Issue #1-Prologue: Death & Reincarnation

I moaned and woke up from my slumber in a mysterious white room. As soon as my vision became less blurry, I saw three people standing near me, with a woman's voice calling out my name. I recognized that voice even before my vision was cleared up, realizing that my parents and my little sister were here.

"Mom…Dad…Olivia?" I said for the first time in a long time, seeing my family smile for the first time.

Looking around the room, I saw a plasma TV was playing above me and the enormous windows from both sides stared at me. Footsteps and people's chatter echoed from the outside and my nose received both my family's breaths and the normal, clean air all at the same time.

"I'm glad you're okay, Michael," Mom exclaimed, her eyes watery with a smile.

Michael…I hated that name and wished my parents would stop calling me that. But no, they simply refused to do so and nobody called me Michael but them. I wish I had different parents.

I sighed when I turned to Mom. "Mom, can you please stop callin' me Michael? I told you before I hated that name, n' I prefer you call me Mike."

"Oh, stop that, Michael. As long as you're our son, I can call you that," Mom reassured me, which made me sigh and growl at her.

"And stop with the attitude too, young man," Dad roared, giving me a frown.

Ugh…it can't be helped…

"Mike! Oh, we're so glad you're awake. We thought you're a goner," Olivia exclaimed.

Backing off my attitude a bit, I smiled back. "Well, I'm glad to see you guys too. So where am I exactly?"

"You're in the hospital, Michael," Dad answered. "Now we don't know what exactly it is, but you've been displaying some strange symptoms. And…it's not looking good right now."

I widened my eyes out of shock when I heard that news. N-N-No way! I got an unknown disease?! I don't even know how I got it. Oh, great! Now I might not be able to make it out alive n' live out my future-no college, no good paying job…I won't even be able to see Vanessa at school. I jus' hope my worst nightmare doesn't come true. I jus' hope not…

"I know it's hard to hear, Michael," Mom added, placing and rubbing her soft hands onto mine. "We already notified the school about this and you're no longer legally required to attend."

"Will I receive my high school diploma though?"

"I don't know." Mom's eyes were watery out of worry. Dad and Olivia just gave me a frown with their watery eyes on their faces, while Dad pulled Mom's body to him and rubbed her arm to comfort her.

Oh, great...

"Oh, okay…so how long have I been here?"

"Two weeks."

Two weeks?! I can't believe I missed school for that long, and I will probably soon die. Does Vanessa even miss me? Did she even try to visit me in the hospital? How come nobody didn't notice something was wrong anyway?

Going through my memory, I tried to figure out how it ever got this bad, wondering if there was some sign I missed. I was heading towards my car and driving my way home that night, until the coughing got so out of control I collapsed to the ground near my car. People were surrounding me, probably some recording me on their phones, and others were just chatting with one another. A woman's voice shouted for anyone to call for the ambulance. That was the last time I could possibly remember.

"But we'll try to visit and pray for you as much as we can before you leave this world with the Lord," Mom continued, sobbing.

"So if you want to go to heaven, now's the time for you to repent and accept the Gospel," Dad warned since I already came out to my family as an atheist. He didn't even bother to sob.

"I already told you before, I don't believe God exists. So please stop shoving Him down my throat. Even Jesus warned his disciples about that in Matthew 6," I stated.

"Stop talkin' nonsense, Mike," Olivia snapped, putting her hands together. She allowed her tears to roll down on her cheek. "You'll spiritually die if you don't n' you know it."

"I said, 'No!' already!" I roared back at Olivia. "I'm not goin' to n' that's final!"

"Oh, Olivia. You're such a godly, godly child. And you make me proud," Mom said when she turned to Olivia, hugging her and kissing her on her forehead with a grin on her face.

Dad turned to Olivia and grinned at her, rubbing his hand on her blond hair, turning to Mom and Olivia back and forth. "I know, right?" he agreed.

Seeing Olivia closing her eyes in comfort whenever she received praise from my parents, I growled at them as they never did the same for me, for even though she was under strict supervision from my parents just like me. We both always obeyed our parents' wishes the majority of the time, but it only ever seemed to do her any good. Because of this, I declared myself an atheist to my parents. My rebellion didn't seem to change anything in their eyes, as long as she was their perfect little girl they would often give her gifts, and she loved that more than anything else in the world.

They favored her more than me, which pissed me off to no end. I mean, doesn't being a Christian also mean not playing favorites and boosting up people's pride through praise from others? Because that's literally what the Bible taught us, you know.

Then when the seizures started kicking in, my family broadened their eyes and covered their mouths, horrified by my condition.

"Michael!" my parents cried when they rubbed their hands on my arm to comfort me, praying for me to remain alive.

"Mike!" Olivia cried as she shed her tears even more.

But when the conditions worsened, Dad quickly turned to Mom. "I'll get the doctors in here right now."

After Mom nodded, Dad dashed out of the room and went searching for doctors. My heart beated faster for a moment and my eyes were tightly closed.

What the hell's happennin'?! Make it stop, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP!!!

When the three doctors entered the room with Dad, the head doctor turned to my parents. "Please exit this room to the lobby area n' stay there. We're goin' to take the patient to the ER section."

Mom shook her head. "Alright."

My family exited the room to the lobby area as the doctors rushed me to the emergency room throughout the white hall where people, either stood by to watch and kept passing by me. When they entered a mostly dark room with only two lights in the center, one of the doctors closed the door and the head doctor said to the two doctors. "Alright, let's try to save the patient as best as we can."

"Yes, sir!" the two doctors said as all three doctors got to work.

They tried to do everything they could to stop the seizures, everything they could to save me, but nothing worked no matter how hard they tried. It was simply impossible.

As death approached me, I wondered where it would take me. What would my afterlife be like? Would it be Heaven or Hell, despite my family being preachy about it? I could imagine how Vanessa would feel, not being able to see me again once I die. I knew this was game over for me.

As soon as my soul departed from my body, the machine beeped straight on out loud with a straight, long, green line while the rest of the crew sighed and stared at my body, putting their heads down, frowning. "Well, folks. Today's a sad day n' we unfortunately lost him," the head doctor commented, placing his hand on mine.

He and the other two doctors frowned and put their heads down. It was a sad, sad day for them moving forward.

For some strange reason, in the white room, everything was completely empty here. Was this Heaven? Had I ended up there after all? Then I heard footsteps and a woman gasps echoing beside me.

I turned to where those noises came from and gasped, seeing a woman in black silhouetted, running for her life. Her white eyes frowned and she was wearing a crown on her head. I scanned my surroundings further and found nothing else besides her, wondering where she was running from.

Then a black hole was formed on the floor, creating a shadowy monster also in black silhouette with horns and red eyes. I gasped when I watched it ascend and dashed its way towards me, with its claws out ready to strike me. I stood there shivering and widened my eyes as sweat was forming and sliding down on my face.

What the hell?!

I tried to pressure myself to run, but it was too late. The monster was already close to me and struck me on my chest, causing me to scream out of pain while I collapsed to the ground.

I quickly sat up and panted with my mouth open for a while, placing my hand on my head. Now what the hell was that? Hearing people's chatter less than a block away from me, I took a look around and found myself at a dead end behind me. Then I saw people walking past one another in the street at the end of the alleyway, hearing street vendors shout out their products for sale.

But they weren't wearing twenty-first century clothes at all; they were wearing some European medieval style type clothing. I saw men wear their shirts and pants while women only wore their long dresses.

Huh? Where the hell am I? Am I in Hell or somethin'? And why am I stuck in the Middle Ages?