Aagh!...
I tried to move
It was a small motion, a mere twitch of a finger, but it felt like dragging a mountain through deep water. My breath was heavy, rattling in my throat as a dense, suffocating fog clouded my mind. Inside that fog, I saw something strange. Colors started flashing behind my eyelids they were vivid, neon, and terrifying.I started seeing strange scenery. It was something otherworldly.
I saw shining towers made out of glass that seemed to reach the heavens themselves. I saw roads made from black stone, slick with rain, and strange beasts made out of metal roaring past me. I heard the screams of machines, the electronic chirp of glowing screens, and saw people dressed in garments that felt familiar and alien at the same time. It was a city that touched the skies, a place of noise and light that was so vivid and familiar, so close yet now, it felt so far beyond my reach.
I blinked in the darkness of my mind and moved my hand forward, trying to hold onto the image of a man in a black suit holding a glowing screen in his hand. But suddenly I saw a streetlight glow blood red, it felt like a silent command in the chaotic night. Then suddenly,
Shriek!.... Crash!....Creak!
My mind went blank. The loud noises of the city were silenced by the sound of tearing steel.Then suddenly something hot and wet splashed against my eyes,it was bright red in colour and just like that, the bright scenery was hidden behind a thick, impenetrable wall of red. There was one final metallic roar, a surge of unbearable heat, and then... silence.
"Gasp!..."
I opened my eyes and gasped. The transition was so violent it felt like being born a second time. Sweat clung to my skin like cold oil. my chest was beating fast, a frantic drumming against a frail cage of ribs, and my whole body was burning as the memory disappeared like smoke in a gale.
Wooden rafters stared down at me. They were dark, hand-hewn, and heavy with the scent of aged oak. A gentle breeze drifted through an arched window, carrying the rustling of leaves and the distant, rhythmic hiss of a steam vent. None of this matched what I had seen just now. There were no glass towers here, no screaming metallic beast,only the quiet, somber elegance of a room that felt ancient.
"Lucian, Are you okay?"
I heard a soft and sweet voice. It was a worried, trembling voice with a fragile hope that felt strangely familiar. I turned my head slowly toward the direction of the sound, and with each millimeter of movement, the illusion of the city continued to break. There stood a young woman by my bed, her amber eyes full of concern. Her straight auburn hair shimmering like polished mahogany against the deep emerald velvet of her gown.She was a portrait of noble elegance.Her pale hands hovering uncertainly over my heavy linen blanket.
It was my sister, Selene.
I knew her. I remembered her laughter when we used to play together in the gardens and her scolding me for reading till late night. Yet, to the part of me that remembered the roaring machines, she felt like a stranger.
"I'm... okay," I said. The words felt strange as they left my mouth, shaped by a tongue that knew a language where words carried a weight of their own.
She gave a long sigh of relief and gently placed her hand on my forehead. Her skin was cool, a blessing against my fevered flesh. "You had another fever. Don't you scare me like that, Lucian.
Continue resting for now."I closed my eyes again, unable to keep up with the weight of the world at bay.
As I closed my eyes I started to fall in the endless void again.And then, fragments of memories started flowing in front of me. On the surface, I was just a sickly boy sleeping in a noble estate, but on the inside, there were two lives tangled inside of me like thorns. Two sets of memories. Two versions of myself fighting for the right to breathe.
After fighting for a while both of these memories calmed down and started flowing into me. As the memories were flowing into me I started to remember who I am.
LucianOakheart.
That was my name. I remembered this world its cobbled streets, its candlelit halls, its proud nobles, and the gentle cruelty hidden behind lace and polite smiles. It was the place I was born and lived all my life. But I also remembered... the other one. The one with the metal beasts and the glass towers. It felt familiar and unfamiliar at the same time.
I didn't know exactly who I had been, but I knew that the memories of the man I got was dead. And now, I have been reborn in this world of steam and metal as Lucian Oakheart.
I opened my eyes again, slower this time, letting the reality of the room anchor me. Selene was still watching me, her lips trembling into a weary smile. I reached up with a hand that looked far too pale and thin, and I gently squeezed her hand.
"Sorry," I said, my voice steadier as I claimed this body as my own.Everything that was happening inside me calmed down.
"I just had... a strange dream."
It was a dream that didn't feel like a dream.
"It's so, then it's good to hear that you are not feeling sick anymore." Selena replied with a sad smile on her face.
The words were sincere and filled with genuine worry for Lucian.
And so, in the quiet morning light of the Oakheart estate, a boy who was not quite himself began a new life. He was a stranger in a world that was both old and new, a reincarnator taking my first step toward a vast and terrifying destiny.