《Born Anew》


 Chapter 1

    He is slowly regaining his consciousness and can feel the cushion of soft grass beneath his head, back, hands, and legs. Surely, it feels better than any man-made bedsheet.


    ¡°I don¡¯t want to wake up¡±, a thought pops up while his arms and legs stretch impulsively, and a gentle smile forms up on his face.


    Regardless of his intention to remain sleepy, his eyes open up slowly and at first he sees a blurry vision as if he has slept deeply, Slowly the vision gets clear and the pink clouds start to become clear and clear. He is now seeing those dark pink clouds of varying shapes and forms moving slowly across the blue sky.


    While seeing these clouds, he just can¡¯t stop thinking about his father, mother, and younger brother, hoping that he could share this view with them and could notice the change in expressions among their faces. Just imagining this scene in his mind fills him with great pleasure. Now, he just can¡¯t wait to meet his family as soon as possible, and realizing that he is not with them right now makes him uneasy,


    So he sits up quickly and as he stares straight on, his body suddenly moves into a sudden shock that makes him unable to move for a few minutes, and for those couple of minutes he was unable to blink his eyes or move his eye balls as they are just glued to that gruesome scene.


    As he tries to re-organized his disturbed consciousness, he vomits .¡°blargh, blargh, blarghhh¡±


    About 20 feet in front of him, there are two blue-colored clothes lines parallel to each other tied between two long and thick trees, the distance between those trees is 15 feet or so. The trees have dark brown trunks and the branches are spreading out like a Cherrybark oak, those branches are full of golden yellow leaves. By all means it looks like those two trees are representing the intensity and beauty of life to its fullest extent. There is a 2-3 feet gap between those two clothes lines, in bottom one, from left to right different body parts were hanging using S-shaped sharp pointed hooks in a way that one side of hook is attached to the rope and other pierced to a body part, all cut vertically. First from toe to ankle, of both legs, from in between the index and middle toe to the ankle dividing them in two parts, Second from shin to knee of both legs, third from thigh to waist of both legs, fourth from in between middle and ring finger of hand to the elbow of both hands, fifth from above the elbow to the upper shoulders of both hands. Both hands and legs divided into 20 vertical segments can be seen clearly on the first rope.


    Whoever did this seem to be the master butcher who is maniac about measurements, lots of blood can be seen dripping from these parts turning the grass and soil beneath the rope all red, and lumps of flesh were dropping slowly from inside of masterfully sliced parts as though they are starting to lose their glue with bones, making a splash sound when they drop on that pool of blood.


    Thanks to these sumptuous trees, he is able to calm down a bit and finally stand on his feet, the grass is still cushiony but he no longer feels that comfort or care about that. He is now strolling towards that scene while looking at the second clothesline where the rest of body parts were hanging on the same S-shaped hooks. On the right the two testicles are hanging followed by phallus, next using two hooks a muscular torso was hanging with a rough hole around the chest and abdominal. Beside, the torso there hangs a heart, two lungs, intestines, stomach, liver and a kidney all dripping blood over the sliced legs and hands on the rope beneath and lumps of flesh are falling from the bottom of the torso from time to time.


    He is now standing about 8 feet from the scene and as his eyes are scanning all the gore, the sight gets fixed on the head ¡ª the hook is supporting the head on that second rope beside the kidney by piercing the crown of the scalp. Only the back of the head is visible in this direction. ¡°Who is this unfortunate man? even the cruelest person does not deserve this treatment, I don''t even want to imagine the pain he must have felt and who the hell is this maniac to choose such beautiful trees to display this barbarous scene¡± he gulped and yelled with anger and hidden terror ¡°Why the hell am I seeing this, what happened while I got unconscious¡±.


    He becomes curious, a very natural feeling common to all humans arises in his heart so he walks to the other side of the scene while maintaining his distance, the putrid odor is making his nose uneasy and nausea starts to build up again. He just wants to vomit and get rid of this disgusting feeling ¨C but it is not happening. He is now standing on the other side, the hanging head is at his eye¡¯s height - standing 8-9 feet apart from it.


