Chapter 1: Reborn

Chapter 1: Reborn

The details of the accident were largely lost to Ethan.

One moment, he was strolling down the sidewalk, the next instant every fibre of his being wrenched in an ungodly pain. A bone-chilling coldness seeped in, making him regret every second he was alive.

Wait, am I even alive?

Ethan was unsure. He barely had any recollection of what had transpired. The last thing he remembered was returning from school when something struck him blind. And hard. He thought he heard snapping echoes of bones cracking, then all he sensed was the darkness and the agony.

Soon, the memory resurfaced. Ethan remembered being in a car accident.

Well, fuck!

He was on the phone, talking to a friend of his. What was his name again? Was it Jim or Sophia? Either way, it mattered not who he was talking to; his eyes had been on the path. Hell, he was not even on the street, creeping along the sidewalk as he usually did, with his apartment being less than a mile away from school.

Yet some motherfucker went out of his way from the street to crash into him, ripping the very life out of him.

Abruptly, a booming voice struck him, accompanied by strings of flickering texts.

[Anomaly detected.]
[Initiating combat measures…]
[Error.]
[Purging premature consciousness]
[Operation failed.]
[Initiating second phase…]

“Can’t you shut up already?” Ethan cried.

[Overwriting system protocol…]

He swore. Can’t even let him die in peace, can’t they?

He had no clue what in the world that was supposed to be, but at least the loudmouth stopped, the glittering text fading from his sight. Only the silence of the void kept him company.

Wait! Ethan snapped. Come back! You can’t just leave me all alone here.

Neither the glittering text nor the voice returned. But, to his surprise, the chilling coldness receded. Not only that, a comfortable, cosy warmth filled his chest.

Then the wrenching agony tormented him once again. A wail escaped his mouth involuntarily. Then came a flurry of lights, so bright that they blinded him. Through bleary eyes, he could only make out blurry shadows moving around him.

Perhaps the mad driver had not been as thorough as he had imagined. Ethan could not help but hope. Perhaps there was still a chance at life.

But fuck this pain! He cried like a baby, the sound grating even to his own ears, but stopping seemed to be beyond his control.

With the hellish torment crawling through every fibre of his being, would it even be worth living? Even if he was not bedridden for the rest of his life, Ethan did not think he would ever be in any condition to play football again.

But for the love of God, don’t you people have anaesthesia? Hit me with the highest dose already.

All that screaming seemed to work. His misery faded, and in its place, warmth and a cosy air surrounded him, keeping him alive for a little longer. Finally at peace, Ethan let the darkness swallow his thoughts as his consciousness faded into deep sleep.

Time passed in a flurry. He was unsure if he was in a coma, but time and time again, he would wake in a fit of cries and see blurry lights and silhouettes moving around him. At least the pain had stopped tormenting him, though the powerlessness still lingered. He was even helpless to twitch a muscle.

Until one day, his eyes cleared.

Ethan found himself in a situation that went beyond anything he had ever encountered. He was not in a hospital, nor was he in a coma. No, no. He was now trapped inside a newborn baby.

He was struck dumb for minutes. Instantly, his mind went to the various religious connotations of rebirth. Even if rebirth or reincarnation were true, people did not get to keep their memories, did they?

Well, his mind was hazy, a thick cloud shrouding it. But still, Ethan felt more whole than he should be.

He did not even believe in Buddhism, or was it Hinduism that spoke of the gospel of reincarnation? Besides, as far as he was aware, his karma credit should not be high enough to be reborn as a human again. Well, he had never done any harm intentionally. As for all the good, there was nothing of note other than donating a few pounds here and there.

The best chance he would give himself was a dog or a cat, not a stray one, but a pet of some good family.

Wisecracks aside, his mind drifted to the alien voice he had heard. Something about anomaly and premature consciousness. So it had nothing to do with religion?

Despite the suspicion, he could not confirm anything. Racking his brain for an answer only brought a tinge of pain and a headache that could only be quelled by going back to sleep.

The days passed in a blur. Most of it was spent sleeping. Some days, he barely had any recollection of waking. The few waking hours were spent feeding, defecating, crying for reasons unknown even to him, or ruminating on those troublesome thoughts.

He did not know how many days it took for his eyes to finally adjust. Nowadays, he could make out some details. He had to squint a bit, but he could finally remember the visage of his mother. She had a pale, pretty face, her hair fair and blond and always in a braid. She looked to be no older than twenty-five. There was a little girl always at her side whenever she attended to him. Although she was young, barely seven or eight, the resemblance in their features indicated she could only be his elder sister.

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More figures came and went into the house; some of them even glared at Ethan as though he owed them money, but not a single one of them matched a fatherly figure.

Ethan was unsure what to think about that. If anything was to go by from the father of his previous life, then perhaps it was better not to have one.

Shaking his head free of those idle thoughts, Ethan concentrated on more productive ones. Looking at the plastered walls, the luminescence, and the ever-present warmth radiating through the room, he could safely assume that he had won the reincarnation lottery, that he was born into a well-off family.

Now that his brain functioned a little better, he began to count the days. It was the eleventh afternoon when his mother took him outdoors to get some fresh air. She made a habit of it, cradling him in her arms as they sat outside, either on the porch or the swing, or on a stroll through the neighbourhood. Ethan liked it outdoors, but his gaze would always remain skyward if his mother allowed it, as if trying to catch the number of stars in the deep cerulean sky.

Actually, he did catch two suns for once or twice. Even now, although he could not see both of them with his head cradled to one side, he could glimpse the radiance coming from the other direction, equally as potent, perhaps only overshadowed by the colossal, island-like structures hanging in the sky.

Of course, he was not on Earth.