A little while later.
Kinsley found himself opening his eyes inside a vast white space that stretched as far as the eye could see.
He was a bit confused when he saw this scene. He could still vividly remember in his head how the elevator he was in crashed, so how was it possible for him to see these things?
Then, he thought of something and made an enlightened expression, 'Is this the so-called heaven perhaps?'
He felt a bit downcast when he thought of this. He still couldn't believe that he had died like that so suddenly.
His heart ached when he thought of the tragic face that Elliot might be making when he found about his death.
Kinsley was just silently mourning his death when he suddenly heard a loud commotion behind him, "Ah! Y-You!" the voice belonging to a woman said.
Her voice sounded soft and refreshing to the ears, like a spring breeze. In short, her voice gave off a comfortable and reassuring feeling that made his tensed nerves relax.
Kinsley was quite surprised when he heard the voice. He thought the emissary of the heavens might be already here to fetch him and couldn't help but feel sad. He sighed and turned around.
His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the visage of the person standing not far from him.
The woman looked out of place. Aside from her pair of blood-red eyes, her face and body were entirely covered in a hazy light as if there was a thick layer of mist applied that prevented others from seeing her appearance clearly.
Her hands that were covered with mist covered her mouth that was similarly covered in white mist. At this moment, a thin layer of water covered her beautiful pair of eyes.
Kinsley's eyes dilated when he saw the unknown woman on the verge of crying. He had no idea why she cried all of a sudden.
Moreover, he also had no idea why he felt a pang of pain in his heart when he saw her crying like that. It was as if his heart was being squeezed tight, making him unable to breathe normally.
His mind was in an awful lot of mess. He couldn't understand where this suffocating feeling came from and more so why he felt like this.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He opened his eyes again and silently stared at the woman with complicated emotions in his heart.
'Why am I so affected by this woman? Is there some sort of connection between us?' he inwardly thought, his eyes happened to make eye contact with the woman's eyes and he couldn't help but frown.
'Those strangely familiar pair of eyes… where have I seen them?' he looked thoughtful and tried hard to recall where he saw them.
Just as he was about to delve deeper into his contemplation, the woman standing opposite him suddenly spoke.
"You… why are you here? You shouldn't be here at this time, so what in the world happened to you back there?!" tears silently flowed down her eyes as she looked at him filled with deep regret and grief.
Kinsley was shaken when he saw tears flowing down her eyes. However, he didn't know why she was looking at him like that.
So, he opened his mouth and was just about to ask the woman a question when he found that there wasn't any sound coming out of his mouth.
Kinsley was shocked at this discovery.
He tried to talk again and again only to discover the futility of his actions. Thus, he had no choice but to stop and purse his lips in frustration.
The woman saw what he did and only shook her head and said. "Don't bother, in this space, there's no air for sound to travel. Unless you could use telepathy like me, then there's no other way for you to talk here…"
Kinsley: "..."
After saying that, she seemed to have recovered from her emotions somewhat and hurriedly wiped her tears away. She then carefully examined him for a moment before her eyes widened in shock.
"You! Why can't I sense the gift I gave to you inside you? How could this be…" she went into a daze as she continuously muttered incomprehensible words.
Kinsley just silently listened to her words in confusion, 'What does she mean by that? Do I really know her? Also, what gift is she talking about?' his suspicion towards the woman continued to grow.
It took the woman quite a long time to snap out of her state.
When she looked at Kinsley again, her eyes revealed a hint of sadness before it was replaced with a strong resolution as she said.
"I'm sorry, Kinsley… I must've made an error in my judgment and let you suffer all this time... this all happened because of me, so I will send you back no matter what price I have to pay!" her voice was soft but one could still hear the firm determination hidden within it.
After saying that, she didn't look at him anymore and closed her eyes. She then started to mutter strange and mysterious words one after another.
The thick white mist covering her body slowly dissipated as time passed.
Kinsley watched all of this happen and didn't know how to react for a while. He couldn't understand her words.
In the blink of an eye, while he was still silently musing in his head, the woman's true form was already unknowingly revealed to him.
When she finally finished chanting, her countenance was already extremely pale. She weakly opened her eyes and lovingly looked at him.
