(A/N): Please, be aware that English is not my first language. The first chapters can be hard to read, but as the chapters come out, I dare to hope that I've made much fewer mistakes and you will be more comfortable reading. Thank you for your interest in this fanfiction! Enjoy!
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I didn't understand what was happening, but I am in a very unsightly state right now. An acute pain that makes me feel paralyzed is spreading everywhere in my body. I try to calmly recollect what happened before. There was an explosion, yes..., Something fell from the sky, smashing through the damn abandoned building I was in. A series of bombs were launched, and they landed very close to me.
Something on my back feels wet, probably some blood. I slowly raised my head with a lot of difficulty. It feels like my innards are burning, perhaps because they are falling out through the laceration in my chest. Oh, now I feel my conscience slowly slipping away. What a shame! Why should I die now when I am least expecting it?! Just when my life started to go uphill?! It feels as if the devil himself came here to toy with my life.
As my consciousness was slowly dying, I caught some movement nearby. Something warm, salty, with a taste of iron, began to pour on my face and lips - blood. I tried to concentrate and at least open my eyes, but there was no strength left in my body.
"Leave him." Someone said in a faint-sounding voice as if he was a bit distant from me, "Don't waste your energy."
"This is my own business, do not interfere!" another voice calmly replied. A little closer, but just as faint and distant sounding.
"Listen, you are not God – you can't save everyone."
"At least this one…"
A sharp pain, several orders of magnitude more potent than the previous one, twisted my body, causing convulsions and spasms all at the same time. The sheer intensity of the pain made me feel that I should have lost consciousness or died altogether. But no, I'm still alive!
"It is useless. You will die like that!" through the pain, I heard voices that drifted farther and farther away. Together with the pain. "You idiot! If you die so stupidly, I'll take a shit on your grave! No! I won't even bury you!"
"You're right." There were notes of guilt in the second voice. With this phrase, the last anchor seemed to let me go, the pain went away, and my consciousness finally sank into darkness.
***
"Oh, for God's sake!" the old grandfather, who was in front of me, was indignant.
Looking around, I realized that I was standing in the middle of some sort of high-end office. There were white walls with a white table and white chairs. The iron filing cabinets that stretched on and on as if they go to infinity were also white.
"Sorry?"
"Forgiven," the old man screamed angrily, closing the folder with papers and throwing it behind. Contrary to my expectations, the folder did not just fly and hit the wall but smoothly glided into an open cabinet drawer in the distance. "This place is a connecter between all the worlds. Not some park!"
"What are you talking about, sir?"
"Sir? What a surprise!" The old man threw up his hands. "For once to be respected! As I should be!!"
The old man leaned against the table, holding out his hand in front of him and wagging his finger at me.
"I'm so tired of you all. I have lived here for millions of years, working, and you people have been drawn here like shit to flies."
"Flies to shit."
"Do not interrupt!" the old man screamed while slapped his palm on the table. "If I say that it's shit to flies, then it is shit to flies!"
The old man thought for a moment but quickly regained his displeased look.
"In short, s... Ah, I already said that. Anyway, in short! You are dead, you have not lost your memory, your soul has not been cleaned, and I hate you for that! You spoil my whole work! And statistics! Can you imagine? Moreover, I also have to give you Something! Where is the universe heading? sigh."
"Umm."
"Don't umm to me here. So what have we got here?"
The old man moved his hand over the table, and a small folder of documents appeared in front of him. He flipped through it with incredible speed and closed it.
"Well, they have finally finished developing there!" the old man whistled delightedly.
"Who?"
"Huh? Never mind. What should I slip you..."
"Brains?"
"Brains?! You must have your own! Oh, let me implant this guy's blood in you."
"Blood? I don't need you to inject any blood from any guy! My own is enough."
"Oh, don't worry, it's figurative. Yes! I will inject the positive parts, remove the negative part.. aaannnd perfect!"
A multi-layered sphere appeared on the table in front of the old man in the form of a projection with so many layers of complex lines it made my head a bit dizzy. If you look closely, it consisted of many tiny symbols. They glowed, each with their own color, but something was red, that something looked like it didn't fit in. With such speed that his hand movements became blurred, the old man began to make changes around the sphere. The red something gradually became more and more naturally blended into the general multi-colored structure, thereby constantly assuming a more natural color.
After some time, the old man finished his witchcraft, causing the sphere to disappear.
"They bothered me with their appearance on the whole branch of worlds thing. But!" the old man pointed an edifying finger at the ceiling. "If you people can't stop appearing here. Then I will personally throw you to some random world!"
He opened the folder, waved his hand, which showed a round seal, and with quick movements, he put a series of symbols on the sheets. Everything disappeared with the last symbol - the table, the walls, the office, and I was once again plunged into darkness…