*************************************************************************************************************************

An original idea I came up with awhile ago,

influences should be obvious,

Let me know your thoughts!

Happy Holidays!

*************************************************************************************************************************

What a drag.

This was commonly in his thoughts.  It was to bothersome to him to do what everyone else wanted to do.  College, get a job, a family, live out a monotonous life.

It was not as if he had difficulty with classes or had a traumatic life, until more recently, like many others in the world.  As a matter of fact for most of it he was rather indulged.

High School had been easy for him, as he slept through classes and still passed with pretty much straight A's, achieving B's in a few where he could have aced if he had spend even a little of his free time studying, or even putting more effort into his homework.  He was the guy all the hard workers in a class detested.  

His mother spoiled him, buying him games and numerous fantasy and sci-fi novels to indulge his overactive imagination.  Truly, until his senior year of high school he had only had a few hardships.  Although, to call some of them hardships would be a stretch.

First, his brothers.  Both were total assholes.  As the youngest of three, and being 7 years younger than his middle brother, he was constantly harassed by them growing up.  His middle brother also had a few mental disorders.  Seriously, diagnosed and everything with about a dozen different prescriptions necessary to take and all.  It was hard to for him to tell if this brother acted the way he did because of his disorders, because he frequently forgot to take his pills, or because he chose to act that way.  Either way, he was resentful of all the times his middle brother had stolen from him, beat him down, harassed him, and a number of other incidents, and only slightly guilty about the thought that it may not be his fault.  The same was true for his eldest brother.  8 years older than him, his eldest brother had gotten addicted to drugs in high school and would also beat him up, steal from him or use him in some way that got his brother more money.

It wasn't like he knew about these things about his brothers, at least not fully.  His parents had kept much of the problems from him when he was growing up, so he didn't know until high school that anything had been at all wrong with his brothers.  

Second, was his father.  The man wasn't a bad father per se, but he was a bit obtuse and spineless when confronting his mother.  However, he did insist on one thing.  Extracurricular activities.  When growing up, he had taken Karate until the end of 6th grade.  In middle school, he joined the wrestling team and was additionally made to take Judo and Jujitsu instead of Karate. After the first year of high school he dropped wrestling and joined Track and Field.  Less painful.  Although he still had to take something separate from school too, so he convinced his father to let him drop Judo and Jujitsu for Aikido, at the time thinking it would easier.  His father got the last laugh on this one.

Finally, the only true hardship in his life.  Shortly after he finally got his parents off his back by getting into a University with, surprisingly, a full ride scholarship thanks to his unintentionally getting extremely high scores on both the SAT and the ACT, his parents had passed away.

Now, the term "passed away" sounds too peaceful for what actually happened.  Shortly after picking up his eldest brother from rehab, driving on a highway overpass a Semi driver overcome with drowsiness drifted into his parents car, pushing their vehicle over the side.  The fall caused the car to crush in, instantly killing his parents and eldest brother.

Matthew Randel was not emotional.  Not overly attached to people or things.  He had been angry before, and been upset before, but he had truly believed nothing would have cause him much emotional distress.  In retrospect, that was the thoughts of a truly naive person.

It wasn't true.  He cried.  He yelled.  He smashed things, and finally he was depressed.  Less than a week later he attempted suicide, a rather hasty decision.  

Surprisingly, it was his middle brother who guessed that Matthew to be in a suicidal state.

At the time of this occurrence, his middle brother was in jail for a drunken assault on someone.  The person he had assaulted chose not to press charges, a shocking decision considering the North American mindset to sue first and be wise later.  However, the court had decided some time in jail was still needed.  

Thus, it was shocking to learn that Matthew's only remaining family, who he hadn't spoken to in something close to a year, had actually known to call the police to tell them Matthew was going to attempt a suicide that night.

So after the EMT's and police swarmed into his home and found him minutes after he had taken a poison, one that was painless and practically caused to him to go to sleep as it took affect.  

After a summer worth of therapy, and truly more after that as well, he had decided to still go to University.  There, out of habit, he decided to take Fencing and Kendo courses in addition to his normal courses, forced himself to make friends in a LARPing group that he decided to participate in, and had summer internships and part time work during the school year in order to save money for after University.  He had decided to work harder now so he could take it easy later.

