Ouch!
The pain is killing me!
My head it hurts so much!
*Blank* head was hurting so much that it felt like he got shot *Blank* Heard voices in his head saying everyone will die including you. *Blank* thought what am I hearing? Everyone else will die including me. Why can't I remember anything that happened before this. What am I? Who am I? What was my name? Wait the last thing remember is how I died, I died from a murder. Wait I think I remembered who killed me it was. Ouch my head! Why can't I remember? Come on! Come on brain! Think! Think! Think!
Ouch… *Blank* tried to turn over. In his mind he was thinking where am I? He tried to move his limbs, but he felt paralyzed bound down he felt helpless trying to process everything.
Am I in a dreaming? Have I made it to the afterlife? Is the afterlife just an empty void? Is there a heaven? Is there a hell? Where am I? *Blank* was used to experiences like this before, he struggled to break free from the chainsaw of darkness that holds him in down.
However he was half-awake he tried to focus on waking up, but every time he tried to focus he heard a voice trying to distract him repeating everyone will die including you. Every opportunity *Blank* had would slip away due to the voices in his head.
Why is my heart aching now? Now my head and now my chest.
Am I still alive?
Am I dead?
Or am I both?
F##k I already died young, what next is the afterlife just a void, do my thoughts just live on in the afterlife? I need to leave this! Now!
Wait! My chest feels a bit better, but still feels like a blunt knife slowly cutting my heart in half…
Welp, it looks like I died while trying to go to a job interview, I guess I can't get that job anymore.
Wait, why am I thinking of that interview while I'm in the afterlife.
I guess I finally have all the time in the world to think about everything I missed—game theories, shows I never finished… all of it. Somehow, that just feels depressing and lonely.
I have to try one more time *Blank* struggled to open his eyes, but the slow pain he felt gave *Blank* strength to finally open his eyes, but when he finally opened his eyes, they were filled with a blur and faint crimson on the sides of his vision. The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes and got up was a unfamiliar wooden desk and a pale gold moon. He got up and looked around the room the find out where he was. He looked at a notebook on the wooden desk it said Alaric Venn deep black ink at the very top of the page.
To the left of the wooden table, a narrow bookshelf held its thirty-six or so volumes in immaculate alphabetical order. The precision of the arrangement seemed almost deliberate, as though each book had been placed with careful intent rather than casual habit.
But that could wait. Alaric Venn—who was he? The notebook before me contained forty logs, yet thirty-five pages were either soaked in dark, congealed blood or scribbled over in a frantic hand. I would have to start with the first page that remained intact, hoping it might reveal something—anything—about the identity of Alaric Venn.
Log One
Date: 1‑17
While I was still studying in college, our mother passed away. Father had already fallen in the war, leaving only the two of us. To keep us afloat, I took on whatever work I could find—jobs that were more than a little questionable. I'm the only family my little brother has left, so I stepped in, no matter the cost. The things I've done could get me arrested, but I have to do this for him.
Log Two
Date: 1‑23
Money has been tight. The shady jobs I take pay more than a normal wage, but it still isn't enough to support both me and my brother. I may need to accept more jobs… even the ones I've been avoiding.
Log Twenty‑Two
Date: 8‑19
I've graduated at last. Now I can work full‑time for Varyn's sake. I rented an apartment for us—small, but enough. The silence at night feels heavier than I expected. I get lonely sometimes, but I can't afford to dwell on that. I have work to do.
Log Thirty‑Nine
Date: 12‑8
I've gotten into serious trouble with the people I work for. One of my jobs was to deliver a package. After the drop‑off, my colleague told me the client claimed he hadn't received any supplies and that he thinks I took them. Even the boss is blaming me.
I didn't take anything. All I did was drive and think about my brother's future. So either the boss skimmed from the package, or one of my colleagues did.
The client might come after me. If I'm killed, I've hidden away emergency savings for Varyn. I want him to live a better life than the one I've carved out.
Log Forty
Date: 12‑10
They've found me.
This will be my final entry.
The time was short, but… I lived well enough.
Goodbye, Varyn Venn.
Well, Alaric Venn is died, his brother is in college currently and doesn't know what his brother does to support him and visits to spend time with him occasionally. Now I'm questioning where is Alaric Venn's body? If this is his apartment, how and why am I here?
*Blank* looks at the ground there's a blood stain on the bed where he was laying at moments before, *Blank* took a second to realize that he was bleeding but the spot that was bleeding was his heart but somehow it was slowly healing. *Blank* went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. *Blank* saw that he was not him. *Blank* said have I transmigrated? *Blank* questioning him if he did transmigrate, after that thought he had his wound fully healed. Confused *Blanked* thought he was seeing things but somewhat believes it's really healed. Soon *Blank* left the bathroom to walk back to the bedroom while walking he gained memories of the previous owner of his body.
Are these Alaric's memories? Is that Alaric and his little brother and his parents? Alaric a citizen of the eastern continent's Quint Kingdom, from the city of hollow in silken county. Alaric's father passed due to colonial conflicts with the northern continent, so the pension paid to his family gave Alaric and Varyn the opportunity to enroll in private school. Alaric's mother died after Alaric was 1 year away from passing college.
Alaric currently lives in a two-bedroom apartment himself mainly due to his brother being in college. The apartment existed entirely on Alaric's earnings money acquired through work that was, at best, questionable. One misstep, one careless taking from one of those jobs, had brought with it the very object that would ultimately be his undoing, the same object that had ended his life.
Alaric is a history graduate and has a very good grasp on Ancient Veyrun language, which is the parent to every language in the eastern continent. He does also have a little understanding of Classical Huaromán which is used in prayers, rituals, sacrifices, and things or items made by Emperor Rowen.
Huaromán now that I'm thinking of it some parts have Chinese characters. Who is Emperor Rowen? From Alaric's memories, Emperor Rowen had been dead since 1600. The current year was 1725 one hundred and twenty-five years had passed since the emperor's life. Yet his presence lingered in unexpected ways, most notably in the rise of steampunk technology, which seemed to have accompanied his unpredictable appearances during his reign. The machinery, the strange devices, even the way the city hummed with gears and pistons it all felt like an echo of him, a legacy that refused to fade. Emperor Rowen may have been transmigrated like me to this world due to the sudden advancements in technology from medieval to steampunk. *Blank* when back to his room and looked at the notebook one more time he saw in small writing in mandarin it said everyone will die including you, oh wait when I had my eyes closed, I heard a voice repeat that same line. Upon that realization he heard a knock on the apartment door.