After an unknown time,
Jacob opened his eyes again in confusion before memories of recent events came back in mass.
At first, he thought it was just a horrible dream, but when he felt his body and saw with his new clear vision again, his heartbeat instantly shot up like a rocket.
He subconsciously looked toward this torso again, but his head won't move for some reason, so he used his eyes and felt relieved when he saw it wasn't open like a book anymore.
But his relief was momentary when he noticed the strangeness surrounding him.
First, he was completely naked and couldn't speak or move for some reason. Second, he felt pretty new, not like he remembered the old feeling. Third, he can't move his hands or feet, not even his pinky.
Last but not least, and most scary, he was floating inside a glass cell filled with light-blue liquid. He could only vaguely see his reflection, but not so clearly.
'Just what the hell is going on?!' Perplexed, Jacob tried to look through the transparent glass.
The outside was lit with soft green light. Jacob could vaguely see a table in the center of the room.
When Jacob's eyes landed on the wall right in front of his glass cell, he was shocked, and his eyes trembled in horror.
There was some glass cell on the wall in front, but inside it was a creature with the head of a wild pig and the torso of a human male!
'I must be hallucinating. There is no damn way that thing is real!' Jacob denied it wholeheartedly, without even thinking twice.
He quickly shifted his focus elsewhere since he didn't want to look there again, afraid he might hallucinate.
Jacob spotted small stairs going upward at the corner of the room, which was clearly a way out of his view. But he couldn't get free from whatever was holding him, no matter how much he tried, nor could he feel any kind of restraint, chains, or lock.
Jacob finally gave up thinking he was indefinitely 'hallucinating' or dreaming, as matter-of-factly. Because it was impossible to become young and magically appear in this horrible place.
He was never a believer in any cult or religion. He never believed in reincarnation despite his desire for immortality. He just thought of it as a fantasy and unachievable wish which probably every living being had, nothing less, nothing more.
'Sigh… I'm probably about to die or already dead, and this might be one of those flashbacks before death. But why is mine like a horror movie?' Jacob was perplexed.
'Well, it'll soon be over, and I'll cease to exist after that….' Jacob lamented with a hint of unwillingness and deep sadness.
Right then, Jacob heard the creaking sound of a door being opened. With squinting eyes, he looked toward those vague stairs.
A trim, vague silhouette clad in a black cape entered the room.
Jacob could tell this person's height was close to four feet. That was clearly uncommon unless this person was a child.
The little silhouette took off the cape and threw it toward a little table near the stairs. Jacob still couldn't clearly see the person's face. But he didn't care since he was going to 'die' very soon.
"Hmm?" The little silhouette suddenly noticed Jacob's glass cell and moved toward it.
Jacob coolly watched this person coming closer and closer.
"Oh, you're awake."
This person somehow noticed Jacob's opened eyes. Furthermore, his voice was exactly the same one Jacob had heard before he startled awake last time.
'Sigh… why is this quack in my flashback? I never seemed to offend any doctor-psychopath in my life,' Jacob sighed bitterly.
The little person suddenly extended his finger toward something beside Jacob's glass cell, and all the blue liquid sank toward the bottom while the glass cell holding Jacob slowly became empty.
Jacob could finally see somewhat clearly when the blue, slimy liquid was gone. He could tell he was standing on the metallic surface, but he still couldn't move his face or anything, as a matter of fact.
Suddenly, the glass tube also started to slide downward; it was clearly opening.
Now Jacob's eyes finally landed on the tiny figure, and the moment it happened, his entire body shuddered as his eyes contracted with horror.
The little person's face was utterly brown, with a 5-cm long knife-like nose, a pair of green eyeballs and black pupils, long pointy ears, and sharp, sinister greenish fangs showing through its mouth. It was completely bald, with only a strand of black hair right in the center of its head.
"Mmmmmm…" Jacob wanted to swear, but his damn mouth just refused to open. His 'death flashback' was becoming more and more accurate and ghastly.
"I don't like the way how you look at me, Slave!" The little monster snorted coldly as his greenish eyes shimmered mysteriously, "KNEEL!"
Jacob, who was still thinking this was just a 'horror show' before his death, finally felt something that one could not have felt if they were dead or dreaming. Pain!
When the word 'KNEEL' came out of the little monster's mouth, Jacob felt intense pain in his brain before his whole body trembled and his knees bent without his control or will.
'Bang!'
A loud sound of bones hitting the hard steel resounded in the room.
Jacob's feelings changed between bewilderment, horror, disbelief, and intense pain in his knees. His kneecaps were nearly shattered when his body kneeled without his 'concern.'
"Hmph! Now, that's better. A slave should always act like this!" The little monster sneered when he saw Jacob's body shaking, and his face turned pale, which was still expressionless.
Jacob somehow snapped out of his stupor, and all those moments flashed past his eyes; foreign language, his sudden 'bloody' awakening, then being in that glass cell in that slimy blue liquid, and finally mysteriously forced to kneel by this strange talking monster.
Everything pointed out in one direction that he had never believed in his life before, but all this thing was forcing him to think about it, and it was probably the only answer to his billions of questions.
'R-re-r…REINCARNATION?!'