Even A Thousand Folds of Lifetime

Chapter 1

He slowly strode through the crowd, passing them by with ease. Reaching to the center, he saw a woman crouching down on the ground, trembling from crying her eyes out. Never he has seen such a miserable being that even as she stepped into the afterlife, she was still in the feeling of contempt and drowning in so much pain. Normally, when he goes picking up mortals that enters the stage after death, there should be no more of those mortal or human emotions as what they call. They should be freed from it. But this, this human, bears an unbearable pain that surpasses even the lines of divinity that even in her soul and naked state, she was still holding so much grief. He heard it of course. He heard what she said before the flames devoured them to their deaths.

                He walked towards her as the ashes of the corpse were being blown against him. When the woman looked up to him, she was startled as he was towering over her and other than that, someone had finally seen her. Everyone that was passing them seems to ignore them or rather, they can't see them. She stood up and cleared her throat. She was still wearing the clothes that she was wearing when she was torched from the flames. There were still huge spots of bloodstains that she wasn't even aware of having. But overall, her body didn't seem to be touched nor it looked like it was disfigured. Like everything that happened last night was only a nightmare of her dreams. She wished. Her eyes stared at the figure in front of her. His skin was as white as snow. She noticed his fingers that were long and slim. He was wearing a black hooded cloak that reached even through his feet. He got eyes of a normal human but only, it lacked of emotions. He's got a hair that was pale greyish that you could imagine that he was an old man but except, he was not. He looks absolutely young. The woman's guess was he was only in his late 20s.

"Are you, death?" The woman asked. The language that came out from her mouth was different and unknown, only the man and the wandering souls could understand.

"I am The All Knower." He replied shortly. He was used to this question by now. Many of you may know him as the Grim Reaper or Death, but he never named him after such farcical nicknames (as he said before) that humans created for him. In fact, he doesn't even have a scythe that anyone perceives him to have. He never really understood the imaginations of a mortal.

As they stared at one another, everything that are surrounding them began to darken until it turned into a total blackness. There was only him and her.

"Where are we going?" She asked. She knew it then that it was finally the end of her story. Of their story. But there was still a huge part of her that's full of resentment and grief. She still wanted to live so badly.

"I heard what you said awhile back, before you died." The All Knower said.

She could only blink in response and soon after, she started crumbling down again and cried with the hopelessness of it all.

"Stand up, mortal." He commanded. So, the woman obeyed but still, streaks of tears were still flowing from her eyes.

"I can let you live and find him, again." He said. Her eyes widened and wiped her tears away. Her ears were on him, prepared to what he'd say next. She finally has hope!

"But, there are rules. With such huge chance given to a mortal, there are limitations to it."

"You mentioned lifetime, awhile back. I will be willing to give you a chance to live but, you're going to be reincarnated as a different person. Each lifetime that you'll live, you'll be born to a different household, different family, different last name, a different life. I'll make sure that the only constant thing that you're gonna have is your name and your physicality as a whole. Your physical features may only change according to the heritage or race that you're going to be born into but regardless, you will still look the same. Your memories will only begin to re- surface as soon as you enter your teenage years. As soon as you reached 18, all of your memories will be fully restored. There then, that you can only search for your love. If you fail to search for him in the next lifetime, then you'll be reincarnated again as soon as you die. You, living through different lifetimes will not stop, not until you've finally found him, not until you've finally accomplished what you wished for. And don't cheat yourself to death by killing yourself just to immediately jump into next lifetimes. As soon as you do it, I'll make sure that your soul will be condemned and locked up into a place of suffering and cries. And I will know if you're going to do it, I am called The All Knower after all. I am telling you all of this now, so you'd know what you're going into. This is more difficult than you'd think. We are talking about thousand lifetimes or more, that you're going to live through. The question is, are you willing for it, just for the sake of being with him?"

The All Knower could never understand the very thought of how humans can love. How they can go through such lengths just to be with who they love. Why do they do it? Is it worth all the trouble? Looking at the woman's expression now, he guesses he knows the answer already.

The woman nodded to him. But there was one question that she wanted to ask but was afraid to do so. The All Knower noticed this, "Ask away, mortal."

"Will his face still be the same? Or his name? I just wanted to know how will I---"

"Yes. Both of you would still be reincarnated with the same physical features, but his name would change over the time. It is up to you to know if he was the one whom you hold dearly or just some other person who only looks a lot like him. After all, you humans have those senses that you can feel whether the person is the one you're looking for or not."

The woman stood up straight and looked straight into the eyes of The All Knower with courage flickered in her eyes. The All Knower admittingly, was amused of this. Sometimes, he admired these mortals for their optimism even though the situation lacks of possibilities and positiveness. He could never understand the mind of a mortal.

"Are you sure about this?" He asked.

The woman nodded.

"I need your words, human." He said

And the woman answered, "Yes! I agree with your offer."

The All Knower raised his right hand and flickered it while he lowered his head, mumbling words which the woman can't understand. She watched him for a minute, waiting for what is about to happened. It was only pure silence. And before she knew it, everything around her began to swirl, The All Knower was the only one standing still.

"I would visit you from time to time." He said before her sight began to blurr and drowned into nothingness.