Chapter 01: The Void

The dim light from the street lamps barely illuminated the path before him as Killian was making his way to his place after another long day at work. Rain was making his shoulder wet falling from the cloudy sky above him.

He paid no attention to his surroundings but kept his pace steady and in the same direction as always, trying to get back to his small apartment before getting too wet.

"Meow"

He at first ignored the sound that came from somewhere close, the tiny voice being dulled by the sound of rain hitting the street.

"Meow… Meow"

A small tabby cat had started to follow him on the sidewalk, its small paws trying to catch up with the speed of his walking, keeping close to his legs.

"Go away" he muttered, feeling a small sting in his chest from the guilt when seeing the small being almost clinging to his leg with its skinny body.

Another "Meow" broke the sound of the rain.

"Fine" he sighed and bent down to pick up the small creature, its tiny frame shivering against his warm hand.

Then before he could pick it up the cat darted away out onto the street.

Kilian didn't think and reactively moved forward to try and catch the cat, not noticing the bright light closing in on him as he did.

The impact was instant, and everything went black.

The last he heard was a faint sound of screeching tires and a "meow".

The black void enveloped him, pressing against his being, he could neither speak or move and the movement of time seemed infinite. Memories from his life were fading, but not fully gone, and his awareness of his Self and the darkness around him wouldn't end.

"This one seems different… It has not moved on" A humming or something that faintly seemed like words but wasn't, suddenly filled the void which had been eerily silent since he arrived.

"Wait…what is going on… This shouldn't happen." The humming voice continued in a desperate tone.

Something lit up the darkness around Killian, and a strange sense of a pull tucked at his being in the void, forcing him away from the darkness.

A faint scream filled the void behind him.

"No! Not the souls too!"

He sat up with a groan, the sound barely escaping him before several senses from a body filled his mind. A sensation of pain shooting through him was both startling and comforting at first.

The dark void was gone, but his new eyes were still trying to see through a darkened place.

A sharp pain shot up through his legs when he tried to move, and a burning sensation was spreading through his feet.

He looked around at a darkened unfamiliar room, wondering how he got there.

He had spent so much time in the void, trying to keep his Self together, he wasn't fully sure his new situation was real, or himself hallucinating now.

But the pain he felt in his legs were real, and he slowly looked down, the outline of a body he had not had in the void was now a strange feeling but one he welcomed.

Groggily he rubbed his head. "I am alive?" He said the words out loud, startled by hearing the voice clearly.

'Then where was he?'. He now thought to himself, not recognizing the voice he had spoken with.

The room was mostly dark, and the sheets he was laying on were coarse against his skin.

A sharp pain shot through his mind as a set of memories that was not his own, started flooding in.

The memories were confusing and the memories of his own life and the Void were getting mixed with the new.

They were flushing in relentlessly, giving him a splitting headache.

He felt as if he had suddenly lived two lives at once, but his mind was having trouble containing all the information.

One set of memories was from his own life as Kilian from a modern world, a young adult, at the age of 25.

The other set of memories seemed to be of a young man a couple of years younger than himself whose name was also Kilian, but who was from a more strange and different place, who had grown up in a room just like…. This one.

His fingers darted up, gently touching his face, the cold fingertips, studying the contours of the shape, feeling how the skin was smooth and young.

'Had he died and become someone else? … becoming this young Kilian he was getting to know through the new memories?.

The memories seemed to settle and he relaxed, just trying to be happy that he had escaped the void, which had seemed like a never ending darkness for so long.

Even if he was now someone else than who he had been on earth, all he wanted was to escape the dark. From the memories of this Kilian's life, this place was not located in the void.

He moved, attempting to throw the sheets off him, and placed his feet on the floor.

The sound of himself moving in a bed, made him smile through the pain that filled his new body.

'At least I can feel again, this is not a dream.' He thought to himself and continued trying to move, getting used to moving his body again.

Big curtains were covering the windows, but traces of light made it through the cracks in the fabric, giving small sources of light to the room, indicating it was morning or sometime during the day.

Light…" He mumbled again, the voice still foreign to him, but he was thankful to have one.

His feet touched the cold floor and he grimaced. He was now this other Kilian int his world, Kilian Heathgrave as his memories told him.

He was certain now, he must have somehow entered this body after getting pulled from the void.

'How?' his mind filled with more and more questions about the whole situation, and he had no idea what to do.

"How will I live like this? Is this permanent?"

He asked the empty room, just adding even more questions to the whole situation that seemed morbid and strange.

Another set of sharp pains ran up his legs, and he grimaced wondering why the body was in this state.

He searched the new memories, trying to make out the different parts from each other, while trying to move his feet again, stubbornly wanting to bring light into this new place.

A sudden memory of maids whipping the soles of his feet flashed up, and he bit down hard on his lip to endure as the memory passed.

'It feels as if I am the one who lived it.' The memory had come with another splitting headache and he sighed trying to relax his new body from the sudden tension it brought.

In the memories the Kilian he now had become had been rendered unable to walk due to heavy beatings and constant neglect from the maids of this mansion, to the point that it had been too painful to walk, and he had been confined to a wheelchair.

"What kind of people would do this to a child?" He almost spat out the words in resentment.

The feeling of anger rose in his chest, the beatings had seemed to start at a young age, and the kid had endured it for years. Alone.

Something hard was next to the bed, and he reached out to pull himself over in an old crude-looking wheelchair.

The wheels rolled over the floor after a lot of effort to push them with his hands, lining up in front of a tall window.

He was unable to see much and eyed the curtains in front of him. Even in the darkened room, the fabric seemed coarse and torn.

He pulled.

"Clank". The rod holding up the curtains fell and he watched as it all came down landing inf ront of the wheels of his chair.

He didn't care, they were not taking good care of this body's owner. Why should he care for a few curtains?

Instead the light shining through the window covered him with a subtle warm feeling and he had to close his eyes and slowly open them to get used to the brightness around him.

He had no answers as to how he was now in this body or why but the thought of accepting the current state of this body pissed him off.

He would be this new Kilian Heathgrave, and he would not let himself just sit back in this damned chair, letting the people who did this continue as they had.

They were the ones who had abandoned this body first, so he would abandon them.