Locked in his room, reading some web novels, was a twenty-five-year-old young adult, neither handsome nor ugly, perhaps slightly above average. Relatively short, thin, with brown hair and eyes, nothing too impressive.

This supposed "boy," his mindset was that of one, even though his years represented something else, was what we could call lazy, careless, and lacking ambitions, a true slacker. Lagging in college for many years, struggling not to be expelled from the public university, never having worked and being supported by parents...

You might even think he was a nerdy guy who wasn't focused on studies, misunderstood, or just a weird virgin who would spend all time on the internet and eating snacks. Well, you're mistaken. Although did spend a lot of time online, he wasn't entirely abnormal. Ian had a good girlfriend who even played games with him, possess an acceptable relationship with his parents, cousins, and other relatives. Ate decently, sometimes indulging in snacks, but that's beside the point. Occasionally practiced archery, enjoyed going to the countryside and embracing nature, especially since the internet had already reached in the farm.

This was Ian's life. Neither good nor bad, just comfortable and without perspective.

From outside the room, an impatient shout could be heard. Ian's mother warning him, once again, that he was late for the appointments, that today, on a Wednesday, had a one-hour session with his psychologist.

His parents were genuinely concerned about their son's future, so they spared no effort to try to "cure" him, even resorting to services not covered by their expensive health plan.

"I'm coming! Just let me find the mask."

"If you weren't so messy, you would know where it is!"

As you may have guessed, something abnormal was happening, not the scolding for being late, because that was entirely expected, but the mandatory use of masks. In 2020, the world witnessed the advance of a pandemic caused by a new coronavirus, highly contagious and resulting in several countries adopting restrictive measures to contain and minimize deaths.

Ian lived in a university town of medium size in a tropical country. The number of cases so far was relatively small, with only forty-two deaths over the course of several months, all of them people with comorbidities or elderly. One could say it was a relatively safe place.

Ten minutes late, Ian arrived for his appointment. He talked to the psychologist, who was also a pedagogue. They tried to establish study routines, concentration methods and even suggested some vitamins. More or less the usual stuff.

On the way back, which he usually walked since his apartment was only 10 to 15 minutes from the city center, which, actually, took 40 minutes because Ian always make a detour to eat ice cream in the central square.

While enjoying his ice cream a safe distance from other passersby, Ian disapproved the high activity in the city center. 'Don't these people know we're living through a pandemic? They should only go out when necessary, do they want to die? Irresponsible...'

Even with fines imposed for those caught without masks, many wore them incorrectly or challenged the authorities out of stubbornness, ignorance, or political stance. Yes, in the current world, even diseases are targeted by politics.

After eating, Ian returned, cleaned the shoes with bleach, sanitized hands, took off the mask, and went straight to his room, locked the door, lay down on bed, and started reading a new novel - because had caught up the weekly chapters of all ones stories he followed.

Dear reader, did you notice anything wrong? If so, keep it to yourself; if not, just observe...

A week later, Ian caught a cold, and a few days later, realized he had a severe flu and decided to see a doctor. Since the hospitals limited COVID rapid tests, they simply instructed him to self-isolate and provided some palliative medicines.

Another week passed, and he needed to be hospitalized.

Ian was hospitalized with severe COVID-19, a stroke of bad luck, considering his youth and usual good health. On the day he ate ice cream in the square, sat on a public bench, returned home without changing clothes, lay down on bed, and unknowingly spread the virus throughout room, eventually becoming infected himself.

Fortunately for his family, although communicative when they were together, Ian was quite reclusive for most of the day, and when fell sick, he was at least responsible and kept distance from everyone.

After a month in the hospital, Ian was in process of recovery. He was truly a young man with good health before the virus. When the family was already hopeful, and his grandmothers were thanking God for their prayers being answered...

He died. A heart attack.

Dear reader, if we are in a pandemic at the time you are reading this... please, follow the guidelines properly and don't be a hypocrite and careless like Ian there... Although this wasn't the ultimate end of his journey, for better or worse, I can't guarantee the same will happen to you. I'm not saying that the story I'm narrating is a lie, far from it, but the laws of metaphysics are not like mechanics, they occur randomly and vary from person to person.

Not to scare you, but the chance of you dying and it being the end is probably the most certain outcome, or at least, you ending up in hell. As I believe the level of direct and indirect sins of human civilization in our days is quite high...