This is nice! It says a lot in few words. Thank you!

I think you made a good call and the story is more interesting as it is.

It's hard to play with the inagination of readers which you can't control but it turned out really well \o

Even had the antagonist shook.

Yeah I love Bluey. Been watching since middle of the pandemic.

A librarian who "got no rhythm" but actually has it and has a traumatic past and was in a band

Love your username

This one got a little weird and might be bad or I might have missed the prompt. My bad. it's what came to mind when I started writing.

A spit take launched three half melted ice cubes hurtling towards the kitchen tile. It was there they slid, dissolving into a puddle of what could be confused with spit. It was Alice’s spit. Alice had participated in the trick before when they were kids and her bunny returned with a soul and mortgage.

Trix was the name of her rabbit, and he was in fact named after the cereal mascot, when she was finally deemed too old for the stuffed toy; her father told her that Trix were for kids. It was loaded and so, not wanting to upset her parents and fulfill their wishes of getting ready to enter adulthood. She gave the bunny to her brother with the mystery spine.

Now, she covers her mouth, wiping the spit that had fallen from her lip based launch pad. This party was being held to honor the retirement/birthday of Matilda Price, the wife and soon to be mother of their General Manager’s child. The Same general Manager who was pulled behind the curtain and into Darren’s spine moments ago.

It would have been easy to close the restaurant for the evening, letting the hard working staff have a party in their workspace, leaving the clean up to a cleaning crew they could hire. Why lose money they could gain on a Friday in the summer? Why hire another cleaning crew when there are already maids working in their apartment. A little overtime won’t kill anyone, Gregor Price had said to his wife.

Opting instead for the general manager’s opulent downtown apartment. A place and time that seemed all too mythical to the staff; now, it is purely supernatural.

Gregor stands there, moments after being pulled behind the back of Darren, like a grandparent sneaking some spare change behind a child’s ear.

Withered, flesh ashen and dry, his eyes sunken and black, he shivers, hand jostled for a standing hold on the back of the couch.

“Gregor.” Matilda’s voice was fried and she nearly fainted as her words were carried off into the ether.

No one was standing behind Darren. None had witnessed the Chakra Abyss that lay inside his spinal column. 

Bones tapped on the side of his flesh that had peeled itself away, his back had become a night sky of blending and bleeding souls; tossed in and out as their chakra ran dry. 

He was born with a cracked heart chakra, one that bled and was infected by a Djinn impersonating his higher self. It fed for years on the emotions of youth, growing powerful enough to turn his body into a dimension of its own. 

The Boy known as Darren grew up believing he was a natural magician, but he was really a drain for a spirit sucker. A living vacuum for souls, trading them in and out of living and non-living things as freely as he’d eat a fruit snack.

“Put me back.” Gregor spoke between coughs of dust and words, He arched over onto the back of the couch. “Put me back!” His voice rose. The crowd, all except for Alice, had a cheeky look of delight crawling over them.

There were murmurs of this being quite the show.

A spectacle to be had. And attempting to scare poor Matilda from taking his fortune. This is the least clever way to announce an elopement I’ve ever seen. Elope? Aren't they already married? That wasn’t official, it was just something that they did as a spectacle, to keep the cooks from hitting on Matilda when she was working by herself as MOD (Manager on Duty)

The ensemble of chatter reaching his mind, digging in and making a home, Gregor could not believe what he was hearing. He knew his staff would gossip; all staff do, especially those in a kitchen, but to do it with unmoving lips and in his own apartment; why, he wouldn’t stand for it.

Gregor screamed as light pierced through the holes in his head, purple and white, the deep soul like chakra that is the 7th. This quelled the distilled chatter to a hum, stopping any pervading thoughts about what might or might not be going on behind the scenes.

If only they’d step behind Darren’s back; they could experience it for themselves.

This is something Alice had only seen once, and was too afraid to witness herself the second time. 

