《Queen of War》 Prologue Prologue You would think that after spending more than five years in this world I would¡¯ve seen it all, yet somehow, I¡¯m still caught off guard. I stood there simply dumbfounded by what I was seeing. Three men coated in a white light stood in the middle of the dark frozen ocean. As I tried to comprehend what was happening my eyes focus on four shivering kids that were stranded in the dark water. ¡°Calm down Kat.¡± I grab onto the railing to stop myself from jumping into the abyss. ¡°Those guys can freeze the freaking ocean, I stand no chance against them.¡± But still, if I let them take the kids, they¡¯ll end up just like me. And you wouldn¡¯t like that would you, Ryder? ¡°Phew, here I go.¡± Taking a deep breath, I jump off the boat and dive straight into the dark ocean. ¡°Leave them alone!¡± I shouted, making sure their attention was only on me. Gathering the last bit of my strength, I threw my exhausted body at the three men. For some reason, memories of my past begin to flash through my head. They say the reason why a person near death life begins to flash through their eyes, is because their body is desperately trying to find a way to survive. I doubt there¡¯s anything in my memories that¡¯ll help me in this situation. After all, my life has been nothing more than a series of unfortunate events, both this one and the last.
I found myself standing in an empty white room that seems to stretch for eternity. ¡°How tragic. Another lost sheep have stumble their way into this realm.¡± Suddenly a bespectacled man in a white suit appears before me. He calmly shifted through the papers on his desk as if he was sitting there the whole time. ¡°Where am I?¡± The man pushes up his glasses and looks at me, the cold gaze in his eyes turns soft for a spilt-second. ¡°If you want to know the answer to that question, you must first remember who you are.¡± ¡°Remember? How could I forget? I¡¯m¡­.¡± My mind went blank. For some reason, I couldn¡¯t remember anything about myself, my name age, nothing. ¡°Drawing a blank huh? Unsurprising, your passing was quite violent.¡± Lightly tapping the desk with his pen, A mirror appears in front of us. ¡°Look deep into the mirror, it should help you remember.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. I nervously walk towards the mirror. A young man who looks to be in late teens or at least early twenties stare at me through the mirror. Blood ooze out of a hole that was in the center of my forehead. ¡°Gunshot wound? No, that shouldn¡¯t be possible.¡± I slowly move my hand towards the wound. Upon touching it, images violently flash through my head. Images of a man coated in blood. A wide sinister smile spread across the man¡¯s face as he aims his pistol at my head. ¡°W-Wait.¡± I tried pushing the gun away, but unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have any strength to resist him. The man easily overpowers me and places the barrel of the gun directly at my forehead. ¡°Too bad.¡± The man said with a cruel grin. ¡°Your story ends here.¡± The world explodes into a white light. ¡°Do you remember now?¡± A shadowy figure came into view as the light faded away. I quickly back away from the shadow only slam my back into something solid. Slowly, I turn around to see my reflection staring at me with a horrified look in its eyes. The bullet wound and blood that was on my forehead were nowhere to be found. Was that all a dream? No, it couldn¡¯t be that was far too realistic, I could feel the cold barrel of the pistol on my head. My body involuntarily shudders at the gruesome memory. As I tried to shake the memory out my head, I notice in the mirror that a man in a white suit was approaching me. ¡°Do you remember now?¡± From the way he spoke it seems he knew I had a vision, and from the pity look, he¡¯s giving me I can also guess that my vision wasn¡¯t a vision. ¡°Yes, I remember. I know exactly how I ended up here.¡± I, no, we was coming back from a mission. But before we could make it back home we were attacked. Somehow, I manage to survive the ambush escape, although not unscathed. Heavily wounded, it didn¡¯t take long for them to find me and¡­. and. ¡°I-I die, didn¡¯t I?¡± The man in white close his eyes walks back to his desk. ¡°It shouldn¡¯t have been that surprising. You receive multiple fatal wounds as you attempted to escape. Even if you did somehow manage to escape your pursuers you still would¡¯ve died.¡± No, I could¡¯ve survived. Frustration and anger build in my heart, as multiple ¡°What if¡± scenario played in my head. ¡°So, what happens now?!¡± I got shot in the head, and yet here I am, still talking as if nothing happened. I guess that means this is the afterlife?¡± To stop myself from going insane, I force myself to focus on something else. ¡°Yes, this is the afterlife, as you humans like to call it.¡± ¡®As you, humans like to call it.¡¯ I never thought I hear someone say that with a straight face. ¡°Since you went out of your way to add in the fact that you¡¯re not human, you mind telling me who you are, and what¡¯s your purpose.¡± He must be planning on doing something to me since he appeared the moment I woke up in this empty area. The man in white adjusted his glasses and gave me a stern look. ¡°My name is Shepherd, and it¡¯s my job to guide lost souls like you down the right path.¡± Chapter 1 Despite all the unfortunate events that happen to me, I never consider my life a tragedy. Yea, my parents dying after I was born can be considered a tragic event, but I never got the chance to know them, so I see no point in crying over people I never knew. Being forced to fight in a war at an incredibly young age is also kind of mess up, I do agree there, but at least they fed me and gave me a weapon to defend myself. I¡¯ll admit my life was tough, but hey, at least I was alive, well, was. ¡°Name, John White. Sex, male. Age, 19.