#multilife

A hooded figure landed on the patio of a very ancient villa. The walls began crumbling down in some places. Somehow, the paintings were still intact and even the bronze plates were readable. The hooded figure passed them without a glance. They walked up the cracked stairs and into a very dusty dining room. Another figure stood on the opposite end of the room, staring into the hearth, eyes distant, as if the small flames brought them to a place no one could follow. 

“How long have we been feeding off of the same trauma?” they asked. 

“Far too long,” was the response they got. Although they both knew it was the truth, it wasn’t what they wanted to hear. A few more figures joined the dining hall. 

“We need to do it again,” one said. 

“We all know, but we’ve run out of ideas.” 

The figure near the fire turned his head. “Why do we need a new idea? Why not just start over again and throw everybody together?”

The gathered people whispered frantically about the idea. “Wouldn’t that mean  some of the curses will be broken?” one asked.

“Yes,” said the person near the fire, “but it will add to the taste; one will go due to the curse, and the others will think they have a fighting chance. It will give hope, but paranoia as well. What if the curse was on them now? What if they’re next? What if—”’ 

A voice interrupted: “All I hear are what ifs. Not really any concrete ideas. I don’t think we can feed off of this much longer, and we do need something else. I hope you’re right about your idea. If you’re not, we’ll feed off of you.”

One by one the figures left the dining hall; some took to the skies, others dispersed in the many dusty rooms. A few even left for the cellars, trying to find any leftovers from a feast they had months ago. None would be found, but it was worth checking at least. Eventually, it was only the first two figures left.

“You know what? Screw it. I know my idea will be good. I don’t care if the others doubt it. It will work.” The figure by the fire got their zoned out look again. “I know it will work. I just have to find a way to fit it all in.” They mumbled more to themself than to anyone else. “You figure it out. You’re the one in charge of the twists. Do it fast!” The hooded figure walked back to the patio. This time he did stop to look at the paintings. A woman holding a scythe, a full moon behind her. A man with stars in his hair. Another covered in sunlight. And then the figure's favorite: a man overlooking a storm of comets raining down on the world. He didn’t really like the painting; he just liked the taste that one brought. 

The entire group of Ren's followers stood in a circle around the altar. Martyn held a giant axe in his hands. 

“I believe one of you has been cursed by a witch,” Ren said. 

“Kill the witch! Kill the witch!” several people shouted. Others stayed completely silent. 

“If you tell me who the witch is, I’ll let you go and stop this curse,” Ren continued after the shouting had stopped. “Don’t tell me who it is, and I’ll still end this curse, but in a different manner.” 

Bdubs took a step forwards. “You may now speak,” he said, not breaking eye contact with me. 

“Ren, oh noble king, we don’t know where this curse came from. We only know that if we have been cursed, it must have been so from the very first day the sun found this world and warmed it with its love,” Grian said. “Pearl and I have been together since we arrived here and ran into this version of myself before the first moon chased the sun away to let her children play,” he continued. 

Ren raised his hand. “If what you say is true, then Pearl is the witch who cursed you when you weren’t looking! Hand, axe!” Martyn took a step forward and presented the axe to Ren. 

“My King,” he said as Ren took the axe from Martyn’s hands. 

“I shall free you from this curse, as I would do for everyone I meet along this bloodied and cursed path. For if I can lift at least one curse before I die, I know I walked my path the way the moon intended it.”

He took a couple of steps towards Pearl, axe held high, when the clouds blocked out the moon and a loud rumbling was heard. ‘Bdubs blew up, Etho blew up, BigB blew up, Tango blew up, Jimmy died.’ 

“How did five people perish?” Ren turned around, letting the axe fall on the altar. “What is this trick? Why does the moon tell us you died while you’re standing in front of me unharmed?” With the king distracted I sought a way to escape but could find none. Ren stood tilted to the right, so left was our only safe way to go, but Scott and Jimmy stood there watching us. Signaling us?

“Here, go. Run,” they whispered. “Hit us and run.”

So we did. We got up and ran towards the left, knocking Jimmy and Scott out of the way in the process. By the time Ren noticed what happened we were already protected by the dense forest.

We exited the forest by the break of dawn. “Those deaths we saw, do you think that was—” I asked, out of breath. 

“Yes, I assume so,” Grian responded, “The Boogey has been cured.”

“So all those people lost their lives so one person could keep his?” Pearl asked. 

After catching his breath for a few second Grian responded: “Yes, I assume so.”

Green hills rolled out in front of us. Clouds filled the sky again. ‘BigB was slain by a spider.’ The clouds rolled back and a beautiful sun was shining. 

“How could BigB die from a spider?” Pearl asked. 

“No idea,” I replied. 