After 5 years and finishing his last summer internship, having graduated with two degrees this past May, he had been expecting that the company he had interned with every summer since he had been in University would desire to hire him fully now that he had graduated.  Instead, he got a brief e-mail:

From: Michael Brent

   To: Matthew Randel

   Subject: Re: Application

   Sorry Matthew,

   You have been frequently interning with us and have done excellent work, but we truly do not feel you are right for our company at this time.  Put me down as a reference in future applications, I'll be sure to say good things!

   Regards,

   Mike

Truly, it was infuriating.  He had made sure to intern here every summer to build connections, and a good attitude towards him.  He had worked hard, outshone his peers, and even socialized with people he didn't really like just for the sake of getting a high earning job right out of University.

What was the phrase? Ah yes, 'don't put all your eggs in one basket.'

But that was exactly what he had done. He was immensely frustrated.

Just a few minutes ago, Matthew had sat at the bar, something he infrequently did since it was a waste of money.  

After he paid his tab and left he had only walked halfway back to his apartment by the time he had encountered the incident for which had inspired his rapid flashes of remembrance of the past 2 decades of is life.

He wasn't gonna live a monotonous life or typical life, he wanted to make a difference.  That was what he decided in the moment.  

Although years of taking various martial arts classes instantly caused his mind to sharpen and evaluate the situation with speedy precision, the alcohol in his system made him do something stupid.  He dashed forward with all his speed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he yelled stupidly.  Yes, it was the yell that was stupid.

Why? Well he was dashing towards three men who had been in the process of assaulting two women in the side alley.  He was several meters away from them and could have gained much more distance before gaining their attention.

The one closest was armed with a knife.  Second guy had nothing in his hands as he was in the process of restraining one of the women.  Guy three, who was farthest away, had a revolver.

Yes, yelling had been stupid.  

In the same instant his yell erupted from his mouth, the half empty beer bottle in his right hand had also been flung out.  

It shot out pasted guy one and two instantly, smashing into the face of guy three who had looked his way suddenly in response to the yell.  He immediately dropped the gun and clutched his face howling in pain.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

By this moment Matthew had closed the distance between him and guy one considerably.  Guy one had  almost completely turned around, the knife in his right hand was held in forward hammer grip and was pointed nearly directly at Matthew now.  With a lightning quick lunge using his right leg as his forward leg, he used his right hand to recklessly grab the man's wrist.  Bringing his left leg sweeping around, he instantly positioned it behind his opponents legs and used the momentum to thrust his left palm under the arm aimed at the chin. Coupled with Matthew's momentum, his left leg behind his opponent and pulling on his opponent's right wrist setting him off balance.  The blow was enough to blow guy one into guy two.

Their heads hit making a nice hollow THUNK, sound.  They both seemed to collapses unconscious.  Matthew casually reached down and picked up the butterfly knife that had fallen to the ground and closed it with a small grunt.

Barely looking at the two women he spoke casually, "Now would be the time to get going ladies."

He heard one gasp while the other was still sobbing, but nevertheless they bravely pulled themselves together and left the alley.

He barely heard one of them breath out "Thank you."

He smiled to himself.  It felt good to actually accomplish something.

Suddenly, his head started swimming.

Crap, must be the alcohol hitting back. Did i force myself to do too much at once?

His nausea and dizziness swept him up for a brief moment before he was able to re-orient himself.

Which was when he noticed something not too good.

The alley was quiet.  Too quiet.  Just a moment ago guy three was certainly making pain noise from the bottle smashed on his face.

What a damn drag! I should have taken care of him sooner. I hope he hasn't-

But he had.

Matthew had turned and guy three was glaring through his left hands fingers with a triumphant grin on his face.

The gun was pointed at him.

The gun was fired.

Everything went dark.

***********************************************************************************

Suddenly nothing was dark anymore.

I should have been dead.

That gun was clearly fired into my chest. What happened?

I looked around where I was and everything was pure white. Even the clothes I am wearing are the cleanest, purest set of white clothes I have ever worn.

There's no walls, no doors, no anything.

Is this heaven? Am I dead?

