HOROSCOPE

There was a time and place where I didn’t know what life would bring me next. I was lost in uncertainty, mortality, and unawareness. I can’t imagine living like that again. I can’t imagine not knowing. I’m so glad I got drunk that one night and downloaded that Horoscope app. Without it, I am lost.

- - -

It was one of those days where I got my small paycheck, having a long day working at the book store. I love books, and stores that sell them. They’re wonderful things, rooms full of objects that can suck you into another world. However, the pay just isn’t there with this book store. It’s no Barnes and Noble, it’s for used books, and everyone wants to just see the new things, the fancy covers. A shame.
Well, I had an idea, which was uncharacteristic of me. I don’t drink, nor do I drink myself stupid, but I was off to the liquor store and back in my apartment, downing shot after shot. I didn’t drink straight from the bottle. I poured twelve shot glasses evenly, and took one shot after the next, with a good pause in between.
I was on my third shot, and I was looking around the app store, ‘fortune’ in the search bar. Maybe there was another way to make money, another way that I didn’t know about. At least, that was my drunk thought process. I’m not one to look up ‘fortune’, but it doesn’t matter, because I did. That’s when I discovered ‘Astrology Now’, with a twelve spoked wheel, designed to look like it was etched into the rounded square for the icon. The title reminded me of ‘serenity now’ from Seinfeld. It’s probably what it’s supposed to remind you of. I downloaded it.
First, I looked at the horoscope for that day’s beforehand. It was well past 9 o’clock, so I was going to see if the passage matched up with my day beforehand.

April 17th, 2015
Virgo
Your aspirations were strong today, Virgo, but the universe did not give you much to work with. Find a time to relax for your successes in the past, as you have not already.

I noticed there was more to scroll down to, even though the paragraph ended there. I swiped up, it said:

Take your fourth shot, Virgo.

I let out an abrupt laugh. What the hell was this? Clearly it was a weird coincidence, something like that. An app couldn’t tell that I hadn’t had my fourth shot yet. I got up from my shot glasses lined up at the coffee table. I didn’t take the shot, I went face first into the bed.

- - -

The next morning, I stumbled to the coffee table to find my assembly line untouched. I picked up the glasses and left them in the fridge, as I am not a morning drinker. Afterward, just out of amusement, I opened the app to see what awaited for me on my day off from work.

April 18th, 2015
Virgo
A long, dreary day of relaxation awaits you, Virgo. You may spend time cleaning you apartment that’s already clean, organizing your bookshelf that’s already organized, and cooking yourself a meal while the TV plays in the background.

I looked up from my phone at the apartment. Yes, that’s what I was planning to do today. That’s exactly how I envisioned it. Thinking nothing more, I read the last sentence.

Do yourself a favor, Virgo, and look on page 52 of your favorite book. A fifty dollar bill awaits you, a gift from me. Think twice before you write something off as coincidence.

You would think that I would rush to Fahrenheit 451 on my bookshelf and tear it open, but I closed the app and simply walked over to my bedroom/study. My study was modest, if not pitiful, and fifty dollars would do it very well, but it wasn’t in my heart to believe such a thing was possible. But there it was: the large 50 printed on a green corner, peeking out of that book. 
I was ecstatic. I drove off to the bookstore I work at, purchased a Steven King novel, a piece on the psychology of crowds, and, hell, a book called The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need. I owed it to whoever wrote for Astrology Now. I didn’t know what I believed about the app. I sure as hell didn’t believe some guy was watching me through the ceiling, crept through the air vent and slipped a fifty dollar bill in my book.
Maybe it was that day that I believed in a higher power. Not a creator, or all powerful being, but somebody who had some extra-dimensional power. It had to be.

- - -

I spent a year with the app. It no longer gave me money in my own household, but I would find bonuses on the ground, and other places the app would have me look. The day after my find, the last day of the weekend, I found a hundred dollar bill by a potted plant in a hotel lobby. I’m sure everyone there confused when a man in a t-shirt - on a cold spring morning - walked in, shouted “AHA!” and sped out the door.
Three months after, with many hidden bills in between, I found a brief case at the bottom of a dumpster. Just three months ago, nobody would ever find me scrounging about in garbage, but there I was. I counted out the contents at home, and just like that, I was a millionaire. Maybe it was illegal. I didn’t care. I would have quit my job, if the store didn’t need the help, and I liked working enough. Besides, I was able to give many book recommendations to curious visitors. Soon, I would be committing another act that I didn’t expect from myself - inviting people to my study. 
At this point I had bought a house - modest, but large enough for me - on the coasts of New York (not New York City, god forbid). I had bought several bookshelves from oakwood, full of old favorites and new favorites, books that gave me revelations, books that I stopped halfway through - deliberately and forgetfully. I began to make friends, for the first time in my life. We had a book club, sometimes by candlelight, sipping coffee and discussing the latest assigned chapter of a book. 
I thought everyone who had my old tastes in literature had died or was hiding away like I was. I was wrong. Thanks to Astrology Now, I found them. But there was still something I wanted to do, something on my mind. I wanted to travel.

