The darkness didn't last as long this time.
It wasn't the endless void from before. It didn't stretch into something timeless and suffocating. Instead, it felt thinner—fragile, like something that could break at any moment. Awareness returned faster, sharper, dragging him back before he could even settle into the emptiness.
It was wrong.
Death shouldn't feel like this.
Then came the pull.
It wasn't gentle. It wasn't natural. It felt like something had reached into nothingness and grabbed him, forcing him forward, compressing thought and awareness into something smaller, tighter, more confined. The void twisted, folding in on itself as sensation returned all at once—violent, overwhelming, impossible to process.
Cold.
The first thing he felt was cold.
Not the distant, numb cold of air brushing against skin, but something deeper, more invasive. It pressed into him from all sides, seeping into his body—no, not body, not the same as before—something smaller, weaker, exposed.
He tried to breathe.
Air rushed in.
Too fast.
Too sharp.
His chest tightened violently as instinct forced his body to move, dragging air into lungs that felt raw and underdeveloped. The sensation was jarring, painful in its unfamiliarity, and for a brief moment, panic surged through him as everything hit at once.
Weight.
Pressure.
Hunger.
Too heavy.Too tight.Too real.
The world came into focus slowly, not in fragments like before, but in a dull, blurred shape that struggled to sharpen. Darkness still surrounded him, but this time it wasn't empty. It was physical. Close. Suffocating.
Something pressed against his side.
Warm.
Alive.
He froze.
Memory hit him like a crack through glass.
Not clear.Not complete.
But enough.
I died.
The thought came with something else this time.
Fear.
Not instinctive fear like before. Not the kind that made his body react without thought. This was different. This was understanding. The faint, fragile awareness that whatever this was—whatever was happening—it wasn't normal.
It wasn't supposed to happen.
He moved.
The motion was clumsy, uncoordinated, his limbs weak and unsteady as they pushed against the surface beneath him. The ground wasn't rough like before. It was softer, packed dirt mixed with something fibrous, something warm.
Fur.
The realization came slowly.
Not alone.
A sound broke the silence.
High-pitched.
Sharp.
Desperate.
It came from beside him.
His head—smaller now, lighter—shifted toward the noise, his vision finally beginning to sharpen into something usable. The darkness wasn't complete. Faint light filtered in from somewhere above, enough to reveal shapes.
Movement.
Small bodies.
Others.
They were like him.
Tiny.Frail.Alive.
The smell hit him next.
Rot.
Damp earth.
Something stale.
It filled his lungs with every breath, thick and clinging, making his chest tighten as instinct warred with awareness. His body didn't reject it. It accepted it. Adjusted to it.
This is normal.
The thought didn't feel like his.
It came from deeper.
His stomach twisted.
Hunger.
Not mild.
Not distant.
Violent.
It surged through him like a command, overwhelming everything else, pushing aside confusion, fear, even memory. His body moved again without waiting for permission, dragging him forward across the uneven ground, his nose twitching as it searched.
Searching for food.
Something brushed against him again.
One of the others.
It squeaked.
His head snapped toward it.
For a moment—
Just a moment—
He hesitated.
No…
The thought was weak.
Barely there.
Instinct drowned it.
He lunged.
His teeth sank into soft flesh, small and sharp but more than enough as his jaws clamped down with surprising force. The other creature shrieked—a high, desperate sound that echoed through the confined space—but it didn't last long.
Struggle.
Then stillness.
Warmth spread into his mouth.
Blood.
The taste hit him hard.
Metallic. Thick. Alive.
His body reacted instantly, devouring without hesitation, tearing into the small body beneath him with frantic, desperate bites. Hunger drove everything now, overriding thought, overriding hesitation, reducing the world to something simple.
Eat.
Survive.
The sounds around him faded.
The other creatures scattered, their tiny bodies scrambling away into the darkness, but he didn't care. Nothing else mattered. Not them. Not where he was. Not what he had just done.
Only the hunger.
And then—
It stopped.
Not suddenly.
But slowly.
The edge dulled.
His movements slowed, then halted entirely as awareness crept back in, pushing through the fading instinct like something breaking the surface of water.
He froze.
His mouth was still open.
Still full.
And the body beneath him…
Was still.
The realization came in pieces.
Slow.
Heavy.
I did that.
The thought didn't feel distant this time.
It felt real.
Too real.
His body trembled.
Not from cold.
Not from fear.
Something else.
Something deeper.
He pulled back slowly, his small form shifting as he tried to move away from what remained. His limbs felt heavier now, harder to control as awareness settled more firmly into place.
The darkness around him felt different.
Closer.
More suffocating.
What am I?
The question lingered, unanswered.
Time passed.
He didn't know how long.
Minutes. Hours.
It didn't matter.
The space around him grew quieter, the movement of the others fading as they retreated deeper into whatever burrow or nest they were trapped in. The faint light above shifted slowly, barely noticeable, but enough to mark the passage of something.
His breathing steadied.
His thoughts didn't.
Fragments drifted through his mind, broken and incomplete.
Light.
Noise.
Impact.
I died.
Again.
The word settled differently now.
Not confusion.
Not disbelief.
Understanding.
A pattern.
I die...and come back.
The idea felt impossible.
It should have been impossible.
And yet—
He was here.
Alive.
Again.
A sound broke the silence.
Louder this time.
Heavy.
Not like the small movements from before.
Something bigger.
The ground shifted.
His body reacted instantly, freezing in place as instinct surged back to the surface, sharp and overwhelming. Every part of him went still, his breathing shallow, his body pressed low against the ground as something inside him screamed the same command as before.
Hide.
But there was nowhere to go.
The darkness offered no escape.
No cover.
The entrance above—the faint source of light—shifted suddenly.
Blocked.
A shadow fell over everything.
And then—
It moved.
The creature that entered was massive compared to him, its form filling the narrow space with ease as it pushed forward with slow, deliberate movements. Its presence was suffocating, its size alone enough to trigger a wave of instinctive terror that crushed down on him from all sides.
Fur.
Thick. Dark.
Eyes that reflected the faint light.
And teeth.
Large.
Sharp.
Hungry.
Not safe.
The realization came too late.
The creature moved faster than something that size should have been able to, its body lunging forward as the confined space erupted into chaos. The remaining small creatures scattered, their high-pitched squeals filling the air as they tried to escape.
He moved.
Not away.
Too slow.
Too small.
The jaws closed around him before he could react.
Pain exploded through his body as pressure crushed down from all sides, his small frame unable to resist as the world snapped into something sharp and final.
Again.
The thought came just before everything ended.
Darkness returned.
But this time—
It felt familiar.
And somewhere, deep beneath the fading awareness, something cold settled into place.
This won't stop.