Almost Home

As I was staring at the menacing gate, a human head blocked my vision. That was the moment I stepped back to reality and saw the mass of humans waiting for a chance to enter the gate.

 But it was weird seeing so many humans risking their lives so happily. I could hardly even move around. I crawled through the small cracks of the crowd of people, my body taking weird shapes to be able to get around.

I bumped into many people, leaving them to give me a hateful look which normally I wouldn't accept, but this was different, I didn't care for little things like a filthy human criticizing me.

My eyes sparkled as they searched around for a way to continue through the gathering, you could say it was the desire to go home that was really in my eyes and not revenge.

Because after all, I was both born and grew up in that place. As bad... no that word doesn't define it, as unlivable as it was, it was still my natal place.

I was part of it, and it was part of me. We shared feelings and struggles, as evil as I call it... it was the only one with me through my whole journey. 

If I had to say one good thing about it, that would be how it wouldn't stab you while you're down. It might be the reason you're down but still.

With all my effort, I managed to escape that ocean of humans and was finally near the gate. I was only minutes away from my roots. There was no doubt anymore, I wanted to go inside.

Going home is something everyone desires, whether their home is a worn-down house, with glassless windows and a hard bed,

A place near the ocean with exotic fruit growing beside you, or a mansion where you could just lay down on your bed without a worry in the world.

Your home is always the place you love most, even when you have better possibilities, even when the world gifts you the freedom to experiment, explore options, and switch between them.

You still chose to settle with one. Maybe it's because of one's wish for a place to go in case something goes wrong. To have a savepoint in life, I'm sure everyone has wished for one. A way to experiment without consequence.

Maybe that is what holds us back, the consequence? But without consequence, the world would have too much freedom, you couldn't punish even the most evil criminal.

Maybe the fear of failure is what turns us away from adventuring into the wonders of the world. Or is it something else?

It's something I always wondered about, not specifically with the whole home topic, but in general. Why only a minority of us are brave enough to live our lives to the fullest?

Many want to live without regret, so they don't take risks that they might regret and they die knowing they lived a meaningless life, which in terms turns out to become their one and only regret.

Was the reasoning of the people who had gone on this path just wrong? Maybe truly living without regret is accepting them, accepting yourself whenever you make reckless decisions and screw something up.

For me living your life without regret is none of these. Living your life with no risk will take the soul out of it and just accepting your flaws makes everything meaningless in life, making you unable to differentiate wrong and right.

Living without regret is quite simple but overcomplicated. It's to reach your goal. If are able to reach what you dreamed of, what is there to regret, you've done what you wished for, so why should you care for the journey when the reward is in front of you?

Maybe you can say a path defines us, but that would mean everyone around us is truly a stranger. Look at the nearest person around you, do you know their full journey? Do you even know every detail about your journey? 

But then again, do you even want to live life without regret, after all, it is said that it shapes us into who we are, so why would you want to live without it? Doesn't having any regret just mean you are a simple character, a copy of the same page as the others?

Every one of your regrets has a story behind it, a piece of yourself. So without them how would you define yourself to others?

After all existence at its core relies on others since there is no way to prove your existence on your own.

But as all of these questions and topics came to my mind, a horrible smell invaded my nose, waking me up to reality. This smell belonged to none other than my sweat which was caused by both my efforts from earlier.

But also my overthinking nature.

And now that I was back on my feet, I only had to take a few steps and I would be home.

But as I wanted to enter, I bumped into someone causing me to fall.

As I got back up, I was able to see that the person who had knocked me down was a young man, yet as tall as a warrior.

He had an abyssal color for his short hair, and his eyes were without the light the others had, causing a black so dark it consumed you like a black hole.

He was wearing some everyday clothing like he was going to the grocery store and not The Core. They also were much bigger than his slim body, making them hang down.

He stared at me with his eyes, and I tried matching his aura, trying to intimidate him by being better than him at his own game.

But all he did was look away, then try to order me.

"Don't try to copy my flow, it doesn't match you."

I smiled clearly not paying attention to the real meaning of his words, as a thought came to my mind.

'Copy... no I think I will.'

He just scoffed and entered the gate, leaving me on the floor... smiling like a maniac.

'And I will copy more than your flow.' I said while the system hurried to speak.

[Copying random skill...]