- - -

June 17th 2017
Virgo
Today is the day of your trip, Virgo. A step of heroism will be required on your part today.

Strange little passage, very short. There had been shorter, but I didn’t think much of it as I stood in line to board the plane to Paris. The ticket was accepted, and I got on the flight. I had a bit of a giddy feeling in my stomach. I had never traveled out of the country before. The plane began rolling down the runway. My phone vibrated. It was a text.
“Hello, Virgo.”
The horoscope app texted me? This hasn’t happened before.
“Yes, hello. How can I help you?”
“Your act of heroism begins here. Text YES to accept. Text NO to decline.” 
I frowned. A heroic act on a plane? This was not good at all. But Astrology Now had given me everything I every wanted and what I thought I never needed.
“YES,” I sent. The blinking dots on the screen, indicating it was typing, lasted for quite some time. 
“There is a terrorist on the plane, Virgo. He is sitting in seat 14C, right by the isle. He has black, messy hair, in his late 20’s, and has brought a bomb with him on the plane. You will stay in your seat until the seatbelt sign turns on. When the the light turns on, kill the man as fast as possible. The weapon is in the pouch in front of you, behind the SkyMall magazine. I believe in you, Virgo.”
I gulped and peered down the isle. I was in seat 23C. He was nine seats right behind me. I would have to get up to shoot him. I looked in the pouch, behind the magazine, where a pistol that I couldn’t name rested at the bottom. I was really going to kill a terrorist. I was really going to do it. 
I didn’t second guess this whole thing. I don’t blame myself. It was very clear that Astrology Now knew everything, knew what was best for me, I was going to be a hero. After I killed the man, the bomb would be found, and everyone would live. I was going to be a hero. 
I stared at the seatbelt sign intently, waiting for it to go on. People were reading books, magazines. The person sitting next to me typed away on his laptop. He was in for a shock. 
BING. Adrenaline that was rising through me hit a bursting point. Everything seemed to move slowly, time became molasses. I ripped the gun out of the pouch, and did a stumbling run to seat 14C, one foot after the other. As I ran, someone else rose out of their seat, to my left. They were aiming an identical gun at me. I didn’t have time to think of what was going on. Before anything happened, I had to shoot this terrorist, who was standing up, a gun in hand as well.
I fired, he didn’t react. The bullet ripped through the top of his seat, tore through someone’s jaw as their head snapped to the window. He fired, the bullet whistled a foot from me. I fired again. I hit the messy, dark-haired man in the temple, as blood spattered on the half open airplane window. Immediately after, I felt something, a bullet, tear through my forehead from the back.

- - -

When you die, at least - when I died, I didn’t see black. I, my consciousness, my sight and senses, stayed in the air, and my body fell face first. I saw the back of my head gaping open. At that moment I ‘knew’. I knew that the person sitting next to me previously was writing a paper on biology. I knew the contents of his coat and wallet. I knew everything about the dark-haired person I killed, and his lucky baseball, signed by a Wildcats member. He did not have an explosive.
His phone had pictures of his three sons and his wife that did not like his secrecy, but loved him nonetheless. He grew up in Arizona, and followed every sports team in the state. He owned the app ‘Astrology Now’, and the app called him ‘Leo’. He was assigned to kill a woman who was called ‘Cancer’. I was killed by ‘Libra’, who was stabbed to death by ‘Scorpio’. It was not a pretty sight, of course, but the passengers and pilots didn’t survive the crash into the ocean. 
I came to ‘know’ these things in an instant, and so did the rest of the astrological signs, as all twelve of us, dead, hung in the air above the sea, a storm brewing above, and cold water sloshing below. If there are realms beyond the physical world, we don’t know it. We were to enter Astrology Now.

- - -

I floated along the book store I once worked at. I brushed my hand through a shelf, and it whisked through every page. My boss was at the newspaper in the break room. He was standing, palms planted to the sides the the front page, fingers spread.

FLIGHT FROM NEW YORK TO PARIS CRASHES IN ATLANTIC. PILOT’S LAST WORDS REPORTED A WAR BROUGHT IT DOWN.

Ned was on that plane, my boss thought. I smiled behind him. What the hell are we going to do without Ned? Such a good worker - how can we replace him? He slumped into the chair he was standing in front of, seeming like he was shielding his eyes from grief with his left hand. S**t. S**t.
I leaned closer to him. I need another option I thought, projecting my thoughts to become his, maybe there’s another way to make money. I should look up ‘fortune’ on the app store.
I stood back as my boss sat up abruptly as if he had a good idea. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and unlocked it. It was at that point I began dreaming up today’s horoscope.

June 18th, 2017
Taurus
You may have experienced a loss today, Taurus. Maybe a loss of a friend or financial situation. Look on page 53 of your favorite book. A fifty dollar bill awaits you. A gift from me to you.

I manifested that as I drifted out of the break room and off to my next target. We have a way of knowing things, everyone’s favorite and least favorite. But I didn’t need to look in him to find his favorite book. I already knew it was Fahrenheit 451. He’s the one who showed it to me.