When he came into the world, he did not cry; he did not complain. Instead, he began to laugh, a warm and contagious laugh. He waved his arms and legs, full of energy, while everything around him seemed normal, yet special at the same time.
And so, the beginning had happened. This soul had come into a world that was thirsty for light and hope... A world that needed a new perspective, a new power to guide it.
"The path is towards the stars," whispered fate. It was as if it already knew that this soul was not simple, as if it was waiting for something from him. The past would become a lesson for the present, and preparation would be the guide for the future.
The dawn of a new era had begun. However, every beginning is accompanied by shadows. Shadows that sleep beneath the surface... awaiting the right moment to awaken.
When I opened my eyes for the first time, I saw my mother. After nine months, she had brought me into the world. She looked at me with tears in her eyes and emotion in her voice, but I couldn't understand what she was saying. She was a young woman full of life. She held me in her arms, and although I couldn't see her standing, I could tell she was tall. Her reddish-blonde hair reached her belly—a strange, but impressive color. Her eyes were golden, with blue-green details. She looked me in the eyes and whispered, "You are our light. Our life begins again, with you."
And suddenly, there was my father! He entered the room as if he were a superstar. In his hands, he held a doll and balloons for me, obviously, and flowers and chocolates for my mother. I hope not for someone else! He was smiling, talking, and kissing my mother. He was oddly dressed, almost terrifying. He made faces at me, tickled me, and at the same time talked to my mom. He had brown eyes with greenish details and short, reddish-blonde hair, shaved on the sides. They continued to smile and talk to me, but I only heard a humming sound.
Everything seemed normal, but something was wrong. It was as if an invisible thread was pulling my soul outwards. A subtle whisper echoed in my mind, but I couldn't make out the words. My eyelids grew heavy, and the humming sound began to distort. I feel strange! My head hurts a lot… I'm going to vomit… I've felt this feeling before. My hands were changing color. I didn't have time to react.
The nausea came suddenly, and before I could understand, a nurse quickly lifted me from my mother's arms. I felt my body tremble. Panic. They gathered around me. "Heheheh..." I couldn't hold my head up. What's happening!
I heard voices, but I couldn't understand any of them. I saw their hands glowing above me, but I didn't understand anything. My eyes felt heavy and I started to hear, but not see! I heard a man's voice saying "where is that beautiful baby that came into our lives?", but at the same time, I heard another one saying "we have to do something, because his pulse is dropping…".
"No, no! Hold on, my little one!" my mother's voice trembled. Her hands held me tight, as if she could hold me in their world with all her might. But my body had other plans. My eyelids closed. A feeling of freedom, of weightlessness, and... then... silence.
The world began to dissolve around me, like a painting fading under the rain. My parents' voices became distant. I felt like I was slipping through a veil between life and death. And then… absolute silence.
I opened my eyes. Not in the maternity ward. Not in the world of the living. In a corridor... bright, endless, immersed in a darkness that waited on its edges to swallow me.
The corridor of souls seemed endless. Luminous balls moved as if an invisible force was guiding them, following a subtle rhythm. They seemed to pulsate, emitting an energy I felt permeating my skin. As I walked, the darkness at the edges seemed to move, as if something was watching me, waiting for the right moment to appear.
My heart was beating fast, but without fear. It was as if these luminous balls were calling me, a mystery I couldn't explain. Another form passed me by silently. It was semi-transparent, as if it didn't belong anywhere. Its eyes looked at me… and then disappeared into the darkness.
Where am I? I feel relaxed. Why? Where am I going? I don't remember how I got here. Did I die? Wasn't I a baby just a moment ago? What happened? Am I good or bad? And who decides that? Do I remember memories from my previous lives? This is weird. How can I have memories from other lives, since I was just a baby?
And somewhere there, I heard a voice: "Uh, you, excuse me." I turned and saw that she was pointing at me. I went towards the luminous figure. I didn't know what was happening anyway.
"Okay, I forgive you. But don't point at me, I feel strange," I said with curiosity. "What do you want with me? Where am I?" I looked around, hoping to understand something, but in vain.
