Opening his teary eyes, Joshua felt the cool wind on his face for the first time since what felt like a millennium.
His vision was still foggy and as he tried to rub his eyes he, after everything that happened, still jumped in surprise. His hands a little smaller, rougher and dirtier than he thought he remembered.
Your hands are one of the only parts you get to observe the whole day, over the years you familiarize yourself with them, see every cut and resulting scar being caused and healing up.
And even age makes them your old friends.
And so, as Josh looked upon his hands, he couldn't help but notice. 'These aren't my hands…'
To confirm his dawning suspicion he started to feel around his face and body, a light beard fuzz spread around the lower half of his face. And as he inspected his clothes he found more of thick weathered rags then actual well fitting clothes.
He somehow managed to keep a relative levelheaded attitude in this confusing situation as this wasn't really the craziest thing he experienced in the new past. Just thinking back to the "afterlife" made his neck hairs stand.
Ripped out of his deep thoughts by the splashing of water he scanned his vicinity for the first time.
It seemed he awoke on the side of a smaller railway, somewhere in a ditch. A softly flowing stream slithered its way to his right into the green of a Forrest.
With the desire to wash his hands, Josh stumbled to the little river and almost fell head first into the waters, his head still buzzy from all that had happened. In the reflection of the water a young guy starred back at him, early to mid twenties, dark amber eyes and scruffy looking beard that was closer to a three day-stubble.
The hard cut face seemed to be very similar to his own features in his younger days, sharply cut with slightly fallen in eyes that always seemed to look a little sleepy.
If you could call his beard scruffy, his hair looked even worse, knotted and unkempt the blackish strands of hair hung into his eyes like the pelt of a beaten and drowned dog.
Scrubbing his hands as much as he could without soap, he splashed water in his face and tried futilely to flatten his hair a bit by brushing through it with water and his fingers.
Without anything else to do, he decided to search for any indication of his person and situation in the many pockets of his pants and mantels.
Successfully fishing out a handful of objects; a medium sized and rusted pocketknife, a hundred dollar bill, a mental asylum identification bracelet and a map.
Pocketing the money and the knife he took a closer look at the bracelet. It seemed old and worn since that name wasn't readable anymore and the address was more than washed out, the only thing still giving away some kind of clue was the part (Ward: Secure ward/Cell 103 Classification: Threat level 8)
'What the hell is this' Josh wondered, straining his eyes he tried to at least spy the name of the institution he apparently was once locked up in. 'What is the Eichen Haus…?' He questioned in his mind.
When the bracelet, as expected, refused to answer him he directed his scrutinizing gaze at the map instead.
The map seemed to be in a way better condition in comparison to the bracelet. It was Kept in a water tight plastic bag and was easier to read.
With further inspection he could decipher a marked location on the first side he laid his eyes on, a homeless refuge, it seemed. 'So I'm homeless it seems, not that I couldn't have guessed with the condition I'm in'.
He was sure he could go down the road he had traveled on before to become an accountant to set another mafiosi, since what made him successful wasn't really his skill in his job but rather his talent to ignore unpleasant rumors and keep his lips tight. Maybe because his moral compass was more then just a little fucked up, he had a hard time being empathetic towards people that treated him badly or hypocrites in general.
Pondering over his next steps he came to a conclusion, he wouldn't go down a path he knew was a dead end a second time. Even though his life ended on a rather bitter note he had more of a fulfilling life as he would've even thought possible in his childhood. He was satisfied and disappointed at his life at once, maybe if he lived out his life in a more humble and sincere manner, he would be able to live a fulfilling life without a bad ending this time.
In the end it was money and not power that corrupted him, he would give this perspective on life a chance.
Maybe that was the true intention of the higher being that more or less flung him into this body, it seemed plausible that this could be something akin to the Buddhist definition of rebirth.
To find enlightenment and seek penitence for his greed driven life.
First of, he would make his way to the homeless shelter, everything else would go from there. But why seemed the name 'Eichen Haus' so familiar..?