A Good Luck Charm

My heart feels like it's about to leap out of my chest. I don't think I've ever been so scared in my entire life. But then again, it's not every day that you find some random person you've never seen before standing in the middle of your bedroom. The strange woman doesn't make a move, rather she just stares at my with a large grin on her face. After realizing that I don't appear to be in any immediate danger, I take another second to look over the intruder. As previously mentioned, the woman is half-naked, wearing a green bikini that appears to be covered in sequins that sparkle in the light. Curly brown hair drapes her shoulders, complete with a small green bow tied just above where I would assume her ear is. She has tanned skin and rather large... assets.

I feel my face redden as I catch myself staring at her chest. Not that I think anyone would blame me, given how she is so obviously trying to show off. I mean, she's literally standing there in a bikini for crying out loud! Man, I feel gross even thinking about this. Generally, I try to avoid perving on women, especially when they're complete strangers, much less a home invader.

"You okay?" She suddenly asks, causing me to flinch slightly as my eyes shoot back to hers. "You look pretty spooked. I guess I shouldn't be that surprised. I did kind of show up unannounced."

I stare in disbelief as the woman chuckles to herself as if this isn't the weirdest thing ever.

"W-who are you?" I ask.

"You already asked me that," she points out.

"W-well... yeah, but you never answered me," I respond, trying my best to keep my cool.

"Huh... I guess I didn't," she laughs. I'm not the crazy one in this situation, right? How is she so calm right now? "You can call me Luck."

"Luck? You mean, like... the concept? Is that a name?"

"As much as anything else is a name."

I... guess she has a point...

Wait, what am I talking about? Why am I have a casual conversation with this woman?

"What are you doing in my house?" I ask.

"Oh! That's an easy one! I'm here to help you!"

Help me?

"Listen, lady. I don't know who you are or why you're here, but-"

"I already told you, I'm Luck and I'm here to help you!" She says cheerfully.

"Riiight... As I was saying, I don't really want help from someone who broke into my house, so if you could just-"

"I didn't break anything," she once again interrupts.

"Huh?"

"You said I broke in, but I didn't break anything. I kind of just... came in. I feel like you're making focusing on the wrong thing here," she explains.

"I... you... actually, you know what? I can't deal with this right now. However you got in here, can you please just lea-"

I turn away from this Luck woman to open my bedroom door and escort this woman out, but as I do, I suddenly find her standing in front of me once more, this time in between me and the door. In a moment of shock, I stumble backwards and end up falling onto the floor.

"Wha...? How did...? But you were..." I stumble through my words.

"Look, I don't think you understand," Luck says. "I've heard you've had things pretty rough recently. I'm here to make your life not quite as terrible. Maybe even great, but let's start small for now."

"You... you teleported! How did you do that?!" I cry out as I point to where she was standing just a moment ago.

"Hmm?" She questions as she looks over to where I'm point. She then gets a look of understanding. "Oh, I see what you're saying! I suppose it would look like that from your perspective."

"My perspective? What the hell are you talking about?"

"Alright, alright, alright. I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. Let's start over. My name's Luck," she repeats as she holds out her hand. I stare at it, unsure of what exactly to do. I can't say I've ever been in a situation quite like this before. "Uh... it's called a handshake. Last time I checked, it's how a lot of humans greet each other."

"I know what a handshake is- wait, humans?" I say in confusion. Rather than responding, Luck just looks down at her hand. Without any better idea of what to do, mostly because I'm so shaken up, I decide to just go along with her and take her hand. "Um... I'm Kyle."

"Yeah, I know," Luck says as she shakes my hand before pulling me up off the floor. As I grip her hand, I feel some kind of strange energy coming off of her. However, as I get fully back on my feet, the feeling suddenly vanishes. I'm briefly confused before looking up and realizing that Luck is no longer in front of me. "I actually know quite a bit about you. And the less-than-ideal life you have. That's why I'm here," I hear from behind me. I turn around to see that Luck is now sitting on my bed.

"How do you keep doing that?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure you would fully understand it if I tried to explain it to you," she says while pondering to herself. I blink and in the instant my eyes are closed, she's gone once again. I look around the room until I suddenly see the sparkle of her green bikini out of the corner of my eye. This time, she's sitting on top of my desk. "For now, let's just go with your teleporting explanation. That's probably the easiest way for you to interpret it."

"Well, can you stop it? It's really distracting," I tell her.

"Aw, but it's fun seeing your reaction to it," Luck giggles before vanishing once more before reappearing at my side. "But I suppose I can hold off for a little bit so we can talk."

Despite the million questions still floating around in my head, I only manage to get out the first thought I'm able to latch onto.

"You're not... a normal person, are you?" I ask.

"Well, that's not exactly the most eloquent way to put it, but I guess it's not entirely inaccurate," she replies, the same warm smile plastered on her face.

"So then what are you? A fairy? Or a genie? Or some kind of goddess or something?" I know those theories sound absolutely insane. I mean, she looks like a regular person. And yet, something about Luck just seems... supernatural. Even aside from all the teleporting, that is.

"No. Nothing like that. Though I do like the idea of you referring to me as a goddess," Luck exclaims as she stares off into space for a moment. "What I am is a little complicated. Probably for the best if you try not to think about it too much for right now. Instead, let's focus on what I can do for you."

