Soul Between Lives

Alex slowly opened his eyes and it took a few minutes for his vision to clear enough to see. He felt so week and could barely make his heavy limbs obey him as he tried to sit up in the large and comfy bed he was laying in. No sooner had he done so than he heard a sharp gasp from the bedside next to him. There, a person that seemed to be a maid stood up while asking, "My young lord?" She then felt around Alex's face with her hands before she frantically ran to the door and yelled for the lord master.

"Master! Come quick! Master Paul is awake and without a fever!" She yelled as she continued out the door and down the hallway.

After she left Alex had a little bit of time to take in his surroundings. He was in a richly furnished room with half of the walls lined with nearly completely filled inlaid bookshelves. He didn't have much time to see anything else before he heard a rush of people coming down the hall outside of his room.

[What the hecks going on? That was a maid, wasn't it?] He thought to himself right before an important looking man burst into the room closely followed by five servants including the previous maid.

"Are you alright now my son?" The apparent lord of the house asked as he rushed over to the side of the bed to feel Alex's neck and face for himself.

The lord looked over at his servants and ordered, "Finish packing quickly and make sure my carriage is ready to leave immediately!" He turned back to Alex "Paul we have to leave right now. Your mother and sisters are already safely on their way to our summer retreat."

Alex could only blankly stare back at this worried older man as Paul's memories started to flood into his brain. [Ah, that's right. This guy's my father in this life. But what is going on? Why is everyone so nervous and rushing about like this?] Thinking thus Alex opened his mouth to ask "What's going on father?"

"I have no time to explain right now." His father said as he scooped Alex out of the bed and rushed from the room carrying Alex in his arms. "Don't worry about getting dressed. We will have clothes at the villa for you. No matter what happens don't leave the carriage until we arrive." He said while rushing down the hall and descending finely carved and polished wooden stairs."

At the front door, a senior looking butler was standing by.

"Is my carriage ready?" Paul's father asked.

At this, the butler was already opening the door as he replied, "There are no signs of trouble around the estate yet but please take care, my lord."

Outside, it appeared to be early evening and Alex was quickly rushed to the lead carriage in a line of other grand carriages. Alex decided to stay silent and observe this hectic new world. Once inside, his father gently laid Alex down across the cushions along the back of the carriage. "Try to rest and recover your strength Paul. We'll be with your mother soon, don't worry." His father said before he slid open the window behind the driver and ordered them to depart with haste.

As the carriage rushed along Alex was constantly jostled and had nearly fallen onto the floor. His father kept anxiously looking out the various windows as if to see if they were being followed or surrounded. It wasn't long before the carriage driver called back announcing that there was trouble ahead and the road was already barricaded.

"Then take us through the grass and forest!" Paul's father yelled.

"I can't sir, the trees are too close together to fit the carriage through. But I can turn us around and find a different way through." The driver announced before starting to turn the carriage.

Before the horses were fully turned around a group of people with large enough numbers to block the road came out from behind trees or thick bushes and surrounded the carriage.

One of the larger men in the group grabbed hold of the lead horse's tac halting them completely before yelling out "Who's in there!? Which lord is trying to escape what's due them?"

Inside the carriage, Alex's father was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth looking on as the doors were wrenched open by the mob outside. "Leave us be! We have done nothing to you lot!"

As others took over control of the horses, the leader of the mob made his way to where Alex's father was being pulled from the carriage.

"Haven't done anything to us he says!?" The leader asked while looking around at his cohorts as they started to sneer.

"What you, my lord, have done to us is eat your lavish diners in your lavish castles while looking down at the rest of us as we starve and freeze to death in the very streets that your lavish carriages drive down every day." He leaned in closer so his breath could be felt.

The thug continued, "What you and all the other lords have done is think you're better than all us common folk. But that ends today!" The mob around them cheered. Some of them held clubs and knives.

While he struggled against all the hands forcing him to kneel on the ground, Alex's father begged the men around him, "Please don't hurt my son! He has done nothing! He is still so young, surely you can see that he can't be held responsible for your troubles!?"

The mob's leader knelt down as he said, "Many of us had sons and daughters too. I myself had a son about his age. But the pox took him earlier this month because only you nobles could pay for the cure."

"I'm truly sorry for your loss but please don't hurt my son." Tears spilled from his desperate eyes as he spoke, "He knows so little about this world and only just recovered from a fever."

The leader stood back up as he looked down at Alex's father. He seemed to be lost in thought before he asked, "You mean he was also ill and nearly dead just a bit ago?"

Alex's father looked up at the mob leader and nodded without dignity. "He's still very weak and needs to rest longer. Please, I beg you, let us be on our way. I swear to repay you, however I can. I swear on my honor!"

The leader sneered. "Honor huh? A noble man's honor is it? My fellows, what worth is a nobleman's honor!? Can we trust them to repay us as how we deserve? Or will they instead send soldiers to butcher us and gut our loved ones without justice!?"

Members of the still gathering mob yelled back;

"We can't trust them!"

"It was a noble that took away my daughter and raped her dead before he dumped her body in the ditch along Gulliver's street! KILL HIM!!! And kill all his noble bastards!"

"They have no Honor! KILL!!"

At this, the mob started to chant "Kill, kill, kill." as the ones with weapons closed in.

Alex could only watch on in horror at all that was happening. He couldn't even struggle as rough hands forcefully pulled him out of the carriage to throw him down on the ground next to his father.

"No! Please no!" Alex's father tearfully pleaded before the first of many clubs and mallets were swung down upon them.

...

Alex woke up back in the white space, opening his eyes to see the old man watching what had just happened to him on the screen.

His father was still alive and trying to reach the now dead Paul that Alex was just living as. He only got a little bit closer before a particularly heavy blow from a large wooden mallet ended his life too.

The old man stood there staring at the screen stroking his beard for a moment before he looked back at Alex with a sober expression. "That was pretty rough. I'm sorry you went through that on your first day."

The old man looked back at the screen that had rewound itself and paused at the moment before the first club hit Alex. He then mumbled to himself, "But still, what is this all about? For him to be so unlucky even with such a grand start... Just what is going on here?"