Prologue

First Steps

Life was a bit more functional, at least that’s what everyone proclaims but not from where I was born. 

In the month of August, year two thousand six in the countryside was when my first life started. I do not have a very clear memory of that day which is normal. I just gained consciousness and are unaware of everything to process with my mind, to even make a single memory of my surroundings. My earliest memory I have was me trying to walk with my two tiny legs, and I first learned that my name was Asher.

The year I turned three, I was first enrolled at a small public kindergarten school. It was so small that it felt like I never left my bedroom; Me and my parents bedroom to be exact, we can not afford to have private rooms.

Throughout my kindergarten years, all I did was sit on my chair and stare into nothingness and watch my classmates socialize with each other. They did bother to socialize with me but they failed since all I did was do random things unimaginable. That ended after I graduated kinder and transferred into a small but private elementary school. I started to have a sense of awareness of what I was doing, and I started socializing with everyone. I made friends, I laughed with them and ate with them, though that did not last long. 

My parents decided to move into a new house after our debt skyrocketed. I thought that it was because they enrolled me into a private school but can’t really afford the tuition fee, hoping to only make me more intelligent.

We started to live in a house belonging to a friend of my mother. It was more decent than our old apartment but we get to only sleep in a single room again since they only have one vacant room. While I was exploring our new home, I stumbled upon the daughter of the house. She was surrounded with plants making her head only visible from where I stand. I saw her long black hair weaving from the gentle wind while the top of her head was covered with her cap. She stood up as she saw me, revealing her blue elegant dress. I guess they’re more than middle class to afford such a dress that looks like something princesses would wear.

“Who’s there?” she said with a gentle tone.

I did not respond and instead just stared at her face with freckled cheeks and blueish eyes. I figured that she was a mixed race because of her look. After that her mother came behind me and said,

“Looks like you just met my daughter ‘April’.”

The time I learned about her name, I knew she was remarkable.

“April, this is ‘Asher’, his family just moved into our house, get along with each other okay,” Her mother said.

I tried to stand straight to look cool in front of her, but she just instead walked away in the opposite direction. Her mother told me that it’ll be okay and I’ll just have to try and socialize with her. Using the social skills I learned from my previous school, I talked to her the next day. Since then we’ve been friends and played all day everyday, we were also enrolled at the same school. We were always  as siblings because we lived on the same roof and went to school together. My family and hers were very close since we often went on vacations every summer together. However, everything changed In the year I turned eleven. My family’s relationship changed or it was always like that, I just did not realize the flaws we had. 

I always stumble upon them arguing inside our room, every time me and April went home from school at dawn. April’s mother always told me to go to April’s room until the heat cools since I can hear my parents from the living room. Me and April would play Uno cards when I’m In her room or we would just play on her Nintendo Switch. Her room was always cool at sixteen degrees celsius, and was also filled with soft pillows. It was comfortable enough to calm myself down from the situation I was facing.

“It’ll be fine, Asher,” April said.

When I heard those words from her, I smiled as she was the first person to say that to me. She taught me about his family everyday we hung out so I knew she understands the situation I am currently in. I learned throughout those days that her father was Norwegian, and died while she was inside her mother’s womb. We spent the night comforting each other until I ended up falling asleep. The day after tomorrow, we got separated. 

My mother told me that we will be moving far away from the town. However my father stayed, I did not know why, all I knew was I’ll be going with my mother. I saw April looking down while clenching her dress, standing beside her mother as we drift further away. I was trying to stop, to go to her, but my mother kept walking and was holding my arm tight. I did not think of fighting back, until I can no longer see April from the distance. Hours passed, we arrived at our new place, it was shabby and old, it looked like it would collapse any minute. 

Every night would have a lot of flies or any bugs biting on my legs; My mother told me that the house was from grandma, so the house was left abandoned after she died. It is still a legal plot so my mother told me that just enough perseverance and hard work would restore this house from its old beauty. I trusted her words and I would do every chores she gave me, but she was not true to her words. While I stopped schooling and started earning money by fetching water to my neighbors. My mother on the other hand would continue to slack; She always goes home with an alcohol bottle in her hand or sometimes was carried by her friends. 