"I am your judge, your angel, Aurora," she quickly replied. "You are at the sorting point. In short, you are a soul, and here I will explain a few things to you, then you will continue to the end of the corridor to go to your new life. Also, I am a replacement for your old angel, because your life went a bit wrong, and the evaluation we have of him is… how to put it, zero. So, he was expelled because he was lazy…"
The first thing that came to my mind was that the previous angel was like a public servant. I don't get tired, so the money just gets deposited at the end of the month. "Uhh, nice… I wasn't playing on hardcore, and I get a second chance?"
She tilted her head to the side. "What?"
Hmm, remnants from my previous life, huh? I'll cover it up, though. "Umm, never mind. It's nothing. So, tell me what I have to do?"
"Look," Aurora continued, "your previous angel didn't do his job properly. He didn't evaluate anything and just left your life to chance…"
She stopped for a moment and took a breath. She looked at me thoughtfully before continuing.
"When I looked back at your life —without the permission of my superiors, by the way— I saw that you did a lot of meaningful things. You did things with respect, you showed love where you should, you said prayers to be heard, and you stood where you should, even if others didn't want you to. They didn't thank you, but you didn't care much. And many more…"
"All that was me?" I whispered in wonder. "I don't remember who you're referring to. Is that why I'm here?"
A faint laugh was heard from her side.
"Yes, of course. Here we cleanse and purify souls, we erase the old. If they are not erased, memories and knowledge from other lives come, which can cause confusion. We carefully monitor their journey in their new dimension. If a soul in its first life was not good, in the second one, we give it many trials so that it can get through them and come out stronger."
"Otherwise, if it was good, we help it do more good, but we push it to also try the bad, and judge for itself. Whoever has done bad and does bad again, then they will get sick easily. In the third and last chance, if the first and second lives were bad—unstable… then it can be erased quickly from this third chance, simply because its energy body carries the residue that it did not take care to clean."
"You always start pure, from scratch. However, some souls carry burdens from old lives—things that were not completely erased. These are the ones that can cause problems. They have the possibility not to be erased, but to carry them to their new life and create chaos. You understand a little what I'm saying, right?"
"Umm, yes, I'm trying," I said. "But how am I connected to all this? Okay, I understood that my angel was a bit… irresponsible, but from what you say I was good, while in my previous life I wasn't?"
She nodded positively. "In your first life, no, you weren't so good, but in the second one you were more careful. You considered everything, and whatever you did had a weight. As for your angel, he probably didn't like you. That's why I will try to fix things a bit. I will talk to my superiors, which is why I have given you this opportunity and sent you to another world. Unfortunately, I don't know where you went, just as I have no idea what kind of world I have sent you to, because what we call stars and galaxies and so on, there are many habitable planets. And we here have a hierarchy, we send various people from time to time to organize and evolve things, we give them a term for a few years. Some do well and others do terribly. Wherever you go, try to walk straight, to help others, not just yourself. Did you understand?"
I raised my hands to my chest and said, terrified: "Wow… I smell trouble. Maybe we should reconsider this?"
A faint laugh was heard from her side.
"It's not in my hands. A holy council will be held to decide what to do with you. I will try for the best. I will point out that your angel had also failed the evaluation. And to remind you, you can find your previous angel in the world you're going to. He was expelled because he simply didn't operate based on the scale, but on his own desires, so he was blinded and started to deviate. You can find him on your path again. You won't know him, but he will find you and try to crush you. And if you find him, remember… he is no longer the angel you knew. His intentions have been perverted. Such beings don't need much to start a battle or a war…"
"Great, perfect!" I said sarcastically. "I couldn't have asked for anything better! Why don't you just throw me into a black hole to get it over with? Or even better, give me a sign that says 'Find your new target here'?"
"Anyway, do what you think is best. I hope I prove worthy of your expectations. I hope we have a beautiful collaboration…" I started walking again and stopped a little further ahead, turned and looked at Aurora. She had raised her hand and was waving to me.
"Hey, Aurora, thanks," I said. "And I hope, if I need any help, I learn how to call you."
She lowered her hand and nodded positively.
"I will be happy to cooperate with you. You will learn. I will show you what is needed to communicate, I will be close to you, you will feel me but you will not see me! So go forward! My energy will always be there for you, make sure to embrace it!"
She said goodbye to me with a bow. I didn't say anything, I just walked forward. But something wouldn't get out of my mind: the two buttons that Aurora had in front of her. She didn't press them. She didn't even look at them. What exactly did they do? Would I ever find out? Or would I prefer never to know?
