Rebirth

Adam gasped awake.

D... didn't I die already?

The scent of moss and cold earth filled his lungs as his eyes snapped open. He was lying at the top of the same overgrown mountain, exactly where he'd first arrived. The sky above was painted in soft dawn hues, birds chirping in the distance. But the peace did nothing to calm the storm within.

He still remembered dying.

Again.

The searing pain, the gushing blood, the panther's single swipe tearing him apart. And then — blackness, the same darkness that swallowed him in the white space previously, and then silence. Now here he was, alive, whole and breathing.

"…Why?" he whispered, voice hoarse.

His body seemed even more broken compared to the first time he woke up here. He could do nothing but lay there contemplating the strange occurrence that has just happened.

And while observing the surrounding environment he noticed something. He wasn't just back in the same spot — the time of day was exactly the same, too.

When he died on his way down the mountain it was dusk already, but now it was morning again.

I didn't just come back to life, I went back in time!! HOW?

The world didn't answer. After a while he finally regained his ability to move. He sat up slowly, rubbing his arms. The wounds were gone, but the pain lingered in memory — sharp, vivid, too real to forget.

"This isn't just resurrection," he muttered. "It's a loop."

He glanced at the slope ahead — the one he had taken in his first life, leading to the panther.

After some hesitation, he deliberately chose a different direction than the one he chose last time, knowing if he went there the panther would be waiting for him.

This time he chose to descend the mountain in the opposite direction. He didn't choose this path previously because it was filled with overgrown weeds and vines all over making the journey more difficult.

" Anything is better than ending as the dinner of that monster." He muttered.

Choosing the wooded path, Adam descended carefully, eyes scanning for danger. He avoided the noisy brush, stepped lightly on mossy ground, paused at every snapped twig. Paranoia clawed at him. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was watching.

Every breath he took felt foreign — borrowed. The first life, maybe the second, had ended in agony. Now, each heartbeat was a reminder: This isn't normal, he wasn't normal. People didn't come back. Not like this.

A whisper brushed his ear.

He froze.

Just wind.

Still, he walked faster.

His thoughts spiraled as he moved through the thickening forest. Was this reincarnation? A trial? A punishment? Or was he even human anymore?

He remembered the others — Nisrine, the soldier, the foreign faces — and their departure through the copper gate. They had also received stange abilities. Was this his?

A flicker of movement.

He ducked, heart hammering.

Nothing.

But now the silence felt heavier. not peaceful — suffocating, like the forest itself wanted him to fail. After all, now he knew that this wasn't just a normal forest, but a cruel place filled with abnormal monsters, a place where the strong feast on the weak.

His legs trembled. The forest closed in tighter with every step. Roots snagged at his boots. He felt smaller with each breath. Weak. The same weakness that had gotten him killed twice now.

Still, he pressed forward. He had no other option after all.

Drowning in his own thoughts before suddenly hearing a strange creepy sound.

Hsssss...

It didn't come form far away, it sounded close, too close.

Adam whipped around.

A massive serpent coiled between the trees. Its eyes glowed faintly — not red, not green — but a sickly, unnatural yellow. Its scales shimmered like oil, and its tongue flicked the air as it studied him.

"F**k," Adam whispered. "Not again."

He turned to run, but it was too late.

With a hiss like splitting stone, the snake lunged.

Adam leapt aside, tumbling into dirt and leaves. Pain shot through his ribs. He scrambled back, hands clawing at the ground. The serpent struck again — he rolled, barely avoiding the snapping jaws. Its tail whipped around and slammed into his side, sending him flying into a tree trunk.

His vision blurred.

He coughed, spitting blood.

The snake loomed over him. Time slowed.

And then — it struck.

Pain erupted. His left arm exploded in agony as the fangs tore through flesh and bone. He screamed — a raw, animal sound — and thrashed as blood sprayed in a wide arc.

The serpent recoiled, tasting him.

Adam collapsed to his knees. His vision was dimming. The forest spun around him in dizzying spirals, as if the world itself was collapsing into his pain. He clutched his shoulder — or where his shoulder had been — but there was only blood. Hot, endless blood.

He wanted to scream again, but no air came.

"No… not… again…"

Something inside him cracked.

Not just bone — something deeper.

His chest burned. His spine arched. A blackness crawled from under his skin, rising like smoke. His veins pulsed with shadow. He opened his mouth to breathe — and darkness poured out.

The serpent froze.

So did the trees.

Even the wind stopped.

Adam felt nothing now. No pain. No fear. Only emptiness.

He looked at his hands. They were fading.

'So this is it' he thought bitterly 'again?'

His knees buckled, and he collapsed fully. As the snake slithered back into the woods, satisfied, Adam's body lay still.

Darkness crept inward from the corners of the forest, devouring light, sound, warmth. The leaves dissolved. The ground cracked. The sky itself peeled away like paint from a rotting wall.

And then —

He opened his eyes.

Back in the same spot.

Same mossy ground.

Same mountain.

No blood. No wound. No snake.

Adam didn't move.

Didn't breathe.

He just lay there, staring at the sky.

"…No."

The word barely escaped his lips.

He sat up slowly, eyes wide, chest heaving.

"No," he said again, this time louder.

His whole body shook.

His hands clenched fists full of moss. "You're kidding me. F**KING AGAIN?!"

Birds chirped sweetly.

Adam slammed his fist into the dirt. "Is this my life now? Die. Revive. Die. Revive. For what? What's the point?!"

He wanted to scream, to laugh, to cry — but none of it came. Only silence greeted him.

Then the whispers returned.

Faint.

Indistinct.

They echoed not from the world — but from within.

He stood. His legs wobbled but held.

"This isn't real," he muttered. "This isn't even a world. It's a cage."

He stared down both paths again — the left, where the panther had waited; the right, where the snake had hunted.

Both had killed him.

Both had led to nothing.

"…Then what's the way out?" he asked the trees.

No answer.

Just whispers.

This time, instead of moving, he sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.

Let the forest watch.

Let the beasts hunt.

He wouldn't run anymore.

He would listen.