It was the middle of the night when Mike woke up to study. This was his favourite time, when the world was peaceful and the only sound he could hear was his breathing.

Mike decided to go grab a glass of milk before he could start studying. In the kitchen he noticed something strange and horrifying sitting at the kitchen counter, gulping milk straight from the bottle.

Mike just stood there with his eyes and mouth wide open in shock and fear.

He hurtled closer to the thing to get a better glimpse of it. The creature had pinkish and white dotted fur all over its body, and enormous swollen-looking ears. It looked extra-terrestrial. Mike’s heart started pounding like a drumroll.

The horrifying, yet adorable creature also seemed scared as it stood at the kitchen counter. Mike noticed that its pupils were dilated. Maybe the creature was harmless, lost and hungry, and decided to steal milk from the fridge. At least that’s what Mike thought.

The young man reached out his hand, hoping it didn’t attack or turn hostile. The creature wasn’t aggressive, it allowed Mike to touch it. The touch felt like a magic touch to Mike. He brushed its fur, his hands feeling pleasure.

“Don’t be scared little buddy, I won’t harm you. Are you hungry?”

The creature nodded, clearly understanding what Mike was saying.

The creature seemed to be looking deep into Mike’s eyes. It produced a blue flame in its hand and Mike was mesmerised. Mike looked closer into the flame and he could see his childhood memories. He watched in wonder, as the memories became more recent.

Mike was amused, it was a great experience for him. He felt like celebrating.

Mike heard a baritone-like voice in his head while his eyes were still glued to the flame.

“Take the flame and place it on your chest. This is a spark of life, it will protect you everywhere you go and it will serve you eternally.”

With great curiosity, Mike did as he was told by the voice.

After Mike had placed the flame in his chest, the creature started dissipating slowly into thin air, leaving Mike with a thousand questions.

Mike started feeling dizzy and tired, suddenly he desperately needed to sleep. He gave in to the fatigue and it led him to a good night’s rest.

There he was, in a room full of beautiful pink and whitish flowers that produced a pleasing scent that made him forget about his problems. Then something terrifying happened. The flowers started to come to life. One of the flowers blew a flame straight into Mike’s face.

He started screaming his lungs out, and that’s when he realised that he was just dreaming.

Mike woke up confused about the dream and guilty for not studying. He thought about the dream, about flowers that looked like the creature. He got up and got ready for school. He said his goodbyes to his mother and made his way to school with mixed emotions.

Mike’s long-time friend, Frank, ran to Mike the minute he saw him making his way through the gates of Moltbridge High School. Frank started boasting about how he studied the whole night for the test, and how he was certain he would get good grades.

Mike was not listening to any words coming out of Frank’s mouth. He was still daydreaming about what he had experienced.

“Mike, are you okay? You don’t seem like yourself today,” said Frank.

“I am okay. I’m just worried about the test,” Mike said, nodding his head like the creature did when he asked if it was hungry.

“Don’t worry Mike, you will get good grades, you are smart.”

Mike felt like telling Frank about his dream that felt so real, but he was afraid his friend was going to think he was out of his mind. The two made their way to class and soon the school bell rang, indicating the official starting time for writing.

Mike didn’t know anything on the paper. He glimpsed at Frank and noticed him enjoying the paper. He didn’t know what to do. It was like his mind was frozen.

Suddenly, Mike saw all the answers to the questions in the paper.

He was shocked, thinking his mind was playing games on him. But he was running out of time so he wrote everything he saw.

The following day the results came. Mike thought he had written gibberish and had failed, but his was the highest in his class.

After sometime he started to notice that he was not himself, that there was a parasite living inside him. The soul of the creature was inside him and he was the host. He knew it was the one responsible for him passing his test and he started using it for his own personal gain.

The parasite granted Mike everything he wanted. When Mike wanted something, the ‘immortal parasite’ was there to do it for him. Till this day, the parasite takes care of Mike as it’s host and does everything he wants. Mike is currently 236 years old and is referred to as the oldest monk that ever lived.

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Tell us: Do you believe in mystic powers or immortality?