    The face was utterly clear and does not have even a scratch, let alone a wound. The only thing that is natural to this scene is the blood dripping from the neatly cut neck. It appears as the person who did this cruelty wants the face to be scratch free so that the person standing in front of it can see it. The skin is clear (rivulets of blood should be coming to the face from a pierced crown but it isn¡¯t, don¡¯t know why?) and has a beige tone and those medium long black hairs are side combed, a diamond face shape. The eyes are closed and the face looks grimace reflecting the pain he felt when alive.


    As he is looking at the face cold chills of terror are passing down the spine and with shuddering breath ¡°why he looks like me, this whole situation just does not make sense¡± his shuddering breath got fast ¡°I don¡¯t remember anything like this happening to me, it is definitely not me, it must be a doppelganger ¡ª yes he is a look alike¡­ a lookalike¡± he convinces himself and took couple deep inhales and exhales chanting ¡°lookalike, lookalike, lookalike¡± with every exhale.


    On the forehead of the hanging head, there¡¯s a small square shaped white paper envelope stuck to the forehead with the support of black tapes and his eyes got glued to that envelope as such it is inviting him to come and take it. He truly doesn''t want to go any closer but his feet move impulsively, as he moves closer the smells become strong and unbearable so he quickly took out his napkin from his back pocket and covered his nose in order to reduce the intensity of ugly smell.


    He is now standing at hands distance to the face, he can feel the warmth of blood on his feet and the side of sole has turned crimson due to blood and all those meat pulp and dissected body looks magnified from this close. He quickly moved his hand towards the envelope, plucked it, turned backward and ran to another tree of the same heavenly beauty a few meters away. He is standing in front of the tree and his back is facing the bloody scene. He cannot hold it any more, and vomits ¡®blargh, blargh¡¯, he moves a couple of inches away from his puke.


    He slowly moves his shivering right hand up which is holding the square-shaped small white envelope that he just plucked from the head. He moves his left hand that was trembling due to terror (actually his whole body is trembling) to the envelope and grabs its flap with thumb and index finger and opens it up. Inside the envelope there is a sheet of paper, he pulls it and throws the envelope. He unfolded the paper and read up the text written on it in his mind.


    It says ¡°This is your future, Xavier. In fact you plucked this note from your own hanging head, it''s not your doppelganger, but it¡¯s your fate. Try hard to avoid it or change it but it is bound to happen regardless of your struggle¡­.. BORN ANEW¡±


    Xavier is standing in Misery Forest, that is known for its divine beauty, and only Mystic trees grows here (Mystic trees have dark brown trunks of varying width, the leaves are forever golden yellow that seem to hold and reflect sunlight which gave them bright appearance, the branches are symmetrically spread covering its entire radius), they are fruitless but vibrant trees that no eyes can resist mesmerizing by them. The grass of the forest is lush green and purple colored Wine & Roses Weigela bushes are grown sporadically (about 3-4 feet in height, and 4-5 feet width).


    Xavier is holding the letter in his left hand that he get from the envelope and just can¡¯t make the sense of what¡¯s written, though it is distinctively easy to read but his mind just can¡¯t come to terms with it, ¡°Me and die like this¡± he let out a despondent shy and look at the scene and continued with a terrorful laugh ¡°This must be someone bloody joke or my dream, don¡¯t tell me that hanging penis and testicles are mine, and those awfully divided legs and hands are mine.¡±, he bent down and put his hands on his knees and slowly sat on his foot while his knees crackle, and started agitatedly scratching his head ¡°Well that face looks like a bloody replica,¡± letting out a long and angered yell ¡°Aaargh!¡± while looking at the ground and trembling uncontrollably. He is feeling totally devastated, terrified, and traumatized; all three feelings piling up inside his heart and it got intense to the point that his already hyperventilating breath choked. Xavier put his head down on the ground holding the grass hard from both hands and trying to regain his breath ¡°This is all so wrong and unreal¡± he whispered witheredly while scratching his forehead on the grass.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    After a long yell, he looks up again at the hanging body parts and they have started vanishing into thin air, first the bottom rope that hangs legs and hands and then the upper rope that hangs the rest of it gradually vanishing like they never existed. All the body parts have disappeared along with the both clotheslines that are tied to Mystic trees. As he looks down the blood on the ground first turns into water and then that blood-turned-water evaporates and the grass have turned green again, as they are supposed to be. Finally, the blood that was stained on his foot-sole vanished.


