Accept. Eventually
Daniel was, like any normal person, trying to wrap his head around all this.
He wasn’t the sort to blindly leap into things without thinking - he had never been the type, even though as a kid, he was known for having a big imagination. But this… This went beyond his realm of comprehension.
He was talking to a spirit. A literal spirit, standing in front of him, touching him, grinning at him. She was clearly real, even if he was a hardcore skeptic, it was hard to make some sort of logical explanation for what was standing before him - and while he was freaked out to the very core, the fact he was still alive and not currently dead… well, it made him listen, despite his better senses questioning every single bit of this.
“I…” Daniel did the absolute best he could to control himself. “You want… to give me some kind of ‘gift.’” He was working through this as he spoke. “…some kind of, like, supernatural gift? Is that right?”
“In a matter of speaking,” she replied.
“Okay.” He furrowed his brow. “Why? Why me? Why offer? I don’t understand any of this. I’m not that special, and I hope this isn’t some ‘you gotta go and save the world’ type thing…”
She cocked her head to the side. “I chose you. I have no reason why; you are not a chosen one, not destined for it, nothing of that sort. I simply decided to choose you, and so I am here. As for why? Because I want to.” She grinned again. “It would be an interesting experience, and I feel it would be worth my while - and yours - to try it out.”
Daniel blinked a few times, absorbing this. “Um. What happens if I say no?”
“Then I leave,” she said, bluntly, though the grin didn’t fade. “You will not remember this meeting - whatever you do recall will be vague, and you will play it off as a dream.” Now her grin faded somewhat, and her features smoothed to a rather… comforting expression. “I have no desire to bother you, nor intrude upon your life, and that is the simple truth.”
“And if I say yes?” Daniel asked.
That grin returned. “You will see for yourself, my dear boy. You need only make the decision. I can guarantee you that you won’t regret the choice if you accept; your life will be changed, but it will be changed for the best. And before you ask, yes, you will still be able to live your life the way you do now. You will simply have… abilities that will enhance it. You have my word.”
Daniel stared at her, thinking.
What exactly did you say to something like this? He could say no, sure, and while he didn’t have any sort of evidence to believe that this spirit being would leave him be, he didn’t have a reason not to believe her either, he supposed. Did he have anything to lose if he accepted? He didn’t, not really, anyways. Nothing that stood out to him.
“I… accept,” Daniel said after a long moment of thinking.
Written by Hollowpages on 19 April 2019