It was a Saturday morning in the town of Debris. There was a long line of people standing outside the grand doors of the “Bethel of the Cabinet” awaiting their turn. With an application for the Charm in his hand, a teenage boy with messy black hair dropped off from a taxi before the House of the Cabinet. 

 

///

 

The taxi drove off behind me and I stood there, gazing at the grand Bethel of the Cabinet. 

 

Fear struck me. My heart was racing. I needed to step back from here and run away as fast as I could from this creepy cabinet, but if I do so… I would be living in poverty for the rest of my life. So, this was my hope. My only hope. 

 

I took a deep breath and walked to the rear of the long line of Knick-Knacker wannabes. 

 

The Bethel, very identical to a regular church, was enormous. This was the first time I’d ever been close to one of these Cabinet Bethels, and already, there was a funny feeling coming from the other side of those doors. Caught in the tension of the moment, I didn't even notice the familiar face before me. 

 

What the… I was utterly confused. Why the hell would a high school girl become a CHARM USER?

 

Wearing a white sweater and some jeans, quite a popular girl in my grade was standing right in front of me. Constantly peeking at the front of the line to see if it was moving faster, she too was holding an application for the Charms. She looked troubled for some reason.

  

“Rae?” I tapped her on the shoulder.

 

“Huh?” Instantly, she turned around. “WHA – no! Chris!!”

 

“Yes, I’m Chris,” I replied. “What the hell are you doing here, Rae?”

 

Rae’s jaw dropped. “I… I – don’t tell me! You’re going to be a Charm user too?”

 

“Yes… And what are you doing here?”

 

“What do you think…? I’m getting the job, duh,” she waved her Charm application in my face. 

 

For a moment, there was silence between us. I never really expected a girl from our school to be a Knick-Knacker. 

 

“Huh. Weird.” 

 

Then, a bus pulled off behind us. Both our attention was taken away by this bus and we looked behind us. A tall boy wearing glasses stepped off from the footboard right in front of the bus stop. Shockingly, it was Ted… another kid from our section.

 

“What the fuck is going on today?” I blurted out. 

 

There were not only one but two people from our grade who had the genius idea of becoming a Charm User this Saturday morning. For a moment, I felt like I was not alone in this world after all.

 

Pause. I know, I know. Getting thrown into a bizarre story right away is too much to handle. Let’s go back in time and first get a few ideas about what the hell is going on!

///

First of all, “The Bethel of the Cabinet” is the place in our town “Debris” where one of the many magical cabinets had been held. You must be wondering what The Cabinet is.

 

In 1836, the day of the Cabinet, as it is called now, Humans had discovered the next big step for Humanity. A couple of hunters had found a mysterious cabinet in the middle of a forest in England. And the most fascinating thing about this cabinet was that when the men hauled it out of the mud, took it home, and swung open its doors… they only witnessed a dark cloud within it and a bunch of words in their mind saying:

 

 [You have been blessed by the Cabinet! You are given the chance to grab a Charm!] 

 

One of the hunters was seemingly fascinated by this sudden message. So, he followed the order. It was a cabinet after all. What hard could it bring?

 

When he shoved his hand inside, magically, he did grab something in the darkness. And he pulled it out. He was Tailor Wisconsin, the first-ever Charm User who pulled out a magical spoon from the cabinet. And the spoon wasn’t a regular one either. It was a spoon that held immense strength and otherworldly powers. 

 

Nearly two centuries later, this very Cabinet was a thing humans worshipped, and hated. 

 

The Cabinet is a mysterious object rumored by people of many religions to be many different things. The cabinet Jesus used to store his items back in the day. Allah’s cabinet was what the Muslims called it, they thought the cabinet held the personal belongings of Allah and that it was unholy to use it. Many others thought it was a cabinet that fell from the heavens down to the Earth. 

 

But, in any case, the Charm Users themselves knew that all of this was untrue and there was a logical explanation as to why it appeared there. 

 

The easiest way to explain this was… 

 

Once in a lifetime, a human is allowed to grab hold of an item from the cabinet. Then, the man is destined to live his entire life using this item, later known as a Charm, for the wellbeing of society, aka. To battle the monsters which had been attacking the Earth since the Stone Age, constantly attempting to take over the world.

 

And in the year 2000, someone managed to grab a wand that duplicates things. The wand was used to duplicate the Cabinet many times so the cabinet could be distributed among the many people of the world, and now in 2022, almost every town had one of these magical Cabinets. So, the Charm Users (Ones who possess a charm), Narnians, or the Knick Knackers became a job opportunity in the modern world.

 

///

I’m Chris Colson and I am a high school sophomore. I have problems too. For example: 

 

I live in poverty so I have no idea how to pay off my college fees. My Mom and Dad have a huge loan up their asses, so depending on them was no option either. I had a little brother and the man was suffering too; he just didn’t know much about it yet. The pillow covers in my bed were too rough. My mattress was hard as a rock. I hate the dark green curtains in my room, and I needed to change them cause dad didn’t have enough money to spend on curtains. My online girlfriend was expecting me to visit her by the time I’m 18 years old, and I needed money for that too. 