I can't believe I'm seriously entertaining this. This random magic woman appears in my room, says she wants to help me, then starts warping all over the place. Clearly, I need to be checked in to a mental hospital. Or at the very least I need more sleep than I initially thought. Maybe just like with my mom, if I just go along with whatever she says, I can get this over with and finally get some rest.

"Fine. Whatever. How exactly do you want to help me?" I ask her.

Hearing that causes Luck to get twice as excited as she already was, which is impressive all things considered. Honestly, her positivity is kind of getting on my nerves. Perhaps that's just my pessimism talking, but hey, when you've got a life as crappy as mine, your pessimism ends up talking a lot.

"Get ready for this, because boy have I got a treat for you!"

Luck reaches behind her back and pulls out a small object. I briefly wonder how she was able to do that despite her skimpy outfit clearly not having pockets, than I just decide to just let it go. Clearly whatever this woman is, she's not bound by my normal understanding of physics.

She holds out the object in front of me, revealing it to be a small... remote? Honestly, it's hard to tell what it is. The device is a small grey box with a screen on its face, an extendable antennae, and two buttons just bellow the screen, one green and one red. It doesn't appear to have any other inputs on it, making me wonder what possible use a device like that could have. It definitely doesn't seem like something that will fix my life.

"This is a special little device of my own creation. It allows it's user to change anybody they want into all sorts of thing. All you do is point it at the target, press the green button to lock-on, then the red one to active. And before you know it, poof! That person has a whole new identity! But be careful... because you have no control over-"

"Pass."

"Wait, what?" Luck suddenly stops her explanation as a puzzled look appears on her face.

"I said 'pass.' As in I don't want it," I tell her.

"What do you mean you don't want it?" She asks as if I've thrown her for a complete loop.

"Even if I assumed your little device actually worked, which is a big assumption, even considering whatever kind of weird magic powers you've already shown off-"

"It's not technically magic," Luck clarifies, to which I just stare at her in annoyance for once again interrupting me. After a moment of silence, her cheeks redden slightly and she smiles awkwardly before glancing away. "Right... sorry..."

"As I was saying," I continue. "Even if that thing did have some kind of power to change people, I have no interest in using it. Especially if it has one of those 'but be careful' drawbacks. I mean, you'd have to be some kind of idiot to go around using something like that on people."

"Huh... well this is a little awkward... No one's ever turned down the remote before..." Luck muses to herself. It takes her a moment to recollect herself before she seems to get an idea, her cheerful demeanor immediately reappearing. "Alright, I think I see the problem. You want a bit more control. Something to put that sharp wit to good use. The same dish, just with a new flavor, know what I mean? I can work with that. Most of my other stuff is still in the prototype phase, but I'm sure we can find something you'll like." With a flick of her wrist, the remote is replaced by a new object. "How about this special pocket watch that can make people-"

"No," I tell her plainly.

She closes her hand around the pocket watch before reopening it to reveal a small orb in it's place.

"Well, what about this cute little marble that let's you-"

"Would you knock it off? I don't want any of your stuff!"

"Okay, I feel like I'm not doing a great job pitching right now. Why don't you tell me how you'd like to change the people in your life, and I'll try to workshop something for you," Luck tells me.

"You're not listening to me!" I yell at her. "I don't want anything from you. Not your help. Not your weird gadgets. Nothing. Sure, my life sucks, but I can sort it out on my own. I'm not interested in messing with any of the people around me or whatever it is you're trying to get me to do. If you're hoping to find someone to play along with your little game, look somewhere else."

It takes the brunette a solid few seconds to think of a response, but eventually, she looks at me again.

"You know, when I initially decided to come over here, I imagined there would be a lot more fun banter between the two of us," Luck remarks. That's it. I give up. Just as I'm about to open my mouth to say something, I notice the smile disappear from her face as she gives me a much more serious look. "Are you really telling me you want to keep dealing with your life the way it is? I've seen enough to know what you've been going through. Like the argument you just had with your mom downstairs. You want to keep dealing with that all by yourself? You don't think spicing things up a bit could make your life just a bit more enjoyable? A bit more fun?"

I pause for a second to think about what this woman just told me. I have no idea how much she knows about me, but she clearly has the basic gist. My life is terrible. Am I really okay with just trying to keep pushing through it in the hopes of something better coming down the line? I've been doing the same thing every day for over a year and nothing's changed. Would having a little bit of help really be that bad? Honestly, I have no idea. The only thing I do seem to know right now is just how much I want to be left alone...

"Kyle! Get down here! Your mother and I need to have a word with you!" I hear a deep voice shout from downstairs. Great. Looks like Dad just got home. I look back and forth between Luck and the door. After a moment, I take a breath and look her in the eyes.

"Please, just... just leave me alone. I already have too much to deal with. Go find someone else to hand out your toys to. I don't care who. Just be gone by the time I get back."

The scantily-clad woman just stares at me as I walk toward the door to my room. As I close it behind me, I notice that she looks deep in thought. Who knows what's going through her head right now? I doubt I could even make a guess. I just hope that's the last I see of her...