(1st POV Jordan?)
'Alright. I need a plan.'
I glanced around at the sea of trees and stars like the universe might suddenly hand me a glowing map labeled YOU ARE HERE, DUMBASS. Spoiler: it didn't.
No visible roads. No signs. No buildings. No cell service — not that I had a phone on me anymore. Or pants that could hold one, now that I was thinking about it.
'Cool. Guess I'm just gonna pick a direction and go. Worst case, I die. Again. Which, honestly, would be kind of rude at this point.'
I started walking.
No reason. No logic. Just pure dumb instinct and the vague hope that I wouldn't trip over a root and end up face-planting my way into a second funeral.
It wasn't until maybe fifteen minutes in that I actually noticed what I was wearing.
"...Huh."
I stopped mid-step and gave myself a once-over.
It was like someone had designed a priest's robes while binge-watching John Wick and staring directly at a telescope. A sleek, black, high-collared... suit? Robe? Robe-suit? With embroidered white patterns running along the sleeves and hem — tiny dots and swirling lines that looked suspiciously like constellations.
Honestly? Kinda fire.
'Okay, so whoever dressed me has taste. Creepy, overachieving, magical taste. But still — this material? Buttery. I could nap in this.'
I tugged at the fabric. Silky but strong. Comfortable in a way that made me suspicious. Clothes weren't supposed to feel this good unless they came with a $700 price tag and an unnecessarily pretentious brand name.
'If this is a dream, I better wake up in this outfit. If I wake up naked, I'm suing the afterlife.'
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[2 Hours Later]
Still forest.
Trees. Dirt. Roots. Trees. Stars. More trees.
And you'll never guess what else: trees.
I threw my hands up and groaned into the void. "Seriously?! Not even a bird? A squirrel? Anything?"
Nothing.
Well — not nothing.
There were these... lines. Floating, glowing, shifting faintly above the forest floor. Thin, white, delicate like silk threads, twisting between trees and across the ground. Like a laser security system designed by an abstract artist on acid.
I paused and squinted at one looping gently around a tree trunk.
'Okay... not creepy at all.'
The lines pulsed every so often. Dim. Faint. Not threatening. Just... there.
'Yup. Definitely high. Dying in a food court gave me brain worms. Or this is a coma dream. Or I'm in a VR sim and someone forgot to texture the NPCs.'
Still, something about the glowing strands felt weirdly familiar. Like I should know what they were. But my brain refused to cooperate, so I kept walking, pretending like I wasn't silently screaming inside.
After another ten minutes of this existential scavenger hunt, I stopped.
"Alright. Screw it."
I flopped down under a particularly ancient-looking tree, leaned back against the bark, and sighed. The stars above hadn't moved. The forest hadn't changed. And for reasons that should've been alarming, I could see perfectly in the dark.
Like, full daylight clarity.
'Cool. Super night vision. Great. Just add that to the pile of confusing magical nonsense I'm gonna ignore until I inevitably have a breakdown.'
I closed my eyes and tried to settle into the moment. Just breathe. Rest. Reboot.
Then— Crunch.
My eyes snapped open.
Another crunch. Grass. Dry. Footsteps.
Instantly, my body tensed. My ears locked in on the direction. Left. Fifteen meters. Maybe less.
'Nope. Nope nope nope. Not today, Satan. I just got this body.'
I held my breath.
Whatever was moving... was getting closer.
The crunching stopped.
But the silence that followed was worse.
Something was out there. Watching me. Breathing, maybe — if the soft wheezing sound wasn't just my own nerves imploding.
Then the shrubs just ahead began to rustle. Slowly. Deliberately.
I held my breath and squinted, trying to make out the shape—
And then it stepped out.
I say "it," but this thing had a human shape — just enough to make my brain scream danger before it could scream. What the hell is that?!
Its skin was red. Not just red — blood-red, with the sheen of raw muscle. Its arms were long, too long, the kind of long that made you feel like running even if you hadn't seen it move yet. Spindly, like bone wrapped in tension cables. Two short, sharp horns jutted from its forehead, and its mouth—
Jesus.
