so a while ago i was writing this story that i never got around to finishing. it was about a man who was given the power to slow down time in order to save 3 people who have negatively impacted his life. The story started out strong, but it began to fall apart the more i wrote, so i ended up scrapping it. recently, i was looking back on it and i had another idea for what i could do with the story. Description of new story in the first spoiler. [spoiler]"The Chosen" is about a society in which the government fears the actions of its own people. so much so that spying just doesn't do the trick to keep them in check. Instead, when you're born, they enter you into a lottery, i couldnt think of a better name so i called it "The Chosen Lottery". A test to see who can and cannot keep secrets. to see if the government can trust them. Multiple names are pulled. those people are then sent visions and dreams of accidents that will take place the next day. Intervening, telling someone about the dreams, or asking someone to save the persons means you have failed the test and it results in your death. however, once the day is over, you no longer experience the visions and you have passed the test. Welcome to a world where secrets can kill, where silence is the only option, where being a bystander is required by law. Welcome to the world of The Chosen. (that sounded much better in my head)[/spoiler] I spoilered the story, since it might be lengthy, constructive feedback is always welcomed. [spoiler]From the moment I woke up that morning, I knew that today would be most unpleasant. I threw the blankets off and sat up looking around the dark room, which was illuminated by whatever sunlight was peeking in through the curtain. I was still tired, as I squinted to look at the time on the LED clock. It was 8:30AM. Work started in about 1 hour. I still had time to get ready. But the dream I had would haunt me until the end of the day. I sat on the edge of the bed thinking of what the government had done all those years ago. “The Chosen Lottery” they called it. The moment you were born, you were entered into it. And when you’re drawn, you will know. Overnight, a select group of people are chosen, and given the times, locations, and names of people who would be killed on that day in the form of dreams. It was a test. The government had grown suspicious about the population in the country. And since spying wasn’t digging up much info, they decided to take a more psychological approach. And so, like a helpless bystander, watching a younger kid being bullied by someone much larger than them, you were forced to watch and just keep quiet. It was an idiotic system that only resulted in death and nothing meaningful. And even trying to intervene meant you broke law. Well, not so much law as it is messing with what is meant to happen. I stood up and walked over to the mirror, still thinking. I stared at an empty dead shell. Still in thought. The government planned it out. They know when we die. It’s something they can control. And when someone breaks and tells about what they know or attempts to save the person they know will die, the person who was chosen dies too. It’s a way of saying “not only have you proven that you cannot keep secrets, but you’ve also volunteered to take that person’s place in death”. A sacrifice. The people knew this, but they also knew that there was nothing they could do about it. For if they were told, and they intervened instead of the one chosen, then all of them would die. It was a horrific burden that I wish I wasn’t forced to bear that day. Yet I still couldn’t get the images out of my mind. At 10:30, a man working on a construction site will fall off of a scaffolding due to a faulty harness, but no one will blame the company for the bad equipment. He will leave behind a wife and 1 child. An hour later, a child will be chasing after a ball and a driver, who had been drinking that morning, will be too intoxicated to notice the kid as he stares into the headlights of the mechanical beast. And just down the block, in about 30 seconds, an elderly woman will trip, and break her back. And emergency responders will be unable to make it in time. I snapped back into reality and looked at myself in the mirror again. The images flashed through my mind again and I noticed that I had begun to look like a madman. My eyes were bloodshot with lack of sleep, my hair was a mess, and I was so tired, that I questioned if I was even awake. If I had still been asleep. If me waking up was a dream itself. And I had closed my eyes, praying that I would wake up and see that I was in bed. But when I shut them, all I saw was the image of the woman, who by now had already been deceased. And my heart felt like someone had torn it out. I stepped out of the mirror’s view and into the hall. More images flashed into my mind. Somewhere in the city, a man was about to be robbed, but he will refuse to give up his phone. And the criminal will lose his patience. I stepped into the kitchen and made a cup of coffee to ease my nerves. When I was done drinking, I set the cup down into the sink, and got ready for work. As I left the house that morning, I witnessed several other crimes in quick succession. In 10 minutes, a man will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In another 10, a cashier will fail to notice the man with the gun approaching the counter. I shook my head again and almost bumped into someone on the street. “Something wrong”? The man asked. I responded with “no”. But what he didn’t know, was that in about 5 minutes, that man would become part of a tragic accident, in which a cop mistakes him for a person wanted in connection to a murder case that happened a month ago. A single tear rolled down my eye. Why do I have to know when all these people will pass? What kind of horrific test is this? This wasn’t humane. This wasn’t just. This was an evil that was brought on by corruption and a government so afraid of its own population, that it would force them to watch and wait until someone cracked, so that they knew who couldn’t keep secrets. And so they knew who the next public enemy would be. I arrived at the bus stop. But as I saw the bus coming my vision blurred and my next thought consisted of one word: “No.”. I watched as the bus would later over turn as it hit a large pothole. Sending the bus on its side and it would slowly begin to catch fire. Some would survive, some would die, and some would be injured severely. I didn’t want to be one of those people. I stepped away from the bus shelter and kept moving. I was crossing the street now. The visions seemed to momentarily stop. Which was strange. Usually they would keep going for a while. I kept walking. Periodically seeing the results of the events with the bus, the robbery, the police, all flashing through my head. I eventually made it to work, and noticed a man who seemed to be in quite a bit of distress sitting infront of the elevators. I asked what’s wrong and he responded in a rapid and worried tone. “Nothing. Nothing is wrong at all. Everything is fine.” He said in a shaky voice that resembled someone who was incredibly nervous. I turned back and approached the elevator buttons. “You taking the elevator or just…waiting for something?” I asked. “I was just thinking about stuff for a bit, but yeah, hit the button for me.” He responded. I hit the button and listened to the whirr of the gears as the cart was slowly lowered to the ground floor. When I turned around I noticed the man had his eyes closed shut and seemed to be in a great state of fear. I asked him what was wrong. “…you ever…tell someone something that you shouldn’t have? Like your wife or friends?” he asked. I responded with “no”. The elevator arrived. He got up, and shakily made his way to the elevator and got inside. “Floor 60 please” he said. I hit the button. The elevator jolted a bit as it made its way up. It made me a bit uneasy. But it was easy to manage. Around floor 30, I closed my eyes briefly, and they shot open in horror. I looked at the man to my side in shock, and fear. The man who seconds ago asked me that strange question had been chosen. The man beside me had told someone what he had experienced. He asked what was wrong. I only looked ahead and stared at the reflective silver doors, listened as the car creaked and the ear piercing sound of metal screeching to a halt rang out, and as the lights buzzed and flickered. In exactly 5 seconds, two men will plummet to the ground in a malfunctioning elevator car. No one will survive. [/spoiler]