Darkness.
I had died.
It was confusing. Did one retain consciousness even after death? Had my consciousness separated into fragments without me realizing it? Was this a sign of the afterlife? Had I arrived at the Yellow River?
Perhaps the intense heat hugging my lower torso and legs was a sign of my arrival at the domain of hellfire. Or perhaps the void, a state of endless darkness, was my punishment for a sinful life.
I wasn't certain.
It was true that some scholars… Hmm?
I felt a nudge on my shoulder. Wait, I had shoulders? Had I retained my physical body? Why did my lower body feel as if it were enveloped in fluffiness? Oh, had I perhaps arrived beyond the silver gates?
Eyelids, I had eyelids.
As I slowly opened my eyelids, a sheet of light engulfed my vision, further blinding me. As I adjusted to the influx of light, I saw strange faces staring down at me. I involuntarily tilted my head in confusion.
As I looked around, I noticed the presence of other humans. It was strange; really strange.
"This must be the afterlife," I whispered under my breath, but it seemed the strange humans had heard me. Their faces scrunched up, an expression of confusion replacing their frowns and looks of concern.
No, there was still concern. Oh, and frowns.
As for me, I was cloaked in a white bedsheet… a hospital blanket. Beneath it, I wore a hospital gown, it seemed. Bandages covered my body, and strings wrapped in white pieces of plastic stuck to my skin.
The strings were connected to some kind of machine.
"Ja ur onip yr be?" A teenage boy, seemingly 14-15 years of age, spoke an indecipherable language. He was quite attractive, with glass skin and bright, blue, fluffy hair that hid his forehead.
His eyes glistened an emerald hue, radiating with youthful energy and naivety. It was clear he still possessed the level of innocence the people of my world had long forgotten.
I wasn't in my world.
The boy wore an aqua-colored suit, which I found unconventional. A silver watch strapped to his wrist, he seemed from a well-off household.
"What are you saying?" I asked, aware my efforts would be fruitless, but slightly hopeful the boy would understand. I received my answer once he scrunched his eyebrows before pulling away in confusion.
"Ur Ne La Polku," said the boy, turning to another teen beside him. The other teen shrugged, shaking his head helplessly. It was a comical scene, considering they seemed to be uttering gibberish at each other.
At that point, I stopped paying attention to their rambling, decided to observe my surroundings. It was clearly an infirmary of some kind, with nurses patrolling the area like officers at a dangerous crime scene.
That's when it finally hit me.
I had transmigrated. My soul had been summoned into someone else's body. It was an implausible outcome, but the most logical at the moment.
Suddenly, my eyes fell upon a certain older man. Not on him, but the item he held in his hand; a newspaper dated September 30th.
At that moment, an unbearable pain assaulted my head. An influx of information seeped into my head, but I couldn't make sense of any of it.
"Ugh!"
My temples throbbed as my head shot forward. I clutched my forehead, desperately trying to alleviate the pain, but to no avail. Abruptly, the vision went blank, as if the light had been squeezed from my eyes.
It hurt.
'Am I about to die again?'
I thought as I drifted off.
***
The creaking of wood. The violent splashing of water, and the thuds and booms of crashing objects. The unpleasant noises assaulted my ears, forcing me to cover them. It was dark and cold.
I wasn't in the infirmary anymore.
The headache was gone… so were the strange faces, the hospital gown, and the angry nurses.
What replaced them was a dim room, lit only few a few rays of moonlight that peered through the tiny cracks of the malleable, fragile, soaked wood. I had no time to think and observe my surroundings.
The situation seemed urgent.
The room seemed to sway like a rocking chair, each time welcoming a certain amount of water that slowly and steadily flooded the space. I tried to maintain my balance, a task that required much effort in a flooded room.
"Blech!" Suddenly, a viscous, green liquid escaped my lips. I clenched my core while traversing towards the exit. Once I arrived at the door, I simply kicked it open, shattering the wood that bound me.
I had never known of my seasickness, but it didn't surprise me more than what I had already gone through.
I trotted my way through the slippery floor before arriving at the deck of what I could only assume was a ship. As I lay my eyes upon the deck, my eyes widened in true horror. I stumbled, falling flat on my buttocks.
My body shook. I raised my hand, pointing at something in the distance.
"W–What the f–" I barely managed to utter a few words before shutting my mouth. My body froze in horror, a chill running down my spine as I struggled to keep my composure. The rain soaked my body so that I couldn't discern cold sweat from water.
I had never seen something like this.
Before me was a monster straight out of a hellish nightmare. Floating atop the raging waves was a horror comparable to the deity of death. With massive, topaz-colored eyes and a shadow the size of a nation, it stood tall.
With an unsettling blend of translucent, jelly-like flesh and jagged, bony fangs, the monster stood at the height of at least a skyscraper and the width of several hundred whale sharks. Just one look could paralyze even the most experienced veterans.
Let alone a screech that seemed to shake the world.
Before I knew it, the shadow engulfed me…
...ending me in a split second.
I died for the second time in the span of a few hours.