“Ahhhh.” I shut down the laptop and closed it. “I guess it's official now. There is nothing left.” I tried to stand up, but it was extremely difficult. Holding onto the wall for support, I finally managed it. I trudged towards the living room, using the wall for support, hoping not to fall down again.

  When I plopped onto the recliner, I turned on the chair’s heating function and reclined. I then opened my favorite app in existence. My player piano started my sad classical playlist. “I just love the sound of a real piano, not that digital stuff. People say it is the same, but I swear I can tell I difference between the piano playing and the digital.” I loved classical music so much, I even learned to play, but I didn’t have the energy to play anything today. Hence the player part of the piano, its most expensive feature.

  I spent a lot of money on my piano, sparing no expense. It is my most prized possession. I know its inner workings like the back of my hand. I could tune it myself. Granted, I had to learn that when the person I paid took it apart and destroyed it, on purpose too. I paid him good money too and treated him with respect. It's another mystery. Once again, another mystery. I shook my head, “Let’s not go there.”

  With a good song playing, I think this one is Waltz of the Flowers by Tchaikovsky. I smiled, but it faded shortly. “Where did it all go wrong?” I of course, knew the answer, but I enjoyed having this conversation with myself. As if discussing it again would make me feel better. It all started when I told my parents about the bitcoin I had invested everything in. They used to love me and taught me everything I knew. Even now, I am still grateful to them, despite all the suffering they have now caused me.

  I felt tears streaming down my face. “I wish I had just kept my mouth shut.” It’s true, I watched a change come over my family when I told them I was rich. Honestly, I had forgotten about my digital coins until the news announced Bitcoin was selling for over $10,000 a coin. I thought I was the luckiest man in the world. When I ran home and dug out my old computer, I discovered that my digital wallet was still there, and it still had all 100,000 coins I had mined and bought.

  My parents got lawyers and sued me. They ‘claimed’ that they wanted to recoup damages for all the money they spent on me as a child from the day I was born. The crazy part was that the USA sided with my parents. I tried appealing, and then the next thing I knew it turned into a class action lawsuit. Everyone came out of the woodwork to get some free money. I don’t know how I burdened my second cousins, but sure enough, good ole USA said I surely did. They ended up taking half my money in the end.

  But it didn’t stop there. Nope, the nice neighborhood I moved to, everyone decided they deserved my money. Some of them were wealthier than I. They even formed a mob and burned my home. What did my government do to help me? They decided I wasn’t paying my fair share in taxes, so every year the Federal Government would sue me and take nearly eighty percent of my wealth. I learned the painful truth that you can’t trust anybody. That’s why I live here in Alaska now. It’s why I am still single and alone. However, one good thing I learned is that if people don’t meet me, they don’t want to suddenly ruin my life.

  I sighed, “And all I ever wanted in life was my very own family. Was that too much to ask for?” I knew if I didn’t change the subject, I would just get angry again. Still though, women were the worst. Never again will I ever trust a woman. You sit down next to one at the doctor’s office and the next thing you know they are suing you for sexual assault. The worst offenders were the girls I tried dating and courting. ‘Courting’ who even uses that word today? I guess, just a bum like me. I let out a sigh and looked at my arm. Nothing but skin and bones. I probably looked like a walking mummy, without the wrappings. Good, that distraction was enough to break the self-destructive spiral of bad thoughts.

  “I am so tired.” I closed my eyes and tried to imagine happier days, but no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t think of any. What I did to reap such awful karma. Heck, I don’t even believe in karma, but after the life I lived, I am not so sure anymore. You know, I guess it really doesn’t matter anymore. The email I just got was letting me know the USA was seizing everything I own and stripping me of my citizenship. I didn’t even think that was legal. In fact, I knew what they were doing was illegal and against the constitution, but nobody cared. The corruption was that bad.

  I hated those people. They could all blatantly use the power of government to take and take and take. What could a lone man do to stop them? Absolutely nothing. I tried suing, but each law firm I hired seemed to conspire with the enemy instead of helping me. When that failed, I tried posting my thoughts and opinions, and my story online. The media picked it up and used it to bully me in return. Somehow, I was the enemy. You would almost think of was the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler or something.

