ReRun!FPE

Trip Back From Hell

"Welcome back Abbie, how was your trip back to hell?"

Rapidly blinking his eyes to fight back against the ray of light shining from his world, Abbie looks in front of him to see the goat woman offering her hand to help him off against the tree. 'I'm back here again!' The young apple through time himself, 'Does...does this mean that I failed?' A sorrowful expression had overtaken the boy, thinking wrongly of his situation before accepting the helping hand the goat woman offered to him.

Despite thinking his efforts were in vain, the goat woman on the other hand seemed very proud of the young apple. With the way she stood tall and how she spoke the first time he arrived seemed to oppose his current viewpoint, slightly confusing him before he responds to the woman's question prior to his arrival.

"W-well if I had to be honest, it wasn't really the most... pleasant experience I've gone through. S-sure I was able to pass all of my exams, and manage to avoid being hunted down unlike my first time there. But... that's really the only good part of my return back, e-everything else was just downhill from there." His endless worry for Claire's safety, the self doubt he inflicted, that same sickening feeling of being hunted down by someone who wants nothing but to tear you apart. The memories, the emotions he experienced were steadily flowing back into his mind, like a wasteland being slowly flooded by the endless rain that just kept on pouring.

Eventually after soaking in those feelings had the apple stemmed boy made a horrible realization, a cruel reality set up by the world around him. He would quickly speak his thoughts to the patient woman.

"W-we were all supposed to die today, weren't we? If I hadn't stepped in to save Claire, s-she would've..." It all seemed so unfair to him, so unjustified with how fate tore through their lives while the others get to walk away free from their consequences. But that's the cold truth of their existence, to become another victim of this mindless slaughter, only to live on with the few memories they made along side their friends and families. Was that really how his life was supposed to end?

Seeing the gloomy apple in a state she's familiar with, she decides to interject by looking at the boy's achievements from his first visit alone.

"Fate is something that is bound to all of us, some with more deserving destinies than others. But thanks to you, she gets to live another day of being grateful for the existence she's been blessed with. You've managed to change two fates that would've resulted in their inevitable demise, you should be proud of yourself my young apple."

Breaking the boy out of his thoughts, he understands what this woman is trying to say. In return, he responds but not being able to look at her as he stares off into the endless distance before him.

"I-It's not... that I'm not proud of what I've done. I was able to save two of my closest friends, anyone would be happy if they've done what I've done. But... what about the real me? Everything I've done up until now doesn't change how my real life should've went, when my life should've ended." He looks up to the cluster of items above him, ones that represent his friends, enemies, and the unknown hanging on to the long branches.

"I know I can come back, that even if I die I'll always return to the point when I first woke up. Because of that power I can act however I want to act, talk how I want to talk, pretend to be somebody that I was never supposed to be." The goat woman's gaze seemed to soften behind her hollow mask, finding herself sympathizing with the poor boy's dilemma of who he really is. The apple head finds himself lying against the tree once more, curling his legs halfway to his body before continuing.

"I'm no hero, I was never cut out to be one. I'm just some high school kid who was handed a power free of consequences, free to make myself who I want to be." For the first time in a long time had the goat woman's body been overflowing with surprise, not expecting him of all people would be this self deprecating after doing something most people wouldn't think of. But despite this, she wasn't a novice when it came to this situation, she's experienced it enough times to know what the boys going through.