It began innocently enough. Jacob Mercer, a diligent TV reporter for a local news station, was on the scene of a county fair mishap: a trampoline, caught by a sudden gust, had sent four youngsters skyward in a spectacle both alarming and, mercifully, nonfatal. As Jacob framed the shot, a composed young woman approached him.
“I saw everything,” she said simply. “It was awful.”
Something in her calm delivery and clear, resonant voice caught Jacob’s eye. Eris Fortuna—a fitting name, though Jacob didn’t yet know it—made her on-air debut that day as his on-the-spot witness. Her brief, vivid account lent genuine emotion to what might have been a throwaway segment. Viewers noticed. Jacob did too.
A Coincidence…or Something More?
Two weeks later, Jacob arrived at a hospital fire just as Eris strolled out of the eye clinic next door. Within moments she was again at his side, describing the blaze with poignant clarity. Three weeks after that, he pulled up at the scene of a major pile-up on the motorway—only to find Eris in mid-interview with a national news crew, recounting how a runaway tanker forced her to brake just in time.
Curious, Jacob checked his notes: every time he covered a major incident—accidents, fires, even a serial killer’s denouement—Eris Fortuna was there, calmly observing, never injured, always ready with a vivid testimonial. Local colleagues whispered of “jinxing”—yet no evidence tied her to these misfortunes beyond her uncanny presence.
From Celebrity to Pariah
Word of Eris’s extraordinary streak spread fast. The town’s mayor, seeking a selfie-op, invited her to his inauguration party across town—where a suddenly miscast projector triggered a small hostage crisis. Local businesses, both grateful and superstitious, offered her free goods to stay away; one rival shop even paid her to visit their competitor’s premises, only to have that building crushed by engine debris falling from a passing jet.
Fame, however, swiftly soured. With every new calamity, Eris’s “jinx” reputation grew. Shops barred their doors; neighbors crossed the street to avoid her; old friends melted away. Even her own family spoke to her only by phone. Jacob, initially skeptical, watched as this quiet woman became the most reviled figure in town.
Jacob’s Final Interview
Seeking both ratings and closure, Jacob arranged to bring Eris onto his show for a live, at-home interview. The cameras rolled as Eris, visibly gaunt from weeks of isolation, spoke from her living room:
“I’ve always been there when disasters struck—sometimes tragic, sometimes bizarre. My mum used to say, ‘Inside every cloud, there’s a silver lining.’ And she was right: after our headmaster’s terrible death, the new one was so much kinder. Even the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs cleared the way for us. I believe these events, however awful, can bring unexpected good.”
Her voice cracked as she confessed how she’d lost everyone:
“I feel so alone. Neighbors called me a hazard. My family won’t visit. I wish… I wish the earth would swallow me up.”
At that very moment, the unthinkable happened. A powerful earthquake—measuring 8.5 on the Richter scale—rumbled beneath her home. Within seconds, Eris’s house, and much of the surrounding city, collapsed into a massive sinkhole. Jacob’s life, his career—and Eris’s fate—were all buried in that catastrophic event.
Beyond Belief…Or Just Bad Luck?
In the weeks that followed, seismologists chalked the quake up to a rare tectonic shift; statisticians reassured the public that, however extraordinary, no supernatural forces were at play. But as the dust settled, many couldn’t help musing on the fatal timing of Eris Fortuna’s last words. Was it sheer coincidence, or had the town’s most notorious bystander truly become a walking disaster?
As Yogi Berra might have summed it up:
“That’s too coincidental to be a coincidence.”
And so the legend of Eris Fortuna endures: a poignant reminder that sometimes, being in all the wrong places at all the wrong times isn’t just unlucky—it’s inexplicably, uncomfortably fated.
