I made a mistake

The young boy continued to shift his gaze left and right trying to make sense of the situation but no matter where he looked, nothing seemed to give him the answer he sought.

For starters, he was a literal baby right now. His arms and legs were barely bigger than a shoe, his height had severely diminished, and every bit of strength that he had before was now nowhere to be found.

Second, he was being carried by a woman he never saw before while being in a room he never had never seen before and surrounded by a group of strangers he had never seen before.

They were a group of five individuals dressed like maids and butlers and were standing on a circle around the lady as she laid on a large bed with the boy in her arms. It seemed like they were her servants.

The lad tried to run away from there but he couldn't escape her grasp no matter how hard he tried. Once he realized that, he began to scream and cry to complain about everything, but all those present simply smiled and laughed at him.

"Who are you, people??!! What's going on!!?? Let me out of here!! Let me out of here right now!!!"

[He's so cute!!!] one of the maids commented, [It's like he's trying to speak to us!]

[He's so energetic! I feel like he will be a very healthy young man in the future!] one butler added.

[Of course, he will be!] finally, the lady holding him entered the conversation, [He's my son after all! I have great expectations for him!]

While the group of strangers continued their little chat, the boy realized he had a third problem to deal with. He couldn't understand a single word they said.

For some reason, anytime they spoke, the language they used didn't match anything the boy was familiar with. It wasn't English, Spanish, Latin, or anything he studied in the past.

It was safe to say, they probably also didn't understand his words either, and due to his baby appearance, they simply assumed he was just unable to properly talk like any toddler.

"Somebody heeelp!!! Somebody heeeeeeeelp!!!"

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A few hours passed and the boy was finally left alone with the woman in order to give her some time to rest he assumed.

He tried to put the pieces together and finally grasp what was happening for real.

"I'm a baby... I'm a freaking, goddamn, bloody, baby..." he mumbled to himself while laying on his cradle listening to the lady snoring on her bed, "That crazy old lady... What the heck did she do to me???"

'I gave you what you wanted...' a sudden but familiar voice spoke near him.

"Eh!?" the boy gasped upon searching the source of the voice and spotting a strange owl staring at him while sitting on the edge of his cradle.

'How do you like my gift?' the owl mumbled. The animal did not have lips but the voice appeared directly inside his mind.

"You!! You're the old lady!!" the boy shouted while glaring at her.

'Good job, Sherlock!' she laughed, 'What's next? You're gonna tell me that the sky is blue?'

"What did you do to me??"

'Well... You seemed so done with your life and so eager to get away from it, that I decided to give you a new one. Pretty neat, right?'

"What!?? How did you- What are you?? Are you a witch? An evil goddess? A demon? A lawyer??"

The feathered creature tilted its head, 'Why would I be a lawyer...?'

"I don't know... My father told me that lawyers are known for making deals with the devil..."

'I see... Well... What I am doesn't really matter... The focus here is about you learning your lesson! Hihi!'

"Wha...? What lesson...?" the boy asked while raising an eyebrow.

The owl jumped inside the cradle and began to circle the kid, 'I told you, I can't stand people that don't consider the feelings of others, and I can't stand people that use the word 'die' so easily... Kids like you that talk about dying without thinking about the wound that would leave in the hearts of those that stay behind, these are the kind that pisses me off the most.

So every now and then, I send someone like you to another world and scare you a little bit in order to let you guys learn a bit about how much weight there is in your actions and words.'

"Another world...?" he repeated trying to understand what she was saying.

At that moment, the clouds in the sky began to clear up, allowing the light of the bright moon to shine upon his face. The boy began to fix his gaze on the window to the outside from his cradle, and started to notice the view he had not paid attention to before.

Massive buildings that stood side by side with lines of light circling their structures like neon, shadows of strange winged creatures of the size of a car soaring through the air, and the presence of five smaller moons in the distance surrounding the main one.

"Whoa..." he whispered.

'Cool, right?'

"This... This is... This is amazing!!"

'Kikiki!' the bird laughed, 'Glad you like it! You're gonna be staying here for a while!'

"Staying here?" he asked while suddenly turning around, "For... For how long??"

'Until you learned your lesson and start thinking about the feeling of those around you! But don't worry, I'll stay by your side as your guiding pet!'

The boy began to hold his chin, which was quite the unusual sight for a baby to do, and began to process everything, "Doesn't that make you kind of a hypocrite?"

'Eh!?? Wha- What do you mean??'

"I mean... You say you hate people that just do things without considering the feelings of others... But you just sent me here without giving a single thought about how I might feel about it..."

