"..." Looking down at his hands, Christian spoke uncertainly "I don't know... but I think I might have done something that didn't end up with them dead..."
Shaking his head, Shrek spoke "Believe it or not, this outcome is the best of all the other possible outcomes."
"What do you mean?" frowning slightly, Christian asked.
"..." Biting his lips, Shrek looked around cautiously, then waved his hand and an image appeared, an image that sent chills and immense anger down Christian's spine.
"If we say you have 10 possible outcomes, in 9 you would end up with your siblings dead, at least one of them" Shifting the images, Shrek spoke "In fact your main path was going to end with Hailie staying in the house because of a stomach ache, and only Alan and you would be kidnapped."
"..."
"In that Alan will die terribly, something that would leave you very bad, do you want me to tell you what his end was?"
"..." Clenching his fists, Christian nodded after a few seconds.
"Alan would be raped by those women and you would kill them after that, strangely enough you would also end up in the hospital, but this time with only 8 shots instead of 11."
With a tremor in his body, Christian spoke a little louder "I don't want to know anymore!"
"Calm down" Raising his hands in surrender, Shrek spoke "I just wanted to tell you that you had the best outcome."
"..."
"Anyway, you have to wait here until you wake up" With a sigh, the man continued cooking the meat.
"Those results you say... is it fate?" after a few minutes, Christian turned his gaze and asked.
"No, fate exists, but not in your universe" Shaking his head, the man spoke as if nothing.
"Does more than one universe exist?" Raising his eyebrows, Christian asked.
"Yes and no... your human capacity is far inferior, you wouldn't understand what it really is."
"You could try, I'm very smart."
"Believe me kid, even if I explained it to you, you wouldn't understand it... it's not your intelligence that's the problem, it's your race... if you were another being, it would be as easy to explain it as asking the result of 1+1 to an adult, but humans are not made to understand these things, it's like your brain freezes the moment I explain it to you and you would end up listening to nonsense nonsense"
"..." Without fully understanding, Christian just nodded noticing that the man never lied to him, to then look at the man and ask "You reincarnated me?"
"No, no one reincarnated you. Reincarnation is a natural process of this universe" Shaking his head, Shrek spoke.
"So everyone has the memories of their other life?" With furrowed brows, Christian asked.
"No, just you."
"Why me?"
"You wouldn't understand, you know, being human and all that Jazz."
"..." Nodding, Christian asked again "Do you know anything about 'mom'?"
Frowning for the first time, the man looked at Christian "Eva?"
"No... I'm talking about mom, the ones with lots of shadow hands or something similar."
Eyes widening, Shrek looked quickly towards the horizon, then looked at Christian and asked cautiously "How do you know about those hands!?"
Confused by his reaction, Christian spoke "I saw them in a dream... she spoke to me and called herself mom.... I also think she spoke to me when I was in trouble a few months ago."
Hearing that, the man's face turned extremely pale, as his lips trembled heavily, then he flipped the pages of his notebook and waved his hands in the air, causing the image on the screen to change to one quite interesting to Christian.
"That's mom... but I don't remember seeing her shadow with..... wings?"
"Damn!" looking up at the sky, the man quickly stood up, causing confusion in Christian.
"Is something wrong?"
But the man didn't answer, he just quickly flipped the pages of the book and his hands began to move erratically through the air.
"You'll wake up sooner, but we have to move" Grabbing Christian's shoulder, the man spoke and they quickly appeared elsewhere.
Opening his eyes wide, Christian looked all over the place, finding a scene that truly looked like hell.
A large palace that seemed to be made of a crystalline obsidian-like stone was in front of him, it had paths of the same color and everything was surrounded by purple, gray, green, and red flames.
Large and terrifying creatures were walking around the place, having completely new and creepy shapes for Christian, while the beings didn't even look at them and went about their business, walking, standing still, looking at pillars, all extremely creepy.
"W-what are those things!" Christian asked exalted.
"Demons, but don't get confused, it's not their true form, but humans see them that way because of their limitations" Undeterred, the man kept moving his hands and changing pages "Everything that exceeds your limitations will have terrifying forms or cause a deep fear in your genes, it's a preventive measure to avoid that you exceed your limits... usually you all see them with a different form, and they usually have aspects that are somehow recognizable to you, that's why you will see beings that you consider disgusting or something similar."
Squinting, Christian clenched his fists and fought his fear, watching the whole scene with eagerness and interest.
But what caught his attention the most was the largest structure Christian had ever seen in his life, even in pictures.
Behind the palace, a gigantic dark throne surpassed the heavens, while hundreds of platform-like structures were placed one on top of the other on the sides of the throne, having everything from beds, to armchairs.
"W-what is this!?" Christian asked, as his body trembled heavily.
"The palace of hell" Answered the man quickly, while his hands moved so fast that Christian's eye could not keep up.
Although fear was on Christian's mind, the place was simply spellbinding to his mind, especially certain pentagrams and hieroglyphic species on the structures, something that seemed to glow brightly as Christian looked at them.
