The Depths of the Ocean (1) - 69

//I am a being that travels between worlds.//

//Wait, so you're basically a serial transmigrator, right?//

//Yes, but not in the sense that you know of.//

//Instead of being reincarnated into a book like you have done, I travel to worlds far beyond your imagination, with the task of being the keeper or watcher that remembers everything, so that no story gets lost in the infinite span of time.//

//But, even then, time, the one thing I fought against, eventually came for me too, and well, as you can see here, this world, and this tree, became my final resting place.//

//The high and mighty phoenix that I am, I was, would finally die in the end.//

//After so many reincarnations, after so many rebirths, it is my turn to die, and pass on the torch to a new wanderer.//

//I have no desire to travel the infinite cosmos just to remember stories man...// I thought to him, fully being deadpan about the whole thing.

Responding quickly with a denial, I fought off the urge to actually become his successor.

I mean, to remember literally everything from all those worlds meant that he probably had trillions upon trillions of ways in his memories to keep me stronger, but again, I didn't want to have to travel between worlds.

After living once again in this life, I knew that I could die, for real this time, after everything was over.

Like, just hearing his weary voice, one that was tired of everything, was enough for me to reject his proposal.

//You know that you can just pass on the torch to another person before you die, and you'd still be in the green, right?//

'Oh? Well that would change my stance.'

//But, because of this, you'll like, get none of my memories at all because you won't have any time to absorb them. You'll literally only get my one power, rebirth after death.//

Hearing this, I was a little disappointed, but even if I would never be able to know all that knowledge, I still wanted that one power.

After all, it basically meant that I would be immortal.

//I will still accept. Now, how do I become your successor?//

//Ah! You really will become my successor?!!!!//

'Huh, he seems a lot more excited to die than I would have thought...'

//Then here's an easy trial. Go! Shoo!//

And with that, I blacked out...

...

Opening my eyes, I found myself in an extremely familiar body.

'M-m-my... old body?'

Furthermore, I had no control of this body, as I only experienced what I had once done, something that I had buried deep in my past.

Looking at the gray, concrete walls of the place I had once called home for an extremely short period of time, I could only sigh.

Checking my emotions, as I knew what was about to happen, I tried to suppress them as hard as I could.

I would not cry. I had already vowed to not be weak anymore, so this experience would only strengthen me.

If I could remain emotionless, then that would mean everything to me.

But then again... was it truly respecting her if I didn't shed a tear for her?

Holding my breath, I decided to just go with the flow, as I watched from a first person point of view everything that had happened in those six months.

In these six months, I had come in a broken young man.

Experiencing loss for the first time, I had tried to adapt.

I had even found someone I loved.

Yet, everything that was good would come to an end, as I quickly found out.

In the end, I came out of this "home" a broken old man, one who had experienced the pain of having his heart broken.

And now, I would relive this experience again, just one more time...

One more time...

...

"Loading bay clear, bringing patient 224 into the hospital."

"Copy that, the hallways are clear, gates will open."

As I was being wheeled into the facility with my body in a straightjacket whilst being tied down to the trolley, I couldn't help but start breathing a little bit faster than normal, my heart rate hitting 50 beats per minute, as I tried to use my training to get out.

But no, for some reason, I couldn't set my body into motion.

Sighing due to the fact that I knew exactly why this was happening, I thought about her again, as the light left her eyes.

"Angel... leave me behind. Cacckkkkkk! *gurgle*."

As I held the one person that had ever cared for me in my arms, watching as she slowly choked on her own blood, I felt it, a singular tear, the first tear I had ever shed in my life.

"Aunt Mae..."

"Go! Go Angel. Run away from this place. Only then will you be able to have a normal life."

As she lay there, staring blankly into the sky, she continued to spew out her worries for me.

"Take the Cak! Cak! Cak! bag and follow the instructions in there."

Gingerly caressing her face in my rough palms, I bowed my head until our foreheads touched.

Placing my hand below her chin, I shut it, not wanting her to talk anymore, to enjoy her last few moments in peace instead of worrying for me.

As her breathing slowed and her body moved less and less, I couldn't help but start shivering, as unknown sobs welled up in my heart.

Having seen death so many times before, I didn't ask her not to leave me, nor did I plead to any god. I just accepted her fate and vowed to stay with her in her last moments, to let her pass away in the arms or another human being.

"Angel."

Hearing this almost whisper of a voice, I knew that these next few words would be her last ones.

Unable to deny her this one right, I responded.

"Yes?"

"I... I-I don't w-want to d-d-die..."

As she uttered these words in fear of her imminent demise, weaved my fingers in between hers, as I allowed her to hold my hand one last time, drawing on my palm as we had done since I was a child.

A minute later, her hand stopped moving, and her fingers fell limp.

She stopped breathing soon after.

In the end, I had held her body until the moment it grew truly cold, signifying that she wasn't a living being anymore.

"I will always remember you."

Gently placing her body down on the ruin, cracked concrete of the abandoned building we were in, I moved away from the body slowly before finally leaving, never looking back once.

As I buried myself in the back of my hood, I finally let them out.

The tears that I had failed to repress flowed out a dozen a dime.

And, as I walked away, my body shaking, only one thing was left on my mind.

To allow her to be happy as she stared down at me from wherever she had gone.

I would follow her instructions to the letter.

Eventually leading a "happy life".

If this would make her happy, then so be it.

If I could never feel true happiness, then I could at least allow her to not have to worry about me anymore.

That night, I left everything in my past behind.

The killing, the experiments, the other children.

I forgot all of it.

That was how I had gotten into the situation I was currently in, as the workers threw me into my room before locking the door.

"Patient 224 has been secured, releasing restraints, commencing 24 hour surveillance."

I was now officially a patient at a mental asylum.