Chapter Text
So, where exactly does one start a story? Well from the beginning I would think, but where is the beginning of a story? Is it in the middle of a great battle between two men as they decide the fate of future generations? Or maybe it begins in the moments when the very fabric of the world is still being created? Or as a baby wails to announce it's presence...
I don't know.
But this story begins with me. Sixteen and eagerly bouncing in my seat watching as the clock slowly ticks down towards midnight. Towards the exact moment that today becomes yesterday and night becomes morning.
As that moment arrives everything shifts, my fingers tap at the keys but... I'm no longer there. Rather spinning and twisting momentarily over my own body watching words spread over a blank document before spinning down and landing in darkness.
Darkness and warmth.
It's not exactly what I had been expecting and I simply sort of reside there not entirely aware of anything in particular. Simply darkness and a strange fuzzy sort of echo throughout my presence. An itch that spreads and curls through me as I wind up pulling myself close and closing my eyes in this dark watery place.
Drifting is almost too easy and I barely understand what's going on. I know that I'm safe though, safe and close to someone. Since I can hear a steady beating heart constantly in the backdrop. My senses though are incredibly dulled and I constantly find myself just curling in and allowing time to flow around me.
I don't feel hunger. Nor thirst or really anything that would say that I require relieving myself. It's peaceful if entirely disconcerting... And yet. There's someone or something else here with me. Another presence that brushes lightly against my own.
We barely touch and yet I know somehow that they're like me. Not supposed to be here.
Time flows, abruptly I feel a change. Bumping up against the other much more often. Until they're gone and I'm alone. Moving, down something. A tunnel or tube that makes me feel as though I'm being squeezed from all sides and...
Screaming fills my head as air brushes against my face. It's like a sudden breeze on an otherwise plain day. Entirely unexpected and not entirely welcome. Also it brings right to the forefront of my mind everything else.
I have been ripped from my own body and dumped into this place. What's going on? What was I? Clearly my body was still alive and moving since that had been it's last status before I wound up here. Also, there's this horrible itch within my body. The strange feeling that had accompanied me in the dark place is still there. It's within me and I don't like it.
It's so confusing and so I continue to scream. Until there's something in my mouth and I latch onto that instead.
The other presence is here to. Just beside me and it's a comfort that I didn't realize that I needed.
The fact is though this time passes incredibly quickly, since just like in the dark place my mind does not want to remain very aware for very long. So I drift more often than not and most of what happens goes way over me.
It's probably a very good thing that it does since one of the first things that I notice when I do finally stop being fuzzy is that everything is so big. Except my limbs and hands and, oh my gosh my tiny chubby fingers are adorable. Also fun to shove into my mouth.
Which yeah, okay. I'm not exactly the most mature of people. Sixteen in mind maybe but that doesn't mean that I won't play around like the child that I apparently am. Also, gumming on a fist is a rather good distraction from freaking out over this development.
Really it is. As is observing the one who I would assume to be my twin.
They're female as far as I can tell, yet that seems wrong somehow... Though I don't think that we're quite old enough to worry about that. And besides I'm now male in body so gender is kind of a moot point. Also dark hair and eyes. It tingles in my memory and I frown around my fist trying desperately to understand why that seems so familiar.
Familiar and sinister.
Black hair, black eyes. Spinning red circles in the air...
I shake my head a bit to clear it and kind of tumble over and release my hand to wave it into the air. The itch as well, which really it's nothing more or less than just that. A constant companion that's typically a hum or an itch within me.
Reminds me of the feeling of my blood traveling through my body really except faintly different and that also bugs me.
I am now a twin. I have been reborn without dying and been limited to a crib is the most mind numbing experience ever.
Seriously, I would give anything to be able to just do anything other than just stay here completely reliant on my parents and sibling to entertain me. They're horrible at it anyway. Speaking nonsense and kind of freaking me out with some of the other weird things that they do.
I'm giving up on logic here really I swear. Seeing someone just casually toss a kunai at a spider kind of does that. Also considering how fast the action happened I'm surprised with myself for even catching it.
Also impressed, very impressed. Still very bored all the time though.
There's only so long that the small things can really keep me occupied. I mean sure I may get incredibly distracted by them, but that's not a permanent solution. Besides there is such a thing as too repetitive after a while.
Which is what the small things tend to be. Staring at the wall tracing patterns with my hands and simply observing the world around me. Also waiting to grow up, it feels like forever. Also it's incredibly annoying.
Also, teething.
Here I thought it was bad when you were losing teeth or had new ones poking through right in the back of your mouth. But no, it's worse. A constant itch and irritation that just makes you cry because it won't stop and it's constant and no matter what you shove in there to try and distract yourself with it doesn't help.
My favourite thing to chew/gum on is currently a rubber kunai toy. It's the absolute best really and an incredible distraction from the constant itch. It also squeaks. Which is no end of entertainment to someone like me who used to steal the squeaky toys of dogs just to play with them at the age of sixteen.
Also, my twin seems to be going through the same pain. Among other things that I'm noticing about them. Like me, they seem to be older inside. Unlike me though they also seem to be desperate for the love that our shared parents can offer. Affection and care, which I fully offer as well since it feels like they desperately need it.
Also I'll admit that it's a strange comfort for even me simply resting against them with a toy in my mouth or loosely held in a chubby fist.
Since I can feel them. Along with the energy(since that's what I assume it is) in myself I can feel it in them and the air and everything here. It's kind of intimidating really because I can't stop feeling it and it changes every once in a while, shifting to accompany something that I apparently can't grasp.
At the edge of my senses there's also this feeling of darkness. Something watching and it makes me shiver in the faintest of breezes coming from outside. It's not a nice feeling being watched. It doesn't help that my twin also seems to have the awareness that something else is there as well.
That something's lurking.
Of course the fact that we're both aware, more aware than I'm pretty sure little almost toddlers should be. The fact that they're aware of the lingering darkness is as much of a warning as anything. It means that it's really there and that I should maintain my awareness of it. That I should be scared and should be prepared...
It also means that I should watch over my twin. Even if they're the elder sibling by however many minutes that doesn't mean that I won't watch over them just as much as they'll likely watch over me.
After all, we're twins. Two halves of a whole technically speaking.
Of course, I still don't know what kind of world that I've been reborn into. Or why, or how considering that I didn't die first. At least not until our parents finally decide to take us outside for a bit. The sun is evil I swear glaring down at us and burning our eyes as we try to peer around. To take in absolutely everything.
Or at least I do, my twin simply basks in the presence of our parents and that's perfectly fine. I am completely settled with them enjoying that.
No, what I'm unsettled by is a faintly familiar carved mountain in the distance. It's almost like Rushmore... But at the same time. Even if I can't see the faces they seem wrong.
Where the hell am I?