"W-what are those symbols?" Pointing with his trembling finger, Christian asked.
"Language of creation, the first language to exist...oddly enough that language is in every universe."
"I-I've never heard of it."
"Some call it demonic language, others call it angel language or Enochian, the truth is it's the same language... but if I'm honest, I'd say it's a language of the angels, their leader is the one who created it after all."
"Angels..." Biting his lips, Christian muttered "Am I in hell for what I did?"
"No, no one has ever entered heaven in this universe in its entire existence" The man quickly replied "So don't feel so bad, hell has its own heaven and usually people who commit good deeds go to it"
"There, we don't have time" Pointing his finger at Christian, the man spoke "You're not supposed to be here, much less should you have contact with that psychopath, but since we're in this situation, let's hurry things up a bit"
Finishing his words, a black lightning bolt shot out of the man's finger, quickly crashing into Christian.
"*Cough* *cough*" Coughed blood violently Christian, as he felt his blood seem to boil heavily.
"With that, the first chain fell, that should get your body back quickly... live your human life to the end, just be happy and smile" With a smile, the man created a portal behind Christian.
"See you later-" But he didn't finish speaking, and thousands of black hands started to come out from behind the palace, causing the man's impression to turn incredibly pale.
"GET OUT OF HERE!" waving his hand, a strong wind pushed Christian, who seemed to fall deeply while above him was still the sight of hell, even hearing what happened next.
"NO PLEASE, I SWEAR I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!!!" The man cried out in horror, as the hands closed off the entire view of hell, causing Christian to feel a primal fear throughout his body.
...
*Beep*
*Beep*
*Beep*
Suddenly opening his eyes, Christian blinked for a few seconds, while the fear of the fall that seemed infinite still remained.
Frowning slightly, he looked down and found what was making it difficult for him to breathe, finding that his nose and mouth were covered by a kind of respirator.
With difficulty and pain, he moved his hand and unbuckled the respirator from behind his head, then carefully took it and pulled it out of his nose, small tubes coming out from inside, allowing him to take a deep breath.
But as he breathed, a sharp pain shot into his lungs, causing a grimace to spread across his face.
Sitting up on the stretcher with extreme difficulty, Christian looked sideways and realized he was alone in the room, having a privileged view thanks to the window next to him.
Staring up at the orange sky, Christian had a vague idea of the time, but still stared out the window in a daze, processing everything that happened while he was in hell
"Is... that place real?" muttered Christian faintly, as his entire chest felt like it was being stabbed in real time.
But, although that was a unique and somewhat terrifying experience, the desperate sight of his mother came into his memory, causing all those thoughts to be pushed aside.
Looking sideways, Christian tries to look for his cell phone, finding nothing but the curtains that separate him from the rest of the room and an opening between them that lets him see the rest of the place.
Looking at his arms, Christian sees that he has a needle in his vein, while what appears to be serum is dripping slowly.
Biting his lips, Christian pulls the tape off his sides and slowly pulls the needle out, grimacing when he finally gets it out.
"My whole damn body hurts..."
Breathing slowly to avoid the pain, Christian slowly moves and gets off the bed, wearing only hospital clothes, exposing his ass.
Getting up, Christian could see that behind his curtain there were many flowers and balloons hanging, causing a soft smile to spread across his face.
But what left him doubting the most, though, is that he is 99.9% sure he grew a little taller, noticing that his vision is about 2 centimeters taller than usual.
"If he used to average ... 142 centimeters, now I'm 144 to 1.46 centimeters approximately" Christian mutters "What a weird shit..."
*BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!* *BEEP!*
But out of nowhere, the machine began to beep loudly, alarming Christian in the process, only to have two female police officers walk in two seconds later and stare at him with wide eyes, then look at each other in disbelief.
But seconds later, they reacted quickly and one ran out, while the other grabbed her radio and spoke "The boy has woken up!"
"Who... are... you?" With difficulty, Christian raised his voice a little more and spoke, being extremely wary of these women.
Smiling softly, the woman crouched down and raised her hand carefully, without approaching Christian "Relax, we're here to take care that no one gets in."
Squinting his eyes, Christian nodded, sensing no lies in her words "Where... is... mom?"
"She's coming, my partner went to tell the doctors and they'll call your mother."
Nodding, Christian looks at the stretcher and realizes that getting back on will be a pain he'd rather avoid, while standing is not a pleasant option.
So, without a second thought, he carefully bends down and sits on the floor, looking directly at the woman, while a pleasant coldness surrounded his backside through the hospital gown.
"..."
They stare at each other for a few seconds, only to have 2 women in gowns walk in after a short while, only to look at him with the same impressed look as the policewomen.
"H-how...?" Murmured the woman at the sight of the boy, while the other still did not react properly.
"..."
But after a few seconds they came out of their stupor and ran to the boy's side, quickly crouching down beside him and speaking "You don't have to be on the ground, it has a lot of bacteria and your wounds are still fresh, come let me help you up."
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