Do you really believe the whole light at the end of a tunnel nonsense? Cause before everything happened, I didn't.
My name is Julius Wayne, excuse me, at least that's what I used to be known as before fate decided to play God with my life and reincarnate me as Castiel Black, the first and only son of an exiled witch and hunter.
I used to be a church-going and loving person. As you all know, being a believer and follower of God, I believed in a lot of things, which meant I also didn't believe in a lot of things—one of them being the first line I opened this story with.
Maybe if I did believe in such trivial things like a second chance in life—not the way you think, like maybe one being a thief, a murderer, or even a scam artist—after an intervention with close friends, that person changes and becomes a better person. Look, I might believe in a lot of things as a believer, but one thing I fail to truly believe is the part that a person does change.
Judge me, call me by names, and say what you want to say about me, I don't care, but nothing will ever change my mind. A person never truly changes. And how do I know that if I've never given anyone a chance to prove themselves to me?
It's not rocket science really, I'm living proof. I may have been reborn anew; those who want to sound smart can say that I just received a blessing of God and was given a second life of being a new person—which mine counts as literally.
But I don't believe that it's God who did this to me. I mean, He couldn't. As much as I know and accept that I wasn't one of the best followers of Him, I know I have my flaws, and I know that I did something bad almost every single day, yet at the same time, in all that, I still lived according to His will and did everything according to His word.
Yet again, here I am. Not that I'm complaining; not a lot of people would be lucky enough to get a chance at a second life like me. But just know that when it comes to a human, they will never be satisfied with just one thing. If you knew why I said that, you'd probably understand.
As much as I'm grateful, since upon my untimely and unexpected death, I thought to myself that I had lived my life the way He wanted, so I was satisfied with my end cause I was coming home. But after seeing that when it came to me, I didn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Instantly, I regretted everything. I felt like I missed out a lot in life. I felt like I wasted my life because I devoted so much and invested so much that I forgot to live as a person—instead of annoying a lot of people trying to convert them to change and become one of us.
I don't really remember much, nor will I tell you what came over me and pushed me to do what I did. But at least to those who were left behind, and those who witnessed and experienced the whole thing firsthand, will know my heroic story.
And the child that I saved that night better remember me, honor me, live her life for me, cause in other words, she does owe me that much.
All I remember was walking out from church—well, actually, let me call it school—because as a young teenager, it's not like I had any choice but to be a believer and follower. That was simply because my grandparents, who my parents were so "kind" enough to leave me with, were old school, and so they chose to punish me by sending me, and a name for it was exploiting me, to live the life they wanted for my family.
Being a child that goes to a God-fearing and believing school, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the perks that came with being that kind of child. And as much as my grandparents would often tell me, "Never use the word hate anywhere because God is everywhere; He sees, hears everything." Not only them—even the teachers, the pastors, and worse, the cute girls at school.
Can you imagine what it feels like and how annoying it actually is when you're trying to get second base, and your girlfriend says:
"No, we shouldn't do that, it's against God's way."
Come on!
So that day, we managed to have our service all the way till nighttime. I still have no idea why, because since I attended this school, we've never managed to pull up this long and dreadful service. Yes, I know we were praising God, but damn, I'd like to believe that God had a schedule, and we just messed up His schedule.
Don't get me wrong, the service was fun. I got to hear many people's testimonials, and I have to say, people are going through the worst out there. Another thing is, it was fun to meet new girls.
Ahem, I meant to say it was nice meeting new daughters of God who are willing to devote their time and life to worship, teach, and live for God.
Yay.
We were walking as a group. Me and my friends were trying to show the new girls around the area—you know, we were being gentlemen, and everything was really turning out to be great and fun. We were winning with my friends.
We waited until the teachers or pastors, whatever you wanted to call them, to go. After that, since it was still early, around nineteen hundred hours, me and my friends decided to take out the new girls—you know, get to know them.
And everything was going according to plan. We took them to eat, played some games—you know, had fun like normal teenagers should have.
I won't be afraid to admit it—that was the only time that I had so much fun as long as I could remember.
After we were done, my friends and the other girls were walking behind us, and I was walking with a girl by the name of Ashley Timberlake.
She was really beautiful—not only that, but she was smart, funny too.
"So, did you enjoy going out with me?" I put my arm around her.
"Going out with you? You make it sound like we were on a date or something," she said jokingly.
"Well, we could say it was a date," I joked back.
"And what about our friends?" She looked at them.
"Well, that's easy—we'll just say that they are our escort." I smiled.
"Oh wow, escorts? Mhm, how fancy you are," she said with a cute smile.
"Only the best for my lady." I bowed.
"Your lady? When did I even say yes to that?" she asked.
"I promised you that we'd have a great time, didn't I?" I asked her.
"Yes," she nodded.
"So, doesn't that ultimately grant me the honors of having you as my lady?" I asked.
"Well..."
We stopped, and Ashley looked at me. For a moment, it felt like I was in a scene of a romantic movie, and something was about to happen.
She leaned in closer, and she kissed me—which, by the way, was awesome. Our friends saw that, and they all oohed. Both of us got embarrassed, and we held hands as we were about to cross the street.
A truck came in at full speed, and I saw a young girl, maybe around the age of four to five, crossing the street by herself. She was so focused on braiding her doll's hair that she neglected to see the coming truck.
I truly don't know what happened to me; my body moved on its own right before my mind could catch up.
"Little girl, look out!" I jumped towards her.
The truck was already close, so when I jumped, I had managed to move her out of the way in a nick of time, which means that she was safe—which was a good thing.
But I, on the other hand, wasn't that lucky. The truck ran through me and split me in half. Before everything, my bottom half rolled over while my upper half dropped dead near the little girl.
All I heard were screams.
And everything went blank.
All I heard were muffled screams and crying sounds of a little baby.
I just assumed that maybe, by God's grace, I had survived, and because of the noise and sounds I heard, maybe I was safe at the hospital.
"Congratulations, honey, you just gave birth to a healthy young baby boy," I heard a man's voice sound so excited.
Am I in a labor ward? I thought to myself.
Everything was black, so it took me time to see my surroundings. And as much as I was excited for the new parents, everything became clear, and I could make out only blurs.
I fluttered my eyes open, and only for me to see a man holding me, smiling, and playing with me.
What in the heavens? I didn't understand what was happening.
I found myself crying after that, and this man tried to calm me down, and I let out a loud cry—only for it to be the last sound that I'll ever make.
And I just went completely quiet.