House Advantage

Time.

That was all Akira could think about, he had three hours left. That’s what barbecue bird, or Auren, whatever, had told him. Three hours before his chance at a new life crumbled. 

‘No pressure,’ Akira muttered as he steadily made his way toward the doorway.

The doorway was made out of stone, and had the same strange patterns and symbols carved on it as the slab that made him fall did.

As Akira looked at the unknown engravings, he noticed that most were pretty shallow. Every engraving had a faint glowing pulse, as if the doorway had a rhythmic heartbeat.

‘No way, I’m not touching something like this again,’ Akira sighed, ‘I already died once, I’m not keen on setting a new record for fastest person to die twice.’

As he stood still in front of the door, his breaths turned to fog. But instead of calmly drifting away, the fog was slowly sucked into the doorway, disappearing from Akira’s sight. 

After inwardly calming himself, he entered the doorway and saw a single straight tunnel ahead. The path was so long that the end was too far away for Akira to see.

Akira walked for a while inside of the tunnel, very thankful for his newly gained powers. My suit has dried because of my warm body temperature, this automatic warming is extremely useful for survival. Would it be possible for me to heat my body up so much that I can quickly cook a piece of meat just by standing next to it?

He refrained from testing his power, scared that his body would fall apart if he overexerted himself..

His other power, which he very creatively called Eyes of Light, was also a tremendous help. Because even with this ability he could tell that the tunnel was extremely dark, and he probably wouldn’t have survived without the eyes. Even though it had only been a straight line so far, there were more than enough holes he could’ve fallen in. There were some holes Akira couldn’t see the bottom of, even with Eyes of Light. 

Auren told me my constitution was very bad, even though I've been physically training my body for years. This might just be the one thing I had good discipline in. I’d say my body is in great shape.

Akira stepped over another hole in the ground, ‘Bad constitution my ass, I’ve got hard-earned muscles you know! I’ll even show them to you if you-’ His monologue was interrupted as he stepped on a stone tile that sank an inch further into the ground. 

Click.

Akira froze, ‘Crap.’

A rumbling could be heard in the walls, as small holes appeared on both his left and right. From them, stone darts flew past him at great speeds. 

‘Woah!’

He yelped, throwing himself on the ground right as a dart grazed his left cheek, before embedding itself in the opposite wall. Just as he let out a sigh of relief, a hole opened at the lowest part of a wall, right where he was laying! ‘You’re kidding.’ He quickly rolled over, barely dodging the dart, as he noticed there were no more killer darts being dispensed.

He sat up, his suit now covered in dust. To think I could’ve learnt something from those Indiana Jones movies.

He turned around, breathing heavily, and his brows pricked up. Something could be seen at the end of the tunnel, some glimmering blue light. 

As he, cautiously this time, continued toward the source light, he soon heard what sounded like dripping water. It’s already been about an hour, so I should have enough time. I just hope the next traps are a lot less dangerous than this last one.

The dripping grew louder as he got closer, and it resembled the rhythm of a clock, making Akira tense up for some reason. He soon reached the end of the tunnel and was astonished by what he saw.

It was a beautiful cave filled with a small crystal-blue lake, no bigger than a tennis court. The walls had been carved with the still unknown but now similar looking markings, and stalactites were hanging from above, waterdrops oozing from them, continuously feeding the lake more water. 

In the middle of the lake, a pedestal floated above the water. The pedestal was carved with the same markings as the cave and pretty much any marking he had seen so far. A pulsing crystalline object was resting on top of the pedestal, a bright glow emanating from it.

Pretty sure that’s the conduit I need to survive.

He stepped closer, reluctantly entering the water to get closer, but suddenly froze. The more he looked, the more he noticed. The markings were glowing again, just like at the doorway, but the pulsing was in synchronisation with the waterdrops entering the lake! It felt like the entire cave was alive, breathing!

He quickly left the water, jumping onto the small part of the cave that was not submerged as he hurriedly looked around for anything important.

The sound of water dripping had stopped.

Then, the water stirred.

At first, it was only ripples, then tiny waves started appearing, until the surface broke. Human shapes made out of water rose from the lake, their arms dripping, their bodies swaying unnaturally and their faces…

They had Akira’s face!

