1 Meeting Life
What is life and what is death? Tasha played this question in her mind for the thousandth time with no hint towards an answer. She almost grasped it, running towards the light that was flickering at the end of the dark tunnel. The light that lured her towards freedom almost like the sweet smell of her favorite perfume . But then suddenly her mom's words rang in her mind "Run away from the light, my girl." Her sweet, loving mother who always stroked her head while letting her sleep on her lap and repeated the same curious lines "The dark will lead you towards life and the light towards death. What you see isn't always true and things exist out of your sight too. So, always keep your mind open, my baby."
So, she would back pedal and run towards the unending darkness. But this loop never ended. She wanted out. She wanted to be back in her room, finishing that homework that ensured her an A. She wanted to pull Faith's hair out for sleeping with her boyfriend behind her back. And then cripple that half-man for cheating on her despite knowing her past trauma. But then in front of the darkness, none of these seemed as important as hugging her baby brother who was probably crying by her side right now.
"I wanna go back," she suddenly screamed after who know how many days, maybe even months of frustration.
"You cannot go back". Tasha, startled at the robotic voice, turned all around trying to find the source. "Who are you?" wide-eyed, she yelled back. She was scared that she was imagining, hallucinating the sound. That no one would reply back. So, the relief that followed the monotonic reply made her knees weak.
"I am Life's assistant.", the voice replied back.
"Life's assistant?" she whispered in question, not knowing if it was rhetorical or she indeed wanted the answer.
"Yes, Life's assistant. I'm May. I take souls to where they belong. And your soul does not belong in this time vortex..."
"Wait, what? Time vortex? And what do you mean my soul? I'm still alive, right?"
A sigh came out from the dark, very different from the monotone voice that was talking to her before.
"Kiddo, you better listen to me. I'll say this once, and that is it. Any more questions will have to wait after we settle you out. Now tell me, how did you enter the vortex?"
"No, you listen to me. I've been stuck in this place for so long without knowing where I am. And you tell me this is a Time vortex? Do you believe me a child? Look, dude. Whoever you are, let me go. Or call my dad. Tell him what you want and he will give it you. Please."
Another sigh followed the first one. "May, bring the child to my room." May replied back, "Reported, sir."
Before she could comprehend anything Tasha felt someone grab her waist. A current passed through her entire body and then even that darkness faded away to unconsciousness . When she came to, she was still in an embrace. She opened her eyes in a flash, the white light in the infinitely white-room almost blinding her in the process. She closed her eyes but then opened it back not wanting to let this be a dream. Her sight took in everything around her hungrily, wanting to feed it simulation after god knows how long of blindness.
The room was white and square, with no seams, doors or windows. It was hard to gauge how big it was. It sometimes seemed to go on forever, and at other times the wall seemed to be right in front of her nose. In the further wall of the square room, was a booth with a bullet-proof glass window. How she knew it was bullet-proof, she didn't even consider that question. Behind the booth sat a man whose face was flickering between old and young.
"You..your face. My god!" she cried out in shock. Her hands tightly grasped whatever was holding on to her, keeping herself from falling over from panic.
She felt the change in the air, the temperature drop down, almost as soon as she let her words out. The hand tightly held her, almost wanting to snap her in half. The strange man frowned and said, "May, let the child go. You don't want another child's blood in your hands, do you?"
Tasha's blood almost froze at the coldness in his voice. She fell over in a pile, her trembling legs unable to support her entire weight. "So much for being strong," she muttered to herself, trying to keep her tears where they belong, inside her tear ducts.
She looked at the man again, secretly hoping he would help her out. He seemed to have settled for an old, wrinkly face. The things she encountered all seemed out of her range of thoughts. For the third time that day, she got startled when the man snapped at her, "Are you trying to waste my time?"
He made a "come here" motion with his fingers and her body, like a puppet, involuntarily flew towards the booth and settled itself in the chair. "It's normal", she tried to convince herself to no success.
The man smiled as if satisfied with his handiwork as he said," Now we can proceed."
"Where am I?" Tasha asked annoyed at him. He was smiling while she was frightened out of her wits.
