Death and Rebirth 2

All of Murdoch's pent of emotions came rushing back, bringing along with them messed up eyesight, a flawed sense of touch and a mind numbing burning sensation that scorched his chest.

He never had time to mull over the second coming of his mental anguish while it felt like someone lit a fire in his lungs.

Murdoch's body began to manically twitch on instinct as he repeatedly tried and failed to take a breath of air. The lack of oxygen blurred his eyesight more than he thought was humanly possible, and the pain only worsened over time.

After what felt like hours of prolonged torture, his conciousness was on the verge of dispersing when he heard a strange rumbling not far from him.

- "Iqeh, I thought you said the fish was prepared for cooking?" -

A hulking mass of scales and muscle asked his partner, turning one of her many, many eyes to the floundering animal of the ground.

- "Huh?" - The Serpentine-esque monster bewilderedly mumbled, - "I'm telling you, it was dead two minutes ago."

Murdoch couldn't understand a fucking word they were saying, everything that came from the creatures mouths sounded like the gibberish he'd spout after drinking one too many at the local pub.

'Fuck me man. Don't tell me I'm going to die for the second time in a day.'

He tried multiple times to squeeze out some words, but all he got too show for them was a stabbing pain in his abdomen.

His eyesight was completely wack as well, he couldn't see in front of him, couldn't see behind him, but everything at either side was perfectly fine. At least for short distance vision, anything past a couple of metres started to blur out, but he wasn't sure if that was an eye problem or a lack of oxygen problem.

Once the two beings stopped communicating, one of the pair took a powerful lunge towards him that sent tremors through the earth.. One of the hands that carried its serpentine body began to shiver rapidly until it transformed from something similar to a talon, to a singular razor sharp blade.

Before he even realised what was happening, it was off with the head.

A quick, clean cut though the nape cleaved Murdoch's head from the rest of his body and sent it flying through the air. In his last seconds he was able to glimpse at what the rest of his body looked like.

What lay on the ground, was a headless, red scaled fish that sported a pair of curved spikes that grew from the area next to the dorsal fin.

'That solves the mystery of why I couldn't breathe' Murdoch thought, just before he was ripped from that reality.

He basked in the wonderful feeling his second death brought him, coupled with a surprisingly neutral feeling towards execution by guillotine Murdoch bathed in the calmness before being harshly yanked into another body.

Everything was much blurrier than the previous time, his vision was like looking through a pair of binoculars without focusing on them. His hearing was much better though, he could make out strings of syllables that seemed to form some kind of foregin language that he's never heard of before.

Suddenly a huge palm grabbed him and lifted him into the air. He couldn't make out much, but he could definitely see the creature's mouth opening and closing… menacingly.

'Please no! Not again! Don't kill me!' He tried to say, but his vocal cords never moved accordingly.

What came out in the place of words, was a baby's high-pitched wail. Sadly for him, none of the adults in the room seemed to notice the distress he was in.

- "He's alive! Your baby survived!" - One of the midwives exclaimed as she checked Murdoch's new body for any problems.

- "May I hold him?" - The mother weakly asked while tears poured down her face. Her body was weak from the long labour and her heart doubly so

Finding out her child was stillborn made her feel like the world was crumbling around her, but the gods shone a light on her baby boy, bringing him back to her.

- "Of course dear. One moment." - The midwife made several hand signs and eloquently spoke the word "Venire" conjuring up a small orb of light that slowly fell towards Murdoch's chest.

The light spread all over his small body, giving his features a slight luminescent glow. The energy of the orb coursed through Murdoch's body, giving birth to an incredible feeling, it was as if his cells were brimming excess energy.

A second wind if you will.

It was enough of a surprise to momentarily calm him down.

'No fucking chance man. Absolutely no way. Surely that wasn't magic… Dying twice must have me tripping balls.'

Once the light disappeared and the plainness of basic existence returned, the midwife passed him to his mother. The warm touch of the mother felt cold and empty with the loss of that precious feeling coursing through him.

She held him close to her bosom and gently rocked him, showing the freshly reincarnated Murdoch the exact same care and love that was meant for her true son that must've passed away.

To be honest, Murdoch never really cared about the body's previous owner. Too much shit happened for him to sweat the small stuff, he'd have an existential crisis another day.

After realising he wasn't about to be decapitated, ate and shat out, he fought back the feelings of emptiness and relaxed in the warmth of his surrogate mother embrace, dozing off a mere moment later.

While Murdoch was sleeping the Midwife asked - "Have you decided on a name Miss" -

Nodding slightly, she cleared her throat before replying with a beautiful smile.

"Lux"