‘What the fuck?’

Twelve figures, most eerily smiling at him, all seemingly different versions of Akira at a different time of his life. There was his eight year old self, two versions of him in his teens, about half in their twenties, one of those looking like an exact copy of his current self.

Two of them looked a little older, they definitely hadn’t shaved and Akira’s usual smile had almost vanished from their faces. They looked around their thirties, and their “watery” hair was longer than Akira’s had ever been.

The last one physically looked at least fifty, but for Akira it was somehow clear he was only in his late thirties. Probably because they were the same person. This withered version of him was the only one not smiling. He had a scowl on his face, and his eyes were tired yet filled with hatred. He had large eyebags, his hair was thin, unkempt and reached his shoulders. And he was thin, like really thin, looked like he hadn’t eaten in weeks.

This sight pained Akira, but it neither shocked nor startled him. This was nothing he couldn’t have imagined himself, and it made him more angry at his future self for turning out this way than discouraged.

The only confusing part was that that was it, no other figures, the oldest version of him was someone in their late thirties.

Oh, Akira paused as he realized that his previous life would probably end before he turned forty if he was never reincarnated. That was the reason there weren’t any grandpa versions of him, the grandpa version would never come to exist. 

‘Bring it on you impostors.’ Akira said nervously as he stopped thinking and started relying on his instincts.

The twelve water-clones stepped closer, ripples breaking across their bodies, their identical smiles unsettling. The child-like version of him tilted its head, ‘Why did you give up on our dreams?’ It said, still smiling.

‘I’m not going to fall for this creepy soul-guilt trip thing you’re trying.’ Akira said dryly, as he couldn’t help but notice a shudder running across his back.

‘You abandoned us.’ One of the teenage versions of Akira said, ‘You never even looked back.’

One of the thirty year olds spoke with disdain in his voice, ‘You forgot about your past, and pathetically lost your life, a life most people would kill for,’ It raised its arm and pointed at him, ‘Now you’ll throw it all away again.’

The figures moved in unison as they approached him. The eldest raised its hand, somehow speeding up the other “hims”.

Akira gritted his teeth as the clones closed in on him, their movements rusty, but faster than he expected from creatures made of water. His fists tightened and his heartbeat quickened as he scanned his opponents. 

The smallest one moved first. It jumped and stretched out its arms like claws, like it was a feral animal. Akira reacted immediately, driving his fist through his eight year-old self without hesitation, water splashing outward against the cavern floor.

But within seconds, the droplets that had fallen on the floor moved, and reformed back into his young self!

‘Well that’s just unfair.’ Akira remarked.

One of the older clones rushed him, Akira quickly ducked and kicked it in the stomach, its entire torso exploding. Unfortunately though, just like before, it reformed almost instantaneously.

‘How am I supposed to k-’ He was cut off as his exact clone crashed into him. And even though this clone exploded because of the impact, Akira was still thrown back, falling on the solid rocks with a thud. 

As the clone reformed, Akira saw something.

His Eyes of Light glimmered, and he could see faint lines extending out of the clones. A dozen thin water tubes stretched from the clones’ heads to the lake, almost like an umbilical cord (except these were attached to the head).

Akira smirked, ‘Let me take a wild guess, you’re all just avatars summoned by the lake.’ He laughed, as the clones all had a look of frustration. ‘You all look so miserable, but don’t worry, I’ll sever your connection soon enough and put you out of your misery.’ He lunged toward a clone similar to his current self and aimed for the torso. 

When the clone tried to dodge, Akira suddenly changed direction, jumped, and cut the cord connecting the clone to the lake with his hand.

Instantly, the water holding the clone together lost its cohesion and the water splashed on the ground, no new clone emerging, leaving eleven clones standing.

‘Yes!’ He whooped, ‘Guess who just figured out how to kill you fakes!’

The remaining clones hissed and all rushed toward him at once.

Akira panted, before backing himself against the wall, so as to not be completely surrounded. Eleven against one, and I’m fighting different versions of myself who want to kill me. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind when my little birdie told me I’d get a second chance.