    ***


    Behind one of the purple weigela, there are two figures witnessing the entire scene from the beginning. They are wearing regal-blue hooded cloak, the cloak is touching the ground covering their toes, and sleeves are sitting on their wrist, the hood is long enough to cover their entire forehead, ears, and parts of cheeks. It is a very loose fitted cloak. The exposed part of the hand has orange hairs on the dorsal, grey hairs on the upper palm that contains fingers and the center of the palm have white hairs. The side of the cheek that is visible from the hood also has orange hairs, the area surrounding lips have white hairs and white whiskers, the rhinarium is pinkish. The height of these two figures is half the typical human.


    ¡°Why master prophesied such a cruel future for this young man¡± Mike (one of two figures) murmured and took a deep breath.


    ¡°Idiot, it¡¯s not like the master is responsible for this fate, he just prophesied something that is already bound to happen¡± Mickey nonchalantly whispered while reflexively tugging his hood forward, though it was already perfectly in place. ¡°But, I don¡¯t understand why he went through such an extent to conjure this scenery, this is unexpected of our master¡± Mickey furrowed his brow, trying to figure out his master¡¯s intention.


    Mike added with trembling expression ¡°Yeah, Mickey I know you¡¯re a very nonchalant person, but don¡¯t you feel a bit of empathy towards this young man, why put this man in such an emotional turmoil before even this future manifest, I am disgust with master that he didn¡¯t let this men live in ignorance and peace for the remaining time he has¡±.


    ¡°Mike, you know it well that never once our master did something that is not needed like we both know why he chose this particular forest and not any other place to conjure this scene, he knew that after so much emotional turmoil only the beauty of this forest can calm Xavier down. There¡¯s no need to feel empathy towards something that is inevitably going to happen, your empathy is in vain and anyway because of his psychological makeup he will calm down faster than an average joe¡± Mickey sighed and turned towards Mike ¡°Let¡¯s do what master said!¡±


    Mike calmed down a little after hearing his brother¡¯s reasoning and turned towards him, he moved his right hand forward and added ¡°Ok, as the master said that once we are certain that Xavier has read the note in the envelope, we need to dispel the scene completely¡±. Mickey turned his neck towards Xavier who is few dozen meters in front of him and affirmed ¡°he is scratching his head and shuddering on a squat right after he read the note, is a natural reaction from anyone who understands the words on it¡± he turned his face towards Mike again and also raise his right hand, their fingers interlocked and palms pressed together and both of them simultaneously uttered "Afan¨ªzo Panti".


    ¡°Afanizo Panti¡± is a spell that literally means to ¡®I erase all¡¯, which works only on the things that are physically manifested using magic, however not just anyone can use this spell, only Mike, Mickey, and their master (who invented this spell) can use it, on one hand the master can use it alone without needing anyone but in case of these two, Mike and Mickey need each other. The spell vanishes everything, including the tiniest remnants into nothingness. As they cast the spell, the barbarous scene started to vanish starting from the bottom rope¡­


    ***


    Xavier look down on his bare-feet and there¡¯s no blood left nor its feel, also as he looked forward there are no ropes, no s-shaped hooks ¡ª body parts vanished like they never existed and only remains are those two sumptuous trees and green grass, as he gazes his radius, only the vibrant forest can be seen. He''s really great at getting lost in nature''s beauty so how can he be disturbed mentally and emotionally for so long when the entire area speaks of life, intensity, and beauty? His mind starts to calm down bit by bit, he closes his blue-colored eyes and takes deep breaths ¡ª full of stomach and lungs through nose, and exhales through mouth making a long ¡®whoosh¡¯ sound.


