It’s been half a year, and both my sight and my absorption have gotten better.

I can absorb for about twice as long before passing out.

I say about because there isn’t anything like a clock in here so I have to eyeball it.

What is in here is a mirror.

Apparently I have an average-looking face and brown hair, which is weird for a newborn to have.

Don’t all babies have blond, before growing into their hair color?

This isn’t Earth after all, so why get caught up in details?

My family is as neglectful as ever.

My ‘Father’ has not visited me once, but I think I’ve tasted the brat’s hate from behind the door a couple times, couldn’t tell with my sight though.

My maid also doesn’t seem to care about how many times I’ve passed out either.

Waking up once more after absorbing, I’m startled to find that there is now some strange growth in my chest, right by my heart.

There aren’t any signs of it from the outside (I checked), but I can sense it very deeply.

My cry only caused the maid to peek her head into the room before she left again.

Fortunate, since I was busy examining my new body part.

It tastes like a crystal, and seems to be a vessel for the pressure.

Not very much, but enough to be a good start.

It’s probably like a muscle, where using it makes it bigger, right?

Let’s see what happens when I pull the pressure out of my crystal.

…

Nothing, it just dissipates.

Laame.

I tried a few more times and all I managed to do was empty it out, leading to another blackout.

By the time I came to, it was dark out, like so dark I couldn’t see.

Strange, why is the room smaller?

Wait a minute, I can move again.

With just a thought, I could get out of the crib I’d been stuck in all my life.

Well, all my new life.

I appear to be adult-sized again, but looking at my hands freaked me out.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I’m nothing but shadow!!!

WHat?!

The mirror on the wall doesn’t even show me at all, creepy.

Something is telling me to walk into it, to just throw myself into it, forcefully.

I’m not that dumb, so I cautiously stick my hand on the mirror.

Or, I tried to, since my hand just went right through it.

I could see my hand inside what should have been the reflection, starting where my arm went through.

The other side just feels more warm, more real, just… more.

Not hesitating at all, the rest of me phases through the mirror as well, leaving me in a strange, reversed version of my room.

The room is almost the same, except I don’t feel the pressure, and upon closer inspection I notice that the darkness outside the window actually seems to be solid?

My musings are cut short by a very intense feeling that there’s somewhere I need to go to.

And I know where to go, but not where I’ll go, if that makes sense.

No, it doesn’t.

Anyway, out of the room I go, following my urges in a well-thought out masterful strategy that definitely has no flaws in its logic.

Hmm, sarcasm’s a little strong now, I must be really nervous.

Making my way through a strangely dark, strangely quiet and strangerfully empty hallway doesn’t help.

Fortunately, my journey is rather short as I stop just two doors down, now in a room that seems vaguely familiar.

Wait, wait, wait.

Aha, this was where I was born.(In this world at least.)

This room is also strangely dark, but decidedly not empty.

In the middle of the room is a cloth draped over a distinctly human-shaped object.

On the feminine side, too, so probably my birth-mother’s.

Not a pleasant thought.

On top of the body is an oddly shaped lantern, the only source of light in this world.

Two paces forward, I abruptly stop.

The parts of my body that were touched by the light started to burn.

A scream of pain ripped its way out of my throat, but mine wasn’t the only scream.

The lantern itself was screaming too. Or rather, something inside was.

A being composed entirely of flame was crawling out of the lantern while trying to claw at me.

One claw managed to leave a mark on my face, the pain breaking me out of my shock.

I turned to flee and somehow tripped on my own feet, falling to the ground.

I caught myself with my hands now on the floor, covered by the shadow the flame-being was giving me.

In the shadow I felt something strangely solid, and I know it wasn’t there before since I would have stepped on it walking in.

Hurriedly grasping it, I brought it up to my face and beheld a knife.

A knife made out of shadow, but solid.

With a weapon now in my hands, I turned around ready to do battle with this foe.

Problem: its reach is greater than mine, even with the knife.

Solution: throw the knife at it.

Problem: the knife went right through it.

Solution: the knife hit the lantern somehow and caused it to crack.

The flame’s scream grew more distorted, as did the room itself as the lantern fell to pieces.

The world itself exploded, with some of the shrapnel making its way into my body.

It hurts, it hurts, it hurts.

I wake up screaming back in my room.

The screams brought my maid over, who just checked my diaper before putting me back into the crib and leaving the room, decidedly grumpy too.

That was weird, I managed to think before passing out again.