When the Stars Misalign

  The glow of the monitor illuminated Rohan’s intense gaze. Lines of code blurred into constellations on the screen, each keystroke a step closer to his grand design. “Cosmic Alignment,” the app would be called. It promised personalized horoscopes with unprecedented accuracy, leveraging sophisticated algorithms and, unbeknownst to its users, their deepest secrets. Rohan, a fervent believer in the celestial dance, saw a universe teetering on imbalance. The stars whispered of disharmony, of energies misaligned.

As the app gained traction, a torrent of personal data flowed into Rohan’s digital grasp – birth charts, anxieties, desires. He meticulously cross-referenced these with astrological transits, identifying what he perceived as disruptive forces, individuals whose celestial makeup clashed with the greater cosmic symphony.

His first act was subtle. A financier whose chart screamed of avarice and unchecked ambition met an untimely end in a seemingly random hit-and-run. The next was a self-proclaimed guru whose manipulative Venus-Neptune aspects preyed on the vulnerable. A pattern began to emerge, invisible to the outside world but starkly clear to Rohan. Each carefully orchestrated demise corresponded with astrological events that, in his mind, corrected a cosmic dissonance.

Meanwhile, Rohan worked tirelessly, refining his app, its algorithms now subtly flagging individuals based on his evolving criteria. He saw himself not as a killer, but as a cosmic gardener, pruning the weeds to allow the more harmonious elements to flourish. Each news report of another inexplicable death fueled his conviction. The universe, he believed, was finally beginning to breathe easier.

One evening, as the lunar eclipse cast long shadows across the city, Rohan’s own app flagged a critical alignment in his chart – a potent (planetary) conjunction that, in his twisted interpretation, demanded a significant act. As he stared at his own profile, a flicker of doubt crossed his mind, quickly extinguished by the unwavering belief in his cosmic mission.