I stood in front of the light. My body felt attraction, but my mind was screaming at me to wait. It was as if someone… or something… was lurking on the other side. And yet, there was no other way. Only forward.
Let the battle begin!
When I opened my eyes, it felt as if only five minutes had passed. It was as if I had slept for a little while. I opened my eyes and saw all the nurses around me, wiggled my hands and feet, and saw that everything was fine. All the staff breathed a sigh of relief and teared up. They must have thought I had died, and then I heard that I had been without a pulse for a minute. I was impressed because I was starting to understand them; I thought something was wrong here.
The aura of the man who had entered the room seemed as if it had never affected anyone. As if this incident had never happened, the only one who paid special attention was the man who had come in to see the newborn baby, who, as soon as I woke up, left without saying anything.
My mother's hands trembled as she held me. "You were… You were dead!" she stammered, her voice full of fear and relief at the same time. Her eyes were red from crying, but now tears of joy were flowing. My father stood speechless, his gaze lost between shock and relief. For the first time, he seemed not to know what to say. "We will never go through this again… never!" he finally said, his voice firm but with a hint of fear.
I just smiled. I couldn't explain to them what had happened. But for the first time, I felt like they were truly mine. I saw a lot of people around them; they must like them… But it was time to eat! So, everyone slowly left and then slept.
The hours at the hospital passed slowly, with my mother sitting beside me continuously, holding my small hand. When it was finally time to go home, the feeling was like a new chapter was beginning. The warmth of home and the embrace of my family felt like a promise that everything would get better.
When I woke up, I was at home. The classic life of a baby: play, eat, sleep! Our house had large windows that let the sunlight enter everywhere, filling every corner with warmth. In the garden, the flowers bloomed in colors that seemed to come out of a dream – deep red, soft purple, bright yellow. In the mornings, the dew on the leaves glistened like tiny diamonds, making my world seem full of magic.
Time passed, and I tried to walk, with my mom at first, then with a nanny. My father was often absent due to work. I would greet him every time he left for work, and he would return days later. But I, for my part, was also trying to work hard to walk soon.
The Cat Incident
One afternoon, when I was three years old, I found myself in our backyard. The dew on the leaves and the sounds of the birds made the world seem magical. Every step I took was like a discovery, full of excitement and anticipation. My mother had left the door open for a few minutes, and I, full of curiosity, crawled outside. The world was big, unexplored. And then… I saw a cat. Excited, I tried to call it, but the only thing that came out of my mouth were incomprehensible words. The cat looked at me, perked up its ears, and… ignored me. "No!" I thought. "I won't lose like this!" I tried to stand up, took one step, two… and then fell flat on my face. My mother ran to me. "My God! Are you okay?!" I said nothing. Instead of crying, I stood up again. "I will do it."
Time flowed by. I walked, I talked, I adapted. I was now four years old. But inside me, something didn't change – I knew more than I should have. I was a child, but my mind carried memories and experiences that didn't belong in this life. It was like I was a stranger in my own body. I felt like I was watching my life go by in slow motion, unable to outrun my body.
One day, my father bent over me before he left. "I'll be gone for a few days, but when I get back, I'll bring you something special." My eyes lit up with anticipation. I thought about all the things this promise could be – maybe a toy, maybe a story I had never heard before. But there was something in my father's gaze, as if he knew that what he was promising had a much greater significance than I could understand. I looked at him with curiosity. "Promise?" He smiled and put his hand on my head. "Promise." But as time went on, I started to understand. My father's promises were like the wind – they came and went, leaving behind only anticipation.
My parents were strict, but my mother was more present in my life than my father. Diomedes Era, my father, was an officer in the army. He was a consultant and strategic organizer, with the role of a healer. He was away from home quite a bit. My mother, Lux Era, on the other hand, was a therapist at a clinic, in the pregnant women's department, and provided various treatments. Before that, she was in the emergency room, where the two of them met.
The fact that they managed to have me, despite their obligations, was something no one expected. They had to hire a nanny to take care of me, after all. At night, my mother would sit next to me, gently stroking my hair as she sang an old lullaby. Her voice was sweet, filled with a strange melancholy. "Your mother loves you, my little one," she whispered one night. "Even when I'm not here, I will protect you." At that moment, I felt a sense of security that I couldn't explain. Maybe it was the first time I felt that someone was truly protecting me.