"The soul center, at the moment." He replied and stopped her questions with a louder, "You were in a vortex before. Your soul got lost between transition to reincarnation, I believe."
"Reincarnation? Like, after dying?" she cried out for the hundredth time that day. "I'm dead? Me? But..but I can't be dead".
"Your body in the past world has perished" the man calmly clarified to her, "So you will now be given a choice where you want to go now."
"What do you mean?" she snapped back. "Of course, I want to go back home. I want to see my brother. He must be starving."
"Your brother is being taken care of by a guardian. Her name is Faith. Yes, the same Faith who had coitus with your partner."
May suddenly settled a cup of tea in front of her. "Drink it and calm down", the man almost ordered her.
Tasha suddenly felt so thirsty, she snatched the cup and gulped every drop of liquid in it. She thanked May after that and then turned to stare at the man. "Who are you to know all this? And Faith, that bitch, wouldn't take care of my problems. She hates my guts."
"She does not. But now that you are no longer in that time and world, just forget about it. Focus on the situation on hand. I can not send you back to where you came from."
"Why?" Tasha asked with tiny drops of water leaking out from her eyes. The 16-year old girl felt so weak at the time. She just wanted to crawl into her mom's lap and sleep forever. But her mom was gone, and now so was she. "Why can't I go back? Why did i die?"
"Don't cry." The man frowned again, this time helpless than annoyed at herself. "Crying will not solve anything."
"There are two reasons you cannot go back. One being your body. Your family already buried you and it's been destroyed with time. Second is time itself. When you went through the vortex, you spent quite a bit of life-force which is non-returnable. If you go back to your world and time, you will simply die, now not even able to enter the cycle of life and death."
Tasha contemplated his question, her tears drying up, "Okay". She hesitantly asked, "Can you explain what life-force is?"
The man paused a second and called out "May, explain."
"Reported", May walked to her side. "Life-force - the force of influence that gives something its strength and vitality. In your world, it would be age. If you go back, you will have aged too much to live again."
"Ohhhh" Tasha repeatedly nodded. She then recollected the strange man's words and inquired, "You said I have a choice?"
The man smiled and answered, "Yes, you do. Now that you're ready, let's do this like we normally do with souls who have no memories."
"...Bipolar", is the only word she could describe his mood with.
"You have two choices. You can wait in our facility for wandering souls and choose reincarnation chances from the notice board as they come. Just know that some souls there have waited for millennials with no chance. We will also erase your memory so that you don't affect the other souls there with your energy."
She blanked out for a minute. Whatever was happening today was definitely not normal. She nodded absent mindedly, hinting for him to continue.
"And the second choice is to keep your memories and enter a world of my choice right away."
"Can I think about it?" she whispered back to him.
"We already wasted enough time. If you want to think, we can only put you in the facility. The rules do apply."
"Then I choose the second one." Tasha didn't find the choice difficult.
The man then stated, "Considering your special circumstances, you can also choose to give up your memories and start over. If you want to and think this will help you."
"No!", she almost shouted at him. "I want all my memories."
"Okay", the man paused and nodded at her. "Before we begin, I have a keepsake from your mother and a letter. I will hand it to you right now but you can only open it when you can read words in the other world."
"Deal." Tasha replied back.
"Okay, this will be quick. You will now close your eyes, I will press my button and send you to be reborn in a world of martial arts. You will have the knowledge from your current world along with your memory intact. You will however have to learn all the life-skills there like a normal human being does. I am also sending you to a higher-level world so it will have aspects you fear in this world like demons and ghosts. "
Tasha tried to comprehend his words behind the fear and excitement grasping her brains. "I can't see my brother one last time?"
The man hesitated but sharply denied her request with a resolute, "you cannot. Just know that he has already grown up as a successful businessman and has long left behind the struggle you two went through before you left that world."
She sighed in disappointment, grief, and a slight happiness and said, "Thank you for telling me that. I'm ready now."
The man asked her to close her eyes. "Hear my magic, fairies. Send this child to a dimension of vitality. Let her fulfill her role. As Life itself, I command you to bring her soul back to the living safely."
"Yes master", a group of voices replied back and she descended into darkness again, not knowing when she will be reborn.