The money I was collecting from the chores I did was always gone so I figured that my mother was using it to buy alcohol. As my mother continued her usual lifestyle, the next day… she collapsed. She was immediately rushed into the hospital the time our neighbors saw her fell. The doctor said that it was a liver failure, if not treated early, she would not make it. We already struggled financially, and no one even bothered to help us. We were also under a pile of debt that was worth like a diamond. A few weeks later, my mother passed away. I am now an orphan and nowhere to go. Though the hospital staffs took notice of me and asked if I know any relatives. The first thing that popped up in my mind was April, so I informed them and they called the local social welfare department to take me there by vehicle. 

I was so excited that I could finally see her again, and father. However, the time we got there, we met a vacant house. I first thought that we had the wrong address but no, it was the same house, same familiar street and familiar neighbors. The social welfare people I was with asked the neighbors about the vacant house, and they told them that they moved just last week. It has been a year since we separated but it felt like it was ages. That time I thought I would never see them again. 

A year later at the age of thirteen I was adopted into a decent family where I had four adoptive siblings. I did not feel welcome from my siblings, but my adoptive parents motivated me. I finally had a room of my own and was just the same size as my adoptive siblings’. My adoptive parents also planned to enroll me in the same school as my adoptive siblings next school year. However I would still be in sixth grade because of me quitting school when I moved in with my mother. So I was looking forward to it, though I was not able to meet everyone in person. 

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

At the year I was about to turn fourteen, there was a pandemic; it quarantined us for about a year. Though since my adoptive family was upper middle class, we didn’t really struggle. However I was often left out, the one who always took notice of me was my adoptive father. Years later at the age of sixteen, my adoptive brother who was the same age as me took home a girl. I was upstairs that day, but the next day, I got to see them together in the living room.

“Who’s there?” the girl said as she turned her head to me.

Our eyes met, I froze from where I stood, I thought to myself that I saw her before, that’s because I did. My adoptive brother’s girlfriend was April. I tried to act natural despite feeling glad and broken at the same time when I finally saw her again. Hours later, I was upstairs waiting for April to finally go home. Deep down I actually wanted to talk to her, until I remembered my father. When April was finally on her way home, my brother was with her to accompany her to the bus stop so I sneaked out and followed them. The time they were at the bus stop and I was hiding beside a store. I took a peak of them, it looked like they were fighting or some sort, then I saw my brother leaving. April was all alone now  waiting for a bus so I took the chance and ran straight to her. I called her out and she turned to me, I knew it was her. Her right hand was at her chest as I could see her breath.

“Asher,” She called me out.

“April, I miss you,” I responded.

Her eyes looked away and opened-shuts her mouth as if she was trying to say something.

“How are you?” I said.

April looked at me again, and showed me a smile.

“I am fine but–” She said.

“So you and my brother are dating huh, you look happy,” I said.

“Do I look happy to you?”

When she said that, I felt like something was wrong, so I asked.

“What’s wrong? How’s father?”

“He’s gone, he was buried just last week,” She responded “Wanna see him?”

I insisted and went to ride the bus with her. When we arrived at my father’s grave it was dawn. We lit and placed candles on the grave, we held hands together, her hands were cold. I looked at her, and we met each other’s gaze until our lips touched; It lasted for five seconds, that night I realized that she’s mine and only mine.

She broke up with my brother the next day and I waited for almost a year to graduate junior high until I could finally run away from my adoptive family. I did not care how much they cared or the things they have done for me. All I know was that I will live those remaining years with April until I die. 

I started working part time everywhere and was living with April in a decent apartmentbuilding. We started exploring every place in the northern part of the country including the perfect cone shaped volcano. We can not afford much to fly to other countries but we hoped that one day, we could achieve that dream. That hope shattered at year twenty twenty nine; The entire public was told that an asteroid was about to hit our planet by a month and could lead to mass extinction. April hugged me tight when she heard the news and poured all her tears onto me.