'Oh...' the owl mumbled, admitting she never considered that.

"Like... Think about it... You were the one that tried to talk to me, you were the one that tried to force me to spill out my problems, you were the one that got upset about what I said all on your own... I did everything I could to avoid you, and you still decided to punish me in the end... Doesn't sound very reasonable, does it?"

'Huh... That's... That's rather observant for a fifteen-year-old boy...' she commented.

"My older brother studies law school... He gave me a few tips to help me win arguments against my parents... Although that didn't end up helping much in the end..."

The owl began to look away while trying to think back at all her actions, and the more she considered, the more she came to realize she really did force and decided everything on her own without thinking about the kid himself.

'Mmmm... When you put it that way... I guess I did get a bit too emotional...'

"It's okay... Next time, just try to ask first..." he suggested while coming closer and patting the bird lightly in the head.

'Ugh... I feel kinda bad now... Should I send you back to your old life now, then?'

The baby went silent for a moment and pondered for a few seconds before replying.

He started to think about his parents and how he never managed to do anything for them that would make them proud of him. He was never the best student, never the best son, nor the best brother.

His scores in tests were abysmal, he was terrible at making friends, and he had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up. The boy always saw himself as a waste of everyone's time and affection.

With that in mind, instead of being scared from being alone in a strange world with a talking owl, shouldn't he consider this a chance to solve everyone's problems?

"Mmm... Nah, I'm good..."

'Yo- You are!!??'

"Yeah... The way you did it was kinda douchy, but you were right after all... I did want to get away from my old life. Now that I'm here, my parents have nothing to worry about!"

'Wa- Wait, kid, you're not supposed to stay here fore-'

The boy then gazed outside of the cradle's bars and looked at the lady on the bed who he assumed was his new mother, "Not only that, I basically got a new chance! I can do things better with my new parents and finally become a son that can make them proud! You just helped me out a lot!"

'What!? No!' the owl began to panic inside the cradle, 'What about your old parents!!?? Your brother? Your life??'

"They will be fine..." he commented while smiling at her with some heavy eyes, "They're better off without me... My older brother can make them happy in a way I never could before... He's studying to become a judge, you know? He's gonna be great!"

'No... No, no, no, kid- You were supposed to feel revolted from being forcibly taken away from your old life and decide to become a better person in order to earn your way back!!'

"Go back...? To what? Isn't it easier to just give up and start over?" he commented, talking as if his old life was a video game's level that he never managed to beat.

'Ah! Ah... Ah...'

"This time... I can do better! I'll study more! I'll learn more! I'll talk to people more!! I can be the person I always wanted to be! I can be just like my brother! Someone people can be proud of!! That lady, my new mother, I can make her happy in a way I never could with my old one!!"

'Well... About that...'

"But, I do wonder what happened to my old self... Did I just vanish completely?"

'Ah, no... Only your mind was sent here... Right now, I'm performing a technique that allows me to split a part of my own mind into your body, so I can pretend to be you while I wait for you to come back...'

"Oh... I see... You don't need to bother though... Just drop my old body on the ocean or something, I won't be coming back..."

'Please don't say that!! I can't send you back if your heart doesn't desire to do so!!'

At that moment, the lady instantly covered her beak with her wings and watched as the boy's focused look shifted to a really wide grin.

"So... You can't force me to go back?" he asked while leaning his head forward.

'Uuuhhh...'

The owl tried the best it could to think of something to say that would get him to change his mind, but no matter how hard she tried, one look at his face was all she needed to know nothing would persuade him.

"Ah! I feel much better now! Thank you, weird lady! I can't wait to start my new life! By the way... As my pet, what should I name you?"

'I don't require any names... Who I am may vary from time to time... Tomorrow I might be someone completely different from who I was yesterday... It is the fate of all those who-'

"Cool, I'm just gonna call you Dorothy then..."

'Eh... Wait, wha-'

"Good night, Dory!"

The boy then proceeded to hug the wide-eyed bird before covering himself with his sheets and began to think about everything he was leaving behind.

His old house, his cousins, his uncles and aunts, his school, teachers, games, books whose endings were not yet released, tv shows that he never managed to finish, classmates that he never managed to approach, including a certain girl who he had feelings for but was too afraid to interact with, and many other things that now just did not matter because he had received a clean state.

"Goodbye... My old self..." he mumbled while closing his eyes and falling asleep, leaving his past behind.

As for the lady, she simply stood there realizing that she really did make a huge mistake in letting her emotions get the best of her and just bringing the boy into this situation without properly thinking about it first.

'Oh... Dear...'