No Hero Lives Forever

'Did you guys ever experience the feeling of being completely disconnected from the world? Just simply staring at something, not even really focusing on anything specific? Just following the weird feeling and actually enjoying it? And only for a moment later to lose it and come back to reality?'

'I experienced it at least more than once. But this time around I'm more confused than anything. The weird thing is that everything ended differently - surreal even.'

'Just a small moment ago I was in the backseat of a car with my friends. Cruising on a highway, vibing with them. Only to remember that my friends screaming shortly after. At first, I thought our driver messed up something but it wasn't his fault that we ended up dead...'

'Since who would have known that a truck carrying logs suddenly swayed to the side on the highway right next to us? The death happened after we got flipped over a few times? My guess would be that I got my neck snapped from the inertia at that moment. At least I don't remember much more.'

'And that was only the first thing. Now here comes the weird stuff. The next moment I open my eyes again. And I kid you not. What came into my view was actually a woman that was kneeling right in front of me. The palest of skin, the darkest of hair. But those eyes...so captivating. Damn, she was pretty.'

'So much so that I may have ended up doing some dumb move when I reached out to her and pulled said person into a kiss. Man, those lips felt so damn soft...'

'Anyway, my bliss aside. The very next moment the woman looked at me with widened eyes, Even distancing herself a little. Surely she was not happy about my move and would slap me the next moment.'

'But what actually happened is that I got a painful feeling from my abdomen the next moment. Weird, right? So taking a look down with my eyes I saw what I would describe as horror.'

'Never was a fan of too gory shit. Made me feel all woozy. I had a nasty injury down there. What surprised me even more after thinking about it wasn't the fact that I had an injury.'

'No, I had no fucking lower torso so that was pretty much a dead giveaway that I'm fucked....'

'But the crazier shit? I wasn't even in my own body anymore. That was what hit me even harder. So after looking shocked back at the woman, I just fainted.'

'...What? Yeah, I know. I probably just fainted because of the shock of seeing my injury. But just like I said, if I were to think about it, the creepier thing was me not being in my own body. Or is it old body?'

'And now? Yeah, now I'm talking in my mind with myself for no apparent reason. I didn't even know my inner voice could be so loud. Makes me dread headaches later.'

'There is also another thing I probably should mention. There are those giants looking down at me with bright smiles right now.'

'Yeah, those giants are my new parents from what I can understand. So I was reborn somehow....Never believed that reincarnation was a thing. But apparently, it happened twice to me.'

'I have to say the first jump into that dying, cleaved-in-half body, was kinda shitty in comparison.'

'Also...I kinda like it...I hope I don't get all sentimental though. Having parents is a new thing for me. Could make me weird since I only knew how to be an orphan my whole life. Not that me having my memories is an indication that I will be a weird child anyway...'

'Man, now all this talking made me sleepy...Huh, I think I'm even hallucinating that woman again. I'm not in love already, am I? It would be bad for my new mother if I ended up feeling such weird things for another woman and end up being cold to her. Nope....gotta....sleep...'

With those last thoughts, the little baby entered slumber and closed its eyes while being hugged by his mother.

The mentioned woman that the baby saw only narrowed her eyes for a short moment before disappearing.

---

Later what would be a nasty wake-up call to me, was the fact that hope was something fickle.

When he was 8 years old. Just that small stage of being in the middle of elementary school got him his final shock.

One could say he would have figured things out himself much sooner than this. But most of his infancy, until he was 2, was a rather blurry mess of memories.

When he fell asleep that moment he entered his new life, it was like some switch was turned and it tried to reset his whole mind. It was a very unpleasant experience.

And to open your eyes again and see an older gentleman playing with you on the floor, showing you how to put a cube into a round shape or better to say how it doesn't fit, was something else entirely.

Back to the figuring out. He wasn't really bothering about anything at all at first. He lived his life as some privileged rich kid, enjoying every moment of it.

But when his parents where shot right in front of him in some dark dilapidated alleyway.

That was the moment his mind completely woke up. Especially when he saw the woman again.

Every time he met her, it felt like his mind was back to being the clearest it could be.

At some point, he also figured out who she was. And if not for the timely rescue from a police officer at that time, he would also be lying near his parents.

After the accident was solved the woman was also gone and the kid started to realize how fucked he was again.

---

Back at home, he stood in a room in front of a chalkboard drawing a single dot in the middle.

'If this is my current world, then everything above and beside it should be different coordinates in space...' He put another few dots near the first one and made a large circle around them on the whole board.

'That makes near infinite spaces that have the same world with the same people...But the further you would go, the more would change...' He then drew an infinity symbol next to the dots with change near it.

Climbing down his little ladder he used to effectively use the board with his still immature body he walked to the side and turned the cubic chalkboard to its side.

There he drew an ellipse and made another dotted line horizontally across it.

'Space is also associated with time, so every moment is recorded with another copy of the same world...' With that thought, he also made a dotted line about a few degrees in change from the first line.

'But every single change could also create a different outcome of the same dimension entirely. That would make dimensions possible where one could be dead or even missing because one traveled back in time or other shenanigans...'

While taking a look at the 5 different cubic-shaped chalkboards near the one he scribbled just now made a somewhat whole picture that got the kid into deep thought again with a small sigh at the end.

Just then the door to the room opened up and an older man in his mid 30's entered. He carried a tray with a glass of what looked like orange juice on it and two plates that had some food.

"Young Master Bruce, I brought you some food. You should eat something."

That - that is the thing that irked the kid the most.