  If I only had actual power. I could have made a difference. It’s why I love fantasy and sci-fi so much. The heroes had power and could do whatever they wanted. Corrupt government officials never stood a chance in the end. Bad citizens always got their comeuppance. I know those stories are just that: stories. Based on my experience and knowledge of human nature, people would have culled any uncontrollable hero early on. If you stand out too much, you are just a target. So, if you don’t kill and take from the corrupt, they always come back to bite you again.

  "Ah." I am getting worked up again. I inhaled deeply and then held it for thirty seconds. Trying to fill my lungs with as much air as possible and then holding it was something I enjoyed. I don’t know why it felt good, but it always seemed to calm me. I exhaled. Something else I learned was that imagining breathing out all my troubles and pain made it feel like my heartaches were lessening. The results were undeniable, though I couldn't explain why.

  I hated corruption, but what could one man do? Absolutely nothing. I wanted to laugh, but I didn’t have the energy. “Plus, it doesn’t concern me anymore, anyway.” With my eyes closed, I just enjoyed the music. Clair de Lune by Debussy just finished, and now it switched to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. I felt a warmth, but not like the warmth the chair usually gave me. I surrendered to its embrace. It was so nice and comforting. I gave one last smile as I felt my troubles and pain just fade away. My last thought was, why hadn’t I done this sooner?

  ***

  “Where am I?”

  Everything around me was white as snow. The place I was in gave off the vibe like I was in some clean room in a hospital. Hmmm, now that I think about it, it feels more like some kind of holy place. I tried to move, but I wasn't able to. It felt all wrong.

  “Where is my body? Am I dead?”

  Not that it mattered much, as my life sucked. I suppose none of that mattered now. The only thing I regretted, though, was not being able to get some amount of vengeance on those who wronged me. I did state in my will that upon my death my money was to go to suing the government for all the wrongs committed against me, but I knew it wouldn’t matter. Still though, an afterlife surprised me. Or whatever this was.

  “I welcome you to my home.” An amazingly beautiful woman grabbed my attention. Though that made little sense to me, because I couldn’t quite make out what she looked like. She appeared hazy to me. I knew that this was a contradiction, but I just knew she was good-looking. This would have hurt my head if, you know, I had a head.

  “May I ask where I am?”

  “You are in my Celestial abode, the home of the Goddess Hestia.” She gestured to all around me. “Though it is in terrible decline as of late. For that, I hope you can forgive me.” The Goddess bowed her head and body towards me.

  “That isn’t necessary.” If I had hands and arms, I would have tried waving her to stop.

  “Oh, but it is. You see, it is all my fault.” She turned away from me as if she couldn’t bear to look at me as she spoke. “Your entire life of over fifty years.” She seemed to take a deep breath. “You have had a curse placed on you. The reason for all your pain and suffering is that I am a failure.”

  I couldn’t speak. I felt so conflicted. Here there was a literal Goddess and she was in distress. I wanted to reach out and comfort her. That was the natural tendency of men after all. Still, after everything I suffered, I was a sucker for it. I hated myself for it; I suppose I could never become heartless.

  This Goddess was giving me time to think while looking out into some far-off place only she could see. I didn’t understand. What did she mean? I wanted to ask, but fear froze me in place. My mind was a wash of emotions. I feel anger, hate, pity, and sorrow. They were clashing with tenderness, kindness, love, and hope. I had to know. Just what did she mean?

  She turned back to me. “Long ago I had a hero I raised up who helped me defeat a great evil. However, he learned some truths. I have little time, so I will give you the shortest possible story. My Hero learned I created good and evil. He blamed me and convinced others to abandon me as well. In doing so, he also learned that he could take my place. So, he started working tirelessly with the divine blessings I bestowed upon him to get people to abandon and betray me.

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  “He was very successful too, traveling between the various worlds and sowing turmoil and despair. I thought I could control him and use him to my advantage. But he always got the upper hand. When I finally tried to stop him, he disappeared, and I searched the universe for him. While the worlds I created fell apart, I searched. That is where you come in.

  “You see, he hid away on Earth. It shocked me that he would go to such a place. Since Earth doesn’t have any magic. Meaning he started ageing again. Any power he used, he wouldn’t regenerate. He became weak and would have been easy to kill, yet I never once looked on any such world. He would have to reserve a bunch of his power to escape, so he truly lived a normal life with no extra strength. However, his heart is a twisted thing.

  “You see, he wasn’t content to sit around and just let time pass. He wanted to be entertained. He met you as a child and placed a truly nasty, multilayered curse on your soul. To sum up what this curse did is it caused good people to avoid you, and bad people to want to exploit and betray you.”

