Regrets, Second Chance

"Scorch no! Get far away from here while you still can", his mother angrily shouted. The other men didn't give him a chance to recollect his thoughts as they swamped to him, angrily waving their clubs and machetes. Thank the gods they didn't have guns, it seems the ones here were the lower tier gangsters the rival village sent, on the way he had heard gunshots from his village chief's thatched mansion. Maybe that's where their manpower is all focused, for now.

"PAMM"

q the club welding enemy slammed the club, Scorch quickly jumped back but couldn't completely dodge the incoming blow.

'Even though I dodged as soon as he came near me he still managed to land a hit' coughing out blood he miserably held on and followed up with a backswing using his axe. Missing terribly he ran towards their now collapsed house and pick what used to be the door… now broken to an arm length. He used the door knob as a not so good but manageable handle to barely deflect the coming blow. The machete wielding man-the last of the remaining five-hadn't moved from his spot, Scorch had an inkling feeling that it's their kind of ritual or something, or maybe the machete guy was just so confident his opponent was going to win.

"Huff….. Shit" even with the door shield the club guy still finally landed a hit, after making more than 7 defended tries, 7:1 is still a negative ratio at leas that means I can have other chances, Scorch thought. He was still aimlessly flinging his axe at the enemy, skills were secondary; the need to survive and save his family by all means was the only thing he thought about now. Finally as the saying goes 'Hard work always pays off' Scorch finally landed a hit on the club guy, bending to dodge another futile attempt he swung the axe straight up to the club guy's leg… and the axe pass through easily, all the way to the other side. Scorch didn't wait for the Club guy to cry out or even fall, he jumped on him and bashed the axe on any random part of the guy's body he could reach again and again until the club guys face turned to a bloody mess.

"You're the only one remaining" Scorch said pointing to the last gangster.

"I admire you son, you see, I had hated that guy…. hated him for as long as I could remember. You just did me a favor, so I'll give to three options, one, you kill one, just one of your village able men" not minding the disgusted look on Scorch face the man smiled and pointed to where Scorch family was;

"Two, I'll let you have fun with any of the ladies here you want, after you enjoy yourself, I want you to kill her" the man didn't flinch when saying that, even as Scorch pushed forward quietly, he seemed obvious to his surroundings, focusing on picking his nails and ears. Scorch mother looked at Scorch pleadingly, motioning him not to go further.

"Stop, I don't want to hear anymore, what…. Let me guess the third option might be for me to single handedly kill the chief. Or maybe for me to commit another atrocity, give it up, am not doing any ransom with you".

The man looked at Scorch bewildered, he dropped his machete and got to a boxing stance "That's good, because the last option I wanted to state, was for us to do Hand-to-Hand combat, just as you wanted" Before Scorch had the time to react the man's fist seemingly appeared all of the sudden and hit his abdomen. Scorch felt his internal organ tumbling, he cried out in pain while he staggered backwards.

"PAM PAM POOOAM" Scorch could hardly see or make out the man's movement, the man turned to a blur in his eyes and caught up with him with incredible speed, he slammed Scorch body and sent him flying backwards. "That should do it, Aiya…. You don't like what you see, ladies? No worries I'll get some people to clean up this... So you're still alive eh!" The man exclaimed dumbfounded, Scorch got up using his last tenacity will, he slowly stretched his hand to grab his axe, still choosing to fight despite the odds out of his court, his head and chest hurt like crazy, his arms were trembling as they clenched the axe with the last strength he could muster

"POOH" The little light in Scorch eyes died out following the sound the gunshot. The man had a gun, and only just removed it now as he deemed the play not worth watching again, In fact he was a little bit scared of tenacity Scorch had. "What a pity, Boy you really caught my interest, truly a pity". It seemed like Scorch wanted to continue but alas, all the strength he had manage to pull out was sweeping away from the gaping gunshot wound. His mother was the first to veer out of the shock; she ran and manage to catch him before he dropped.

Scorch couldn't hear anything else apart from ringing sounds in his ear and he could somehow hear the blood flowing through his body and also gushing out. At this moment, he could still vaguely see his mother crying and maybe saying some encouraging words, then after some seconds he started falling, dying with deep regret and anxiety, if I could just have another chance, maybe let me be in my brother's body, he is way stronger than me, dammit. Why didn't he do anything, he didn't try. With his last breath he lifted his hand to caress his mother's face, trying to somehow let her know he don't need her to work hard enough for him again, trying his best to assure her that everything will be okay, that even if he's a ghost he won't let anything harm his family.

Before his consciousness faded from existence, entirely; he finally answered the question that had been tugging his heart since that Man took the first punch at him. He moved too fast he didn't seem human anymore, in fact his movements were a blur, his strength enough to break bones with the first hit, and Scorch had managed to land a clumsy hit but a hit nonetheless on him but the wound, it didn't bleed and immediately covered itself after few seconds......… None of these are attainable by humans, so the man just WASN'T HUMAN!

Scorch heart beat Once, twice and then seized.

Scorch was surprised when he saw a bright light cascading down from heaven, It was truly a surprise since just before his ascension he had killed dozens of people and even before his death his only wish was to kill, kill all the enemy soldiers, kill that MAN, and even kill those fat freaks; the one wish he regretted not fulfilling the most. So it wasn't a stretch to say he was bemused he could still be chosen, using strength he didn't knew he had he opened his arms to welcome the light, already visualizing when he'll start hearing the angels songs when everything vanished all of the sudden.

"Weird one I could say, He's one strong believer. It's a he isn't it?" a snicker could be heard behind him.

"What!" He turned around to see hundreds of people around him, in an ancient grand looking hall, in all different kinds of figures you might ever think of, young, old; black, white, very white; fat, tin; Even people that wore old Arabic clothes that reminded him of Pharaohs!, to worsen things they even shouted weird gibberish and looked at others funnily.

"Mortals, Welcome" the hall was silenced. Sitting on a tall phantom throne, a black haired 45 year old man was leaning lazily in his bath robes eating grapes.