We wandered the plains for a bit before deciding to mine when the night began setting in again. While digging, we opened up a large cave. Massive spiders hung from the ceiling and in the corners, and a few explosives were stacked up. Slowly, we walked over to them. As long as the giant spiders didn’t see us, all would be well. And if they did see us… Well, it wasn’t worth thinking about that. 

A few rocks started shaking and formed words. ‘Etho fell from a high place.’ We didn’t pay it any attention. Our eyes were on the explosives and spiders above us. BigB dying to them made sense now. 

When we reached the explosives we all looked at each other. There were too many to carry them all. Each of us took a couple of little sticks, and I grabbed a small pouch before we stalked back out. The rest of the night we stayed on the opposite side of that cave, digging down some more, and even finding some raw iron to smelt back in the village. 

It was day when we emerged from the cave. The sun reflected on little dewdrops spread throughout the field. 

“We need to find that village again,” Grian said. His two necklace beads seemed to shine in the light. 

We spent the night in the village, mostly trying to find a way to make bread and failing to do so. We also found another way to tell the difference between me and the second Grian. My eyes were green, but he wore a necklace with two beads on it. What it meant? No clue. Not even Two-bead Grian does. The clouds came back. A rumble was heard, and then the words came: ‘Pearl drowned.’ How was that even possible? She was standing right between Grian and me. She didn’t drown. 

Another rumble sounded, but this time, the clouds didn’t form words. A book fell from the sky. Multiple, actually. Three books fell, one in front of each of us.

“Are we supposed to read them?” Pearl asked. Grian looked at us both before stepping toward the book in front of him and picking it up. I followed soon after, but Pearl still looked a bit wary. I turned the book around in my hands. 

“Seems like a perfectly normal book to me,” I said. 

When I opened the book I was surprised that it only contained a couple of words. ‘You are not the Boogeyman.’ What the hell is a ‘Boogeyman?’ I turned to Pearl and Grian. Pearl still hadn’t picked up her book, but Grian was looking up from his with relief in his eyes. 

“I’m not the Boogey!” he said joyfully. “Come on Pearl, pick up yours. Look, we both did and didn’t die from it,” he said while pointing at himself and me. 

Pearl slowly shuffled closer towards her book and picked it up. “Not it,” she said, her shoulders relaxing. 

“Also not it,” I said, “but what’s a Boogey?”

Grian looked at me with mischief in his eyes. “The boogeyman needs to kill a player to be cured from the Boogey ‘curse’. If a boogeycursed player fails to kill anybody within two days, they’ll be set to their final life.” I looked at my second-self in shock. 

“You’re telling me that there’s now a non-red able to kill whoever he wants?” 

Grian just looked back at me with a grin on his face. “Yes, I did just tell you that.”

The village didn’t really have anything left to offer us, so we crossed the river and went into the forest to collect more supplies. Anything really. My pockets were getting pretty full when Pearl suddenly screamed. When I found her she was holding her shoulder. Her hand was covered in blood from the wound she was frantically staring at. 

“Pearl, how did you get that?” I asked in terror. Where was Grian? She didn’t answer. 

“Give her food! Now!” A voice growled from nearby. I turned around to see Joel standing there. “Don’t watch me. Help her!” 

Pearl was still in shock. I searched my pockets for an apple but couldn’t find any. I helplessly turned around to Joel. “Do you have anything?” 

He sighed but stepped up to Pearl and gave her a stew of some sort. “I expect some sort of return favor in the future,” he said while stepping away. Pearl was still looking at her arm in shock. The wound slowly started to heal. Thank EV for the healing. As long as you have enough food for the reaction to take place, that is.

Once Pearl’s shock was gone, Joel ordered us to follow him. Where we were walking to, I had no idea. I didn’t even know where Grian went. 

“So, how did you escape?” Joel asked after a while. 

“Escape?” I asked. 

He started laughing. “Okay, keep your secrets then.” 

The rest of the trek was silent until we arrived at another river. We could see the ruins of what once had been a beautiful temple. Figures passed over it as if it was still occupied. Joel just headed straight for the main entrance. Inside we found the limited space almost completely occupied by a throne. 

The throne was surrounded by people. I saw Jimmy and Scott in a corner. Etho and Martyn stood next to the throne. Others formed lines in front of it. A person walked up the stairs, red cape flowing behind him. 

Bdubs’ voice was heard above all the chatter: “All bow to the king!” The room fell silent. Everyone bowed, and Joel gestured to us to do the same. When I looked up I saw that the so-called king now sat on the throne. A pair of sunglasses and a wolfish snout looked over the gathered people. Ren had declared himself king?

“Joel, why have you brought these people to our haven?” Ren asked. I don’t know what Joel answered; I was still taking in the surroundings. How was it possible that a group this big had already formed within the first day? I was still wondering when Pearl hit me. 