  I could tell she was closing her eyes and holding her breath. Like she was awaiting my condemnation. I still couldn’t see her through the haziness. I wanted to take a deep breath myself, but well, having no body meant no breathing. Still, she waited for me to say something. “So, the hell I had to endure was all his fault?”

  “And my fault as well. But, yes, your hellscape was all because of that curse.”

  “But surely there was a way to remove it, or some loophole. What else did the curse do?”

  “If you were on a magical world, then it would have been removable. One positive is that those who got to know you would no longer be influenced by your curse. Like your parents and siblings. However, the curse had a much greater hold on women than on men.”

  “But my parents and entire family betrayed me. And why were women more affected?”

  “Yes, I am aware. There was another aspect of the curse. The more money you had, the higher the threshold for people needing to spend more time with you to be unaffected. And you suddenly came into a large amount of money, did you not?”

  “So, everything really went wrong when I told my parents about my newfound wealth.”

  “Actually, the curse took root again when you cashed your Bitcoin for cash. But that doesn’t matter right now.” I was about to repeat my last question, but she continued. “Women were more affected as they are the opposite sex. He likely thought it funny to see potential love interests abuse you and betray you.”

  “So, every time I got falsely accused of sexual assault, of exploiting women, all the lawsuits against me to steal everything I owned for their own selfishness was because of this ‘hero’ you created?”

  “Yes.”

  I desperately wanted to take a lung full of air to let out slowly. Man, was it now bugging me I couldn’t do all the small things you take for granted when you have a body. I was angry, but not at the Goddess. My life was hell, just so some guy could entertain himself. That was what really made me angry. “How did you find me? Why couldn’t you find me earlier?”

  “I have no good excuse. I only found you when you died. You see, I felt his power on you because your soul was cursed. I grabbed your soul, with permission, of course. Then—“

  “Hold up, what do you mean by 'with permission'?”

  “The God who oversees your world entrusted me with your soul upon death.”

  “So, he could have removed it then?”

  “Yes and no. I will be brief. We Gods have restrictions we must obey. If we don’t, we cease to be Gods and lose our divine power. So, He had the power, but if He used it to cure you, He would then cease to be God. If He ceased to be God, the world would die and many people would die. I am sorry, but please don’t be angry with Him.”

  “I was only curious. I suppose that all makes sense, but if He knew something was up, why didn’t He get a hold of you?”

  “Two reasons. First, my evil hero could hide from Him. Second, He didn’t know that I was searching for him and, by extension, you. With all the restrictions we have as Gods, there is surprisingly little we can do to intervene.”

  “Oh.” I didn’t like it; I mean, how could somebody hide from a God?

  “He wasn’t created by your God, but by me. And, since he wasn’t in a world I created, it would be difficult to find him. I am sorry for my failure.”

  “But why didn’t He do something about my curse. Surely that would have been out of place, and He would have done something.”

  “He did all He could. I can promise you that if He did nothing people would have created a mob and tortured you but never killed you. Your life would have been far worse.”

  “Oh.” I still didn’t like it, but what could somebody like me do about it; nothing.

  She looked upwards. “Anyway, after I grabbed your soul, I went looking for him, but he left when you died. He knew better then to stick around. Sadly, I was so focused on him that my worlds have almost all abandoned me at this point. I have very little power remaining to me. However, I want to make things right.”

  “What do you mean? What is going to happen to you?”

  “I will cease to exist. And my evil hero will take my place. Though he won’t ever be a true God, as he isn’t going about it in the proper way. Still, most of my worlds now worship him instead. All he has to do is get people to forget me and when the last person does, I disappear.”

  “That sucks. And how does he replace you? That seems a little unfair.”

  “It is a fitting punishment for a failure like me. You reap what you sow. This is what I am reaping. As for how, he is being worshipped in my stead. There is more to it than that, but we don’t have the time to get into how to become a God right now.”

  “So, how do you plan to make things right?”

  “I removed your curse. I sacrificed a great deal of power to do so. Normally, I would let normal reincarnation handle that. No reason to spend energy when the normal method would strip your soul bare and send you on your way. But I plan to reincarnate you into the very first world I created. Which I need to use my energy to accomplish. I know you want to wield magic, and so this new world for you will have just that.”

  “That sounds amazing.” I wanted to bow but couldn’t move.

