The Cycle By: Jim Zheng

Quite the sight, quite the sight indeed. An unimaginable revered beauty one would not dare imagine was in quite the dreadful predicament. Already one step taken into the afterlife, soon against her will, another. She desperately yanked her figure into an alleyway with all her diminishing will. Her body was heavy, very heavy. It felt like a separate entity, it rejected her command. She groaned, her current being not already perished was a miracle on its own, scarlet red blood oozing out her countless wounds. Her porcelain face was laced with crimson, her once glimmering silver hair was muddled and drenched in deep blood red, yet her eyes stood clear ocean blue. She had always faced countless injustices, she was the embodiment of unlucky, yet she did not once complain. She believed that with enough effort she too could make it in life, but God was not merciful. As her consciousness was fading, she silently cursed at God with a tear forming in her eyes.

…

“Woof.”

…

Awoke, confused, muddled, disoriented. A nightmare.. Yes…! That's all it was. That's all she wished. She urged her body to rise from the comforting bed, but it bluntly refused. With multitudinous desperate attempts she narrowly arose and took a forlorn step. She scrutinized her surroundings, the furniture was decrepit and unmistakably damaged. Still in the process of attempting to analyze her predicament, the oak door creaked open almost like it was screeching in never ending agony revealing the figure of quite the unusual sight. At a glance, what the creature was was painfully obvious, yet it still instilled deep shock into her heart. It´s appearance was a shocker, it's eyebrows, eyelashes, hair was all snow white topped off by it´s refined snout. Undeniably handsome. Her heart skipped a beat, it was truly love at first sight. She slowly extended her weakened arm and slowly patted the dog´s head, its fuzzy endearing coat truly miraculously cured all of her headaches.

            ¨Woof.¨ The dog felt blissful and cuddled with the stranger that awoke. When cuddling, the girl felt a weird damp feeling with her hand inside it´s fur, when the substance was revealed, she felt extreme shock and discomfort way beyond what she felt even at death's door. Blood. She instantaneously checked the dog's entire figure for any potential wounds but fortunately couldn't detect any. After an extensive prolonged duration of time spent worrying, she amounted it to simply being her own blood. After her entire attention was done being sucked dry by the blissful innocent beauty, she finally was back to what the world knew her as, an ice cold lady, her heart chilled cold by the frozen world around which felt colder than the ice age. She continued analyzing her wounds and her surroundings, quite severe yet no longer life threatening, as she finally walked out of the door into the next room. She saw no sign of human inhabitants in the old cabinet; the residence appeared to date back to medieval times. Unable to find anything of significance, she took a deep breath and took a final step towards the final door between herself and what lay outside. As her hand approached the doorknob, the door itself burst open revealing endless amounts of … nothing and an unknown entity.

            ¨Who are you?¨ She fiercely stated.

            ¨Your thoughts are correct.¨ responded by the unknown entity who was levitating.

            “...” Silence overtook the atmosphere and without a further thought, she clenched her fist till her nails were digging into her skin and lunged towards the entity. The entity simply took a step back and she collapsed onto the transparent floor which kept her from falling into the never ending abyss.

            “Wretched god.” She muttered as she felt a sudden understanding click in her mind. In moments, the entity transformed into a white man in a suit with his face simply decorated with nothing but a terrible, ugly smirk. From behind, screams of excruciating pain emitted from the cabinet. She did not turn around, for she knew.

            “A goddess fallen from grace, oh how tragic! Spectating this life of yours was quite fun despite knowing how it will always end. Enough chatting, onto the next one~!” With the snap of his finger, she again became a newborn infant of another mother and father. Another tragedy unraveling…