Jed's POV
"Hah… hah… hah…" I huffed madly for breath. Waves after waves of fatigue struck me like running trucks and my legs wobbled for a whole minute before I was able to calm it down. I shook my head really good to get that 'bad' version of me out. God! That felt reallly bad!! But exciting.
"Fue…" I heaved out and breathed deeply to calm my raging heart. Devouring so many Souls, or what it looked like it, at once really did a number on me. The ground around me was littered with dead bodies, people who had their Souls sucked out. But leaving them, there were also a bunch of young adolescent boys shackled in iron chains and quivering in fear.
All these boys were dressed pretty lightly and I can't understand how they are able stand this biting cold? Wait!
I'm naked!
I'M NAKED!!!!
"Ahh!" I jumped and cried out loud, to the shock of all the other boys. Jumping around like a monkey, I cried, "Cold! Cold! Ahh!! Cold—wait … a minute…" but then it hit me … I'm not feeling anything. I didn't feel cold or numb or anything at all! What. The. Hell!
I'm confused.
I'm naked. And I'm a kid. And I'm in a hall made from ice. So why the hell am I not freezing?
I looked at the other boys, who had stopped shaking like crazy and instead looked at me with weird gazes, and asked in a confused state, "Oi! What is this place?"
"…"
"…"
No answer. None of the boys let out a single peep and kept on staring at me with weird gazes.
"Does anyone of you know to speak?" I asked again, this time with a little emphasis but all I got was stare. Idiotic stares.
I rolled my eyes and left the hall since I was really getting tired of waiting and I somehow convinced myself that they were mum. Maybe… they were… poor souls.
Anyway, the icy hall seemed to be situated deep an ice cave. The walls of the cave were made of carved blocks of blue ice and inverted frozen ice cones adorned the roof of the cave. Those ice cones look really spooky to me now considering the way I died. Damn it…
I fastened my pace and tried to get the hell out of that cave but the exit to the cave was slanted. I mean, the path to the exit was slanted and frozen and I always slipped on the frozen ice, giving me quite a few bruises on my naked knee. But finally, I was out of the frozen caves and ha! The sight outside the caves shocked and baffled me for quite a few minutes.
The frozen cave was situated in a frozen desert of sort place. Accurately, though, the cave was located in a frozen ruin of some ancient society as the place was dotted by abandoned buildings made of stone and iron. The ground was covered with a few inches of thick, white snow and there wasn't a soul in view in miles. Just like the painting in the hwunted house.
Along with the buildings, there were tall towering trees of pine trees dotting the place but most of them were leafless and sharp, cold gales whistled through them making eerie noises like a wailing ghost.
But still…. I didn't feel anything.
Looking at my palms and arms, I found it as white as the snow around me, even with a little bit frostbite on it but I felt none of it. Nothing.
Shocked, I started feeling myself, which really was a weird thing to do in an environment like this but who will be looking at me right now! Meh!
"Stop fooling around, dude-y!!"
"Wahh!" I jumped up again, in fright as a squeaky voice resounded behind my ear. I looked back and was shocked to find that one of my earlier predictions was wrong, a wrong for the better. There is actually a soul in this wasteland.
An opossum
An opossum is a little cat like creature usually found in North America with a long snout, a rat-like tail and completely white. They are known for their faking abilities, especially at playing dead.
Anyway, this opossum behind me looked at me with its beady, black eyes and stayed still like statue. For a moment, I thought it was playing dead and turned back but then again, that squeaky little voice, "Dumbass, I'm right here!!!"
"Why you!!!" I turned back and just like before, there was no one. Only a white opossum.
I frowned at the opossum pointed at it and said, threatening, "F*ck off!"
"You f*ck off! Douchebag!!" replied the opossum, flaying its forelimbs. Shocked, I blinked my eyes twice and rubbed it vigorously before again looking at it and this time there was no mistake for sure. Because, the opossum infront of me was standing on its hindlimbs like any other humans with its forelimbs folded, like the opossums in Ice Age!
"What the…" I cried, shocked "Who are you? Crash or Eddie?" I asked.
"None, dumbo," replied the opossum. "I'm Moseley, the opossum sent from Heavens to guide you, otherworlder, to prominence!!" announced the opossum majestically but I rolled my eyes, 'Opossums from Heavens…. Yea…'
"Moose! Moose! The hell you were, you sick son of a—" cried a gruff voice behind me and turning around, I was (not) shocked to find a bulldog dashing across the snow field at breakneck speed!
The bulldog applied its breaks instantly and screeched to a halt infront of us, while throwing a little bit of snow onto us as he stopped.
"Whoa…" the bulldog cried and stopped a few paces away from me.
"Are you Jed? Jed from another world?!" the bulldog asked, though, I couldn't determine whether or not he was excited or calm.
"Yea … I guess so…" I replied, slowly. "Fue!"
The bulldog let out a sigh and turned towards the opossum and said, in what-seemed-like an angry tone, "Moose! Didn't I tell you to stay by my side!! I know your brain is too small to process anything but at least listen to me when I'm talking!!!!"