“Throw them away in the deepest dungeon under Black Heart Altar.” Ren looked at Joel for a second before adding: “Make sure they don’t escape.”

The dungeon was in a little cave near the temple.  I assumed an old stone clearing above the cave was supposed to be Black Heart Altar. Inside the dungeon we found the other Grian. His eyes flickered with worry as he saw us being escorted by Scar and Jimmy. 

“Grian!” I shouted. “How did you end up here?” 

Jimmy looked between the two of us with a confused look in his eyes. Scar halted as if suddenly made of stone.

“REN!” Jimmy turned around and ran back to the main hall. He returned shortly after with his king. 

“What sort of witchcraft is going on here!” Ren exclaimed when he saw both me and the other Grian standing beside each other. 

I started to explain that even we didn’t know, but I was cut off by Bdubs: “You’ll speak when spoken to!” Ren looked at Bdubs, his head tilted downwards so his green eyes were visible from behind his glasses. 

“Welcome to the Third Life event everybody. As you can see, we have fourteen people here in total. The goal is to survive until the last living person. At the start of this event, you have all been injected with EV or Life Serum. This serum has granted you three lives in total, meaning you can die three times. Now, before you get to explore these new possibilities: there are rules. 

“As long as you are on three lives, you can’t kill each other. You’re only allowed to kill each other if you’re in your final life. If you die on your final life, you are removed from the event. Don’t ask how that happens. I don’t know. I was just sent here to inform you of these rules. Good luck everybody.”

As soon as I spoke those words, a portal opened in front of us. The grass turned towards it; the flowers as well. ’Wait a second. How did the grass turn?’ was my last thought before I got sucked in. 

I don’t know why, but I had the idea that I fell for a very long time. I was standing though, so that idea had to be wrong. And wasn’t I with other people? Seeing as I was standing here alone, I assumed that was also wrong. Not far from where I was, I saw other people. Maybe I did stand with others. Maybe I was just zoned out for a long time. They looked busy discussing something, so I left them to it. I found a nearby tree and started collecting sticks and small stones. It didn’t take long before I had a very primeval pickaxe. It would do the job for now. Stone tools soon followed.

Before I went back into the mines, in search of iron and more stone, I travelled a bit around the place. It seemed like almost the entire place was just a savannah. I ended up finding a village near a river. It became dark so I rested there for a while. As the time passed, I saw a figure moving towards me. A brown haired woman stopped before me, catching her breath as she took me in.

“You’re here fast,” she said between two gasps for air. Her hand rested on a fence.

“Sorry, but who are you?” I mean, what else could I say? I’d never seen her before. With a puzzled look she told me her name was Pearl and that we spoke about five minutes ago. Now it was my time to look at her in surprise. “I haven’t seen a soul since this started.”

A third figure appeared on the horizon — running towards us, it seemed. I could only look in shock once I saw who was running towards Pearl and me. 

I saw myself. When he got to us he didn’t notice me at first. 

“That wasn’t fair Pearl! I didn’t have time to gather my stuff before you sprinted off.” He even sounded like me. 

“What is going on!” I was so confused. This time the second Grian noticed me and also stared in shock. 

“How is this possible?” he asked. 

“As if I know!”

The longer I looked at myself, the more I began to panic. The same red sweater, the same hairstyle. Even the eyes were the same.

“How is it that we look the exact same?” I asked. 

Pearl answered before the second me could. “Exact same? Look in the stream mate, your eyes are green.” 

To my horror, Pearl was right. “What happened to my eyes!” I turned around, frantically trying to understand what happened. Why were there two me’s, why were there gaps in my memory, and who is this Pearl? I didn’t get long to ponder on these questions since the woman I didn’t know suddenly started bleeding. Her legs gave out and she fell to the ground, panting in pain as she looked helplessly up to us. 

“What can we do?” the second me asked.

“Food!” she yelled. “I need food!” I looked around. We were in a village, surely they would have food here. Right? 

I found some pre-made bread in a chest and brought it back to Pearl. She was still panting, but at least she could sit. 

“Here, I may not know who you are, but I don’t want you to die here.” She took the bread and while she did I spotted a wristband on her arm. “What’s that?” I asked after she ate the bread and caught her breath a bit. Pearl looked at her wrist in surprise, as if she didn’t know she was wearing a wristband until now. 

“I have no idea.” Clouds packed together above our heads. A slow rumbling was heard and the clouds formed the words: ‘Scar fell from a high place.’ All three of us stared in awe at the message. “We all saw the same thing right?” Pearl asked. 

If every action every taken ever is a different universe then I truly believe that somewhere and somehow there is a me who lived to play the violin and truly love it. 

There is a me where they got to play something just as breathtaking as Ludovico Einaudi ‘s Experience with their sister; whether they played it for audience or not. They are out there.