Rebirth

Alex opened his eyes. He didn't know when they had closed, but he didn't care to question it. In front of him was probably the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was still holding him gently in her arms and rocking him, with barely visible tear tracks on her face. He was held captive by her long blonde hair and radiant white smile. Even the random spatter of freckles under her eyes and across her nose seemed perfectly placed.

"Hello, child..." She said, a motherly warmth spilling from her voice.

"Who are you?" Alex asked.

"No one of consequence. I'm just here to pass you back to the living." The sadness was evident in her eyes as she said this, but she left him no room to ask any more questions, as he saw himself turn into golden colored particles, slowly fading away towards an ovular shaped, blue light. He tried his hardest to hold on to the woman, but his efforts were fruitless as he became dust in the wind, heading toward a new world. His second chance.

By the time he would get to wherever he was headed, this scene would already have been dissolved from his memory, fading away like snow in the spring.

****

The woman stopped smiling as she began to cry again. Tears rained like a storm as she let out all she had been holding in for so long. At least until a giant of a man with a thick mane of silver hair slowly walked to her side and sat down, beginning to hold her tightly. A single tear could be seen rolling along his left cheek as he looked past the dark blue portal, in the direction Alex disappeared into.

"At least here, he can finally have a real chance at life. If I knew he would be forced into such a horribly made body on Earth, I would never have sent him there. If I was their God instead of Jehovah, I would have eradicated all of those who stood against him. He didn't deserve this." The man said, his gruff voice barely holding in his grief and near endless anger.

The woman slowly stopped shaking in the man's arms, becoming still and asleep. Taking Alex's soul directly from Earth's purgatory had taken a lot of her strength to do. Her tears still rolled down, albeit slower then they had a few minutes before. The man sighed as he gently wiped her eyes and cheeks, before kissing her forehead.

"I hope he becomes all he wanted to be and more. For your sake, and ours..."

****

Alex was in darkness again, struggling to breathe. He was being choked by a rope and constricted. He felt so weak and blubbery. He didn't know what was happening. He was scared, tired, and blind, wherever he was.

Suddenly, there was a harsh light, a far cry from the subtleness the other one had on his eyes. Everything was blurry, he still couldn't breathe, and everything was turning back to blackness at the edges of his vision. He kept struggling to reach out hoping for help, praying to be saved...

A giant's hands grabbed his head and dragged him out of the hole he was in. Everything was cold. The world was leaving him again.

Then there was nothing gripping his throat anymore. He screamed out, reaching his hands in the air, waving and sputtering, as the hands pat his back and shot fluid from his lungs. It was still so hard to see, but when he felt himself having been washed of whatever substances covered him, he began to realize what happened.

And that when he was handed to his new family. A new chance for the happiness he had given up on. He couldn't help but smile as he held the finger of the blurred lady holding him.

'Mother?' he thought. 'Please don't let me go...'

Maria smiled brightly, holding him slightly closer to her chest, before saying something the Alex had always wanted to hear.

"I love you so much. And I always will."

****

Thirty minutes earlier...

"Push! Push, Maria!" an old lady was yelling. The younger woman in front of her was struggling in her labor, gripping tightly to her bed sheets as she pushed with all her strength.

"AAAGH! I already know, damn it!" She yelled back. Her long silver hair was drenched with sweat, and covered her dark purple skin. You could just barely see the angry glint in her red irises as she stared at the nurse in front of her. "I can't focus too well with all this pain, so adding unnecessary words is unhelpful! Stop repeating yourself!"

Maria had hardly ever cursed in her life, so the man beside her couldn't help but stare in slight disbelief.

"Don't look at me like that, Arlo, or would you rather be the one giving birth!?" She exclaimed. Her husband couldn't help but smile slightly as he turned his face back to the ceiling, and reaching out to hold her hand again. He knew she was only like this during birth. He would have his loving wife back once she slept and rested for a week. After all, that was how it had worked with their last two children.

Arlo didn't say a word throughout the entire process. This was because Maria always told him not to look at her or talk to her during each birth. Apparently, she didn't want to associate him with seeing her lower parts being torn in front of his eyes. In truth, she was afraid he'd never look at her the same, or even touch her ever again after it was over.

The nurse suddenly cried out, distracting each from their own thoughts.

"He's crowning! I can see him! Keep..." The old lady stopped talking as she looked back Maria, seeing her glare being directed toward her. She couldn't help but to gulp in slight fear.

All of that faded as she noticed the child's head come out the rest of the way. She became even more frantic as she saw the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.

"Oh gods!" She yelled out. She hurriedly reached her hands out and assisted in the rest of the birth, quickly reaching for a pair of medical scissors and freeing the baby's airway. Hearing the newborn cry brought color back to her now paled face, as she began to wash the boy and put him in a warmed blanket.

The old woman smiled and handed him over to the partially bloodied Maria, who cradled him in her arms as she whispered to him. The crying had instantly ceased as the her baby stared into her eyes, cooing in happiness before closing his eyes to sleep.

A calm, subtle breeze came suddenly through the window as the sky outside darkened. The old lady went to the window, only to notice the deep orange colored sun being covered by the moon.

"Whatever omen this is, I hope it's nothing bad. If it is..." She paused as she turned to look back at the happy family. "Then let's hope that they can stop him before something terrible happens..."