A light that could rival the burning sun bursts out into the world, painting the cobblestones with colours of oranges and reds, yellows and purples. The weird thing about that though is that such a light shouldn’t be normal, at least not at 12AM in the dead of night.

Rika stares at light with a burning hatred simmering in her chest. She hates that light. She hates what it signifies. Because in the middle of a freezing winter, right at the second the Winter Solstice starts and the night is at its longest.

She stands from her bed, sighing so heavily it woke the slumbering woman beside. She feels guilty as Mina stirs, slowly opening her eyes at Rika’s slumped figure. Mina smiles sympathetically, placing a tender hand on her cheek as she asks, “it’s starting?”

Rika pouts. “Yeah. Go back to sleep, I’ll take care of it.” She kisses her cheek and walks out to the living room, turning on the sconces with a snap of her fingers.

There’s a special kind of people that exists today. They’re so special that ordinary folks pray to them like a bunch of deities. Rika doesn’t know who came up with the idea but whoever it is, she hates them with a passion. When Winter Solstice comes, the people light their lanterns containing wishes they wish with all their hearts. They let them fly into the sky, they let them float into the open sea, depending on whatever wish they want fulfilled. Those wishes arrive at their destination in the next moment, right at her people’s doorstep.

Rika has friends that can fulfill wishes of prosperity, another one that can fulfill wishes of love, of fame, of fortune. There are a whole lot of wishes they all fulfill but Rika… Rika’s different.

She doesn’t understand why. If they really are deities, then she would be the Deity of Chaos. Whatever powers move the universe, they deemed her the fulfiller of dark wishes.

At first, it was small. The first lantern she received was a wish from a little boy that wanted his bully to stub his foot on concrete so he wouldn’t be able to walk for days. It was oddly innocent despite the ill wish so she fulfilled it—not like she had a choice anyway.

But over time, the wishes got darker. A teenager wishing her rival to fail a major exam, a person in debt wishing the debt collector bad luck, a woman wishing for her stalker to choke on soup—of all things she could wish, she chose soup, it was hilarious.

And it got darker still. But what’s different this time is Rika noticed her lanterns start coming from … questionable people. A murderer wishing for early parole, an unfilial child wishing a morbid death to his own mother, and the worst one she ever received was of a group of young men wishing to immobilise a teenage girl so they could do whatever they want.

When the wishes started taking a darker turn, Rika resisted. When the wishes started asking for death and psychological harm, Rika threw the lantern away and rejected the wish.

What greeted her was absolute physical and emotional pain. She was shown images of things she feared by an unknown force that could access her mind, she was made to feel a crippling pain racking her entire body. Mina kept her company but she couldn’t take it, she couldn’t bare to see Rika in pain. She’d do anything for Mina so she fulfilled the wishes she could at least stomach.

She dreads the wish tonight. She fears the worst as her cold hands twist the cold doorknob. She stares at that innocently looking lantern.

Because of her fear, it took her a moment to see that the flicker of the lantern light is different. It’s brighter, louder. Her lanterns had always been dull.

Curiously, she picks it up and holds the lantern close to her ear. A faint whisper of a wish made from the heart comes and says, “Deity. Thank you for fulfilling the wishes of the people. I hope you can fulfill mine. I wish to be like you. I want to fulfill wishes and make everyone happy.”

The voice sounded so young and it immediately broke her heart. She suffers a cruel fate.

The fate of this little girl’s hand is in the palm of her hand. If she wishes to be like Rika… if she wishes to live the life Rika lived… it’s too much.

No one should ever hold this much power. No one should ever be able to grant the darkest wishes humanity could dream of. So with a deep deep breath, she steels herself and throws the innocent little latern away. She glances to the dim sky, glaring at the heavens, at whoever is playing such a cruel game, and says with steely resolution, “I reject this wish and all the ill wishes that is yet to come. Hit me with all you got, asshole.”

The pain is instantaneous. She feels a searing pain travel from her legs up to her head. It rips a loud pained scream from her lips as she blacks out.