 

So, life was indeed hard. And that is why I decided to become a part-time Charm User, or a full-time one if I decided that office jobs are too boring. Hence, here I was, standing in line before the Bethel on a Saturday morning. 

 

Ted and Rae had come here for the money too. Well, at least I wasn’t alone with a bunch of strange beggars and shady-looking men and women here. 

 

Soon, the line shortened. 

 

Men and women who were coming out of the doors had different items on each of them. One middle-aged woman came out holding a comb with a depressed look, and another old man with a long-ass white beard stepped down the stairs with a garden fork in his grasp. When he came out, he had the same dead eyes he possessed when he went inside. Another, very lean woman came out holding a fork, crying. 

 

The intensity of the crowd was growing after seeing those faces, and now… The next one to go in through those doors was Rae Mondial. She was worried sick. It was obvious from the constant tapping of her feet she always did when she was worried. 

 

“Good luck, Rae.” I wished her luck with a smile.

 

Rae chuckled nervously. “Thank you, Chris,” she muttered. 

 

The guy who went inside came out of the doors with nothing in his hand. Of course. Every once in a while, the Cabinet refuses a human’s hand. Poor guy.

 

Rae wiped the sweat off her forehead and stepped in through the doors. I watched her go. Ted too was sweating from nervousness behind me. My heart was bumping into my chest. 

 

The door wasn’t shut entirely, so I could see Rae from the narrow gap. The old man who was watching over the doors of the Bethel approved her application and sent her in.

 

Rae walked up the grand stairs to the spot where the cabinet was. There was a shaft of light falling upon the cabinet from the skylight in the roof, and Rae stepped into this holy light. 

 

My eyes didn’t avert from the girl. I needed to know what it was like… before I went in myself. 

 

There was another man dressed entirely in a cloak, who looked like one of those evil cultists. Rae and the mysterious cloaked figure shared a word and Rae took a deep breath. She opened the door, and a gust of wind blew back her red curly hair. 

 

She shoved her hand in. Then, she pulled her hand out.

 

The doors closed instantly. Within Rae’s grasp was something white. It seemed like some sort of wings. But they sure as hell looked fake.

 

What the hell? What the hell are those? I couldn’t guess what they were. I stepped a bit closer to get a better look. Props? Party costume?

 

She too was confused. She saw the strings attached to the wings and strapped the fake wings to her back. Just like that… it happened. She flew. 

 

The fake wings shifted into actual wings and with an ear-bleeding scream, Rae took to the skies. She wasn’t controlling them. Speechless, my eyes were glued to this scene. Like an angel ascending to the heavens, the winged Rae flew towards the skylight.  

 

The skylight shattered and the girl disappeared through the roof into the skies above. The line of people behind me began to panic. 

 

But… the cloaked figure did not panic at all. He threw his hand towards the flying girl, confident of his act. 

 

"CLOAK! Restrain her!" 

 

The cloak he wore unwrapped itself from the man and it took off into the skies through the shattered skylight at a tremendous speed. 

 

Moments later, a weeping Rae wrapped entirely in a dark cloak floated down to the floor. The young and buff charm user who wore the cloak unwrapped Rae and took off her wings and handed them to the girl. 

 

“Learn to control them,” he advised with a kind smile. “You’re the first who got wings like this."

 

Pressing the fake wings against her chest and wiping her fretful tears away, Rae strolled out of the Cabinet Room through a backdoor. 

 

“Next!” The old man at the door cried out. 

 

And it was my turn now.

 

With my heart still racing, I handed my application to the old man. He observed it for a second, sealed it, and waved his hand, inviting me in. The dark-cloaked figure stood there beside the cabinet looking like an executioner. His magical cloak wrapped around him. The cloak was not something I’d seen or heard about before. He must’ve been a new Charm User, still rising in popularity. 

 

“Please step forward,” the man announced as I stood 4 feet away from the cabinet, frozen. 

 

I did as he ordered. 

 

Sweat was trickling down my forehead and my legs were trembling with fear. I take out a useless little item here, and my life is ruined. Absolutely. Ruined. My thoughts interrupted me. 

 

I stretched out my hand to grab the knob of the cabinet. Rae was just lucky… My inner voice mumbled. I shook my head. 

 

No…. keep it together, I breathed. Keep it chill. 

 

I opened the cabinet. 

 

A cold and sickly wind blew on my face.

 

[You have been blessed by the Cabinet! You are given the chance to grab a Charm!]  The well-known text from the so-called “system” appeared before my eyes. A nervous smile drew on my face. 

 

I shoved my trembling hand in and my fingers ran through a wooden surface. Suddenly, I felt it. The item I was destined to grab. “Make it worthwhile, Cabinet God.” 

 

My fingers grasped the cold metal rod. 

 

To be continued...