Liezel Verlice opened her eyes, blinded for a moment by the sudden brightness. When she got accustomed to it, she could see a strange ceiling. It definitely wasn't her house. That was for certain.
What had happened?
The floor of her office room had cracked abruptly revealing not the rooms on the lower floors but rather, an infinitely deep chasm. This opposed the science she was aware of in every way possible. And with some horrible luck, she had tripped over a chair and fell into the void. Considering the fact that she had been falling for what felt like nearly an hour before passing out, she doubted that she would have survived if she did somehow land at the bottom.
Yet, here she was analyzing the absurd events that had occurred. She felt very much alive. Did someone save her?
"Kyaaa"
Liezel was startled at the sudden sound, causing her to turn her head towards the origin of the sound.
A baby lay beside her, looking at her curiously. Its eyes shone like little gems and the cheeks looked like melting butter. Liezel lifted her hand to touch the baby's cheeks when she got a glimpse at her own hand.
Tiny.
This ridiculous situation made no sense to her, who thought everything through a scientific point of view.
She was a baby. She then attempted to speak.
"Abuuu"
She was dumbfounded. She could not speak properly.
'So frustrating' she thought.
'You feel the same as well?' A voice spoke to her.
No way.
Liezel frantically turned her head searching for the voice. She could never forget that voice even if she died, came back alive and died again. Her twin brother, Arthur Verlice who died six years ago, at the age of nineteen after falling off a cliff.
'I'm Arthur. What is your name?' the voice asked.
'Leizel' she replied. It seemed she could communicate with him through her thoughts, if she concentrated hard enough. 'Where are you?' she asked anticipating his answer.
The voice did not reply for a long time. Leizel was worried that he had not heard her. Before she could repeat herself, the voice spoke to her once more, but trembling slightly.
'S-Sister?' he asked slowly.
It was confirmed now. While there were thousands- no maybe millions of Arthurs in the world, there was but only one Arthur who had that voice, who could recognize her name and call her sister so sweetly.
Her beloved brother. But how was he alive?
'Where are you, Arthur Verlice?' she asked again, her heart thumping wildly.
'Beside you.' He replied. She could only see the baby beside her. And the baby started hiccupping, its eyes watery.
'I didn't know. I didn't know it was sister beside me all this while.' He spoke. The baby eventually started crying.
"Uwaaaaah"
The baby was her twin brother. And they were twins again. Leizel began crying as well.
"Uwaaaaah"
The person she had longed for so dearly. The brother whom she had missed for so long. She rolled over to him and tried hugging him with her short hands.
"Oh my. Looks like our little angels are hungry?" A woman's voice spoke.
The woman had long black hair that resembled the night sky. Her green eyes looked like shiny emeralds.
She picked Leizel up to breastfeed her.
'Wha- woman let go of me!' she thought, trying to get away from her. 'She's our new mother now, Zel' Arthur said in her mind. She stopped struggling in shock.
After thoroughly losing her dignity by being breastfed by a woman who looked her age and being laid back on the bed, she spoke in her mind.
'What do you mean, mother?' she asked incredulously. 'Arthur who was being fed by the woman, replied, 'She is our new mother. After all, we were reborn, weren't we?'
Leizel had been subconsciously trying to deny the fact that she had reincarnated as a child. But being faced with such humiliation, she had to accept the fact as it was.
'You didn't realize?' he asked her. 'No. I only regained consciousness a while ago' she replied. Then a sudden thought came to her head.
'How old are we?' she asked. 'Nearly six months I think?' Arthur replied. Leizel sighed in relief. Babies are usually breastfed till six months at most. Thank God she didn't have to endure the torture for long. 'Then what was I doing for the past six months?' she asked. 'You were a normal baby I suppose. I'm not sure…' Arthur replied thinking hard. The woman had laid him back as well and left.
Suddenly, she felt something wet spread down. Horrified, she realized that she had pooped in her pants. How she wished to go hide inside a mousehole if there was any. She began crying involuntarily. She hated the fact that she could not control her own body. Another woman, presumably a maid or nanny judging by her clothes, hurried over to them to change their diapers. It seemed like Arthur had done the same thing as well.
'Today is probably the most embarrassing day in the twenty-five years I have lived.' She grunted. 'I agree. Wait, what did you say? Twenty-five?!' he exclaimed. 'Yeah.' She replied.
Arthur was silent for a while.
'Has it been six years since my death already. How were mom and dad doing?' he asked, feeling slightly choked.
'They were healthy. After… your accident, we moved to a new house since I fell severely ill.' She replied.
'I see. Thank you, Zel.' He replied. Leizel was unsure of how he was feeling. For the rest of the day, the two conversed, with Leizel mostly recounting all the incidents that had occurred after his death. Although they were occasionally interrupted by their mother or the nanny for being fed or changing diapers, the day went by swiftly.
Since I have started this novel recently, I do hope to get valuable feedback of how I can improve my work!
--Silver