking to myself this whole time?"

"No, I AM listening Ma."

"Then say something, how long are you going to keep ignoring us and live your life like this?"

"I am doing just OK with my life, Mom."

"And OK is all you are doing with your life. We had so many dreams for you. When are you going to get a real job? Come back home, your cousin says he can get you an internship at his company."

"I already told you, I am doing what I love and it is enough to pay my bills."

"Enough to pay YOUR bills but that is not enough, how are you going to start a family like this?"

"MOM, I told you I don't want to talk about marriage, I am hanging up."

"At least tell me if you have a girlf…." *CLACK*

*SIGH*

I am tired of having this conversation again and again. Long story short, I am a disappointment to my family. "Why?", you ask. Well, that is because just like every other brown kid who grew up in a middle-class family, I only had three choices in life, become a doctor or an engineer or a disappointment. I, for the first time in my life, showed courage and choose the third option.

But that is not the worst part, I only became a disappointment after I quit my first engineering job and decided it was time for me to pursue my passion.

You see, I decided to become a freelance artist. I did mostly digital stuff but took up painting jobs in the neighbourhood too. I started small but slowly I grew my portfolio and made connections and after putting a lot of work into polishing my skills I finally managed to make enough to sustain myself. I always wanted to do this but growing up, I didn't dare to tell my parents that the life they have planned for me is not the life I want.

I always had good grades in school even though I never really studied much. I know that it was because I never forgot anything I learned in class. I didn't have an eidetic memory or photographic memory, but it was easy for me to focus on things and remember them. So I always had the praises of my teachers and I was on my way to being an engineer, I never could go against my parent's word. I was a coward like that or conflict-avoidant as I would like to call myself.

When I finally went to college and finally got away from my parents, I finally got to spread my wings and worked on my craft in my free time and I got a lot better. I didn't neglect my studies though and in the end, I even got a well-paying job which I quit just after six months, I still don't know what I was doing at my job, to be honest.

Now, I live in a small one-bedroom apartment that has its walls covered with sketches I made cause I wanted to save some money on painting my walls and I also had a lot of sketches piling up. I have everything here, characters from my favourite games to landscapes of all the places I'd like to visit someday, there are even sketches from the time I was practising anatomy. They look awful now that I look at them again. The only thing of value in this room is my PC. This is the best I could afford, i7 9th gen. Maybe It isn't very impressive to others but I had to save a lot to buy this and it does the job.

So anyway, after the not-so-pleasant talk I had with my mother I wanted to relax a bit and I turned it on. Five minutes in, I am doing what every Skyrim player is guilty of doing. Enjoying my time as Dragonborn murdering the people of Whiterun.

It all started when I came in to sell/dump some cabbage, cheese and other junk at Belethor's General Goods and buy some potions and alchemy ingredients from Arcadia's Cauldron but then Nazeem decided to be a dick again.

"Do you get to the cloud district very often? Oh, what am I saying? Of course, you don't.", is what he said.

So I burnt his ass to a crisp and sent him flying towards the clouds with a "FUS RO DAH" or the "Almighty push", as I like to call it. And now I am slaughtering Whiterun guards and by that I mean I took an arrow to the knee and am about to be slaughtered by them instead.

No worries though, it's not like I am going to die forever. I will get Nazeem some other day.

That is when it happened. My PC just dropped dead and I was staring at myself on the black screen.

'I need a haircut and a shave huh.'

*WOOSH* *CRACK*

"Looks like a storm is brewing," I say as I look out of my now open window. The power is out and I can see the clothes that I had hung out to dry earlier about to be flung away by the wind.

"Great, it just keeps getting better and better," I say running out to catch my now flying clothes.

Good thing I live on the ground floor. There goes my favourite hoodie. I was going to wear that to the movies tomorrow. Washing them again is going to be such a pain. I guess It's my fault for being too lazy to use cloth pins.

I bend down to pick up my least favourite white T-shirt that somehow looks the same as the day I got it. It is the obligatory deathly hallows t-shirt every Harry Potter fan must buy. I used to be very fond of it at one time, but I guess I got bored of it at some time. It has the figure of death at the centre of the deathly hallows, spreading its wings and its arms. It is all black except the white elder wand at the centre.

As I pick up the t-shirt, I can not help but stare at the figure of death at the centre of deathly hallows. I have always thought that it looks too realistic but right now it feels as if the figure is moving.

*RUMBLE * *RUMBLE*

"I should get back inside."

Inside as I sit in my chair, I cannot help but stare at the t-shirt again. The mist that was previously only around the figure of death has now covered the whole t-shirt and is making its way out of the t-shirt. I can only stare at it with my eyes wide open in horror and disbelief as the thick black mist surrounds me and everything around me.

'Am I high right now? WTF was in my coffee?'

I can feel a slight pulling sensation at the bottom of my stomach towards the shirt as the dark mist in the room starts to swirl like a whirlpool towards the centre of the deathly hallows.

"Ughhh"

'Mother fucker, can this day get any worse?'

*RUMBLE* *RUMBLE* *BOOM*

AND THAT'S WHEN I KNEW THAT I FUCKED UP.

'Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Murphy's first law.' I remember thinking as I saw a bright flash of light making its way towards me through the swirling mist as I got pulled towards the centre, and the last thing I remember is this all too familiar music coming from my computer as it too was getting pulled along with me.

Dovahkiin, Dovahkiin

naal ok zin los vahriin

wah dein vokul mahfaeraak ahst vaal!

Ahrk fin norok paal graan

fod nust hon zindro zaan

Dovahkiin, fah hin kogaan mu draal!

One They Fear · Jeremy Soule