The Decree

On a cold, windy night in McCook, Nebraska, John Deleran was playing his PlayStation 4 and drinking Pepsi, his favorite drink. He just finished one Pepsi and grabbed another from the mini-fridge in his room. He’d recently been laid off from work and was back to living with his mom in his hometown. But he didn’t care. No bills, no expenses, no rent. He decided to give his gaming career another chance, as he had made money from streaming on Twitch the last time he did it. His Mother was gone for the weekend, and he heard something hit his roof, roll down, and land somewhere in the front yard. He barely heard it through his headphones, so he slipped them off and paused Elden Ring. Getting up, he went to the window and looked down. He saw the tip of some golden object, but most of it was hidden out of view. He put his black leather jacket on and went outside to get a better look. On the ground was a rolled-up scroll with gold end caps. It looked like one of the scrolls from ancient times he’d read about in history class. He picked it up and took it into his room. Setting it on the bed, he stood back and admired it. Rolled up, it had a string wrapped around it to keep it from unfurling. He grabbed the string and pulled, lifting the scroll and slowly unrolling it. At the top, the scroll read, ‘Write your decree below.’ It was written in a fancy red cursive font, but the text looked animated, almost alive. John smirked and grabbed a pen, then wrote on the scroll. I want