¡± A man in a white suit mumble to himself as he filled out a report. I guess even the afterlife has mundane desk jobs. ¡°Time of death, one month ago, August 5, 20xx¡± So I die one month ago huh? By now, everybody should know that I¡¯m dead. I wonder if anybody is mourning my death. Probably not. I really wasn¡¯t a social person. The only person that ever talk to me was Ryder, and that¡¯s because he saw me as nothing more than a pitiful child that needed guidance. When we were off duty, he would always tell me that the world was so boring and peaceful in the past, that main thing he used to worry about, was what he was going eat for the day. He always looked distance when he talked about the past like he was staring at something I could never comprehend. I hated that part of him. ¡°Have regrets Mr. John?¡± The man in white pushes up his glasses and looked at me with concern. ¡°Hard to have regrets when I never had anything in the first place.¡± ¡°I know, I know everything about your tragic life.¡± The man in white pick up a document that had my name written on it. ¡°Orphan since birth, a child soldier, no friends, no lover. You never got a chance to live, did you?¡± ¡°If you knew all this then why are you asking me?¡± ¡°Because John, ever soul that pass through here, immediately moved on. Except for you. You¡¯ve been aimless wandering this place for a month now. ¡°Wait a month?¡± He said I died a month ago, which means I been here this whole time. What was I doing here, and why don¡¯t I remember anything?! ¡°Those that have deep regret or suffer a gruesome fate will aimlessly wander the afterlife unaware of their own death. ¡°So, it¡¯s because of my violent death that it took me a month to get my mind together?¡± ¡°Your death and regrets.¡±Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Why does he keep saying I have regrets? If he read my bio he should know that the only thing I care about was surviving to see another day. Now that I¡¯m dead, not even that matters anymore. ¡°John.¡± Shepherd put his document down and gave me another one of his pity looks. ¡°Souls are a fragile thing. They can¡¯t survive long without a body, if you stay here any longer not only will you lose your memories again, but your soul itself will begin to fade from existence. So, I¡¯ll ask you again, what is it that you regret?¡± ¡°¡­.¡± My mind went blank. There truly was nothing I wanted or desire. Being a guy, I thought maybe I would be disappointed that I never got a chance to sleep with a girl. Or at least upset that I never met my parents. I guess being alone most of my life, that stuff became something I never truly care about. The only thing that came to my head when I thought about my past life is Ryder, and those stupid peace talks he uses to give me. Now that I think about it, I was close to the base when I was attacked, is it possible that after killing me they went on to attack the base? ¡°Hey, can you show me what Ryder and everyone else is doing?¡± ¡°Very well.¡± A mirror once again appears in front of me, although instead of showing my reflection, it shows me a middle age man with graying hair staring at a tombstone with my name written on it. Thank goodness, he¡¯s alive. I¡¯m not sure how I would react if he and everyone else die because I led the enemy to our base. ¡°You know, when you told me you were an orphan, I always hope that one day, when this war ended, you would send me a letter of with a picture of your wife and kids. And the letter would simply say ¡®you were right Ryder; a family is one of best things you can have.¡¯¡± Tears begin to stream down his face. ¡°But I guess that isn¡¯t possible anymore.¡± I know this is kind of morbid, but I¡¯m happy seeing him cry about my death. I always thought when I die no one would care or even notice. ¡°I promise you John, no one else will go through the same thing you went through, I promise you that I will end this war.¡± The image in the mirror begins to fade away, only a reflection of me looking lost remain. ¡°He¡¯ll keep his promise.¡± I nearly jump when I heard shepherd¡¯s voice, I was so absorbed by what I was seeing, I forgot about him. ¡°What, you can read the future?¡± Is what I wanted to say, but seeing how this day been going, I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m going to get a surprising answer if I ask. ¡°A year from now, Ryder will launch multiple devastating attacks on the enemy forcing them to surrender. After their defeat, the world will finally receive peace. ¡°Liar.¡± ¡°Why would I lie to you?¡± ¡°Because you said that your job was guide lost souls. I¡¯m pretty sure a lot of people would happily follow you if you told them that everyone they known in their past life got a happy ending.¡± ¡°¡­You do have a point.¡± Shepherd scratches his head as he looks around the blank white room. ¡°Not sure what I can do to convince you.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t have to, I believe you.¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°Well, I should say I want to believe you.¡± That¡¯s the kind of guy Ryder is. When he says he¡¯ll do something he will, I¡¯m sure he can save the world. ¡°Not bad John, you¡¯re starting to look much better now.¡± ¡°I do?¡± I look back at the mirror, all the bullet wounds, and blood that cover my body was gone now. ¡°When you first arrive here, you looked like a zombie that would collapse any second but now, it looks like you¡¯re ready.¡± ¡°Ready for what?¡± A smile spread on his face the moment I ask him that question. ¡°Reincarnation.¡±