"Wha-a-at!!" cried the opossum defiantly. "Dude, it's all because of my extraordinary sense that you're able to find this guy here! Hah! Without me, you still would've been looking around that pissed-up river for a bear cave!!"
"I was checking for smell!!!" retorted the dog.
"Why would you want to check the smell of piss! It IS piss! The whole damn stream is piss! C'mon! It's yellow and tastes like piss so what else it can be other than piss! Grow some brain!"
"Says the guy with no brain!"
"I have one, pussy!"
"From which direction do I look like a puss to you, muttonhead!"
"You!!"
"My a*s!"
"GUYS!!" I intervened between what looked like a dogfight of words between a dog and opossum. Both of the creature looked at me apprehensively and muttered, almost in sync, "What!!"
"…" 'These sons of b*tches!!'
I tried my hardest to put up a smiley face and asked, "Instead of fighting, can you guys please tell me where you're from and where I am? Tell me that I'm not in Alice In Wonderland."
The dog scrounged his face, which was already pretty scrounged, and said, "You're in … can't you put on some clothes?" he said pointing at my wee-wee.
"This?!" I jingled my wee-wee.
"Yuck!!"
"Gross!!" cried the opossum as it covered its eyes with its small paws which really didn't cover much of his face. Anyway. I cared least and .... my wee-wee is pretty big … and handsome… I like it!
"Dude, don't you feel cold?" asked the opossum, peeking from the gaps of his fingers.
"Nah!" I replied, "Strangely, I don't. I clearly feel my skin but for some reason, I don't feel cold. Or rather, I don't feel anything." I said.
"Strange, indeed!" muttered the opossum, "Let me see—wait! I don't wanna touch you lest I might be infected with the gay disease!" he resisted.
I frowned and retorted, "Hey! Have some decency! First and foremost, that is discrimination and can get you arrested and secondly, gays are not all bad!!"
I spoke with my previous life's experience with homosexuality and even though that experience didn't end well with me but I'm still a firm supporter of gays.
"Instead, why don't you tell me where to find some clothes? Even if I'm 200% immune to cold, I still want to cover myself." I asked the opossum and the dog.
The opossum rolled it's eyes and replied, "If you're looking for clothes, why didn't you pick one up from the people you killed?"
"Ah! Right. Crap! I don't wanna go back in there… wait a sec, if you know about the massacre I did inside that means you were watching me, didn't you?" I asked, frowning.
"Of course, I saw you breaking those Magi like ice-cream sticks but you cannot blame me for not warning you about the clothes. You were on the berserk mode and I really didn't wanna turn into koolfi on my 1st week on the surface. Infact, I'm only talking to you after confirming that your Essence is completely dry! By the way, check the ring on your finger! I bet there are some clothes in there!"
"Ring?!" I cried surprised. Checking again, I saw a small blue jade ring resting on my third finger. It was very slim, small and intricately designed with a small, strange blue-diamond like stone glowing with an eerie, pale blue light on top of it. "What?!" I asked, confused. How can a ring have clothes for me?
"Look inside the ring."
"What?!" I cried, "Are you mad?"
"Just-just think that the ring is open!" said the opossum while making a grabbing motion on his own hands.
I mimicked him and woah! A small, illusionary blue vortex of sort appeared above the ring. I placed my hand inside the vortex and magically, a small ice room, just like the icy hall where I was summoned, appeared inside my head, filled with age-old books, tomes with weird runic letters, clothes, weapons and so many more. I carefully chose the most cleanliest and whitest shirt among the dozen in there, the most smoothest pants, a buttoned vest and a long white robe. By the way, all the robes in the space were white or blue in color, both of which weren't my favorite.
…
"Bah! That's more like it!" I muttered as I finally wore the robe and completed my outfit. Wearing the shirt and pant proved to be quite difficult because they were hella tight and narrow. I hate skinny pants!!
"Good! Fits you!" commented the opossum, nodding its head.
"Nobody asked for your opinion!" retorted the dog from the side. The dog then turned towards me and asked in his gruff voice, "Hey, kid! What's your name? Do you remember anything from your previous world?"
"I remember my name is … Jed something… and… that I lost my virginity to an ugly slut and that … man! I died by being poked to death but thank goodness, I do not have any holes in me in this lifetime!" I cried to myself but it was soon contradicted by the opossum.
"You do have a gnashing cut right across your face."
"What!!" I cried and felt my face and f*ck! I felt a deep gorge-like cut run right across my face from my upper-right corner to the lower-left corner. I could even feel my skull if I press the wound a little bit. Damn! But where is the blood? A cut this deep must have blood around it?
"Shouldn't there be blood?" I ask them, feeling my skull and both the dog and the opossum nodded their head in unison.
"Crouch down, lemme check it!" said the opossum. I crouched down and the animal touched my forehead lightly. A pale white light spread out from where he touched.
"Hmmm…. Ahhhh…. Hmmm…." He let out weird noises, which kinda made me uncomfortable but then he separated out and cursed aloud, in a shocked tone, "F*ck!!!"
"What! What happened?" I asked, anxious.
The opossum gawked at me for a whole minute before replying, "You're doomed."
"Why? C'mon, tell me! What the f*ck am I?"
"… You're a Revenant…"
....