"So,you came," the figure on the picnic table said to the one that appeared behind him. He was at a lake that had been abandoned because of the fighting that had started earlier in the year. During the day, while the figure waited for the night, there had been no families to enjoy the sun. No boats had plied the water for sports. The sliver of one moon in the night sky shone only enough light to show the figure as male but not who he was. He wore a motorcycle helmet so as not to be known, if anyone had been watching. The small breeze that had sprung up chilled the figure to the bone through the clothes he was wearing.

"How could I not?" The voice was feminine, a cross between young and old, but you could not tell the shape of the being. There was no substance to the one he spoke to, only shadows. "It is the time of the killing. Where else should I be?"

"No, no where else," the figure slowly stood up and jumped off the table. "But the children??"

"Have been taken care of," the shadowy figure replied. "You know my terms and the deal has been set." The shadow figure reached out and grasped the figure's left hand. It traced a thin scar on his wrist, which had been recently healed, with a finger. "You will suffer greatly, you know this?"

"Yes," the figure replied as he pulled back his hand from the being's grip. He put a couple of leather wristbands on. "Can you tell me anything of it?"

"No." The being turned away. "I can only show what may happen, not what will happen. The children have been foretold of and their lives will be spared. As to what will happen to them now I cannot say."

"What?" the figure exclaimed. He was shocked at what he heard. When he set the deal he thought it would be safer for them. "You said nothing of this before when we first started!"

"You did not ask. What happens, because of your actions this night, has already started. You, nor I, cannot change the deal."

"But?" the figure started. He had not counted on this. He thought only for them and their families because they were younger than he liked to have fighting. He could not discount the fact that they were the best he had seen or worked with.

"To change the fate of the living is to change the future. What I showed you last night was what was to happen. When you took it upon yourself to change this, their fate was also changed." The being started to fade away. "Good bye for now. May you come to not regret this action." The being disappeared into the night and the breeze died down.

The silence of the night pressed down on him. "What have I done?" the figure slowly asked himself. The realization that he probably should not have changed the future came to him in that instant. He slowly sank to the ground in shock, moaning quietly.

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I am the Alpha and the Omega

I am life and death

Where one life passes

Another life begins.

To know what's to come

Is to know what is possible

You change one future

You change all fates.