"Baldwin! Baldwin!" The voice of a young woman called out, muffled slightly by the wind as it pressed against the wooden frame of the small, weather-worn cabin. Inside, Baldwin sat slouched in a creaking armchair that faced the hearth, his face half-shadowed in the firelight as the orange glow danced faintly across his face, catching in the deep furrows of his brow as his dead body fell forward, finally releasing the tension that had held it upright for hours. The chair groaned in protest as his weight shifted, his hand slipping from the worn armrest and landing with a soft thud on the wooden floor.
"Baldwin!!! Are you in there??!!" The voice continued on, unaware that the man inside that they had been calling to was long dead as the snow began to fall more heavily, dusting the clearing outside the cabin with a thickening white veil.
"augh! I'll come back tomorrow! Open the door next time if you're in there, you jerk!" The knocking at the door stopped, the voice faded, and eventually the sound of boots crunching against the snow could be heard outside as the woman slowly left the area.
The cabin was still, empty, and there was not a sound to be heard except for the slow, rhythmic crackle of the fire as it consumed the last of the split logs stacked in the hearth. Occasionally, a gust of wind slipped through the warped wooden boards, whispering along the floor and stirring the thin layer of ash and dust that clung to the corners of the room.
In Baldwin's hand was a note, one he would keep to himself to occasionally document the events of his days and how life was treating him. But alas, with the book, he would never get an ending…
________________________________________
[ Reincarnation failed - Cause of death: congestive heart failure. ]
[ Reincarnation failed - Cause of death: Mana overintoxication. ]
[ Reincarnation failed - cause of death: body incompatibility. ]
[ Reincarnation failed - cause of death: …]
Everything was dark….
[ Reincarnation attempt #117 initializing. ]
[ Please remain in the deep spectrum of the great beyond while we attempt to reincarnate you into a suitable vessel. ]
And everything was so cold.
There were screams in the distance that hollered out his name, some of them belonging to his son, daughter, and great-great-granddaughter, though he couldn't really be sure if it was him hearing those screams or if it was just his imagination.
Nevertheless, they haunted him, and day after day and night after night, he had to repeat the painful memories of his children and wife slowly drifting away from him as he grew older and became more bitter and resentful. He was a terrible man in life, and this place wasn't going to give him the peace he had once hoped death would bring to a shriveling old man like himself, and that, in itself, was frustrating.
But being here wasn't entirely all that bad, as they certainly came with their own benefits.
For one, despite how annoying the voices were, they allowed him to remain sentient and not lose his sense of identity in the vast void he found himself in, and for that, he was thankful.
The only thing that really disturbed his peace, aside from the noises, was the floating letters in the "sky," for lack of a better word. Each time they appeared, he felt his consciousness being briefly pulled towards something by an invisible force before he was inevitably dumped back into the darkness as the "reincarnation" attempt failed.
But aside from that, the void was mostly uneventful.
Some part of him urged him to do something about his current predicament, but another, much more dominant side of his brain just told him to stay still. Not because he was expecting to get anything out of the exchange, but because he didn't have any reason to actually move or go anywhere, aside from the hunger that was slowly creeping into his non-existent body and beginning to urge him to do something.
Anything…
But as it was, he was content to stay in the darkness, doing absolutely nothing but pondering what could have been while he was alive.
Though he lacked a physical body, he could still move in the watery depths of his prison. And so he did. He plunged himself deeper into the darkness, ignoring the screams of the billions of people who called out to him as he moved. They cursed, jeered, and mocked him insistently, trying to remind him of who and what he was, but he did not relent to them.
Had he still been alive, he would have indulged his sins and acted upon them accordingly, but he was too tired and didn't feel the need to at the moment. All he wanted was peace, and he wasn't going to get it with all those voices yelling at him. So for now, he ignored the hunger that gnawed at his being, instead moving further into the abyss, despite the various eyes that began to open up all around him as he moved further and further into the darkness.
But before he could move further, his "body" suddenly stopped, and so too were the billions of voices all around him. Even the hunger that was slowly consuming his entire being faded away into the deepest corner of his mind and became nothing more than a dull afterthought as that accursed screen paid him another visit.
[ Please remain still as we assigned you a new body soul number: 137. ]
It said, and he could feel his whole body shake as the same unfamiliar pull tugged at the center of his very being.
He was fading.
There was a moment when he was fading, and for a moment, he almost swore he saw his son. In just a brief moment, his eyes widened as his hands reached out for him.
Though it was too late, and by then, he was swallowed whole by the void.