We had intercourse that night like there was no end, no protection, just pure love making. The week before the asteroid hits, April was still sleeping and I saw a text from her phone. It was from her mother. I haven’t heard about her in a while, April barely mentions her; So what I did was delete all contacts from her mother, without April’s consent. I want to spend my end of the world with only April, just the two of us. The morning when it finally came, I woke up from the chaos outside. I called out April but there was no response, that’s when I saw our front door wide open, I panicked. Her footwear’s gone so I assumed she ran away. I gotta chase her, and so I did, there was no time to use the elevator as I quickly sprinted towards the stairs. 

As I reached the ground floor, I saw her on the road, so I followed her. The more I followed her the more familiar the street was. It was the same street that we used to walk to school together. We used to race to see who gets home first and the first to get home gets to eat the last pudding. At the day of the end, we were now racing towards our faith. April was slowing down as she got more limp, until she completely tripped on top of a steeped road just behind where I can see the giant ball of fire from the distance. I shouted her name as a rave flew above us and she shouted back at me saying.

“Don’t go near!”

I did just what she ordered me to do.

“Tell me, Asher, do you really love me?” She asked.

I responded “I do, so please—”

“Then why did you betray me? Do you even know what you just did?”

“April..”

“I was trying to look for my mother on my contacts, but when I finally did, she told me everything.”

“But..”

“We could be happy together in the end, Asher, we could have a supper with my mom as our final moment, but she is now alone at the house, waiting for us with all the food she cooked all by herself, settled on the dining table, it was because of you.”

“But, that was not what I wanted!”

“Not what you wanted?!”

“What I want is just you, I wanna hug your soft, smooth and warm body, while we can feel each other’s heartbeat, isn’t that more romantic?”

“Asher, Is that even you saying that? I feel like I don’t even know you anymore, you disgust me.”

“April, we could still work this out right, we still have time.”

“No, Asher, it is too late, I’d rather die alone than to be with a person that I feel like I’ve never met before.”

She then regained balance and said.

“Farewell.”

She continued to sprint despite her limp, I called her out but there was no response until I could no longer see her from the steep road. Just when I started to catch up to her, the ground started to shake and a loud bang deafened me, but that didn’t stop me from continuing to continue calling her out. I forced my way up until I reached the top where I could see her get swallowed by the flames of the asteroid impact. I called her out again hoping she could still hear me, that’s when the flames swallowed me next.

I closed my eyes that moment, and the time I opened it, I saw April’s face. I thought I’m finally in the afterlife or it was all just a dream but the scenario was very familiar. It was our trip from the country’s summer capital last year. I suspected that my memories were flashing before my eyes, re-experiencing every moment but in reverse. Every memory even the bad ones, my favorite memory though was when I first saw April from the garden. Such a shame that time flows way too fast and I only get to re-experience it for a second.

After that it was all pitch black, it felt cold despite the fact that I can't feel, touch or even move. For a second of nothingness, I regained a bit of vision but it was puzzling. I thought my memories were flashing before my eyes again, except everything was not familiar. The place, the faces, It felt like a slideshow of AI generated imagery. Then it was pitch black again but I started to regain hearing, it slowly built its volume until everything was clear. The air, footsteps and voices but I don’t quite understand the speech. Then I felt like my eyes were closed, so I opened it once more and saw my surroundings. I saw a woman towering over me, I felt like I was laying down, am I on a stretcher, I asked myself.

“Vi ode daedi titso vaoni,” the woman said.

I didn’t understand what she was saying, I first thought she was German because of the accent. I learned that the woman was carrying and just placed me somewhere soft and warm. How did she even carry me, I am like a hundred fifty pounds and six feet tall. Then I saw another person, he has a beard, and quite resembles the creator of a mining game I used to play with April. He began to speak unfamiliar words too and roared at the end, it was so unexpected that it made me question myself.

I started to hear a chilling voice just beside me, so I turned my head to it and saw a beauty. She was big holy crap, and then I asked myself, why is everyone so big, did I shrink or what was left to me was just a head. Then I saw my reflection on the window. It took me too long to process. I could not believe that it was me, I tried to do any sort of movements to double check if It was me on the reflection. Then I slowly accepted it, I am a baby in a very unfamiliar place. I just gained consciousness but I was now aware of everything. My memories were not flashing before my eyes, it was reality. The puzzled vision I had was not an unfamiliar past but rather my future possibilities. I thought it was fiction but it was possible and true that I got reincarnated.