I lived my life how I liked it. Waking up late, staying up late, playing games all day and eating junk food. I wanted to change, I really did. A situation to change just never presented itself to me. I used to see videos online about self-improvement and shit, but I just never took the opportunity to change my own life like the people in those videos used to say.

It was around one in the afternoon and I was playing on my Nintendo Switch under the bed covers. I could hear the bird's chirping outside, taste the horrible morning breath in my mouth and my bladder was full. I couldn't bring myself to leave those lusciously warm bed covers at all.

"Virgil! Get your ass out of bed!" My mom yelled from downstairs. I could smell breakfast hours earlier, but didn't bother. As usual, she probably kept it covered in the kitchen for me. I groaned and heaved myself out of the covers, turning off the game I was playing. I left my room to go to the bathroom as usual but she yelled for me again.

"I meant get down here now! No time for the bathroom, good news!" She said.

A little curious, I went down the stairs and to the living room. She was holding her phone and she looked up at me all happily.

"So, what's the big news?" I asked reluctantly.

"Your Uncle Kal wants you to join him and his kids on their camping trip this weekend. It'll be good for you to get back into a positive mood. Maybe then you'll lose some of the fat on your stomach." She said joyfully.

She didn't understand how much I hated Uncle Kal's family. His kids were annoying as shit and would constantly berate me. They were all older than me too, so we never really had anything in common.

"Mom. Do I have t-", She immediately interrupted me.

"Yes you do. You haven't left the house in weeks, maybe months. Please-" She begged.

I looked at her disappointed face for a moment seeing how desperate she was for my life to go forward from lazing around in my little bedroom chamber. I sighed and looked down at my feet.

"Fine. I'll go." She looked at me a little happy that I didn't cause a giant argument. Maybe those self-improvement videos were getting to me.

Soon enough, the weekend came along. I had packed the bare minimum for two days and my dad led me out to my Uncle's van. While he greeted my uncle, I was met with the twins, the pair of Cousins I hated the most.

"Look who it is. I heard it was a real challenge to get you to agree.", One of them said to me. The other snickered as I sighed and got in the van, sitting at the front. Already living in an area near the woods, it didn't take long for my Uncle to take us to his favourite campsite. The sun was already setting as we arrived. We took the time to set up the tents and get a fire going before the sun had fully set. We gathered around the fire, eating and talking. I learned a little bit more about my uncle and how he got into camping. My twin cousins were still hostile and rude but it was expected.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"See, this is much better than staying cooped up in that room all day. Maybe if you do things in the outdoors more often, you'll lose a couple pounds.", My Uncle laughed. I knew he didn't mean anything by that, so I just nervously laughed as well.

"Yeah, maybe you'll get a girlfriend too.", One of the twin's said with a snicker. Their father shot them a glaring look and the air immediately became awkward and tense.

"Well...I need the bathroom. Excuse me." I said, quickly standing up and walking off into the forest, making sure not to go to far, but far enough that I wasn't visible. While I walked off, I could hear my Uncle arguing with the twins about something, probably their stinking attitude towards me. I heard a branch crack behind me as I was mid piss.

I turned around, met by the horrific sight of a giant brown bear. I was frozen and couldn't move. I was supposed to run, fight for my pathetic life. My worth in the eyes of this monster was that I was a huge fresh stick of meat, with more meat than usual. My knees gave in as I dropped down to the floor.

The bear growled and immediately pounced on top of me. I felt my body being torn to shreds, its claws and teeth sinking deep into my flesh, blood seeping everywhere as my arm was torn off. I could feel the horror of having a piece of your scalp being torn off, blood shielding my vision as it seeped into my eyeballs. I tried screaming but my throat had been ripped out, I instead began crying in pure pain and disappear. I could hear my uncle calling out for me. The bear heard his voice and immediately left me alone, running towards his voice.

I died immediately after the bear had ran off. That was for sure since my consciousness was now floating around in a white space of nothingness. I felt both alive and asleep at the same time, an extremely odd feeling, like when you take a piss in your dreams and then do it in real life as well. I questioned whether or not this was heaven since the pain had disappeared.

I heard the echoes of voices all around me. A woman and man calling out for me. They said my name multiple times but I didn't recognise their voices at all.

There was a bright flash of light. I was now in the arms of a long blonde haired women, with deep forest green eyes. She looked down at me smiling brightly with a light blush. She was extremely beautiful. Next to her was a broad shouldered man, with short silver hair and black eyes.

"Look, his eyes are finally open. You think he was asleep?", The man asked. The woman looked over at him with a slightly mocking smirk.

"Of course not you idiot. Baby's usually don't open their eyes for a while after their born.", she said. Another woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She had long black hair and wore a gown.

"Be happy you two. The procedure went well, nothing wrong with you ma'am or the baby. You're both as healthy as you can be after labour."

The couple smiled at each other and looked down at me again.

"Our little Virgil...", the woman said softly with a smile.

Little? baby? My body felt small and light, my head was heavy and I felt extremely drowsy. The only explanation was that I had been reborn as a baby after being mauled to death by a bear?

I looked around seeing we were near a fire place and were inside a little cottage. This was something straight out of the animes and games I spent my time on.