You get a call from a friend you haven’t heard from in years. She tells you that she is the Chosen One.

Mike was relaxing from a long day’s work when the phone rang. He groaned and dragged his feet to the phone. It was not a number he recognized, but his mind was still tired from looking at spreadsheets for hours on end. “Hello?” He said. “Hey, Mike, It’s Cindy.” Mike’s mind churned sluggishly. He remembered a girl named Cindy. She had been his next door neighbor up until middle school, when she just vanished. “Uh…Cindy…?” “You know, Cindy Reynolds. We grew up together.” “Oh, right, yeah, if course. I remember you.” He also remembered she had been his first crush. He had grown out of it fairly quickly though. “How, uh, how are you doing? Haven’t heard from you in what, fifteen years.” “Yeah, sorry about that. Things…things got kind of weird for me.” “Weird?” “Yeah. See, I kind of got take by a bunch of cultists who wanted to sacrifice me to some dark god. Oh, don’t worry, I got rescued. I mean, obviously, I’m talking to you now, right? So yeah, I found out I’m The Chosen One, destined to vanquish evil and all that. I spent the last fifteen years training, and now it’s apparently time for me to go out and save the world.” She said it in a casual manner, like she was just talking about a nice, normal day at work. Mike was just starting to become a functional human being again, and so her story was strange. “The Chosen One? Like in stories and stuff?” “Yup. Turns out most fiction is based on something real. It’s not always totally accurate, but a lot of the stuff we read about happens in one for or another. But it’s, like, in another dimension, or plane of existence. It’s hard to explain over the phone. But yeah, those cultists that captured me want to bring some seriously evil stuff into our dimension, so I’ve got to go stop them. Oh hey, did you know magic is real? I’m not using a phone to call you. It’s a magic crystal that acts like a phone, but it’s definitely not a phone.” “Uh…huh… Are…are you okay? Do you need to see anyone or talk to anyone? Maybe some meds you need?” “Mike, I’m not crazy. I promise, I’m completely sane.” “Cindy, you call me after fifteen years and go on about magic and saving the world. What am I supposed to think?” She was silent for a moment. “Fair enough. How about we meet up and I can show you? It can be somewhere public if it helps.” “It might.” He would not be adverse to meeting an old friend again anyway. Even if she was slightly unhinged. “Great. Although…I should probably mention something before we meet. You might not want to see me after, and it’s better to get things like this out of the way fast.” “Okay?” “Well, you know how in stories the hero always has companion? And one of them is usually a childhood friend or something like that?” Mike suddenly felt a pit form in his stomach. “Yeah?” “And you remember how neither of us really hung out with anyone in school, except for each other?” “True.” He knew where this was going already. “Well, turns out that you’re the only person that fits the childhood friend criteria for me. Which means I kind of have to bring you along on my quest.” “Seriously?” “We can go over the details when we meet in person. That is, if you still want to meet.” Mike still thought she was crazy, and part of him wanted to hang up and not see the potentially insane woman. But a part of him could not deny that seeing her again would be nice. He would just need to make sure they did not go anywhere without a large crowd. It was that little part of him that ended up speaking next. “When and where should we meet?”