The first time I was reborn, I was elated. With my second chance at life, I did everything I never got a chance to the first time around. I traveled the world, I ate all kinds of food, I learned how to sing, I fell in love, I watched my children grow old, became a grandmother, and then a great grandmother, and when my time came, I was satisfied. The final thought that went through my head as I breathed my last was “It was a good life.”
Then, I was reborn again. A new life, new family, a new part of the world to explore. Once again, I was overjoyed. My previous life was so incredible that I wanted to do it again. However, it did not go as planned. My mother was sickly and my father was a drunkard who rarely spent the night at home. I cared for my mother until she passed away, and then it was my father’s turn to get sick. By the time he passed away, I was thirty, and had accomplished little.
My spirit was dampened, but not destroyed. I devoted the rest of that life to pursuing medicine, eventually becoming a renowned physician, and I died having saved thousands of lives.
In my fourth life, I was a warrior, though not by choice. Due to my past experience as a physician, I excelled in all matters pertaining to life energy, or ki, and that included martial arts. I was raised as a peerless warrior, and sent out to the frontlines for my clan to fight in an endless conflict where I eventually perished.
My fifth life was the first time I began to consider that I might be cursed. The trauma of the battlefield did not fade easily, and my new environment did not help. The less said about that life, the better, but suffice to say, it was good that I had died before reaching puberty.
In my sixth life, I was a princess. I lived a life of luxury, constantly pampered, never wanting for anything. This suited me well, and allowed me to somewhat recover from my previous two lives. By the time I reached adulthood I was once again ready to make the most of my time. Then, my father married me off to one of his advisors.
I killed my husband on the second night, and was executed a week later.
In my seventh life, I had become jaded. However, this time I was born to a pleasant and loving family. I grew up healthy, and lived a peaceful life on the family farm. I was happy for quite a while. Then my father died. Then my mother died. Then my uncle. Then my brother. Then my sister. There was no foul play. They were simply old. So was I. But wherever they went, I could not follow.
In my eighth life, I traveled the world, searching for answers. I asked every spiritual master, dove into every ancient ruin, and even returned to the place of my first birth, but ultimately found nothing. I died without accomplishing anything notable.
In my ninth life, I was a physician again. In my tenth, I returned to war. In my eleventh, I mixed it up, becoming a battlefield physician. In my twelfth, I died of a plague when I was five. In my thirteenth, I lived on another farm. In my fourteenth, I broke.
After a dozen lives of abstaining in remembrance of my first husband (the royal advisor didn’t count), I decided to search for love again. It wasn’t hard to find. I think I must have been lonely. I fell hard, and I fell fast, and I was betrayed. I buried him in the woods, and to my knowledge, his body was never found.
I tried love again, more careful this time, and I found the right one. He was the perfect match, and once again, I had kids, and my kids had kids, and I grew old with him together. Then he died. After that, I started to go off the rails. I managed to delude myself into thinking that this life would be the last. That when I died, I would wake up in the afterlife with my husband. When it wasn’t, I gave up.
Back then, it was a crueler time. Infants with disabilities did not live long, and while there was technically nothing wrong with me, mentally, I was disabled. Some families tried harder than others, but no matter what, I rarely made it past 6. I don’t know how many lives ended that way. I didn’t count. By the time I finished picking up the pieces of my psyche, the nation I had lived in before was gone, and so was the one that came after it.
I returned to medicine, once again becoming a world-renowned physician and saving many lives. I did the same my next two lives, creating a fun little legend about an immortal physician, but then I got bored and decided to try something else.
My next interest was mastering martial arts to their fullest. I spent three lives like that as well, trying to create the ultimate martial art. In my third life, I was the strongest under the heavens, and no one could match me. However, I also reached a level of enlightenment where I realized that there was no such thing as the “ultimate” martial art. Only the next one. After that, I decided it was time to move on.
This cycle repeated a dozen or so times, where I would devote a few lives to achieving mastery in something, then get bored and drop it for something else. Civilizations rose and fell, advancements were made, then lost to time, great men were born and later forgotten. The only constant was me.
I gave up on truly dying long ago. I have occasionally thought about the possibility of killing everyone else on Earth so that I wouldn’t be able to be reborn, but I’m not that desperate. Yet. I hope I never will be.
My parents this time around are wonderful. I almost resent them for it. It’s so much easier when they’re awful. Then, I can just leave. Unfortunately, I have to live at least a somewhat decent life to not disappoint them or put them in danger, so I had to let go of my recent interest in assassination.
I’ve chosen medicine again this time, since humanity has made quite a few advancements in the field. I could have chosen computers or something like that as well, and arguably I should have, since I know so little about them, but instead, I let my parents convince me to become a doctor. It’s the easy way out, since even with the advancements, my knowledge of anatomy and physiology goes beyond most courses, but it’s still interesting.
I’m currently studying to be a neurosurgeon. Well, I was, until today. I might continue, but based on the news I just saw, some of my plans might end up on hold.
My phone rings beside me. It’s my mother. She probably saw it too. I brace myself for a second, then pick it up.
“Bella!” she says, sounding panicked. “Are you alright?”Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’m fine, Mom,” I say. “It didn’t hit near the university.”
“What about aftershocks? Shrapnel? Looters?”
“Mom, I’m fine,” I say again. “I’m in my room. I’m safe. There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Good,” she replies. “Good, good. Your father is on his way. Stay put, and don’t go outside. It could be dangerous.”
“Okay.”
I hear her take a deep breath on the other end, and when she speaks again, her voice is less panicked.