I tried to speak but no noise came out from my mouth.  

[Oh please.  Like you would want to go to heaven.  It's so perfect and so boring.]

Alarmed I looked around for the source of the thoughts that weren't mine.

Are....you god?

[Good heavens, No. What a boring job that would be. And Truly, Heaven is boring.  It just creates a perfect little world for your consciousness that fits to your ideals and everything is within your expectation.  Who would want to live like that?]

Don't I only have your word that that is true?

[Yes.  Of course, I won't let you GO to heaven.  You peaked my interest, even if it was for just a moment.]

Who...are you?

[Well, who I am is not very important.  I am just a temp, filling in for the one who is called Anubis in your world.  Also called Yama, and some other names.  Basically I get to judge your heart, karma, and actions of your life and get to decide what to do with you.  You know, the whole heaven and hell thing.]

The voice sounded very gleeful.

[So I have decided to give you a second life. Praise me!]

...

[...]

T-Thank you?

[NOT the reaction I was anticipating.  Don't humans usually grovel in tearful joy, give praise and thanks and such for that kind of thing?]

How does one grovel in joy in the first place?

[You're starting to be annoying. Well lemme see here....]

I waited patiently for what seemed like several minutes.  

[Okay, abusing my temporary position of power, here is the deal.  I am going to give you a list of dimensions in which you can be reborn into and you get to choose one.  Then I get to choose HOW you're reborn.  Like, if you're gonna be a human, or a tree, or Smiggot.]

Smiggot?

[Here's the list.]

I suddenly saw a piece of paper laying on the "ground".  I picked it up.

Dimension One:

World Name: Valasia

Description:  A World like your own in terms of how science works.  However,technology has not developed the same due to the existence of magic.  Oh, and big scary monsters like Dragons, Behemoths, Hydra, and non human races.  You'd like it, if the world wasn't also currently being hit by an incurable plague that affects all life and will lead to the extinction of  everything.

Dimension Two:

World Name: Naciremia

Description: A World like your own but with extremely advanced technology.  They have expanded out to the far reaches of their galaxy and are fighting many species for resources through various galactic quadrants.  No magic, but super cool tech, space travel, the Final Frontier! Oh and dangerous god-like entities that cause wide spread destruction on a whim, and the reason resources are fought over is because the resources required for space travel are becoming  more and more rare and eventually every species will be forced back to their own systems to engage in wars over their survival.

Dimension Three:

World Name: Vernica

Description:  This world has a wide variety of technology and magic depending on the country in which you live.  There are also many races, and magical creatures like Dragons, Behemoths, Smiggot's and more.  Although this world behaves under a unique set of 'laws' that have an easy learning curve...because it is like a game! Special rules established by the beings most similar to gods have made this world fairly easy to understand.  No major foreseeable world wide disasters.

What the hell? They all sound interesting... but these descriptions lack any real information.

[That is all you get to make your choice.  Oh and you get 1 minute starting now, or I'll decide.]

WHAT!

I quickly skimmed back over the descriptions.  Although I want to choose all of them, there was only one real choice.

This one.

I thought it intensely as I pointed to the one I wanted.

[Good! Although a boring choice if I say so myself. Still! Have fun, and I'll be watching!]

I have questions abo-

Once again my vision turned to darkness.  

**********

My whole body hurt, and my eyelids felt heavy.  I could feel sand beneath me and waves crashing against my legs.

But something was terribly wrong, I was sure of it.

Jolting upright, eyes flicking open, I looked down at myself.

I was small.  Really really small.  I was like -

A child! I'm a freaking child!

I inhabited a body that couldn't have been more than 2 years old.  Examining closely I saw my body was covered with cuts and bruises.  I groaned inwardly.

My stomach let loose a loud growl.

Forcing my body up, I begin looking around for a place to leave the beach.  All down the beach as far as I could see in either direction was cliffs.  Lots and lots of cliffs.  

Realizing I was gonna have to climb up, I sighed heavily.  I took a few steps towards the cliffs when I realized something else was wrong.  Terribly wrong.

I patted my self down.

And then I did it again.

Not good.

I yelled loudly.

"I'M A GIRL!!!!!!"