She opened her mouth and said, "Kinsley… I-I'm afraid that I won't be able to accompany you in the future anymore, so you have to live a good life this time and take proper care of yourself, alright? You have to eat a lot of food, don't get sick, and don't let yourself get hurt-ugh!"
Suddenly, she coughed out a large amount of blood and was thus interrupted from talking to Kinsley.
At this moment, the large red stain on her pure white dress looked especially striking.
Kinsley was distressed when he saw this happen. He was just about to reach his hand to help her stand up when he saw the last bit of veil covering her face fall off.
His movements came to an abrupt pause as he silently stared at the woman in disbelief. His eyes were wide open as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing at this moment.
In front of him stood an extremely beautiful woman. Her peerless features could make anyone forget how to breathe properly.
Surprisingly, the woman's appearance resembled Elliot's appearance a bit. The resemblance was uncanny.
He'd be a fool if he still didn't know the identity of the woman standing in front of him. In the next moment, his eyes went red.
He couldn't believe that the woman whom he both loved and hated had suddenly appeared in front of him like this.
Kinsley had a lot of questions he wanted to ask her. It was just a pity that the place didn't allow him to ask a single one of those questions to her.
Suddenly, several dots of white light started to appear around him.
He naturally knew that this must be her doing. The thing that made her cough up blood. He didn't know what those lights signify, but judging from her words from earlier, this must mean that he was about to leave this place.
However, he was unwilling to go back. He wanted to stay in this place a bit longer. He still wanted to talk to her.
Thus, he tried to call out to her several times to no avail. His throat seemed to have something stuck inside it since no sound came out of it no matter how hard he tried to talk or shout.
When the lights started to appear, the woman that stood opposite him gradually became transparent and faint in turn.
Kinsley's heart violently trembled when he saw this. He didn't want her to disappear again. He desperately called out to her while repeatedly shaking his head.
'Mom! Mom!' he inwardly shouted.
It wasn't known when it started but tears had already unknowingly fallen out of his eyes one after another.
Meanwhile, the woman didn't react much when she saw that her son had already recognized her and started crying.
However, if one looked closely, one would still notice the violent trembling of her eyelashes that betrayed her concern for her son.
She held herself back and only stared at Kinsley as she silently engraved her son's appearance deep in her head.
But the longer she looked at him, the harsher the pain she felt in her heart was. In the end, the rims of her eyes were already red with tears.
"I'm sorry, Kinsley! I... I-I wanted to look at you and hug you in person just once, but I..." she paused for a moment and looked at the dense pack of white lights surrounding Kinsley.
Finally, she couldn't bear it any longer and reached her hands out towards Kinsley and tightly hugged him.
She softly whispered in his ears, "I love you, Kinsley! I truly do! It's a pity that I didn't get to see Elliot in the end but please tell him that mother loves him, okay?"
"I left a gift for you in the director's hands back then but it seemed that you didn't receive it. So this time, you have to get it from him, understood? You'll know everything there..." she didn't say anything more and just silently hugged Kinsley.
On the other hand, as Kinsley listened to his mother's words, tears continued to pour out of his eyes as he drowned his head on her shoulders.
'Mhm, I will! I will do everything you want me to do, so please don't leave us again, okay?' he inwardly said.
At this moment, he hoped that she could read his mind so that she'd know what he wanted to say to her.
In the next second.
His eyelids suddenly felt heavy. His consciousness slowly slipped away. He felt panicked when he felt this. He didn't want to sleep.
Thus, Kinsley tried to open his eyes for as long as he could only for him to hear a soft voice whispering in his ears.
"Sleep well, my darling... I'll make sure that everything will be alright. I promise..." her voice was so soft and warm that it made him fall asleep in her arms in that instant.
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The author has something to say:
This finally marks the true beginning of the story. In the old version, I felt that the rebirth came off abruptly so I thought of various ways to make it a bit 'natural' and this is what I thought of and decided to use in the end.
It's just that this chapter was written in too much of a mess. I'll just leave it as it is for now since writing this chapter consumed a week's worth of brainpower QAQ
P.S. thank you so much to d_reen for the ps votes~