“I’m glad you’re safe, sweetie.”
“Me too, Mom.”
“Your father will call you when he’s close. Remember, don’t go anywhere.”
“I won’t.”
“I’m going to call your brother now. If you need anything, just call.”
“Bye.”
“I love you.”
I don’t respond. A few seconds later, the line goes dead. I sigh, sitting in my bed for a few seconds longer before standing up and walking toward the window. Outside, I see the source of my mother’s panic. A few miles away from where I am, an enormous black pillar has fallen from the sky, embedding itself in the middle of the city. It stretches all the way up into the clouds with no apparent top.
I’ve never seen anything like it, but my eyes don’t even widen. Whatever it is, I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually, and when they do, I’ll still be here. I flop back on my bed and start scrolling idly on my phone. My feed is filled with posts about the tower. Or rather, towers, plural. Most major cities seem to have one. No one knows the death toll, but it’s estimated to be well into the millions. Quite the tragedy.
I switch from scrolling to reading, trying to get away from thoughts about the towers, but I start getting restless. I want to go get a closer look.
Why? Why do I want to do that? It’s probably dangerous. My parents would be devastated if something happened to me. I’m nowhere near done with this life. And yet, it’s almost like it’s calling me.
I try to read for another ten minutes before I give up. I roll out of bed, put on a hoodie and some slippers and walk out of my dorm. My dad is coming, but I doubt he’s the only one. Their house is a four hour drive away in the best of circumstances, and no doubt the event causing the international panic isn’t helping with traffic. I have time. It will be fine. Most likely, the police will have set up a perimeter, and I won’t be able to get close enough to actually do anything. I’m just taking a closer look.
As I walk down the hall, one of the doors cracks open, and the blue eyes of my neighbor Vanessa peer at me through the narrow gap.
“Bella!” she hisses. “Where are you going?”
“I’m hungry,” I lie. “I’m going to get a snack.”
“Didn’t you see the news?”
“Yeah. I hope the campus store is still open.”
“It’s dangerous!” she says.
“I can handle myself,” I say, walking past her.
She hesitates a moment, then shuts the door. Right when I reach the staircase at the other end of the hall, I hear her door open again, and I turn to see her running toward me. This complicates things a bit.
“Vanessa,” I say firmly. “I lied. I’m going to get a closer look at the pillar. Don’t follow me.”
“I knew it!” she exclaims. “I’m coming with you!”
“Don’t,” I say. “It’s dangerous.”
“That’s exactly why I have to go with you!”
I stare her in the eyes for a moment, and realize that I won’t be able to talk her out of it.
“Fine,” I say, turning around.
Outside, it’s chaotic, but not to the level I think my mother was worried about. There are sirens everywhere, and the streets are clogged with so many emergency vehicles out and about, but most of the people still outside are just filming the pillar on their phones. I pay them little mind as I walk toward it. Vanessa huddles close to me, grabbing onto my sleeve for safety as we weave through the crowd and get to the sidewalk. Neither of us say a word.
Closer to where the pillar touched down, the chaos is more real. It smashed many buildings, and caused some of the ones around it to collapse. Emergency crews are out in full force, digging through the rubble for survivors. That’s fortunate, because that means they don’t pay Vanessa and I much attention while we weave through the alleyways, getting ever closer.
“Bella, what are you doing?” asks Vanessa as we walk past a bulging brick wall of a half-destroyed building.
“Going to the pillar,” I say.
“Why?” she asks.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “But you should turn back now. If you’re scared, talk to one of the firefighters.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she says. “But why are you going so far? You can see it well from here!”
I can indeed. From here, it looks even more otherworldly. It has to be a full mile wide, and perfectly circular, and it looks completely smooth at every point. It has a bit of a glossy surface, occasionally reflecting light from the sun or the fires, but it’s otherwise pitch black with no variation. Despite seeing it in better detail than most, it’s still not enough. I don’t understand it at all, but at this point, the pull is irresistible.
Without another word, I redouble my pace, and Vanessa scampers to keep up. We get lucky on the way there. We come across almost no one, and the only people we do see are either running away, or are first responders who are too distracted to notice the two young women in pajamas and sweatshirts walking through the destroyed city.
We reach the base of the pillar without being stopped. It dug into the ground a bit, creating a lip of dirt and broken concrete leading up to it.
“Bella!” shouts Vanessa as I start climbing.
“I need to touch it,” I say.
“Bella, you’re acting weird! Please come down!”
“After I touch it.”
“Bella!”
I tune her out and focus my efforts on climbing. It’s not a difficult climb, but the nature of it forces me to be careful, as most of the handholds are loose. Still, I’ve kept myself in decent shape, so it’s not too hard. After a few seconds, I reach the tower itself, and without hesitation, I place my hand on it.
“Do you wish to enter the Tower?” booms a voice in my mind.
“What is in the tower?” I ask.
“Whatever you seek.”
“If I go in, will I find a way to break my curse?”
“No matter what you seek, it can be found at the top of the Tower.”
“Bella!” shouts Vanessa. “Please! Just come down!”
She didn’t hear the voice. Even if she did, she wouldn’t understand. No one would. For the first time in thousands of years, I feel something I never thought I’d feel again: hope.
“Vanessa,” I call. “Tell my parents I’m alright. That I’ve just gone on a bit of a journey. I’ll be back.”
“Bella, what are you talking about? Just-”
“I wish to enter the Tower.”
My vision turns dark, and an unseen force pulls me inside.