Re-incarnation: I just arrived!

So this is goodbye...

Ethan could barely hear himself over the deafening wails of his parents in the hospital room. He wondered why they were crying. If he were in their shoes, he would be relieved that he was finally going to die. Who wanted a child who was always sick?

He had been sick for the eighteen years he had lived on Earth. From anemia to some lung disease, and finally, brain cancer, which was now taking his life—or would have, if he hadn't chosen to be euthanized.

He was tired of suffering. He was tired of the pain. He was tired of watching his mother look at him with her eyes brimming with anguish. His father had given up and just visited him once in a while. He did not blame him though; he too had given up on himself. The doctor had said that he had six more months to live, but he did not want to live anymore.

Ethan had thought it would be scary, but now that the time had come, he felt a sense of relief he had never felt in his entire life. It was painless, blissful, serene. His lips stretched into a soft smile as his parents' voices slowly faded into the distance, and then there was nothing but silence.

So this was death?

Ethan opened his eyes, but he saw nothing. Just extreme darkness which seemed like it was consuming him whole. He raised his hands to his face but he could not even make out the outline of it in the pitch-black darkness.

Ethan had imagined many things about what death would be like, but he had never thought it would be a void filled with nothingness. But this was better than lying on a hospital bed for six months in excruciating pain. Here, he felt nothing. No peace, no pain. Just nothing.

Whoosh!

Ethan was knocked out of his thoughts when a thunderous crash sounded behind him, like something crashing against a tree. He instantly turned toward the source of the sound, his heart almost leaping out of his chest.

What was that?

Blink

Blink

He tried to force his eyes to see, but the more he tried, the darker it seemed.

"We will all die; he will kill us all!" A feminine voice screamed in front of him, her voice trembling with fear. Ethan tried to move toward the voice, but his legs remained suspended in the void, unmoving.

Blink

Blink

"Retreat! Retreat!"

A male voice roared from behind him, and this time, when he turned around, something was different. A crack had appeared in the void, and light seeped through the fissures.

Like a chick trapped in an egg, Ethan pushed toward the crack, but his legs felt heavy as though the darkness clung to them. He struggled with all his might, and slowly, they began to move. The closer he got, the brighter the light became and the clearer the voices were.

Blink

Blink

Ethan opened his eyes to a scorching afternoon sun. He squinted immediately as he tried to adjust to the blinding light.

Where am I?

Before he could find an answer to his question, a chilly, putrid liquid splashed across his face, making him grimace. He raised his hand to touch the liquid dripping down his face, and when he looked at his hand, his eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.

"What the hell..."

He hadn't even finished his sentence when he heard a loud bang on the floor. Ethan looked toward the noise, and slowly rolling toward him was a man's half-eaten head, blood splattering from the remainder of his neck.

Ethan opened his mouth to scream, but he knew better than to make any sound in that situation. A feminine scream erupted from behind him, and he slowly turned toward the sound. A young girl with long black hair was being held up by something...

What the hell is that?

A headless being with claws about thirty inches long held the girl by her neck. She struggled to break free, but the grip of the creature was too strong. Her face drained of all color as she fought against the beast, blood dripping from her neck where it held her with its claws.

The girl was almost as pale as the creature holding her up, but she seemed determined to survive. As her strength waned, she clenched her hands together and conjured a ball of blue flame, and threw it at the creature holding her up with all her might, her lips letting out a loud scream. The creature staggered backward, and she released herself from its grip, falling to the ground.

The girl coughed as she dragged herself away from the creature, her hands wrapped around her neck which was bleeding profusely on each side.

She tried to stand up but the creature was up before her, and before she could conjure another attack, her heart had been ripped out of her chest.

The creature stood in front of the girl, and something that looked like energy flowed from the girl into him, his veins pulsating with mana.

Ethan's heart pounded against his chest as he watched the scene unfold in front of him. So many things were happening at the same time that he could not comprehend it.

What is going on? Is this the afterlife? No, no, this cannot be. He couldn't have killed himself to come to this. He was dreaming!

Ethan didn't have the luxury of crying over his bad decisions as the creature began walking toward where he lay.

No... no, no, is it about to kill me? I just arrived!

Ethan shut his eyes tightly and gritted his teeth as the monster approached, its footsteps pounding like thunder against the ground. Ethan's heart thumped so fast that it felt like it was going to burst out of his chest.

He couldn't believe he had reincarnated just to be brutally killed by some headless beast! What the hell had he done so wrong to deserve such a fate?

Couldn't he have been reborn as the son of a king or something, given the painful life he had lived?

Ethan did not have the time to dwell on his past misfortunes, as his present predicament was more pressing. The sound of the beast's feet crushing the leaves as it approached grew louder, and Ethan began to say his last prayers.

Maybe this time, the heavens would be merciful and take him to a better place. However, the footsteps suddenly stopped. Ethan waited a few seconds, but the beast did not approach. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see that the creature had picked up the half-eaten head and placed it back on his neck. Almost immediately, worm-like blood vessels appeared on his neck and on the half-chopped-off part of his face, knitting them back together.

The creature made a guttural noise as it twisted its neck in place. As it did, Ethan took a closer look at it. It looked like a human man, but something was wrong. Its tongue was as long as a man's palm, with spikes on it. The creature had black eyeballs that seemed to pull all light in. Its body was unusually tall and twisted, with veins that pulsed with sickly green light. In place of fingernails, there were about 30-inch-long claws, and it had no hair on its head.

Suddenly, the creature began to walk forward, dragging its feet one after the other and walked away toward a narrow path.

Ethan stayed still without moving until the creature was out of sight, and then he pulled himself up from the ground.

Around him lay the lifeless bodies of human beings. Some were split in two, some had their hands roughly decapitated as if they had been torn off. Others had their heads smashed in. Beside the bodies of the humans who looked normal, there was something lying among the dead that looked like the creature from earlier.

Ethan stood, trembling in fear as he stared at the creature with a twisted neck and split-mouth, which housed over 50 long and protruding teeth. It was stabbed in several places on its body and seemed dead.

Or maybe not. Because in the next second, the beast began to rouse awake.

A guttural sound, like the same sound he had heard from the creature who had gone after the other humans, croaked from its throat. The creature's skin, which looked lifeless a minute ago, was turning pale and translucent, and its veins pulsed with a sickly green light. A dark energy slowly emanated from the ground and wrapped around the creature's twisted body, maniacally lifting it off the ground.

Ethan's eyes followed the creature's height as it reached over 7 feet tall. It stretched its back, which seemed broken in several places, and then twisted its neck.

Ethan wanted to run, but his feet were rooted to the ground, his body shuddering with fright. He knew he should run, but if he made the slightest noise, the creature would notice him.

Ethan could feel beads of sweat trickling down his face as he stared at the creature pulsating back to life. He knew if it saw him, he was as good as dead.

And indeed, he was as good as dead because, in the next second, a gust of wind blew, and the creature, which was a few feet away, was now standing right in front of him.