"I can't sleep…" Aiden muttered while lying on his bed.
His eyes were wide open as he was staring at his ceiling. He had been trying to sleep for what felt like hours but still couldn't sleep.
He had turned off the lights in his room the second he had started feeling sleepy but after that, he hadn't fallen asleep.
< Host, do you want me to sing a lullaby for you? >
Aiden couldn't tell whether the system was kidding or not but he was too tired to care about this.
'Sure system.'
Aiden replied as he half expected a bad-sounding commentary by the system. But he was wrong.
'That's… nice.' Aiden thought as his eyes suddenly started to turn sleepy. The system wasn't singing anything since its voice was half mechanical but instead, it was humming.
'I remember this song…' Aiden thought as he went back to his childhood on Earth. He couldn't have been more than two years old at that time.
He remembered a beautiful lady humming the same tune the system was humming. But his consciousness was slowly fading away as he fell asleep.
< Good night host. > The system said as Aiden was sleeping soundly.
***
"Is it morning already?" Aiden groaned loudly as he felt light hitting his face.
The lights in his room automatically turned on when it was time for him to wake up and get ready for the academy.
Aiden felt as though he had barely slept for a few minutes as he stretched his body before opening his eyes.
He was not in his room.
"Oh great…" Aiden muttered as he sat up and looked around.
He was currently sitting on solid land but the weird thing was that everything was golden. The sky was golden, the clouds were golden, the land was golden and a lake a few meters away from his was also golden.
'System, do you know where I am?' Aiden asked but in reply, he heard a static noise.
[ Error detected ]
[ The space of the host's soul prevents the system from communicating with the host. ]
'My soul?' Aiden's eyes widened as he looked around once again.
[ Since the system is not able to communicate, pre-filled information will be shared. ]
'You could have just told me that earlier.'
There was no voice inside Aiden's head and he was only able to see words in front of him. While seeing that, he looked down at his body.
'I look older.' Aiden thought as he looked almost 16 years old. He was wearing a plain white shirt with plain black pants.
[ The Host's Soul
- Every living being has a soul inside him or her. The soul isn't located in any specific place and most living beings cannot access it. But those who can see and visit their soul are classified as geniuses or above the average.
- While being inside your soul, the system wouldn't be activated and the host would be unconscious in the real world. The host's body would be vulnerable at the time of him being inside his soul. ]
"So this really is my soul," Aiden muttered in a fascinated tone as he stood up.
"How can I exit this place?"
But this time, no reply came back. Even the static noise was gone.
"Guess I will have to find this out myself." Aiden sighed as he started walking around his soul.
It felt weird knowing that he was walking inside his own soul. But since he was stuck here, he couldn't do anything else.
After walking around, Aiden realized that till as far as he could look, he could only see plain and empty golden land.
'This place feels too empty.' Aiden thought as he then turned towards the lake.
In the entire place, the lake was the only thing that stood out. So Aiden decided to check it.
He stood at the edge of the lake and looked at the shiny golden liquid in front of him. He could see his body being reflected on the lake's surface as he sighed.
But as he was about to move away, he saw movement at the bottom of the lake. He narrowed his eyes and tried to look at the bottom.
Slowly, the water started to get clearer.
'What is that?' Aiden thought as he saw movement again.
But as he was looking at the lake, he suddenly felt someone pushing him. Before he could even turn to see the person who had pushed him or open his mouth to say anything, he fell inside the lake.
He slowly started to drown downwards when he realized that he knew how to swim. Aiden then started to push upwards but he couldn't rise up.
"Mmm!" Aiden suddenly started feeling a heavy pressure building up in his chest as he turned towards the right.
"Is that all you can do? I thought you could last for much longer."
Aiden's eyes widened as he saw the bully leader standing beside him. He could also see the others bullies standing alongside him.
As his gaze traveled downwards, he saw his 17-year-old version lying down on the ground. He was full of bruises and cuts and his eyes were gleaming with hatred.
"Don't stare at me like that Aiden. I will get nightmares tonight." The leader laughed and the other bullies followed after him.
Aiden then turned in the other direction and another surprise awaited him.
"You are a failure! Why was a failure born to people like us?!" His mother and father were shouting as Aiden saw an older version of himself sprawled on the floor.
'No this is not true! This has already happened in the past while that will never happen!' Aiden thought as he closed his eyes.
The heavier feeling in his chest started to grow as he had started having trouble breathing.
"You know that you will be a failure right? That's who you have been your entire life." A voice suddenly resounded in his ears as a person grabbed his throat.
He was forced to open his eyes as he saw the two different versions of himself from the past and future standing in front of him. The past version was grabbing his throat.
"You will stay the same way no matter how much help you receive." The future version said as Aiden shook his head.
"I already went through with the pain but I killed them in the end. I left you behind long ago!" Aiden somehow felt the strength to shout underwater as his past version started to fade.
He then turned his gaze to the future version.
"As for you, you will never exist. Get out of my soul!"
Both of them soon started to fade and after a few seconds, vanished.
Aiden then started taking deep breaths and even while being underwater, he was able to breathe.
"Why are you trying so hard? To please your parents? To make friends? To thank those gods who decided to give you the chance to reincarnate?" Another voice resounded in the entire place as Aiden's eyes widened.
Standing in front of him was a person who looked exactly like him. Except, his eyes were pure black and the white in them was gone.
"Those things won't give you anything and you will only be miserable." The person said with a cruel grin as Aiden froze up.
"Who are you?" He somehow managed to ask as the Aiden with dark black eyes started to move forward.
"I am what you tried to leave behind."