Chapter Text
Escaping the world through death, I found myself in yet another abyss. I was...soaring?
No, it was a sense of weightlessness, a gradual descent to darker depths. Wrapping my limbs, colorless tendrils gently dragged me deeper, a mass of them having sprouted from the emptiness below. Some stuttered kicks managed to keep me afloat, but the entity formed of void continued its pull, indifferent to my resistance. Looking up, the surrounding black space was adorned with small lights that, despite their incredible shine, drowned as flickers within the darkness. A world formed to reflect the soul itself.
My memories would not easily come back to me in this space, and somehow, I was aware of this fact. There was also one more thing I had to recall, something so vital that I closed my eyes, concentrating as fragments of memory rapidly merged.
It came to me. I recalled with absolute certainty that I would not be able to rest in peace.
I remembered that those words had been recently told to me, but interrupting my recollection were eyes that had opened, seeing a place far different from the starry expanse. It took a moment to realize that the eyes were my own. However, to be accurate, they were not 'my' eyes, but those belonging to a young child, likely no older than twelve or thirteen.
Many of the child’s traits were reflected in the jagged shards of glass scattered across the floor. Pale violet hair dirtied with spots of mud and soil, barely golden eyes that didn’t look worth much, and a body dressed in rags that were maybe once called clothes.
The view was disturbing, even setting ‘my’ unfortunate appearance aside. To my front was blood splattered across the ground like an abstract painting, the viscous fluid sputtering out from something that was...no longer alive. A human corpse.
I felt ‘myself’ tightly gripping an item in my right hand. Looking to the side, I confirmed that it was a particularly sharp piece of glass, held tightly enough to add new lines to 'my' palm. As it so happens, the corpse’s neck also had a deep gash running through it, viewable even from a distance. Restraint was absent from this kid’s dictionary...accountability, too.
“Another mess.”
‘My’ voice slipped out at a higher pitch than what I was used to. It dawned on me that this voice and body no longer contained any soul but my own. Only a slight, still lingering feeling of desperation remained from the child that was just here, an unfortunate parting gift.
However, as that sensation slowly disappeared, I began to accept ‘myself’ as me. My memories did not suddenly flood back, instead surfacing as though they were always there...those memories, too, were present. Similar to experiencing the change from one’s yesterday to one’s today after traveling through sleep, I could not comprehend the shift that had just occurred. Even so, just as in the morning after a long rest, I held no doubt that ‘I’ was in fact, me.
The dimly lit room allowed the surrounding area to be just barely visible, but my eyes were stuck to the pool of crimson that was slowly consuming the wooden floor. Even though the start was bad, everything would be alright. Soon, I would get up from this floor with my first steps, and just like that, my life in another world would begin.
Another chance at life where ‘before’ was isolated to memory. A familiar story of wonder, delight, and other fantastical elements...even if magic was excluded. A place where happiness might not just be something to pray for.
And so, I declared to both myself and the world.
“Fool me twice.”
Raising my nearly exhausted arm, I pressed the glass shard’s edge to the side of my neck. A gentle smile crept up on my face as I discarded any thought of another unnecessary life. All that remained was the weakening cage of reality, woven from thread and skin.
Cutting myself free with a single sharp motion, my reincarnated life in another world was finally brought to a close.
Or so it should have been.