I can still hear the brakes in my head. A metallic screech — desperate, useless. Screams, and then nothing.
I remember sitting at the back of the bus, my backpack for a pillow. The driver lost control and we fell with him.
It was fast.
Or slow. Depends on how traumatised you get after you die.
After a few seconds in the dark, a hand appeared in front of me.
It was small and delicate.
But when it grabbed me I felt ridiculous strength. It lifted me like I was a pillow.
"Sorry," a voice said — kind but trembling. The sound echoed inside my skull and wiped the accident away completely. "I'll give you another chance. Live a new life."
"What the hell are you talking about?! Wait!!" I tried to scream and grab the hand holding me, but it let go and everything went black again.
When I opened my eyes there was no asphalt, no shattered glass. There was something cold. So cold I thought they'd already put me in a morgue.
Maybe that would have been better…
I was lying, drifting on what looked like a block of ice — but it wasn't a simple slab. It was a giant crystalline hand holding me in midair.
"Dammit… so I really died…"
"Don't lie!" a voice barked.
I jumped like I'd been shocked. In front of me stood a strange girl, and she was pointing an even stranger stick at my stomach.
"I'm not lying," I answered, trying to sound more composed than a guy who'd just died.
She squinted with her white eyes. Yes — entirely white, with a greenish glow that looked fluorescent. Then she jabbed me with her stick.
"If you really died, you wouldn't be breathing… or are you a zombie?"
"A zombie…?" I scoffed. This brat was dumber than she looked.
Although, to be fair, I wouldn't believe someone who said, "Hey, I died five minutes ago and now I'm here."
I ran a hand through my hair to clear my head… and found long white strands falling over my shoulders. My hair should be short and black. Now I looked like an albino rock star.
The girl sat on the ice at my feet. Green hair with black streaks, a big orange blotch covering part of her face, and pupil-less eyes watching me like she could see more than I could see her.
"So… what did you say happened?" she asked with that childish curiosity.
I closed my eyes. The memory was sharp: the bus, the fall, the void. And behind it all… the voice.
"I'll give you another chance."
It wasn't human. Too sweet, like it was designed to trick. A goddess, an angel, or something playing at being one. I didn't see the face — only the promise.
I spent a long time trying to explain the situation to the girl. I started to think she was mocking me, but when I saw her genuine "what the hell are you saying?" look I realised she truly didn't understand.
"Alright… listen. I'll tell you everything bit by bit," I said, annoyed. "Listen carefully, because this will be the last time I talk about it."
"I'm listening," she said, stretching her legs like she was about to take notes.
"I was in an accident. The bus lost control and we fell."
She blinked.
"A bus… what's that?"
I sighed. How do you explain this… if I was truly in another world, their tech could easily be different.
"Imagine a metal worm that swallows people," I said. Don't laugh — it was the best description that came to mind.
"And it kills them?"
"Not always. It spits them out in another city. Well… most of the time."
She scrunched her nose, confused. I'd be confused too.
"What do you use to travel long distances?"
"Feet… right?" she said. Now I really wondered about her intelligence. "Although those with money buy carts."
"Oh, that's useful," I felt a short-lived relief. Maybe they were more primitive than I feared. "A bus is like a cart, just a lot bigger and it moves on its own — no horses needed."
"What's a horse?"
I had no answer. I couldn't say "it's like a big dog" because then she'd ask what a dog is.
I tried to draw something on the ice to show her, but it was unbelievably hard. I pressed harder to scratch the surface and, suddenly, something happened.
My fingernail turned black and lengthened, sharpening into a claw. I jerked my hand away, horrified.
"What the hell…?"
The girl smiled.
"Wow… you're cursed too."
Before I could respond she stood up and, without warning, leapt from where we were to the riverbank. It was easily twenty meters, and she made it look effortless.
"Eh?!" I barely had time to react.
A moment later, something hit from below. The crystalline hand shuddered and I was thrown into the water.
The cold hit like a wall and stole my breath. I flailed, clawing toward the bank and coughing.
When I hauled myself up I saw her waiting like nothing had happened.
"How did you do that…?" I asked, still shaking.
She tilted her head. "I just jumped."
That was it. She covered an impossible distance and the explanation was "I just jumped."
"What the hell happened?!" I demanded, looking at the river.
"A cannon shot," she said.
"A cannon? That's ridiculous — the blast came from below."
She pointed at the opposite shore.
"Look."
I followed her finger and my jaw dropped. A crab. A damn giant crab. It raised one of its legs — thicker than the others and hollow inside.
"Careful," the girl said, and jumped again. This time I couldn't see where she landed.
"Careful…? It's too far to do any damage," I muttered. My priority was to find the cannon that had fired at us.
I scanned the treetops, searching every direction. Then I looked back to the crab.
Its malformed leg was aimed right at me, and suddenly I understood.
"Don't mess with me…" I managed to whisper, just before it fired.
A roar of compressed air ripped across the river. The projectile skimmed past my shoulder and smashed into the trees behind me, throwing up a cloud of splinters and dirt.
I threw myself to the ground by reflex. My heart hammered so hard it felt like it might leap out of my throat.
"Does that thing have a damn cannon in its leg?!" I shouted, more to myself than to the brat.
"I told you!" she replied from somewhere above. I couldn't see the jumping pest.
The crab sank into the water, touching the tip of its cannon to the surface. It began to swell.
Then it aimed again.
"Damn it!" I staggered to my feet and ran without direction. The ground was mud and roots, making me trip every other step. I nearly smashed my face on a rock but kept going like a man possessed.
Another shot. The blast hit the ground in front of me and blew me backward.
Air left my lungs in a single brutal exhale. For a moment I thought I'd been torn in half.
"Run zigzag, idiot!" the girl shouted, as if she'd already done it.
"This isn't a videogame!" I coughed, springing up just in time to dodge another shot. The heat from the explosion singed my back.
The crab clattered forward through the water, its pincers drumming. I was cornered: river on one side, wrecked forest on the other, and that thing closing in.
"No… not again…" my legs shook. I tried to run, but my body refused to cooperate.
The monster's leg glowed once more, aimed squarely at me. I closed my eyes, resigned.
I guess dying twice in the same day is some kind of record…
I swallowed. "Damn it…"