    He lift his face up while eyes are closed and can feel the gentle warmth of sun on his cheeks, nose, upper-eyelid and forehead (though, the dense trees and pink clouds are not allowing the full sun to blow on his face, so only a part of his face is exposed to direct sun rays, at that moment as clouds moves), he zoned out in the warmth that was kissing his face for few moments. After a couple of moments, he opened his eyes to the pink clouds and golden yellow leaves dancing with the zephyr on the branches ¡ª he lowered his face and for a few minutes he just got lost in those trees and his mind subsided as he felt united with the forest; the vibrancy of the forest gradually starts to replace all the disgusting emotions with the same sweetness that runs through the entirety of the forest - this is evident in his facial expressions that are softening from grim and aghast to sublime and smiley.


    A sane person would take at least a few days to get over this experience, but for Xavier it took a couple of minutes. It was always like this, nature always does this to him. He mused ¡°My emotions have evanesced into tranquility; my mind is calm, and my heart is light once more. Thanks mother nature, you always help me¡± as he gazes at the trees and grass. He then moves his eyes towards his left hand that is still in gesture of holding a paper, it is 80% disappeared and the only letters that Xavier can read now are ¡°BORN ANEW¡± and even those letters vanished, now there is no note in his hand nor any envelope on the ground¡­ every trace of this event has disappeared.


    To him it all felt like a nightmare and even now he can¡¯t comprehend the natural beauty surrounding him, it is all dreamlike. ¡°I have never seen so-pinkish clouds, yes there are some instances during sunset and sunrise when pinkish tint can be seen, but they are totally pink, some dark, some light¡± he thinks and adds ¡°someone prophesied the way I will die and says that no matter my struggle it is inevitable, but then why it says ¡®born anew¡¯ and that to in capital letters. Maybe fate can be changed but if not then how can I be born anew¡­ whatever, I will think about it later for now I need to grasp the situation so that I can get home and give an evening hug to my mom, dad, and kittu like I always do¡­ yes that is a worthy reward after this misery.¡± as he looks at moving clouds. To inspect the situation he is in, he tries to look for a direction which might lead outside the forest and sees a glimmergap. He puts his hands inside the side pocket of his hoodie and starts walking toward the path that most certainly takes him outside the forest (seeing Xavier walking, Mike and Mickey also wisp away), he walks on, passing a couple of pink weigelas grown sporadically and after about 5 minutes of walk, he finally gets Thicket¡¯s End.


    Just as he left the forest, the soft and cushiony feeling beneath his sole washed away, there is no grass, the land is barren ¡ª well not completely as there are ruins. As Xavier looked farther away (a couple few kilometers in front), he can see an unclear picture of a big city ¨C a couple of factory chimneys can be seen which are breathing out dark smoke and what¡¯s more intriguing is that a certain human- skull architecture can be seen and through its mouth people are going in and out as if it is an entrance gate.


    He moves his head left and right but because of the ruins, he can not see the area clearly, although on his right, behind those ruins there is a very tall and broad mountain along with several comparatively small ones can be seen, how tall? One¡¯s neck would roll over the ground if he tried to contemplate the height of this imperial crest, it penetrates those high-flying pink clouds and no peak can be seen and Xavier can not see the end of the ridgeline as it reaches beyond the city. It looks like the earth crest itself moved up to meet heavens.


    Now, Xavier is flummoxed and dumbfounded ¡°the city, the clouds, the runes, and such a colossal mountain ¡ª there¡¯s nothing like I have ever seen, where am I? That definitely is not my sweet and gentle town let alone this planet¡± he thinks with a furrowed brow. On his left about a couple meters away there is seatable rock, he walks towards that and speaks while scratching his chin ¡°What happened? I was returning home after spending noon at the riverside along with my friends.¡± He sat on the boulder stool and got lost in his thoughts trying to remember all the details before he reached this undesirable land.