Prologue 1: Endless Winter

Prologue 1: Endless Winter

Life begot death.

What was the meaning of life, if not to die?

What made me so sure of this, you ask? Because I had already lived nineteen times. I had gone by many names before, but you could address me by my first given name, Melanie.

My time on Earth was brief. I never saw my mother at birth, and I had to put up with a drunk father for sixteen years before being diagnosed with cancer. Then, one day, father suddenly disappeared and never came back. And so I lay on the bed, starving, and praying for a savior that never came.

I had been to many worlds before, and I had been hopeful. I prayed for things to be different, yet I was let down every time.

Love? That was a cruel joke. I remembered in one of my lives, a boy had promised to protect me, but left me to die.

The cold was biting and unforgiving. My fingers, now purple and numb, could barely move. My body finally failed, collapsing into the snow as I stared at the endlessly expanding grey sky. Even now, a foolish part of me wondered if perhaps my next life, the 20th life, would finally be different.

“Life is so dull. Pain is so familiar, and death is so relieving,” I muttered.

My heavy eyelids failed me, and darkness engulfed me.

The blizzard continued to howl, swallowing everything. My thoughts were drifting away, scattering like the snowflakes.

Then, suddenly, a voice cut through the blizzard, so sharp that it shattered the silence inside my head.

“Melanie!”

My heart jerked at the sudden mention of my name.

“Mela***”

Huh? I couldn’t hear clearly anymore. My ears were already failing. And yet… this voice, why was it so comforting? A strange feeling of déjà vu washed over me, as if I had known this sound all my life, though my memory betrayed me.

“St-- w--- -e,” the cry came again, this time filled with desperation.

Hot tears began streaming down my face, burning my frozen skin. Why? Why was I crying? I wanted to open my eyes, but no matter how hard I fought, my body refused.

“-------?” My lips moved on their own, muttering something incomprehensible.

And then I felt it. A fleeting warmth brushed against my icy cheeks. Arms, gentle and protective, wrapped around my body in an embrace I’ve never experienced before.

“5--” A tiny whisper, lost in the storm.

And then, a phrase that I could finally make out.

“See you later.”

The words lingered, like embers from a burnt fire, before silence claimed me completely.

There was no more light nor sound, not even time, just utter emptiness. After what felt like an eternity, I began to feel it again. A very faint pull from a bright string pushed me to begin this cycle of pain again.

In the distance, I could see faint rays of light piercing through the darkness. Inadvertently, I felt my body drifting towards that light, as if it were making me a promise that I didn’t understand yet.

Then suddenly, the pain, cold, and sound returned at once.

“Waaaaa!” A grating sound tore through my ears, jolting me from my endless slumber. Everything that happened next was a total blur. Gasping for air, I tried to focus my blurry eyes, only to see the world spinning around me.

When my vision finally steadied, I realized I was a child again, maybe around five years old. I suppose this might have been due to being a newborn, but my mind struggled to make sense of the world. From my perspective, the first four years of my life were nothing but hazy flashes and fleeting images as if I were having a seizure.

It seemed that the wish I had clung to in the darkness was unanswered. My mother died giving birth to me, and I was placed in an orphanage. The walls were made out of cracked stone bricks, with moss growing in the spaces between them.

I stumbled toward a broken mirror, gently brushing away the condensation from its cold surface before examining myself: A familiar figure stared back. A frail young girl. She had shoulder-length, wavy, chestnut hair with a tint of auburn and a pair of brilliant emerald green eyes.

~ End of chapter ~