Unauthorized Reincarnation

  Chapter 3: Patching Pieces Together Yet I Do Not Exist (Part 3)

  Two of them looked at each other in silence, and Daniel began first.

  “Why didn’t you stand against me like the others? And how do you know all these answers?” Daniel asked.

  Sophie smiled gently at him.

  “Because I’m the only cherished piece of your memory. I exist only in your memories. What you don’t know, I don’t know either. If you had looked closely, you could’ve found the answers even without my help.”

  “As we share our final moment together,” Sophie said softly, “tell me—after my death, you saw everyone as temporary, and so you locked up your heart. Why?”

  Sophie’s question lingered in the air like a final breath.

  Daniel lowered his gaze, voice rough but steady.

  “Because I had loved you… and I still do.”

  Her eyes softened, though her words cut deep.

  “And that… is how you destroyed your heart.”

  “You never gave anyone a chance. You pushed away those who tried to get close. You had to let go of the dead and live with the living but you didn't.”

  She stepped closer, her voice low but unwavering.

  “I’m the voice inside you that always tried to tell you this. But you shut me out. And you shut out the other voice too—the one that tells you exactly who you are.”

  “You walked between us… and failed miserably.”

  And then, she pointed a delicate finger at Daniel’s unreadable face.

  “Justice, love, trust—you lost the ability to understand such simple concepts.”

  And Sophie asked, her voice quiet but firm,

  “Do you know what you need to do?”

  Daniel took a step toward her, then he knelt before her and wrapped his arms around her in a trembling embrace.

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  Determination burned in his eyes.

  “I’ve known the answer for a long time,” he whispered.

  “But I didn’t have the guts to act on it.”

  He pulled back just enough to look into her eyes.

  “From now on, I’ll live as a free man.

  I won’t let injustice happen in my presence.

  I’ll protect the people around me.

  And I’ll love the ones who love me.”

  Sophie didn’t speak.

  Instead, she gently placed her hands on his shoulders and leaned in,

  hugging him back with a quiet strength.

  A single tear traced down her cheek,

  but her eyes held something brighter—relief, maybe even pride.

  For a moment, they stayed like that.

  Two souls, scarred but not broken,

  wrapped in a silence that felt like healing.

  As they held each other, the air around them shimmered.

  Daniel felt her warmth seep deeper,

  not just into his skin, but into his soul.

  And then—he absorbed her.

  Her essence folded into him like light into shadow,

  familiar and eternal.

  Above them, the last crack in the sky sealed shut.

  The broken heavens stitched themselves whole.

  And the reality before him began to dissolve—

  like a dream outgrown,

  like a memory finally laid to rest.

  As the reality around him vanished completely,

  Daniel found himself whole again.

  His body was intact.

  And he was wearing the same clothes he had died in.

  He looked around—

  but there was nothing.

  No sky. No ground. No sound.

  Just endless, absolute nothingness.

  He muttered under his breath,

  “Now where the fu** am I, actually?”

  The void didn’t answer.

  It simply stretched on, infinite and silent.

  At first, Daniel stood still, expecting something—anything—to happen.

  But nothing came.

  Time didn’t pass. Or if it did, he couldn’t tell.

  His body felt weightless, then heavy, then not there at all.

  He blinked instinctively—yet the motion meant nothing.

  There was nothing to see. He forgot he even had eyes.

  Sound never returned. He strained to hear, but the silence was absolute.

  No heartbeat, no breath, not even the faint hum of his own blood.

  Soon, he forgot he had ears.

  His skin should have felt the air—or the absence of it.

  But there was no warmth, no cold, no touch.

  And so, he forgot he had a body at all.

  Last of all, his thoughts began to slip.

  What was there to think about, when there was no world to think of?

  The void pressed in, smothering, endless.

  A final thought flickered, a ghost in a dead machine: "Who… am I? What… am I? Do I even exist?" The void offered no echo. The answer was absolute. …No. I do not exist