The faint sound of an old clock ticking echoed through the small, dimly lit room. It was a place where the world's weight rested heavily on his young shoulders, though no one could see it. Seated at his cluttered desk, Julian stared blankly at his textbooks, the numbers and letters bleeding into one another as they mirrored his mind's fractured thoughts. The world around him was a blur—a distant fog that he couldn't escape.
At 18, Julian was a student like any other. Or so it seemed. On the surface, he was the same as his peers, blending into the crowd, just another boy trying to survive the daily grind. But beneath the surface, a different story played out—a painful one, filled with mockery, heartbreak, and the endless quest for approval that seemed out of reach. No one saw the bruises beneath his shirt, the wounds in his heart, the soul slowly chipping away under the weight of relentless ridicule.
The world had always been cruel to him, but he couldn't figure out why. Was it the way he looked? Was it the fact that he didn't have the right brand of shoes or the newest phone? Or was it simply the way he had been born, to parents who were struggling just as much as he was? Every day, the laughter of his classmates stung his ears. The jokes about his clothes, his family, and his "lack of status" were a soundtrack to his life.
As he walked the halls of his high school, the whispers followed him. "Julian the poor kid," they'd say behind his back. "Did you hear? His family's barely scraping by. He'll never make it."
They never stopped.
Even when he tried to get close to a girl, it was the same story. The ones he thought cared about him drifted away when they saw his truth: a boy whose pockets were empty, a boy who had nothing to offer but his broken dreams. So, Julian did what every other boy in his position did—he played the part, slept around, never allowing himself to get close to anyone. After all, what was the point? When he wasn't being mocked or ignored, he was being used. The girls, lustful and hungry for attention, never cared who he really was. They just wanted a taste of something different, something forbidden, something they could toss aside once they were done.
But Julian's world wasn't all about heartache and girls. He worked at an auto shop after school, scraping together every penny he could. The owner, Tony, was a gruff, no-nonsense man who had no patience for weakness. The place reeked of oil, sweat, and rusted metal, but it was one of the few constants in Julian's life—a reminder that, at least in the world of machines, he could be useful. Every day, his hands were stained with grease, his clothes covered in dirt. It was a hard life, but it was all he knew.
The world outside his small town was different. He knew it because he saw glimpses of it every time he logged into his social media accounts. The glitz and glam of galas, the expensive cars, the luxury real estates—things he could only dream of. And then there were the celebrities and live streamers, living lives that seemed so far removed from his own. He would watch them, longingly, as they danced in designer clothes, surrounded by adoring fans, enjoying lives full of excess and indulgence. How easy it must have been for them, he thought. But then, he'd remember his place. His reality.
His life, it seemed, was one endless competition, but the rules had never been fair. At school, the popular kids always had the upper hand. The girls were drawn to them—because of their money, their status, their perfect lives. Meanwhile, Julian had to fight just to get a passing grade. He had to endure the jeers, the insults, the relentless bullying. The students made fun of him for everything: the way he dressed, the way he spoke, even the way he walked. He was the target, the easy victim, and no one cared to change that.
But even more than that, there was something else. A deep, burning anger inside him. It was the way people looked at him, the way they treated him like he was invisible, like he didn't matter. The jealousy he felt toward the boys who had everything he could never have—popularity, wealth, and the admiration of girls. The way they would fight over girls as if they were trophies, while he was left on the sidelines, a silent observer to a game he could never win.
And then, there was the pain of seeing those girls leave him. They were always quick to use him, to seek his warmth, but as soon as they got what they wanted, they were gone. He was just another notch on their belts. And no matter how many times he tried to fill the void with something, anything, it never worked. The emptiness never went away.
One evening, after yet another cruel rejection, Julian walked aimlessly through the streets. The neon lights from the local party clubs flickered in the distance, drawing him in with their promises of escape. The parties, the loud music, the girls with their alluring smiles and provocative gestures—it was all so tempting. It was a world he couldn't touch, a world that seemed so far beyond him. But tonight, something was different.
He walked past a pawn shop, its window filled with discarded treasures. And there, in the corner, lay a dusty, old watch. The face of it was cracked, but something about it caught Julian's eye. It wasn't the most expensive thing in the store, but it was intriguing, almost... magical. Without thinking, he stepped inside, bought it, and slipped it into his pocket.
That night, the watch would change everything. But for now, it was just another item in his life, another distraction from the pain that had been building up for years.
As he left the pawn shop, the weight of the world pressing against him once more, Julian didn't know that the watch would soon begin to speak to him—not with words, but with tasks. Dangerous ones. Tasks that would lead him into a world he could never have imagined, and give him powers he never thought he deserved.
But for now, all he knew was that life had been cruel, and he was tired of being the victim.
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