Howard Lawrence,
Somewhere in Virginia.
Pain.
I was met with agonizing pain when a wayward UPS truck struck me, throwing me into the path of an oncoming train.
Huh, so this is how the life and times of Howard 'Howie' Lawrence ends, with a tag team of truck and train-kun. If this was some isekai trash, I'd probably be surrounded by motes of light, and-, wait, why the hell is time slowing down for my soliloquy?
Unfortunately for me, that was all the time fate had allotted me as I was suddenly made aware of the geometrically growing pressure surrounding me. Sorry, correction, exponentially. Now, I could regale you with all of the differences between exponential and geometric growth, but long story short, doubling will almost always end in a value lesser to the product of squaring, or cubing for that matter. For an apt comparison of what I felt, it was like being put on the surface of Venus, and placing a teddy bear on my head. So, not a fun time.
Fortunately for me, the pressure grew so large that my corporeal form evaporated and my soul was shunted into... Somewhere.
Neat.
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Howard Lawrence
?????.
I was met with a blank void. No light, no color, not even black, which took a while to get used to. I don't know how long I spent there, a few seconds? minutes, hours? days, weeks, months, years? centuries and millennia could have passed and I wouldn't have noticed. Hell, the universe could have rubber-banded and another big bang had happened millions of years ago.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Suddenly, what could only be described as a rip in space tore into being. I felt it beckon me towards it, and I obliged.
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Ariana Sylas
The Sylas Estate, Kingdom of Edria
I shot out of bed with a splitting headache. Where the hell am I? Memories began flooding in, the truck, my thirteenth birthday, the carriage, wait, I've never seen a carriage in my life! I looked down at my hands and I was met with ten dainty digits, and hands free of blemishes and callouses. A sense of discomfort washed over me, like when I woke up one day and realized I had to look down to make eye contact with my mom.
Suddenly, a bout of agonizing pain came around, as if my brain gained the capability to feel pain and someone started tearing it into pieces. Any cries of pain from me came out as choked murmurs.
More memories flooded in, noticeably more foreign than the last. If the previous bout was a sudden recollection, these new ones were as if someone beamed textbooks into my mind, purely informational, and strangely, browseable. It was as if the collective knowledge of humanity was stuffed into my cranium, along with most pieces of human creativity, be it art, dance, music, literature, films, shows, and games.
The faint memories of the previous inhabitant of this body also surfaced. Of a coddled and loved life, free of worry outside of what one should get for daddy's birthday. I felt... simultaneously violated and violating. Taking over this loved girl without any input besides floating into that tear in space, felt viscerally wrong. The only piece of solace I was able to obtain was that her soul was long gone, leaving behind a comatose shell.
The door lightly swung open, revealing an aged, but still spry gentleman with mostly white hair, a well cared for mustache, and a sharp chin. Oh, yeah, Albert, he's her, or should I say my? father's head butler. Mild surprise flashed across his eyes but he remained composed.
"Ah! The young lady has awakened! Myrtle! go call for the healer would you?" A wry smile graced his face, as if knowing my, and seemingly also the previous inhabitant's, disdain for doctor visits.
This is going to be a long day.