HC snapped his fingers, and a screen appeared hovering in the air.

"You are an athletic, intelligent, good-looking young man. You attend a good college. You are in my lineage. Your life should be glorious. But recently, something has happened that shattered your happy life."

How could he know?

During the fall semester of your freshman year at college, you occasionally hooked up with Tiffany.

It was nothing serious; the two of you hung out in the same social groups, and when you were both in the mood and had nothing else lined up, you would fuck.

One evening shortly after returning from winter break, the two of you were in your room. Tiffany was taking pictures with your phone when you received a text message. It was a dick pic from Carlos, a guy you fooled around with over break. You never told Tiffany that you were bisexual. Tiffany read the rather explicit text exchanges between you and Carlos.

"What the Fuck! Care to explain why some guy, Carlos, is texting you dick pics? Are you some kind of homo pervert? Did you hook up with this piece of trash? Holy shit! Is that a picture of you with his cum on your face?"

Since that day, Tiffany made it her mission to ruin you. She started with your roommate Jake.

You got along well with Jake, but that soured once he and Tiffany began regularly hooking up. Tiffany encouraged Jake to ridicule you when hanging out with your friends. Soon he needed no encouragement. One evening Jake came home drunk and angry. You tried to help him to his bed, but he violently knocked you to the ground.

"Stop trying to feel me up, you pervert."

A few days later, Tiffany found a pair of Jake's used underwear under your pillow. You had no idea why they were there. Then another was found in the back of your closet along with two of Tiffany's panties, a pair of Tiffany's roommate panties, and underwear with the name Carlos written in them.

You were branded as the dorm pervert. It was apparent to you that Tiffany planted the underwear, but no one believed you. Jake spoke to your RA, who, in turn, brought you before the residence hall discipline committee (who even knew there was such a thing), and they required you to attend five hours of sexual harassment sensitivity training. They also informed you that next year you might not be allowed to live in the residence halls. Someone posted fliers all over campus and on social media, with your picture and messages like "WARNING SEXUAL PREDATOR!" So now you were the campus pervert, alleged sex offender, and social pariah.

Your grades were suffering, and your position on the swim team was in doubt. You were a walk-on alternate for the team. It meant you got to practice with the team, and hopefully, you might qualify to swim at official meets in the future. Jake was also on the swim team, and it wasn't long before the entire team believed you had a fetish for other men's underwear. Several of the teammates accused you of stealing their Speedos. As an alternate, you were already an outsider, while Jake was a future star recruited out of high school. Naturally, everyone took his side and either avoided you or were openly hostile toward you. The worst was Trent.

Trent was a senior and top athlete, he would have been captain if he wasn't such a lazy asshole. Your teammates respected Trent's talent but hated his personality. The coach partnered Trent with a different swimmer for each hour of training. The partner's job was to push Trent. You had the misfortune of being Trent's swim partner for the final hour of practice and during weight training.

Trent never liked you, but in the past few weeks, he had begun to publicly humiliate you and privately **** you. At first, you dismissed the kicks to the head while swimming laps as accidents. But after he nearly concussed you, you knew it was only a matter of time before his "accidents" resulted in more than bumps and bruises.

You considered complaining to the coaching staff but an alternate versus the star athlete? You would be off the team before you uttered two sentences. Your options were to quit or to endure. There were few things you loved as much as swimming. You chose this college because you knew you had a good chance of one day competing as a member of the team.

"Those three have derailed your destiny. They have stolen your happiness. You do not deserve what is happening to you, and it is not going to stop.

The dread you had been holding inside the past few weeks rose to the surface. HC put into words precisely what you had been feeling. For all the bad things that were happening to you, knowing there was no end in sight made everything seem hopeless. A sob tore from your throat, and HC stepped forward and wrapped his arms around you.

"I'm sorry. I don't usually..."

"Its the nature of this realm. Feelings are more substantial. Divine and mortal energies combined result in a powder keg of emotional energy.

HC relaxed his embrace, held you at arms length, and looked you in the eyes.

"Today we change your fate."