"Hhhhhh—AHHhh!"
Ezra's eyes shot wide open as he gasped for air.
"Ack—Khhk!"
In the next second, his hands instinctively reached for the rope at his throat as he squirmed for air.
His legs flared wildly, his face already an unhealthy amount of red from suffocation and from the looks of it, he was about to go out the same way.
Ezra's eyes settled on the table in the corner, "Fuck this." He rasped then blinked as his figure disappeared like a shadow-smoke.
In the next second, he blinked back, the shadow-smoke converged from thin air, as he sprawled atop the table, hand on his neck and desperately gasping for air.
"Khonsu, what year are we in?" Ezra asked as his breathing finally started to settle.
"..."
There was no answer, so he screamed, "Khonsu! I don't have time for your antics. What year are we in?"
A sly voice finally started to speak in his mind.
[ And here I thought you wouldn't miss me at all. ]
Ezra rolled his eyes. "We've been reincarnated together for too long for me to miss you. What year are we in?"
[ According to the revolutions of the moon around the earth, we're in the year 2025. ]
"2025?" Ezra muttered under his breath. He jumped off the table and searched its drawer for a pen. He retrieved the pen and began scribbling on a piece of paper. "Khonsu, if we're in 2025, that means—"
[ It means that your last reincarnation cycle was over fifty years ago... and that the formula you postulated about the curse was spurious. ]
"Fuck." He whispered low. "How did I even die last time?"
[ How can you not remember? For you it was less than a heartbeat ago. ]
Ezra rolled his shoulders. "You start to mix up your deaths and reincarnations when you've been at it for more than millennials."
[ True. In your last life, as Lord Nicholas of Veltharion, you were driven a stake to the heart by your lover. ]
"Great." He smiled faintly. Turning back to the rope in the ceiling where he just escaped, he let his eyes sweep the room to ascertain the situation. "There are definitely easier ways to kill oneself than hanging."
[ You are just nettled because your concubine, whom I warned you about severally, betrayed you. ]
"Oh please," he spoke as he examined the room. "I already knew she was scheming to kill me, I just didn't care much."
[ Because of the sex? ]
"Because I was bored with the life already," he dragged his shoulders-length raven black hair back. "I did everything there was to do in that life."
He moved to the mirror in the corner, examining his features with a calm that was unnatural.
[ Is it to your standards or are you going to jump off the balcony?... Again? ]
He smirked fully. "That one wasn't my fault." He defended. "You expect me to live in the flesh of an ugly person for more than an hour?"
[ You've been reincarnated as a cockroach but ugly is where you draw the line? Ezra Solmyria, you are impossible. ]
"At least when I was a roach I was sure it would end soon, roaches don't live past a year at most." He whipped back around to the floor to see the pattern drawn across it.
Runic glyphs, chalk-drawn and stretching along the expanse of the polished floors.
Ezra placed his hands in his sides and drew a long tired sigh. "It's fucking magic. I despise magic."
[ Bitter because the witch cursed you forever. ]
He threw his hands into the air wildly. "She could've given me a reasonable curse... Yet, she chose indefinite reincarnation."
[ Some people would say immortality is a gift. ]
"I'm not immortal." He pointed out. Bending down to study the symbols below him. "I was immortal when I was a vampire, a starfish or even a fucking flatworm."
He glanced around the room once more, trying to get a bearing of who he was.
King sized bed that's been pushed to the side, a polished black desk with numerous papers splayed atop, a balcony that bathed the room in a soft night glow and finally, the rope.
"He was rich, or at least a noble." Ezra continued as he headed for the balcony doors. "Why would he kill himself?"
[ Demons maybe. A dark past? ]
"Too simple," Ezra said, hands on the ledge and his aurora-teal eyes locked onto the lawn of trimmed grass and cars, he'd never seen before, that lined up the driveway.
He turned back inside and headed for the table. "Nobles usually have a diary or logs or something?"
[ I have told you time and again that no two reincarnations are the same. ]
Ezra continued to rummage through the drawer until he found a laptop, though he had no idea what a laptop was.
He pulled it out and held it up like a book. "Khonsu, what is this?"
[ ... ]
He said nothing.
"Khonsu, do we really have to do this every time I discover something new?" Ezra said annoyed.
[ Haha... If I didn't then you'd truly be infallible. ] The voice in his head continued to laugh at him until it settled. [ That is a laptop, it's a multipurpose device. ]
"And how do I use this multipurpose device?" Ezra asked already placing the laptop on the desk.
"..."
After a long and I mean long thirty minute montage Khonsu finally explained what computers were in full.
Ezra opened the system, powered it on and waited for the screen to show.
Khonsu guided him as he used the touchpad to click on the list of saved videos on the screen.
He leaned back against the chair and watched the video unfold.
---
The video started with a close-up of the previous owner of Ezra's new body.
"Hello," he began. "My name is Levi Kane. And a professor at Aetherion Academy." Levi spoke with monotonous voice of a man without hope.
With a long sigh, he continued. "Today my daughter of two weeks died due to my gene deficiency."
His voice turned shaky. "Because of me, my precious little girl lived her measly two weeks of life in unbearable pain before ultimately passing away."
He stopped for a minute as the tears welling up behind his eyes threatened to leave him.
"With all the money in the world, with all the connections I accumulated over the years, with all my knowledge... I failed to save my own flesh and blood."
He turned away from the camera, wiping his eyes with his sleeve. "I did not tell my wife it was because of my gene, in fear that she'd despise me for not letting her know sooner.
Instead, I have done what every self-accomplished professor would do with the countless resources at my fingertips.
I have delved into the dark arts in hope of finding a cure for my defective gene."