Five hundred lives

Powerlessness...

That's all Drake could feel right now. He tried to breathe, but he realised he could not. He decided to open his eyes and yet again he could not. Panic started creeping up, but he forced himself to calm down. Being a hunter, he was able to focus quickly, and he started thinking about his situation.

'Ok, first things first, let's try to find out where I am.' he thought.

He tried moving around, but he could hardly move. It was extremely tough to change his position. The only thing he was feeling was tremors around him. No sound no nothing. He tried to focus on the tremors, but abruptly they stopped. Then they started again. This went on for a while, tremors on and off. Unfortunately the more he tried to focus the more exhausted he became, and it wasn't long before he fell asleep.

The same scenario kept happening for god knows how long until one day, everything changed. Tremors have stopped for quite a while, and he was trying to find a reason when an intense pain coursed through his body. It started with his head and then moved to his lower body. Suddenly, he did something that he hadn't done for a very long time. He took a breath. It was painful the first time but the more breaths he was taking, the easier it got, and the happier he became.

'Is this the feeling of being born?' Drake realised.

'I suppose my punishment just started... I wonder what kind animal was I reincarnated into' he mused.

It wasn't long till he found an answer to his question. It was a rabbit. A powerless, defenceless rabbit. All he was doing for the next few months was running around eating grass.

'What an unexcited life...' Drake was thinking. He was bored so much, but he could do nothing. Every time he tried to move a bit further from the burrows wolves would be roaming, and he had to rush back.

But the boredom didn't last long. Soon wolves expanded their area searching for food, and after some time they found the burrows... Then, the hunting started. Every time he tried to go out for food, a wolf would be nearby, and the wolf would immediately rush to catch him. It was a matter of time until he starves to death or gets eaten by a wolf. But Drake was strong-willed, so he decided that it is better to die from a wolf's jaw than starve to death.

However since his whole reincarnation, was meant to be a punishment, it was inevitable for him to get caught by a wolf...

Painfull. That was the best description for that feeling. The wolf that caught him was planning to feed him to its cubs, so he did not die immediately. He had to live during the whole trip from the time the wolf caught him until he took him to its lair. Then he got eaten alive.

He felt everything. The pain was unbearable; he did not even faint until they started eating him. Drake was begging for death, but it took too long to come.

'Will it be like this for another 99 times?' Drake thought. He couldn't lie to himself. He was terrified.

The only thing that could make him feel better is thinking that at some point the punishment will end. His only hope was to not go crazy before its over. He did not even know why he kept his memories from before, but he ignored it as being a process of the punishment.

While he kept thinking about what's next to come, he realised he was back to a state of powerlessness.

'That should be my second reincarnation...I wonder what type of animal will be this time' Drake thought. 'I should cherish the times from being born until the huntings for my life otherwise there is no doubt I will go mental.'

Time passed, and to his surprise, he was born as a deer. He was planning on enjoying his life while it lasted. He knew it wasn't going to be very long, but he planned to take advantage of every second of it.

Unfortunately for him, it was only two weeks after he got born that some humans saw them and hunted his entire herd. He couldn't even console himself that his death was fast. Drake was the second one who got shot from the arrows. He got shot once and then the hunters turned to hunt the rest of the herd. He slowly bled to death.

Time slowly passed while Drake was reincarnating into different animals and kept dying in multiple ways. Fireballs, arrows, knives, from other animals... He was hoping for humans to hunt him. Usually, they were killing him fast. It was an endless cycle. But he kept counting to keep himself sane. Twenty deaths, thirty, fifty, ninety...

Finally, it was the hundredth reincarnation he was experiencing. He passed through the pregnancy phase, and he was feeling joyful. Strangely, he wasn't hoping to live. On the contrary, he was hoping to die as fast as he could. He was hating being in an animal body. He hated himself being an animal. He wanted to be a human again.

This time he got reincarnated into an elephant. As soon he learnt to walk and run, he threw himself in the face of danger. He charged into a human settlement, so he got shot down by arrows quite fast. Even as he was dying, he was rejoicing the fact that the next time, he will be reincarnated into a human being again.

'FINALLY!!!! MY PUNISHMENT IS OVER!!!' Drake's thoughts were devoid of any negative feelings. He wanted to scream in joy. He wanted to celebrate. This time after he gets out of his mother womb he will be able to live again. Live as everyone should. In charge of his own destiny.

However, as soon as he got born, he realised something was wrong...

'What is this... This... Am I a rabbit again? How is this possible? Didn't my punishment end?' thought Drake confused. 'Did I count wrong? No, that's not possible, counting was the only way to keep my sanity. I couldn't have been wrong.' He was trying hard to find an explanation but he could not.

Time passed, and reincarnations were happening one after another. At first, he was desperate, even if he was suiciding the next reincarnation came afterwards, and it was the same thing. He knew he was losing his sanity. He was going crazy.

'THAT FUCKING BITCH, GODDESS MY ASS' Drake wanted to shout. 'THAT BITCH COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT ME. I'LL KILL HER.'

But no matter what he wanted, he couldn't escape his fate. Soon he went completely insane. His only thought was killing her. His entertainment was thinking of ways of killing her. Torture, amputation, rape. He played every scene in his mind time after time. He was even thinking of eating her alive.

It was his five hundredth reincarnation. Everything was the same except this time at the time of his death instead of instantly starting all over again; he heard a voice. An extremely sinister voice...

"Drake Pope, I can give you a chance to get revenge on Delia. Are you interested? "