The tires squealed. Glass exploded. For one suspended moment, the boy – another nameless college kid – watched his own blood suspended in the air like spilled rubies before darkness swallowed him whole.
He was floating, suspended in an endless dark abyss that stretched infinitely around him, but then—
Flash
There was a blinding, wild storm of images in his eyes, moving so fast that he could not understand them.
A man, atop a mountain drenched in blood, holding a sword, his shadow stretching long and monstrous over the sea of countless corpses.
Flash.
Dragons battled one another in the sky, their huge bodies tearing into each other as their fire scorched the heavens.
Flash.
A man stood in a sea of blood, his knees trembling, hands stained with the lives he could never restore. Tears flowed freely, his voice breaking as he whispered.
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." But the dead were silent.
It was too much. Too fast. Images slammed into his mind one after another, an endless barrage of visions that he couldn't understand, couldn't process.
And then it all stopped.
A voice echoed from the depths of the abyss
"You have been selected."
Jaime breath hitched, his thoughts heavy and confused. He tried to form words but nothing came.
Out of nowhere gravity seized him an unknown force dragged him down pulling him into a dark hole beneath him.
"Ahhhhhhhh" He screamed, helplessly as he fell. The abyss rushed past him, a void without end.
And then—
A fall that felt like eternity finally stopped.
A warmth surrounded him.
His body was no longer falling. No longer weightless. Instead, he was surrounded by something soft, something gentle. A strange warmth pressed against his tiny body, and for a moment, he felt… safe.
Slowly his eyes flickered open.
He was looking up into a face. A woman's face. Her face was beautiful, framed by waves of silky brown hair, her blue eyes glistening with tears. She looked like one of those super idols he had seen in Hollywood films.
She seemed tired yet radiant, as though she had just fought the toughest fight of her life but had won something valuable in return.
She was smiling.
"He's so handsome..." she whispered, her voice trembling with emotion.
Another spoke, his voice deeper. "Yes He is."
He blinked slowly. Everything was not right, so weird. Even the air felt different. The sounds he heard were different, even the words weren't English—a different language. And his body—
His body was small.
Panic shot through him, his tiny limbs twitching as he struggled trying to move, to understand what had happened to him. But then he felt it again—that warmth, that gentle touch. The woman—his mother—held him closer, whispering soothing words her voice like lullaby echoing in his ears.
His mind reeled in confusion, in questions, and in fear that he was still unable to verbalize.
One thing, though, was sure. He had been reborn..