Axis Mundi [HP]

CH 1 [With A Breath]

01/03/23 [To my long time readers: Before anyone starts to panic, no, WASP is not being abandoned! I've been having a very hard time trying to craft the last two chapters of the book and have re-written scenes several times. WASP will be updated in the near future. ]

This book is also posted on AO3 and has currently been updated up to chapter 6.

I hope some of my longtime readers will understand my move to other fandoms. I also welcome anyone who is here for the first time :). Settle down and enjoy the ride!

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If dying was one of the worst things Rene has ever felt, being born again right afterward surely took first place.

The oppressive heat followed by bone-chilling cold, the wet stickiness that clung to the body like a second skin. It all made him nauseous beyond words. Flashes of green veins and an angry red membrane pushed themselves against Rene's eyes like snippets of some archaic vision.

He felt so...small and clumpy as if his being was held together with wet clay that with one wrong move would send his body crumbling. Rene whirled in someone's hands, arching from side to side like some distressed reptile.

In a moment of clarity, the young man realized that his ears were being prodded by the distant echoes of some distressed individuals whose voices he didn't recognize.  His body, which by now felt like some pathetic, wet lump was bound by an oppressive force that squeezed him whole, not unlike the membrane.

Sleep began to once more pull him under, tugging his consciousness down into the murky waters of oblivion.

Through the haze of slumber, Rene had come to face the overwhelming and insurmountable truth that he had just been reborn.

[...]

Goddam it. This whole thing was ridiculous. So many years of listening to those absurd religious teachings and none of them came in handy after death. Rene's eye twitched as he remembered the pasty face of his youth pastor as he rambled on for a hundredth time about the same Bible passage. He could never pay full attention as the man's bald head perfectly reflected every candlelight in the cathedral effectively turning his skull into a very distracting disco ball.

Well, his lack of attention turned out to not be much of a problem anyway as he did not end up meeting God upon his death. Neither was he currently getting smothered by angry demons down in the fiery pits of hell.

Instead, he was laying down in the middle of a ratty blanket, and gated away from the rest of the world by the supple pillars of a wooden crib. His body, once tall, lithe, and full of courage brought by his newfound status as an adult was reduced to a pudgy clump. All he could do was breathe, eat and shit.

He could cry, but God he was not about to demean himself even further.

Oh lord... maybe this actually was hell.

Well, the person gazing down on him certainly didn't look like a demon though. The woman was tall, her face thin and white. As the vibrant light of the early blue noon grazed her hairline it send the golden hues of her curly blonde locks spiraling down her features like a halo. Her nose was pointy and hooked at the base, further reinforcing the sharp eagleness of her features, only strengthened by the thinness of her lips and the sharp edge of her blonde brow. She looked maybe in her mid-twenties.

"You're a strange one aren't you?" She said, the woman's adenoidal voice was muffled by the cloud of smoke she exhaled out the window. "No crying, mumbling, nothing. The nurses thought you were dead." Pressing the cigarette to her lips she looked down at Rene. Her eyes were a powdery shade of pale blue, sharp, just as everything else about her. Tentatively she reached down into the nursery and ran the tip of her finger down Renes' brow, her skin was rough but warm. Rene felt the way his baby-thin eyebrows shifted under her touch.