Fate, the great unifying mechanism. It is something everyone believes is inevitable, something they become a part of the moment they are born. But Santiago "Jim" Sainz knew better. After all he had lost, he had learned the truth

- How's that homework going, honey? - Her mother's sweet, hurried voice intoned, coming down the stairs. One of those afternoons when she was getting ready for work.

- Are you serious! - A ten-year-old boy responded with annoyance, covering his square glasses with his book-shaped black hair as he leaned back on the dining room table as if he were dozing. - Oh, I've already finished it... and it bored me! - He stood up with a pout. - Like everything at that stupid school. They bore me... Nobody likes me because I always beat them. Even the teachers are jealous of me. But I already know all that. Why do I have to go there, Mom? - He asked, watching her pick up a stethoscope in her usual hurry.

- I told you, Jimmy, I need you to do... - She murmured as she paced nervously around her small living room. But urgency overcame her, and she shouted, - Now, where is that thing? - She was instantly interrupted by her son, who handed her her freshly ironed doctor's coat.

- Yes, yes. Friends, I need to make friends -, the know-it-all exhaled, annoyed. - Mom, do you remember the contest? When I win, he'll give us money. Mr. Bondel will help us.

- What kind of help? That man thinks he owns everything. Besides, you don't have to worry about my things. I saw you the other day! - She reproached him, until the front door made a metallic noise.

- Doctor Mari! - A young woman in a nurse's uniform. - The cops... The police found out that Sarita survived the plague... They're going to do something to her!

Jim recognized the name, his mother's first patient, a victim of a terrifying new pandemic that changed her world. A wave of devastating attacks that almost no one survived. The media called them "El Despertar". Their neighborhood, Guadalupe, was the hardest-hit place on the planet; his family's office was there for that reason.

Thanks to Sarita, the doctor discovered that what was attacking them wasn't a contagious "Plague", as the news reported. In reality, the government only wanted to isolate Guadalupe to provide a quick solution and, in the process, silence the undesirables. But with these results, Mari wanted to open her eyes; helping the poor infected was the only way to find a real cure. Caring for them and understanding them was the key. Sadly, the head of government, Gaspar Santana, preferred to make those affected disappear rather than allocate resources to study the global phenomenon.

How did an elementary school kid know all that?

Jim was the kind of child who never missed a thing. He had a sharp ear, an even sharper memory, and a habit of sticking his nose where it didn't belong. He spent most of his time at his mother's side, soaking up conversations he probably shouldn't have heard.

Despite the dangers of her job—and the scoldings he got for tagging along—Jim always managed to catch glimpses of the tragedies unfolding across their neighborhood. Every case left him more unsettled than the last, feeding the same haunting question: what kind of nightmare kept his mother away from her own family?

More than anything, he just wanted her back.

He truly believed that once he got rid of the cursed Plague, she would finally look at him again. He would become the center of her world, the way he thought he always should have been.

- Please don't leave. Stay here, Jimmy, and wait for Isra -, Mari asked as she put on her gown and stethoscope. - Lupe, honey, tell me. Where did they go? - She left her child without the usual kiss on the forehead to run into the night and continue her mission.

Half an hour passed, and she didn't return. Jim was just looking for a distraction so he wouldn't think about it and avoid going after his mother. He looked at the eternal clock in the living room, searching for the strength to follow her orders and wait. Unfortunately, his nervous glance reminded him that he'd forgotten the stun gun, the one he'd made, and which she'd promised to always carry. This scared him. 'Those police officers don't respect anyone,' echoed in his head before he ran to hand her his weapon.

- No way, Isra -, she whispered as she left, leaving the door ajar so he could enter. She excused her conscience and gave free rein to her curiosity.

He walked one, two, three blocks as night fell around him. At every corner, he questioned the neighbors he could see. Until he came across a group huddled at the entrance to one of the alleys. It was the gateway to an enormous network of passageways that spread throughout the neighborhood, an urban labyrinth everyone feared to enter.

- Oh Dios! - Exclaimed a woman who emerged from the pile, crossing herself.

- Mrs. Esperanza, what happened? - Asked Jim, recognizing the old woman selling tacos.

- Oh, mijo*. They shot him -, she explained, leaving him pale, running towards the people.

Upon reaching the front row, Mari greeted him, covered in blood. Amid the noise, the crowd didn't lift a finger to help. Helpless and ignorant sheep, safe behind a simple mask and their distance, attracted only by gossip redolent of gunpowder and blood. 

This scene increased the disgust Jim already felt for this rabble: his neighbors, classmates, and the teachers who rejected him. The same neighborhood his mother loved so much didn't budge, leaving him to appreciate even more the difference between these zombies and them.

- Help me, now! - Mari cried, pressing the smoldering hole in young Sarita's chest with the gown he always ironed for her. Fighting fiercely for his patient, who lay dying after the police guard intervened. - Call 911, ¡please!

Process: https://youtube.com/shorts/0byUUh7eTsc?si=x0SyxSAjvXxWPPQ9

This was his mother's mission: to risk everything in the most dangerous neighborhood of their city, "La Ciudad Blanca*," the capital of the Third World nation of Aztlán. She wasn't just searching for a cure for the strange disease; she was also fighting for the people, protecting them from a corrupt and ruthless government. Life was precious, and as long as she drew breath, she would do everything in her power to defend it.

