Welcome Back

Chapter 29

"Is this really me? What happened? Where am I?"

I asked myself in a low voice, almost unable to believe what I was seeing.

At that moment, as I stared at my suspicious reflection, I felt a strange pulse deep within my consciousness. The sound was not coming from outside, but from within me, from the depths of my soul.

"Welcome, Kiva... Or should I say, welcome myself?"

....

I froze in place. Who was speaking? Who dared to speak to me in my mind like that? I turned around quickly, my eyes scanning the room for any sign of another person, but I found no one around me.

I was completely alone.

"Don't look outside, you fool, I'm here... inside you."

The words echoed in my head, like whispers coming from another dimension, reverberating in my consciousness.

"Who are you?"

I shouted loudly, moving my mouth, which was no longer my own, clinging to the last threads of my sanity.

"I am you..."

The reply came in a strange calm tone, with an ancient and deep sense of knowledge:

"I am the present. I am the future. I am the past you leave behind. "

I was shocked.

The present? The past? The future? This madness surpassed anything I had ever seen or done in my life. I tried to raise my hand, but before my fingers could move, my hand rose at the same moment, but without my will. It was not me who moved it, but another force that shared control of this body with me.

"What are you doing?!"

I muttered, as my hand slowly rose and fell, as if detached from my will.

"I'm moving, can't you feel it? We are one, Kiva. Every movement you make, I make too."

There was a kind of laughter and mockery in his voice, or maybe it was my own mockery? I couldn't tell anymore.

"You're just an illusion!"

I got angry and tried to regain complete control of my body, struggling to prove that this voice was just a trick of my dying mind.

"I'm trying to save you, Kiva."

He replied firmly, his voice echoing in the depths of my head:

"This body holds great secrets and powers you could never imagine.

But first, you must rid yourself of your obsession with death. This world is not just wizards and knights. There is something much bigger and more dangerous."

I looked at my reflection in the window again. The crimson eyes began to glow more intensely as if reflecting the fire and hatred inside them. Was that mysterious voice really me? Would I be able to escape this future that was trying to control my life, or rather, my death?

Part of me rejected this new reality and clung to its old obsession with death and freedom from the miserable life it had always sought to end.

But another part, perhaps the sick curiosity that never died inside me, began to see this transformation as a new opportunity. An opportunity to discover powers I never knew I had, and perhaps a new way to achieve my goal, or perhaps to find another goal to replace my eternal obsession with death.

"Shut up!"

I shouted internally, directing my words at the entity that shared this body with me as if I were shouting at my other self.

"I don't care what powers or secrets it has in store for me! All I want is death! Do you understand?"

I felt a slight vibration in my body, as if the other entity was affected by my cries, or perhaps enjoying my screams and despair. Then came the reply, this time in a calmer tone, but still with a hint of defiance.

"Death? That's too easy, Kiva. Believe me, I've tried everything. But this body... this gift... I can't let it go. There's so much to discover, so much to do."

"I don't want to discover anything!"

I replied stubbornly, ignoring any logic or enticement he offered me.

"Let me die in peace!"

I shouted as if those last words were all I had left.

"Peace?"

The entity laughed softly, a sound that echoed deep within my soul like a bitter reality reflected back at me:

"Peace in this world is a lie, and seeking death is an escape from it, not a solution. Are you really willing to throw away this opportunity?"

I looked around the luxurious room I found myself in, then at the beautiful garden stretching out beyond the window. I felt a power I had never known before coursing through my veins, an energy I had never realized was within me. Could there be something else? Could I think of anything other than my final salvation? The question echoed in my mind, battling my old desire to break free from it all.

Was it a desire for freedom or escape, as this mysterious entity had said? But escape from what? I wondered as I tried to raise my hand to touch the window, but before it touched the glass, my hand fell and the image in front of me suddenly shattered.