"If everyone is going to leave me alone then No one should even care if I jump off, right?" I muttered as I looked down from the roof of my school.
I was looking down the school roof deciding whether to end my life right now or not; and why if one might ask? It was because of all the things that happened in my life from the day I was born, even that which I don't know because as long as I can remember I was an orphan who didn't know who his parents were, what is his birth date, what is he even doing on the streets. I didn't know anything about myself, but even though I didn't lose my will to live at that time.
I survived by doing work like picking up trash, cleaning people's gardens, and even resorting to some minor crimes like pickpocketing. I did every single thing that helped me survive and as if God was watching me, impressed by my will to survive, and sent someone for me because one day when I was ten years old, an old lady, around the age of 50, picked me up from the road and adopted me. I don't know why she did that; out of pity or did I remind her of somebody close or was she alone like me but one thing I knew was that I was extremely grateful to her as she filled my life with happiness that I didn't know before.
She taught me what it means to live with someone, what it means to not be alone, and what life even means. She provided everything for me like food, clothes, a place to live and call home, sending me to school, teaching me various things about the world, and everything that she could think of till yesterday.
Yesterday, I was kicked out of her house by her kids and grandkids who were nowhere to be seen until her death as she died just the day before due to cancer leaving me all alone in this world yet again and this time my will to live that existed for 16 years faltered because now I was afraid to go back to my old life that I lived six years ago. I was afraid to be all alone again, I was afraid of the solace that comes from knowing that no one in this world cares about you. I was depressed to the point that I didn't even think about where I would spend the night after being kicked out and roamed around the city till the sun came up.
Upon noticing that the sun had come up, I got ready to go to school thinking that studies (in which I excelled in because I didn't want to disappoint her) would provide some distraction for me but to no avail. So, during the lunch break, I went to the rooftop to get some fresh air and tried to think of any random fact or useless thing to distract my mind, but-
'I don't want to be alone again, grandma.'
-just this single thought was crossing my mind again and again as I was gazing down the school roof reminiscing some handful of good memories that I made in my life.
As I was remembering all the things that happened in my life, I heard a noise from the other side of the railing, so I turned to see what that noise was. There I saw a cat just barely hanging onto the railing and was about to fall off.
"Meow~" She cried.
I tried to look around the roof but there was no one there except me so I decided to help her climb back to the roof, albeit reluctantly. I went to help her out, but she scratched my leg trying to grab onto something and climbed back up; I, on the other hand, lost my footing and fell off the roof.
I was falling off the roof but even knowing that instead of panicking and being afraid, the first thing I felt was calmness surging throughout my whole body and a faint smile of relief came onto my lips as I thought that I seemingly got the answer to the question that I just worded out directly from the Universe itself. But still--
'Will I die?'
'Will it hurt when I hit the ground?'
'Is this the end?'
--various thoughts crossed my mind as I was falling down the roof, but one thing was clear in my mind even among all those countless thoughts and that was:
'I might not be alone anymore.'
And thinking about that I hit the floor probably still carrying a faint smile on my lips and lost consciousness to the darkness that was welcoming me with open arms.
...…
After an unknown period when I regained consciousness, I found myself surrounded by complete darkness. A place where not a single fragment of light existed. A place filled with nothing as far as one can see. A place that might just be the perfect definition of the word 'void'.
But even in this 'void' my mind was calm, my thoughts that were racing when I was falling down the roof were completely still like an ocean without waves.
'Ah, so this is death.' I thought serenely.
Even at the absurdity of the statement that crossed my mind, I was calm and serene like never before, I felt like I was becoming one with the 'void' itself where nothing could interrupt and disturb me anymore.
I was analyzing my situation more thoroughly and waiting for what would happen next, would I ascend to heaven or descend to hell from this emptiness, suddenly a sound popped into my head.
[Congratulations, Young soul. You are selected for the process of reincarnation.]
'h…huh?' I was startled by the sudden voice in my head and tried to look around for its source.
'Me? Reincarnation?' I was still confused by the words of the sudden voice when its sound popped into my head again.
[Now, the process of reincarnation will begin, please enjoy your new life.]
And this time before I could even think about anything that the voice said, the space around me started destroying itself creating a crack in it, the place that I thought had no particle of light suddenly got filled with a ray of light so bright that it nearly blinded me, and my body started moving towards the crack that opened up within the space with a speed that made me lose my consciousness for the second time in my life (or death).
...…...
After regaining my consciousness for the second time, I opened my eyes thinking that I might still be in the 'void' or had gone to heaven or hell but what greeted me left my brain unable to think for a moment or two.
The scene that greeted me first when I opened my eyes was out of my expectations. There was a luxurious chandelier hanging from the roof and I was in a room where everywhere I looked screamed luxury itself. The walls were painted in gold, and the chandelier that I saw at first sight was embedded with diamonds, gold, and some other luxurious stones that I didn't even know. The architecture of the room was giving off the vibes of medieval Europe.
I tried to speak, so that I could get to know what happened to me and where am I, but the only sound that came out of my mouth was something like the cry of a baby who wanted the attention of the world to himself.
After listening to the cry I saw my hands for the very first time after I came to, my hands were small or should I say 'tiny' as they were like of a newborn baby, then I looked at my whole body and found that I had not just hands of a newborn, my legs, my fingers, my stomach, my ears; all were of a baby, in fact, the correct to thing to say here would be:
'I was a baby!'
After taking a good look at my own body four or five times, my mind that was still somewhat calm, started panicking and my cries grew louder and louder to the point that my ears and throat started aching, and hearing my cries two people came in the room with worried expressions on their faces.
Upon noticing their presence, I turned my tiny baby head in their direction and caught sight of them. The moment I did, my brain stopped functioning for the second time in the brief span since I regained consciousness.
They were a pair of a man and a woman wearing slightly unusual clothing that looked ridiculously expensive but the part that was standing out the most was their beauty. They were so beautiful that even calling them simply 'beautiful' seems like an insult.
The man, who was probably in his middle twenties, had Icy blue hair that shined with every ray of light that fell on them and a captivating pair of ocean-blue eyes that seemed like they were pulling you in the more you stared at them. He was so strikingly handsome that for a moment, even I, as a guy, forgot myself in his charm.
But even at the side of such a handsome man, the woman who came with him was radiating her presence. She was easily the most gorgeous woman I have ever seen, including the photos of celebrities on the internet. She had silky black hair that hung down to her waist and crimson red eyes that seemed to peer into one's soul, the whole atmosphere around her seemed to scream of nobility which contrasted greatly with the worried expression she carried on her face.
Yet even confronted with such a beautiful pair of people I didn't feel any lust whirled up in me, instead it seemed like all the questions that were haunting my mind after gaining consciousness got swept aside at just a look at them and I recalled the words of the voice that I heard in the 'void' just before passing out.
'[Congratulations, Young soul. You are selected for the process of reincarnation.]'
Remembering the words of the voice, my confusion cleared, my cries stopped, and I arrived at a single yet mind-blowing answer to all the questions that were crowding my mind, and that answer was:
'They are my parents.'
'I got reincarnated as the child of these gorgeous people.'
As the word 'my parents' crossed my mind, tears welled up in my eyes and started flowing down my cheeks. I reached out with my tiny hands, trying to envelop them in an embrace but couldn't as they were too short and maybe seeing this little stupid action of me, their expression relaxed, they looked at each other and then looked at me carrying a faint smile of relief on their faces and said something which I didn't understand as my eyelids grew heavy. Drowsiness hit me as I closed them, expressing my gratitude to the voice for reincarnating me, and I fell into a deep yet peaceful sleep.