- It'sss not fair, it'sss not fair that she'sss like this... Alone! - Something twisted the boy's insides when he heard her cry for help. All she did was work for these rabble, for these filthy cattle. Her family was even above them.

And, with the bloody taste of reality in his mouth, along with a powerful rattling in his chest, the boy interfered once more. He wasn't going to stay frozen like them. He shouldn't be like this. He wouldn't leave her, even if she asked him to. He stood by her side, promising that he would do everything to put an end to this. To never see her like this again, bloodied and in danger, so helpless.

A few months later...

The oath born from the resentment that had slowly consumed him on that bloody night drove the boy to seek a definitive answer. He forged Mari's signature, determined to enter the Bondel Science Competition—the very competition she had always forbidden him from joining—and slowly climb the rankings.

For weeks, he worked in secret, moving cautiously and silently, almost like a shadow, gathering information from the office piece by piece. He assembled a study as comprehensive as his own limited understanding would allow, hoping to uncover the mystery that haunted them all.

What the hell was that plague? What was "El Despertar"?

Throughout his preparation, his teachers constantly questioned his work. The medical case he had developed was far too complex for a ten-year-old. But Jim, using clear graphs, detailed examples, and a confidence beyond his years, showed them that he understood it all perfectly.

Each time, he asked them to keep his project a secret, so he could surprise his mother when he finally won the competition. The overwhelmed vultures agreed, hoping that their little genius would bring fame to their forgotten school.

A year later, the exhibition finally arrived. As expected, it would be judged by Mr. Bondel himself—the most influential, controversial, and brilliant man of his generation.

Despite what his mother believed, Jean Paul inspired a deep sense of admiration. He was one of them, someone extraordinary, a man with the power, vision, and determination to shape the world.

- Incroyable. How did you do it, kid? - He had his famous idol completely surprised, seeing a bloodstain inside an acrylic box, dancing frenetically. It was being destroyed by the shrill vibration of some improvised speakers.

- You see, there's something strange happening in my neighborhood. Floating crystals are causing people to 'change.' And when you expose them to high- and low-frequency sounds—around ten thousand hertz—they go insane. Here, you can see that this thing is inside my neighbors, and that's why they're getting sick -. The boy explained, wearing protective headphones as he presented his findings to several doctors far more knowledgeable than the teachers he had known. - See? This isn't an epidemic like they say on TV. Esos Idiotas!

- Bravo, amazing - The judges were stunned, eating out of his palm. Just as he had planned.

- You are special, garçon*! - He congratulated him. Bondel placed his hand on the little boy's head, indicating that this was his moment, that he was going to be with him. That he was going to help him.

- Thank you, sir. But I'd like to ask you something...- He began the final phase of the plan. It was time to negotiate.

Unfortunately, a thunderous scream stopped all action.

- Santiago Arturo Sainz Kreed, get away from that man, NOW! - Like a raging storm, Dr. Sainz burst onto the scene. In his arrogance, Jim had underestimated her. No scholar in the world could escape his mother's sharp intuition. Not forever.

With an almost inhuman strength, the doctor brought his moment to an abrupt end, overwhelmed by a mix of betrayal and terror at seeing her little boy act behind her back. She had to take him home and pull him away from all of this—drag him away if necessary. Of course, not before filing a firm complaint against the organizers who had played along. And above all, not before giving the infamous millionaire who had orchestrated this mockery a cold, unforgiving stare.

That intervention shattered Jim's ego. He had grown up with an unwavering sense of independence and superiority, fueled by his victory in the competition and, above all, by Bondel's recognition. But his mother's seemingly irrational fear buried his entire plan before he could even explain himself.

How could she be so blind and ignorant, like the others?

- But Mom, didn't you see that he understood?! - He kept repeating for two hours, trying to make her reconsider, when they arrived at her empty office. - Bondel was going to help us!

Mari answered him with a slap... She had never hit him before. Not once.

- How could you expose yourself like that!? - She trembled. - I warned you. I told you not to go near that man.

- And why is that? Why won't you let me solve it? Why are we stuck in this hellhole? Because of you, Mom! - He shouted back, spitting out the poison that had built up from all the suspicions and assumptions he'd carried since moving to the neighborhood—since the day he saw her covered in blood. - You're afraid someone else will solve it before you do... You're jealous of me!

- Jimmy, don't be silly! You don't have the slightest idea who he is... Your father... Your... - She tried to speak through her tears, but then she felt something inside her suddenly break.

Without warning, the small medical facility trembled, mirroring the storm of emotions raging within the thirty-something-year-old doctor. Without explanation, mineral crystals erupted from her trembling body, tearing through her flesh without mercy as purple flashes surrounded her... El Despertar... an Awakening.

- No, not now! - She reached for a sedative on the nearby tray, sparks flying from his body.

- Mommy! What's wrong with you? Did you get infected? - Jim froze, completely lost, with no idea what to do. Just like the zombies—his neighbors, his classmates, his teachers. Despite all his knowledge and research, he was powerless, ignorant, and completely out of control.

Just like them, he was nothing more than another victim of the titan called Fate.

- Run Jimmy... Run!

The room exploded. The windows shattered, the walls split, and the entire structure groaned under the force of it. Jim's body was thrown through the air, crashing hard against a wall.

As he fell, a hiss whispered in his ear: "She needsss usss."

Then he surrendered to the crushing darkness of unconsciousness.

Process: https://youtube.com/shorts/5b87dC56PO8?feature=share