So He Had a Head Start

'But... Alice...' Alice has always had a pretty weak constitution, that is one reason why our families wanted to engage us.

It was to keep us close to them. She gets sick easily, and her body is fragile.

'Will she be able to handle it...' About nine months had passed since I had gotten the news, and we were now in the hospital, Alice laying on a hospital bed.

Her hair stuck up in all directions, the pain evident on her face, but she must've noticed the complicated look I had when I was looking at her, because she looked up at me with a smile that seemed to say 'It will be okay.'

However, that's when 'it' whispered to me, "Both of them will..."

"NO!" I screamed out, filled with anger, and sadness.

Laying in a new hospital bed, out of my sight, was a blonde woman, one who had experienced a complication. The doctor's had to perform an emergency c-section, unfortunately, neither her baby, or herself, made it through the operation. The pitying hand on my shoulder was shrugged off as all of the glass in the building shattered, and finally, now I realize 'it' didn't shatter the glass. I did. I'm a Demonic Entity, one that was trapped in the body of a baby boy due to a rookie mistake, and that man, they weren't a Demonic Entity, but they were a real exorcist.

I've simply been denying my own existence this whole time. That's why I subconsciously decided to not mention the glass shattering the hospital as an example to the exorcist. It would've given me away, even though he still seems to have figured it out based off of the fact that my human body is now dead after just one encounter with him. I died, was born again as a human boy, then died, and was reborn once more as a Demonic Entity.

"Ah..." I breathed out, realizing this nothingness was one of the gateways to hell, the smell really was my senior, and that I really do have a body.

This heat, these flames, they were simply my strength. The same strength that terrorized me, and shattered the hospital windows. I could now feel my hands clench, and lungs expand, as I decided what I would aim to do from now on.

"I'll kill God."

"I'll kill god."

"Oh...? What an odd choice of words from a newborn."

Suddenly, a bright light filled Jasper's vision, before revealing the face of a mildly intrigued red-skinned man, a Senior Support Entity. Jasper's vision blurred as his eyes began to water, the heat from his environment causing a stinging sensation to spread along his round yellow eyes.

'Where am I?'

Any regular newborn may think such a thing, questioning what happened after they were suddenly pulled from their old home, the Void. However, having experienced this before, Jasper didn't have such a question on his mind. Clearly, he had finally arrived in Hell, where he was destined to return after being liberated from his human body. The only question that lingered on his mind was about the estimated time for his adjustment period from a newborn, to a true member of the flock. His stubby arms, chubby cheeks, and small stature only further emphasized his status as a newborn.

Until his adjustment period passed, his true strength wouldn't be able to be used. Let alone being able to fight, a newborn has no assigned attribute. How was a Demonic Entity expected to survive without an attribute to use in order call upon their hidden strength? Luckily, the care takers of hell, called the ghost nannies, would care for Jasper during his adjustment period. Although they were slightly disturbing to Jasper, as all of the ghost nannies were female humans who were drowned by their partner, so their faces were often contorted with expressions of shock and hatred, but he felt he'd manage to get by despite that.

The only time their expressions would change would be when they rocked the newborns, and even then, their lips could only twist into a pained smile. As Jasper's thoughts began to linger on the nannies, he wondered about Alice, and his stillborn.

'Is she okay after dying...? And my baby...'

However, these thoughts didn't last long, as the man in front of Jasper hadn't stopped talking, "Anyways, you must be confused about where you are. I guess you could call this specific area the Nursery, but the realm you are now in is referred to as Hell, and the place you previously resided was the Void."

The red-skinned man seemed to have lost whatever twisted interest he had in Jasper almost immediately, as he continued to fulfill his role as a Birth Zone Technician. It was his duty to monitor the regions assigned to him for the solidification of possible newborn souls, then send any newborns to the nannies after documenting their first words.

The Technician had grown a bit unnerved due to the lack of questions from Jasper, causing him to rush his release of Jasper to the nannies, "Well... if you have any questions, you can save them for later, during orientation."

He carefully picked up Jasper's body, the only sounds echoing around him were the wails of tortured souls and the rough breathing of a large Soul Beast, which resembled a wolf stripped of its skin, one that loomed above both him and Jasper. In actuality, a Soul Beast isn't a simple wolf, but it is a creature that latches onto the souls of future newborns, eventually bringing them over from the Void, and into the Nursery of Hell. The Technician could only sigh, thinking that he may have received yet another strange newborn in just a weeks time from the last. He could only hope he hadn't, as he placed the eerily silent Jasper into a cradle that was suspended on a metal-line, before gently sending it off with a push.

"He'll kill God, huh? Somehow, I doubt it, despite those being his first words."

The first words of a newborn practically determined their fate, as their souls were highly sensitive to the passage of time, and rules of probability.

"However, I'd like for it to be true..."

Of course, a newborn's first words aren't always accurate. If their first words threaten hell, they may be killed immediately, completely foregoing that possibility. Or, their words simply didn't hold any truth, and had no significance regarding their destiny. The Technician knew this, and that is why he had both hope and doubt regarding the validity of Jasper's first words. His eyes flashed green as he finished successfully registering the latest newborn's first, and only, words, "I'll kill God."

Internally, Jasper was laughing as he went down the line.

...

The cradle started to slow, and I could tell I was nearing the residency of the nannies. The smell of chlorine filled my nose, and the passing scenes of palpitating flesh walls and rows of cradles began to slow. My amusement faded quite some time ago, because messing with a Technician by staying dead silent can only be funny for so long.

'Now is the time to creep out the ghost nannies,' I thought to myself, mischief seemingly being the only thing on my mind.

It seems that becoming a newborn again has given me mischievous tendencies. The Soul Beast must've influenced the nature of my soul, but there is nothing I can do about that this early. However, I definitely have a head start. Last time, I ended up being weaker than the other Entities of my brood, even ending up trapped in the body of a human boy due to my negligence. Despite climbing from a Flock Member to a Senior Offensive Entity, my attribute limited my growth, but now I have a second chance.

I also have a goal, something to strive for. I won't fall behind. Not again.