2000 feet

  Most of the adults in my life since the day I was born have always said that getting good grades, getting into a good college, and focusing on your school work would get you a respectable job with a respectable salary. I did all that, for the most part, but I still graduated with decent grades and some internship experience. I figured with all of that and only a small amount of debt compared to most students, my life would be on the up and up. At twenty-two years old, I was ready for the start of the rest of my life.

  1800 feet

  Well, I was ready but I was struggling a bit to find a solid job. I kept getting passed around by job recruiters from interview to interview but never being the final candidate. There were plenty of rejection letters telling me how they were impressed with my resume but the opening was extremely competitive and I didn’t make the cut. The rejection letters disappointed me a little, but at least they responded unlike the number of jobs that ghosted me after my application. One of them eventually responded with a rejection letter six months later, but I found out they had gone under two months prior. I couldn’t live off of nothing so I was just doing some temp work until I landed a good job. I’m sure I’ll find something soon.

  1400 feet

  After two years, I was still looking for an actual job to start my career, anything really. It didn’t even have to be related to my degree. I just want to get out of this cycle of bouncing between temp jobs with no hope of getting something stable. I was working retail, call centers, warehouses, anything to keep up with bills that were starting to pile up. I tried to balance multiple jobs while trying to apply for as many things as possible, but I still couldn’t land anything.

  900 feet

  Now after four years, I’ve run out of all of my savings from leftover loan money during college and I’m drowning in bills. I’m trying to keep up by working eighty hour weeks, but now I don’t even have enough time to look for something better. I thought about going back to school for a masters degree, but if that doesn’t work out I’ll be in an even worse position. I tried the military but a work injury disqualified me from service. I tried to appeal it, but even the recruiters that’ll take anyone they can get stopped responding to me. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to escape this.

  200 feet

  As I’ve been thinking all of this, running on the few hours of sleep I can get between jobs, that truck in the opposite lane has been speeding up and swerving into my lane. I wonder if the driver has been getting as little sleep as I have. God, I’m so tired. It would be nice to just get a little nap.

  100 feet

  I wonder how my parents are doing. It's been a while since I reached out to them. My grandparents are getting up there in age and so is the family cat I haven’t seen since I left for college. I think she’d be twelve by now. I hope she’s doing okay, I haven’t seen her in a long time.

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  10 feet

  Wait, no! I don’t want this to be the end! I want to see my family, I want to keep going! I want to li-!

  Impact

  “Oh, do you truly want to live? Even with all of the hardship you were going through, do you think it’s worth it to continue to live?”

  Yes, I know it’s worth it. I may have been in hard times, but I still had people I loved, a hope to work for something better.

  “And if it got worse? You could have been in a much worse place living a much worse life. This might have been inevitable for you if this was enough to lead to your current state. Without people to love, without hope for anything better, can you honestly say you’d still wish to live that life?”

  Maybe not, I’m not so arrogant to say that I could have endured that and still wish to live despite that. But that wasn’t the hand that life dealt me. I found people to love and people that loved me, even if I neglected those relationships in the end. I think if I had another chance to live out that life, I would have changed my life. I had a reason to keep living and I could find another reason to live, even if it means abandoning everything I know to live a life I think is worth living. I could find something or someone new to love. That’s why I still want to live, but that isn’t a choice, right?

  “No, that path is forever closed off to you now. There are no redoes, no second chances. I’m sorry, but your life as you knew it has come to an end. Time will continue to move forward, with or without you.”

  So then, what now? Is there an afterlife I go to, or is it just the void. Are you God or just a figment of my imagination to fill the space before I’m completely gone?

  “I’m no one as grandiose as that, nor an imaginary figure to comfort you in your final moments. Normally I’m just an observer of the goings-on of the world, but then I noticed a bright spark and found your soul. I was interested enough to interfere like this and I think it’ll be worth it.”

  ‘Worth it’?

  “Yes, I’d like to make you an offer. I can’t give you a second chance to live this life you realized you were attached to, but I can provide you a new opportunity, reincarnation into another world. It’ll be a world based on the principles of magic like those videogames and stories found in your world and it’ll probably be much harder than what you’ve lived so far.”

  So it has magic, but it’s like a videogame. Do you mean there's stuff like levels and skill trees, magic spells included?

  “Yes, exactly like that. There’s even monsters and evolutions and dungeons, oh my! Even if it feels unreal, it is still very much a harsh world. People suffer and die, ravaged by monsters and humans alike. Do you still wish to continue and reincarnate into that world, you might not even last long after you're born?”

  Yes, I do. If I can find a reason to live in this world, then I can find a reason to live in a new world. I won’t give up, not again. Even if they’ll never know, I’ll live a life the people who loved me would be proud of. But, why me, out of all of the people to choose from? Why do I get this chance?

  “Hehe, you’ve accepted my offer so I’ll go ahead and get your reincarnation started. As for why I chose you specifically, I just think it’ll be interesting to see what happens if I choose a random person to reincarnate. But honestly, I just have a slight affinity with your soul, which drew my attention in the first place. And now you’re all set. It’ll be a difficult life, but I’ll be rooting for you. I think you can really do it if you try your best. Good luck and may you find your desires in the chaos.”

  Oh, I might have made a deal with the devil.