The last thing Sarah remembered was every muscle in her body tensing, locking her in place before the muscles flexed themselves apart. She wanted to scream, but no sound left her throat as her muscles snapped. Forced into muscular overcontraction by an overwhelming electrical surge. Including her heart.
Pacemakers are small electrical devices that regulate a heart''s contraction and expansion with tiny electrical impulses, spread out over a lifetime. While a single bolt of lightning contains more raw energy than all pacemakers ever created in human history. Sarah Spada, soon to be Sarah Wilson, died instantly.
A fact she was vaguely aware of as her soul departed. There was no escaping the truth, her life had ended once again. What rotten luck. This had been a good run too! She''d gotten out of the trailer park early, before dad and his so-called friends ruined her for the hundredth time. Ah, she''d almost made it! Found a lonely old cat lady to take her in, gone to college, and shacked up with a prospective Doctor! A good looking one too. Liam really took care of himself. How he kept straight As and a six pack while working full time made her soul blush. Except, that was all gone now. She''d have to start over in the trailer park, relive a crap life for ten years. What bullshit. She wanted to cut something, slash gods throat in equity for cutting her life off right at the moment she had closed the deal! Liam was going to med school, and taking her with him.
This is some next level, grade Z baloney. I wish someone would just nuke the world, hey… Actually… There’s an idea. Next time round I won’t settle for a doctor, I’ll find the next politician in waiting and help him win the presidency. At least then I could cash in on all the lottery numbers I know. Ha, this could work out. Yeah… A few hundred nukes ought to end whatever anomaly is causing me to regress again and again.
Sarah tried to sigh-- at least she had avoided getting knocked up by her uncle this time around.
--To her surprise, air left her lungs. How am I not dead? I know how it feels to die, for my intelligence to leave my body and start again in my mother’s womb… She shuddered, recalling each and every birth, her head hurt just thinking about it. Please not again!
Light appeared around her, a room full of smooth silver surfaces appeared without motion. As if they had always been there and she was just now becoming aware. Like when you stand up too quickly after sitting down for too long and get dizzy then your vision clears. Curiously, she could not feel the floor, or the temperature of the room, or hear anything. Sterile was the closest concept. Yet, she was not alone. Across from her stood a man. Strong jaw, chiseled features and dark hair, gorgeous. He might have been Adonis incarnate, but Sarah''s inner voice screamed that he was a dangerous convict. Although the chains wrapped around his body and glowing with black energy might have aided that assumption. A convincing prop.
He cocked his head, tilting his face so he could peer into Sarah’s eyes. Therun Perun Taloc, was her first thought. Words she had only heard Liam complain about it his mythology elective class, something he took to fill out his general education requirements before doubling down on the pre-med requirements. Sarah''s second thought concerning Taloc was how much he reminded her of cable television. The man was absolutely gorgeous, a real lady killer. Like Ted Bundy or Charles Manson, and just like them he had the eyes of a murderer. Twin golden orbs that wouldn''t blink if he wrapped those chains around her neck and squeezed until the light left her eyes. It was a look she was all too familiar with. Twenty of her regressions had left her with those eyes, always settling in after she killed dear old dad. Twenty lifetimes spent on death row, seeing those same eyes in the mirror.
“Oh, you are not the one I called…” Said Taloc, a look of soft confusion on his face. The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“Then I''ll be going.” Sarah said, trying to walk away.
Her body moved, feet flexing and pushing against the floor, but the laws of physics seemed to be optional in this place. No momentum changed, Sarah''s steps did not move her despite going through the motions. A chuckle reached her, sending a shiver down her soul.
“You can’t leave that way… My oh my, you are a strange creature. Ah, but this complicates things. How many times have you died? How many men have you slain?”
Sarah was not about to humor the psychopath, engaging with narcissists was the fastest way to die. Instead she scanned the room, looking for anything to explain her circumstances. Twas was oddly round, yet close to a square, the man was chained against the far wall in a very restrictive T pose. Arms held at ninety degrees from his side while his legs were spread open and chained apart. Can he move even an inch with all those chains holding him in place?
“Girl, I asked you a question. Answer me.” Said Taloc, voice turning into the rumble of thunder.
This can’t be real. I need to wake up. Sarah tried to pinch her hand but felt nothing. She tried biting her tongue, and while she could in some sense detect resistance, pain eluded her.
“How do I get out of here!” She shouted, startling the man.
“It has been a few thousand years since I last spoke to someone, but If you''re going to be rude then don''t let the door hit you on the way out."
Around them the room changed, how it changed was beyond her understanding, now there was a doorway, round and made from the same silver material as everything else. It looked more like a door one would find in Star Trek than on earth, but Sarah didn’t care. Anywhere is better than this room. She set off, this time her feet worked, driving her towards the door. A seam appeared in the door’s center, parting to swish open.
“You should have answered my questions, alas, I cannot assist the unwilling. Enjoy your new life. Pray to me if you find yourself in need-” He began.
The door swished shut, cutting off the psychopath’s words. Instead of entering a room, Sarah’s consciousness vanished from reality. A sensation she was more than familiar with. This was what dying should feel like, in a way the void was comforting, familiar, like a childhood blanket. This was where she belonged, in the chaos between stars. Yes, soon there would be the pain of another birth, but that was no more troublesome than getting a bikini wax. You adapted to the pain after a few go arounds.
If she knew what was coming, Sarah would have prayed to Taloc.
Her soul fell through the world, a planet that was not earth sprawled out around her. There were continents she did not recognize and geography that seemed impossible. Islands that floated through the sea, often sinking beneath waves or rising into the clouds above, propelled by some inexplicable force of anti gravity, or the occasional giant turtle. While rivers of lava burned a continent to ashes scouring all life from a land with thousands of stepped pyramids or ziggurats. Whomever had built them must be long dead. It all flashed and vanished, her soul passing into a body.
Not the body of an infant, but the body of a grown adult woman. Finally! A change I can get on board with! Thought Sarah, turning her body this way and that, her limbs moved slowly, sluggishly, as if sickly. Because of this uncanny hinderance Sarah examined her body more closely, and suffered dearly for it. The cause of her ungainly movements became immediately obvious, her stomach was protruding in a nearly perfect hemisphere.
Sarah’s soul had found it’s way into a pregnant woman.
Oh Hel– NO! I didn’t even get laid! I can’t be pregnant, this is not possible, this can’t be happening! This is wrong!
Therun Perun Taloc, the imprisoned god, whispered to her mind, spatial distance meaning nothing to the designer''s capricious whimsy. Giving her one last jab before vanishing.
“Rebirth is difficult, you strange child. There were, complications. you should. have listened.. you should have… answered... my… questions…”