Inhuman Warlock

"You saw what?" Lucifer asked, hearing the mumble of Predictor. "Did you see another dream?"

"Maybe," Predictor smiled in response. "It doesn't matter. What's destined will happen. And what's not destined... No matter how much we try, it will never happen."

Lucifer stopped in his tracks. He turned back to look at Predictor. "There is no such thing as destiny. I don't believe in such nonsense."

"It doesn't matter if we believe something or not. Our beliefs can't change the absolute. Well, maybe yours can... You aren't ordinary after all. Still, I believe even you won't be able to change destiny. You can certainly try, but it's inevitable," Predictor stated, without being intimidated.

"Is that so?" Lucifer muttered. "We shall see."

"Not we, you shall. I will be dead in a short while."

"You seem to know a lot about what will happen. I would really love to have that ability, you know?"

"I certainly know what you're getting at and what you're capable of, but if you think this ability is a blessing, you're wrong. It's not a blessing; it's a curse," Predictor let out a deep sigh. "I would advise you to not take this ability, and it's for your own good."

"What curse?" Lucifer inquired, frowning. "Tell me more about it."

There were two reasons for Lucifer to come here. One was that he wanted to kill the traitor, but more importantly, he wanted the ability of Predictor. The man could see events before they happened. Now that Predictor had betrayed him, he couldn't let him live, but he also couldn't let this ability disappear forever.

He had decided to take that ability for himself. However, if there were some flaws in it that he didn't know about, then he wanted to know.

"What are dreams... What is reality? Even I could never comprehend it. Even if you live life like I did, you realize what a curse it is. Every movement, you spend not knowing if you're in reality or a dream. Even now, I don't know if it's reality or a dream."

"When half your dream becomes a prediction, you never know what to trust? Which dream was a prediction? Which was a normal dream? You don't know."

"Sometimes, you destroy your own life, thinking that your dream was a prediction, while at times you can ignore the prediction, thinking it's a dream, only to suffer. Either you take all dreams seriously, or you take none. There is no in-between."

As Predictor followed Lucifer, he talked about his abilities as if he wanted someone to remember him. He wanted to know about him and how hard his life was even when he was gone. He had already come to terms with his death, but before that, he wanted to tell Lucifer everything.

"When I was young, I awakened this ability. For the first three days, whatever I saw came true. I thought I had become a god who couldn't go wrong. That's when reality hit me hard. One night, I had a dream..."

"What dream?" Lucifer inquired, frowning.

"I saw my father's flight crashing... I saw his death..." Predictor answered. "I knew he wouldn't believe me if I told him about my ability since I had kept it a secret up to that point."

"So I took things into my own hands. I went ahead and canceled the flight of my father without informing him. I was prepared for him to praise me for what I did when he was going to miss his flight and get the news of the flight crashing but guess what?" Predictor asked, sighing.

"What?"

"The flight didn't crash. It was the first time I realized that not all my dreams come true... Not all of them were predictions; some were just that... Dreams."

"My father needed to take that flight urgently to attend an important meeting, but because of me, he missed it. Not only did he miss the meeting, but he also lost the business deal that could've saved our family from debt."

"Defeated by destiny and not having enough courage to fight the debt, my father gave up... He..." As Predictor talked about this part of his plan, his words became heavier. He didn't even know how to speak.

"He killed himself." After a long time, he exclaimed, taking a deep breath. That's what happens when you don't know the difference between prediction and dreams... You make mistakes... You make deadly mistakes like I did."

Lucifer didn't know how to respond. So many had lost their family, all for different reasons. After a long time, he opened his lips. "This wasn't your fault. You didn't know..."

Predictor shook his head. "It doesn't matter if I knew or didn't. Even if I knew that half my dreams come true and half are just dreams, I still would've done the same since I wouldn't have wanted to take the risk. That's where this ability corrupts a person. It uses your fear to trap you inside your own mind."

He further continued. "This ability... It might look like a blessing, but it's a curse. I would've been so happy without it. I would've been so happy without being able to see the future. At least I won't be hiding in this place all my life, scared to even step out."

"Why don't you step out? What's the story about it?" Lucifer asked, not going into the depth of the curse or blessing debate. By now, he had understood all the flaws of this ability properly.

"Hah, you really want to know?" Predictor asked as a smile spread across his lips.

"Yeah."

"Same reason. Because I had a dream, I had a dream where I was leaving this place, and I died. I don't know if that was a normal dream or a prediction, but as I said, that's the crux of this ability, trapping you in your own head," Predictor explained.

"If you had left, you would've died. If you didn't leave, you still would've died here at my own hands. Since both were happening, why didn't you take the risk of trying to leave? There was still a fifty percent chance of survival with this, but staying inside, there was zero percent chance of your survival since you knew I had returned. So why?"

"Because a fifty percent chance of 'that' death is still worse than any death you can give me. I would rather choose to die at your hands than dying the way I saw."

"Is that so? Let's test that then. I really want to see what can happen if you leave. What kind of death it can be? Since you're trapped in your own head, let's free you!"