Its mouth was a dental horror show. Rows of fangs. Jagged. Uneven. The kind of smile that made you pray your insurance covered exorcisms.
And the eyes.
Glowing crimson pupils, fixed on me like I was the last snack in the vending machine.
Swirl patterns curled across its cheeks, twitching ever so slightly with every breath it took. Decorative? Tribal? I didn't care. They just made it worse.
It didn't growl. It didn't speak.
It just grinned.
Wide. Hungry. Knowing.
'Oh great. Literally Satan. That was a joke, man! I didn't mean it!'
I scrambled backward, hands grabbing at the dirt behind me, desperate for anything solid. My fingers found something — a thick, slightly curved branch. Not ideal. But better than nothing.
I stood and brandished it like it was Excalibur forged in Home Depot.
"Don't come any closer!" I shouted, my voice cracking just slightly. "I'm armed with the Holy Rod!"
We both froze.
Me. The demon. The wind.
'...Oh god.'
"Pause," I added quickly.
The demon blinked once. Slowly.
And then it lunged.
Reflex took over before thought could even scream. I dove to the side — no plan, no grace, just pure oh god, not again panic.
The thing slammed headfirst into the tree behind me with a crack that sent splinters flying. The trunk shuddered. Birds somewhere above probably died of fear.
I scrambled to my feet, breath ragged, heart pounding like a bass drop. The branch — the "Holy Rod" — was somehow still in my hands.
'How the hell did I move like that?'
No time to unpack. The demon turned back toward me, that grin never slipping. If anything, it looked more entertained.
I squared up like a man who'd just realized he brought a Nerf bat to a demonic knife fight.
'Okay. Okay, what's the move? Run? Scream? Cry? Offer it a granola bar?'
The demon lunged again.
Claws outstretched. Glowing eyes locked onto me like dinner.
I dove right.
Too slow.
Pain lanced across my cheek — sharp, hot. I hit the ground hard, breath knocked out of me, stick still clutched like it might actually do something useful.
Grunting, I rolled onto my back just in time to see the demon looming above me. No words. Just that awful, gleeful smile and the rising of claws ready to end this whole reincarnation thing early.
Out of sheer animal survival instinct, I swung the stick.
It hit the demon square in the face.
Snap. The stick broke clean in two.
Silence.
The demon blinked.
Then it smiled wider.
It leaned down, slowly opening its nightmare mouth, rows of fangs spreading wider than should've been possible — like it wanted me to watch it happen.
And for a moment... I just froze.
This was it.
'Again? I'm gonna die again? This fast? No second chance, no redemption arc? Just a cosmic reset followed by a goddamn respawn kill?'
Something in me cracked.
I wasn't scared.
I was furious.
Furious at fate, at death, at whatever divine script this was that decided my life was disposable. At being born with dreams and dying with none of them realized. At being tossed through space in someone else's body, forced to fight demons with sticks and one-liners.
'I don't want a second chance. I want to burn the whole damn game down.'
And something heard me.
I felt it — a pulse deep in my bones, in my soul. The constellation marks on my outstretched arm lit up like fireflies.
Bright. Blinding. Alive.
The words came without thought. From somewhere far beneath reason.
"Burn."
White fire erupted from my palm in a violent, dazzling burst — not red, not orange, but a pure, searing white.
The demon didn't scream. It didn't even move. It just ceased.
The flames didn't scorch. They didn't melt. They erased. Like the thing had been drawn in pencil and someone just hit it with the universe's biggest eraser.
And then... silence.
The fire vanished as quickly as it came. All that was left was scorched earth, a smoking indent where the demon used to be, and me — lying there, arm still outstretched, heart still hammering, and brain buffering like a bad internet connection.
I stared at the spot, eyes wide, breath shallow.
"…Wow," I said weakly. "How incredibly cliché."
And then, like the true action hero I was...
I passed out face-first in the grass.
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A/N: Hello, how did you like the chapter was it good, bad, meh?
Let me know I like see feedback.
I will probably be doing a chapter every other day for the first volume of this fic so after that it will be two every week.
BYE SEE YA NEXT TIMMEE!!!!