As I lay in bed, blowing into my last tissue, I cry in my bed, realizing I have lost everything… my father, grandmother, and now… my brother.
It all began with a tragedy. My entire family perished in a car crash caused by a drunk driver recklessly speeding through a snowstorm. Miraculously, I survived, though I was only a newborn at the time, and was shivering to death by the time I was pulled from the wreckage.
Another car had been driving behind us that night, and its driver, acting on impulse, pulled me from the wreckage and rushed me to the very same hospital where I was born.
That man, my savior, had only just become a father himself. He had a newborn son but had also recently lost his wife, becoming a widow. Despite his own struggles, he took me in, adopting me since I had no surviving relatives. Overnight, he became the father of two, a burden that only grew heavier as we got older. It wasn't hard to figure out why he had made such a split-second decision, he was the kind of man who acted first and thought later. His son… sadly also inherited that trait.
For most of my life, he wasn't around much. As a soldier, he was often deployed, leaving me and my brother in the care of his mother, our grandmother. She was, without a doubt, the kindest person I had ever known. While my friends' grandmothers had their own quirks, mine was the kind to spoil us with home-cooked meals, lovingly knitted clothes, and endless affection.
My fondest memories were of cooking and baking with her. My brother was forced to join in too, but he was a terrible cook, his food was always either undercooked or burnt beyond recognition, but I knew he was faking his terrible cooking skills, he just wanted me or our grandmother to cook. Lazy bastard.
But my grandmother and father passed away, I was devastated. I thought I was the reason for death around me, thinking I was some sort of walking curse. Losing them left me shattered, spiraling into depression, locking myself deep in my room and not even coming out. But through it all, my brother remained by my side, who sometimes forcefully opened my door and threw me outside just so I would get some sunlight, but that feeling of warmth my brother gave, grew into something more in my heart.
Then, the worst blow of all came. A truck crashed into his room, from the third floor. When I got the call about his death, I froze. It was absurd. Unreal. But it was true, I saw the photos that my friends sent me and saw our apartment covered in an inferno.
I immediately told my teacher what had happened and requested to return to America as I had been studying in Japan at the time. He agreed, and I booked the next available flight home, which was early in the next day
So that night, as I lay in bed, trying to get some rest before my early flight, I suddenly heard the blaring honk of a truck as time slowed down. Before I could even process the very slow movement of my hands, the wall to my room exploded inwards as a flaming truck hurled itself towards me.
Then.... nothing. No light, no….. anything, just the pitch-black void in every direction.
Yet, laughter filled the entire environment soon after I examined my translucent body.
"HEHEHEHE… HAHAHA!"
The laughter echoed endlessly in the darkness, growing louder and louder, pounding in my ears like a relentless drum. I clamped my hands over them, but it did nothing to dull the deafening sound.
Then, pain. Agonizing, unbearable pain surged through my body as something inside me cracked. I had no idea what this laughter was doing to me, but I could feel it, no I could see it. Tiny fractures forming within me, splintering like cracked glass.
Just as I thought my skull was about to shatter, the laughter abruptly stopped, that was followed, by a mocking, cruel, voice dripping with malice.
"Oh, my favorite… little… test subject," the voice drawled, dripping with sarcasm. "Tell me, was your life fun? How did it feel to be cursed with [$#)%@$)^]... oh, my bad. You probably can't even understand what I just said." A snicker echoed through the void, the amusement in its tone unmistakable. It was toying with me, enjoying my confusion.
"But don't worry, you won't have to deal with that curse anymore," it continued. "I have plans for you. I'm sending you to another world, a place teeming with cultivators. How does that sound? Exciting, isn't it? I know how much you love reading those kinds of stories."
Then, from the endless darkness, countless crimson eyes blinked into existence. They surrounded me, filling the void with an eerie, blood-red glow. I froze in terror.
The eyes varied in size, some small, others as massive as buildings, some even bigger than planets, but one dwarfed them all. It loomed directly above me, bigger than anything I had ever seen, staring down as if peering straight into my soul.
"Aww, don't look so scared," the voice cooed, dripping with mock sympathy. "Isn't this what everyone wants? To be reincarnated into another world with overpowered abilities?"
There was a false sadness in its tone, but it didn't even try to mask its laughter.
"How about this? I'll be generous, state three wishes, and I'll grant them. How does that sound?" I couldn't see the being speaking, but I knew... somehow… I knew it was grinning.
Before I could even think of a response, the voice cut me off.
"DO YOU REALLY THINK I'D GRANT YOU A WISH? HAHAHAHAHA!" The laughter thundered through the void, shaking me to my core. "Good luck. Hope your brother finds out I was the one who killed you."
Something reverberated deep within my soul, a violent, chaotic energy tearing through me from the inside. Then, from the abyss, a massive maw emerged, as it lunged towards me.
And everything went black.
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Thanks for reading my second ff