Arthur was lying in his bed, he was a little sick from the rain he had been caught in a few days ago.
He thought he would be fine, but today, suddenly, everything got worse.
Arthur's room was silent. The curtain remained half closed, letting only a pale strip of light cross the room. The air felt heavy, warm, and hard to breathe.
Arthur's body burned as if it were being slowly cooked from the inside. The fever had arrived without warning earlier.
First came the chills. Then the fatigue. Now… it was something completely different.
Arthur felt as if every thought required effort. His head throbbed violently, pulsing in irregular rhythms.
The simple act of opening his eyes made his world spin. His muscles were weak and useless, as if they no longer belonged to him.
He tried to get up, only to fail shortly after.
His arms trembled before even supporting the weight of his own body, and he fell back against the mattress, breathing with difficulty.
"Damn…" He muttered, his voice dry and almost inaudible.
His throat burned. Even swallowing was painful. Even breathing felt wrong.
He thought it would pass. It was just a flu, after all. And it didn't seem like anything serious. He always got better after resting.
But now…
Something was definitely wrong with him, very wrong.
The fever increased with every second. His vision began to blur, while dark spots appeared in the corners of the room.
Arthur tried to look for his phone. He needed to call someone. An ambulance, his neighbors, or anyone.
His arm moved slowly across the bed… only to find emptiness.
He then remembered. The phone was actually in the living room. Arthur had left it charging on the couch.
A chill ran down his spine. The living room seemed to be miles away. How would he manage to get it?
He tried to sit up again, forcing his body beyond its limit. His feet touched the floor for an instant… before his legs failed completely.
Arthur fell back onto the bed, panting.
He couldn't. Simply, he couldn't.
And there was no one at home. Arthur was an orphan.
His parents had died a few years earlier, victims of a car accident on a wet road during a short trip that was supposed to be just ordinary. Since then, he has survived alone, supported by the money his parents had left him.
But this year would be different.
He would start college and get a job. Finally begin to truly live.
Finally leave that constant feeling of just… existing.
But fate seemed to have other plans for him. Before he even had a chance to improve his life…
Before even discovering who he wanted to be, this terrible fever struck him.
The heat increased.
His body trembled uncontrollably now. Sweat soaked the sheets while cold and heat mixed into an unbearable sensation.
Time had lost its meaning. Arthur didn't know how long he had been like this. Minutes? Hours?
Arthur didn't know.
His consciousness began to slowly sink like someone being pulled to the bottom of a dark ocean. He realized something terrifying. It was becoming difficult even to think. Difficult to remember. Difficult even to exist.
Fear then emerged. A primitive and raw fear.
'I… can't die like this…'
His voice did not come out. No sound, only weak thoughts echoing inside Arthur's own mind.
His eyes stared at the ceiling one last time.
'I can't believe I'm going to die from a damn fever…'
Regret came like an avalanche. All the things he never did. All his postponed plans. All the life that hadn't even begun yet.
'If I get another chance…'
His heart beat irregularly, each beat weaker than the last.
'I swear I'll live the way I want…'
Darkness began to consume his vision.
'I'll have the best life I can…'
And then…
Arthur finally died lying in his bed. Without goodbyes, without witnesses, without anyone even knowing.
…
But at that same instant… something happened.
His soul, something that should follow the same invisible path as countless other dead, suddenly stopped.
As if it had been grabbed. Pulled and torn from its natural destination. An incomprehensible force enveloped him.
And then…
The speed increased. At an impossible speed.
Arthur saw nothing, felt no wind or movement, but instinctively knew he was being launched through something far too vast for comprehension.
Distances that could not be measured were crossed. And then, everything ceased. Leaving only darkness.
Arthur no longer had a body. He had no breath. He had no sense. And yet he still thought. Time completely lost its meaning.
Minutes, hours, years, centuries. He did not know.
'Is this what death is like?' Arthur thought.
There was no pain. There was no peace, it was only an empty existence.
'To remain forever in this limbo… with nothing else?'
Even without a heart, he felt a deep fear, even without lungs, he felt suffocation at the thought that he would spend eternity like this. But then… something pulled him again. This time, with more violence.
…
Meanwhile. On the outskirts of an unknown forest…
A skinny young man held a rusty sword with trembling hands.
His clothes were worn, full of patches. His bones could almost be seen through the tanned and thin skin.
In front of him, a small snake hissed, its body coiled, ready to strike.
The young man breathed deeply. If he couldn't hunt something today… perhaps he would not survive the next day.
Hunger had been with him for weeks or years. His reflexes were too weak. As he tried to gather courage to attack, he did not even notice the faint sound coming from behind.
Another snake emerged, almost identical. It was silent and fast.
The bite came without warning, fangs piercing his left heel.
The young man screamed, immediately falling to the ground as the venom was injected in great quantity.
The sword fell beside him. The two snakes fled into the vegetation.
The pain was instant and violent.
His heel darkened, turning purple within seconds. The venom spread through the young man's debilitated body like liquid fire.
He tried to crawl, tried to stand. But his body was already condemned.
The world spun as his breathing failed. Foam appeared on his lips. Alone beneath an ancient tree, the young man agonized.
Minutes then turned into hours. Two hours of increasing pain, until slowly…
His chest stopped rising, and his eyes lost their fire. And then he died.
Forgotten by the world and by everyone.
…
And at that exact moment, something crossed the sky. It was too fast for any cultivator to perceive, too fast for the world itself to react.
An invisible presence tore through space. And then…
A soul fell directly into the body of the fallen young man.
The dead body trembled, the fingers contracting. The chest exploded violently, pulling in air for the first time after death.
The eyes opened suddenly, expressing confusion, pain, and life.
Arthur then… breathed.