*thud..
…Noah was drifting and all he could hear was laughter. Which was strange because he shouldn't hear anything, he was sure that he had just died and put it all behind him to roll the dice of fate once more and hope to do better, not that there was any guarantee that he would get another chance but hey not like he can do anything about it now. Now he was starting to think a bit more clearly.
'Hmm.. maybe that wasn't the best idea.. I'm probably back the hospital having fucked up my own suicide.. that over the top sinister laughter is probably those 3 suits gaining some sort of sick satisfaction out of my most recent fuck up.'
'Maybe it's not so bad that I didn't die, I can probably think of something to sort this mess out. I mean I am pretty good and that type of thing, I am a self made man… Yeah it's probably for the best..
Just as the laughter ended his consciousness faded to black and his random thoughts finally stopped spinning.
But then..
'Agghhhh!!! My fucking head'
Pain and sharp stabbing jolt of electricity circulated around his body, focusing in his eyes, slowly brought him back and just when he reflexively opens his eyes with bleary vision he realises that he can move and that he is not in the hospital but in a single bed in a shit-hole of a 'room', if you can call it that.
'Where the fuck am I and why do I feel both pain and absolutely fine?'
As he looked around, the room came into slightly better focus and he spots some bread and water on the bedside. Swiftly consuming all of it he then did a quick check of his body to make sure he was actually ok but then he froze. He slowly looked down and saw a child's body that he abruptly realised was not his… well certainly not the body of a 50 something overweight and overdrawn man but a slim, if underfed ten year old. Very confused yet strangely not panicked he stood up to closer look at his surroundings when an unbelievable thought crept in his head.
'This is just like those novels I used to sneak in on the toilet where Nicky couldn't ridicule me…'
He kept looking until he was sure that he recognised this room. It was his old room at the orphanage. That meant that this was his body which meant..
'Is this novel protagonist bullshit for real??! Have I genuinely gone back.. back to before I met her and before the new era?…hold up do I have another shot.. or am I just in a coma and this is some fucked up dream?'
A quick slap to the face settled that theory.
'Agh! Ok, everyone knows that if you don't wake up from the pain then that means it's real.. right?'
Feeling slightly hopeful and borderline delusional he got dressed in some clean but worn cloths before staring into the mirror and seeing a slim boy with messy shoulder leggy brown hair, a jagged scar running up his arm from his left hand. Briefly he rememised about his life before the crash only to dig his fingernails into his palm and focus on the now. As he took in his body the only thing that was u familiar was his eyes. They were not completely the deep blue from before but slightly different to before. One was still deep blue (his right), while the other was slightly lighter with golden flecks splashed around the iris (his left). He stood there dumbfounded and then slowly adjusted to his new mental state and crept out the door.
Now fully confirming that he was back at St. John's orphanage as he can clearly hear the matron shouting out: "Where is that lazy shit? Sophie go wake him up and tell him if he's not down in the next 2 minutes that he will be down to one meal a day for a week!"
"Yes Miss, I'm sure he's just in the bathroom or something, he can't afford to miss anymore meals" she said whilst sounding like an innocent angel.
Pausing slightly he decided to pay it cool and brainstorm on his game plan later. Now what he needed was some food, some time to think, and to not blow his cover until he has some idea of if this is real or not.
Still somewhat dumbfounded he walked down the stairs to meet with Sophie who had an evil smile on her pretty, if slightly chubby face. 'She had clearly just come up with a unique and cruel way to wake me up' he smiled knowingly.
"Oh you are up, I was hoping you were.., otherwise you'd get in trouble again" she innocently said.
This little devil is the only reason why he managed to return to a somewhat normal life after he got brought in. The first and only friend he made in his tenure here. She was the one who later warned him about Nicky and helped him with his depression when he felt he couldn't cope with it or talk to his family. You see as an orphan he always promised himself that if he ever had kids, no matter what he would be there for them so that they didn't have to go through what he did. But he never felt a connection to either his wife or son from the moment he broke up with her.
After he came to the orphanage he was constantly in trouble after pulling some such stunt or another. When he turned 15 and was kicked out he found his way into crime, as if he ever had any other choice the moment he ended up here. This was a time when if you can't afford it, it wouldn't be given to you and there were very few options to climb out. With crime came violence that he used to 'make', or take, enough for him and Sofie to eat and survive until the annual military and academy recruitment.
He 'worked' and saved until Sophie could get tutoring in hopes of passing one of the exams for a chance at more. He found himself alone after that until he managed to get a delivery job from a kind old neighbour to make runs around town. And he was allowed to sleep in his shop for 'added security' the old man told him but really he just took pity on the boy he found sleeping out back one day.
Abruptly snapping out of his daydream he reached the bottom of the stairs and approached the old hag.
"Good morning Matron, sorry for the delay" Noah put on his best smile and acted his part.
"Tckk cutting it close" she frowned at him, wondering how he could maintain eye co fact after the beating she gave him last night.
"Ok stop standing around. Here is your list of chores, finish them well and your punishment will be finished this afternoon"
Receiving the list he glanced at it and quickly rushed off.
…
As he spent his morning cleaning and his afternoon running around town collecting the bits and pieces Matron had deemed nessisary. He finally had a chance to think about his situation.