Content Warning: This chapter contains scenes that some viewers may find disturbing or triggering; it includes topics like mental health issues and suicide and strong use of language. Reader's discretion is advised.
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I feel myself slip out of consciousness when a gust of wind blows past, and a blinding light enveloped my surroundings. A deafening silence followed suit as I felt myself float midair and a warm sensation touched my forehead. I opened my eyes, and the moment I adjusted to the light, I gasped.
These people… I don't know who they are. I didn't know any of them!
A group of foreigners is inside a grandiose room that is divided in two by a gauzy curtain. The place screams rich. It seems to belong to a set for musicals or a Disney Princess movie. Everything is majestic and cut out from history — which part, I do not know, but this looks like any Barbie as a Princess kind of set. The room is similar to palace museums I used to frequent as a child. The walls are primarily white, with the hint of the faintest pink, and the furniture is magenta. Everything looks so regal.
I see a worried, worn-out woman covered in sweat lying in bed, reaching her hand out, on one side of the room. Two women wearing the same blue outfit stood on either side of the bed with their heads bowed. There is also a man wearing a Prince Charming costume on the other side of the curtain. Behind him is a slightly aged man in a black tailcoat. Three women wearing floor-length, intricately designed crinoline ball gowns are on the left corner of the prince's side of the room. Across are four other women with mobcaps; one wears a simple beige dress, and the rest wear the same outfit of light mustard. In front of the prince is an older woman wearing a similar beige dress with a pained expression on her face. She is kneeling on the ground while tightly holding a blooded child wrapped in a white cloth.
'Wait… don't tell me…'
My eyes grew bigger as I realized something. The newborn being strangled to death while others try to pry the hands of the suspect away from the child… This scene in front of me is what I was experiencing just earlier. That child is… me?
'What kind of sick fuck is this?'
'What the hell is happening?! Something is wrong. Something's definitely wrong!'
Don't tell me… this is the place where humans get judged after they die… a place between life and death?
'Oh, no! Is this some kind of judgment hall? If it is, how cruel of them to use my grandmother's face to judge me.'
I frantically look for the exit, but I notice that these people are not moving as I roam my sight. It's as if time stopped for them. Confused, I look to check myself. I gasped. I was shocked, not because I was glowing, but because I have a body of a newly born child.