  She seemed to understand what I wanted to do as she smiled at me. Not going to lie, it is weird that she is hazy, and I know what she is doing. Her voice pulled my attention back. “Do you have questions?”

  “What kind of technology does this world have?”

  The Goddess laughed. “You’re worried that I might restrict you or erase memories. Don’t be. I normally wouldn’t do what I am about to do to you, as I wouldn’t want to cause drastic changes in a medieval-like society. But this world has long since abandoned me, and I no longer really care. You’re free to do whatever you want. Use your knowledge to your advantage however you see fit.”

  I felt like a burden was being lifted, no, taken from me and being absorbed by the woman in front of me. “Sign me up. And I promise I won’t forget you.”

  She looked right at me; I could see sadness in her face. Hmmm, maybe it would be better to say that I feel sadness in her face, since I couldn’t see her face. “I must apologize again. You won’t remember me when you reincarnate.”

  “Why is that?”

  “If I allowed you to remember me, he would need to eliminate you to take my place. I don’t want you to suffer any more than you already have. I want you to enjoy your life.”

  “But if—”

  “I am sorry, but it isn’t up for debate. Do you have any last questions before you depart?”

  I wanted to argue further, but it would be pointless. She had power, and I didn’t. I was curious about something, though. “How are we talking? Since I don’t have a body. And I know how vocal cords are supposed to work. Despite that, it feels like a normal conversation with you.”

  “We are having a normal conversation, just through what you might call telepathy. It is rather simple soul to soul communication.” She smiled. “Anything else?”

  “What can you tell me about this world? Will I get any special powers? What restrictions will I be under?”

  She laughed. “The world is my first, but it would take too long to go into much detail. I will say it is the same size as Earth, but with about a fourth of the landmass. There are monsters, yes, that includes dragons.” She really could read my mind. I was just about to ask, well, never mind. “No real restrictions. You’re pretty much free to do anything you pursue. And I don’t have the power to give you a divine blessing in addition to reincarnating you. I am sorry about that. However, there are places of power in the world. Divine artifacts that I have created for the heroes and such. Take and do with whatever you find however you want.”

  “What—"

  “I am sorry, but I must now bid you farewell. If I wait any longer, I won’t have the power anymore to reincarnate you. Please forgive me.” She kneeled and kissed me where my forehead felt like it should be. How do you kiss somebody who doesn’t have a body? I can't wrap my head around it. But that is what it felt like. “Goodbye and have an amazing new life.”

  “Thank you!” I felt a pulling sensation, and everything went black. I saw her collapse, and that was it for me.

  ***

  Huh, where am I now? I try and move, but somebody is holding me. It feels like someone has tightly wrapped me in a blanket. I can also breathe again. Wait, again? Why do I feel relieved to breathe again? I remember dying, and now this. Wait, have I been reincarnated? Is that a thing? I look at my hand, and sure enough, it’s tiny. I look up and see a beautiful woman holding me and smiling down at me.

  I look over and see a man smiling and holding something. That something cries and he is panicking. The woman holding me gestures, and she hands me to him, and he hands her the baby he was holding. He is smiling and poking me with a finger. It is kind of annoying, so I try to grab the blanket flap and cover myself up. Not going to lie, this has got to be the hardest thing I have ever done.

  The man holding me laughs and helps me cover myself. At least he has stopped poking at me now. He appears to be saying something to the woman. Despite my attempts to hold it in place, he pulled the flap away. He is pointing at me and repeating the same word at me. Maybe it’s my name, or perhaps it’s him trying to—.

  Another man enters the room with a woman behind him. They wore exquisite clothes. I can hear them talking. If I had to guess, that new guy is congratulating the man holding me, who must be my father. If patting somebody on the back like that isn’t congratulations in this scenario, then I am a hopeless cause. The man, not my father, gestures to the fireplace, and it immediately starts on fire. I saw something leave his finger. It could only be one thing. This world has magic! This is amazing! I say a prayer of thanks to the whoever reincarnated me into this brand-new world.

  I felt like I should say a prayer of thanks to a Goddess, but I don’t know her name. This gives me a feeling a déjà vu. Well, whatever. This world is about to be exploited by yours truly. I will never be powerless again. If anybody tries to betray me or get in my way this time, I will have vengeance. That feeling again, like I am forgetting something. It doesn’t matter. I can’t wait to discover how magic works and what other forms of power might also exist. I wonder what pinnacle of power I will achieve?