Trix had grown rabid, wanting to work, and wanting only to pay off his debt since he was free. He became a devout born again, wanting to absolve himself of the guilt of his past life. The  only guilty thing that Alice could consider Trix having done was when he, still a plush toy and not animated one worrying about the cost of inflation, was when he wrecked her 31st consecutive tea party in October when she was ten.

It had taken a ton of organization on her behalf to keep all of her toys apart who didn’t get along for a month of different guests and parties; culminating in that special Halloween party where they would all meet again under new names and different disguises to liberate themselves from their disagreements and settle old debts.

Rocking her tumbler onto a nightstand, Marry made her way across the carpeted floor towards her little Brother’s back.

She felt it, that old familiar tune, the one she would hear when his world was open to be explored. That low, enchanting song that seemed to whisper to anyone who would listen. It sounded like captured words in a rainstorm.

Alice kept her eyes down, only looking up when became close enough to stop and glance from the corner of her eye. A single bone-like finger tapped his flesh along the bottom, above where his waist used to begin. It cracked it like a spiderweb, drawing a red crackled line along his peach flesh.

Darren’s jawline clenched, ground his top and bottom teeth together, pressing each type of tooth from molar to incisor onto his opposite hole. He drove the ivory mouth bones into their places, whittling down one another, bits of plaque and gum spilling out of his mouth.

Alice could not move. She covered her reddening face, tears welling as another tendril of spine whipped out from her brother’s back. Lashing towards the far wall; latching onto the vent above the Price family's stainless steel stove.

Fluffy white fur, stained gray from play and naps poked its head from the hole inside her brother. 

Whiskers twisted on a face missing a button black nose, one that was removed in anger once he was discovered to be living; replaced with a single red piece of Trix.

Gregor became Cavity of time, just like Trix the rabbit was; they all would be. So long as Darren’s spine remained untapped.

The party grew eager to witness the origin of their line cooks' cracked pigmentation. Slowly, they called to Alice, but she could not hear.

She was moving towards her Trix, her bunny, her buddy who was calling towards her to enter the world of youth and never leave.

Oh I like it!

sounds like Wanda was about to give big s a piece of her mind lol

This is close to what I was thinking when I wrote the prompt. I love it! Thank you.

That was an exciting read. Like a lot happened, in a short time. Thank you!

I like that we never know where he went, just the effect on him. Thank you!

Why was Alex being harmed by others in their original world? Was it because they were viewed as different in some way?

I really like it! Subtle and creepy. Thank you!

Taint Peter.

What am I even gonna say about this? Its great! Fuck, I love this! I thirst for more!

true, but then you lose a main driving force behind the story, as well as lower the stakes, because now they can just do whatever, not having to worry about who they pick a fight with because they can always and forever either out run or out gun it

having them be forced to pick their battles based on ammunition levels, or take otherwise undesirable routes to try and conserve fuel opens the way to tension, and potential for other hooks to get dropped into the story along the way, so that once they manage to establish some way to re-up, the next story about going back and settling up with those who helped or harmed the party on their way

Thanks! I sort of left it open to be interpreted both because I liked it better that way and that I have a hard time writing finite endings.

As I lay there, my eyes felt heavy. I wasn't sad, though my family was, I could hear the sniffling, see the tears. I raised my hand one last time and spoke to my family, "We'll be together again, I love you all so very much."

A cacophony of sniffles and sobs was the last thing I heard. I drifted above my body for a moment when reality around me suddenly seemed to fold in on itself. That's the best way I could describe it, the room folded into the ground and from it arose a long hallway with what seemed like a variety of scenes from my life.

I drifted past my doctor telling me and my wife of my prognosis, of my admittance to the hospital, to Christmas when I fell. The hallway seemed to both come to me and away from me, as if it was a carousel. The scenes shifted by faster and faster, allowing me to catch glimpses of the birth of my youngest, to my wedding, to Hannah and I meeting, my high school graduation, my parent's divorce, and finally the hallway stopped at my birth.

"So," a booming voice appeared in my head and all around me. I felt the word reverberate through what I can only describe as my soul. "That is what your life would be like, do you want to be born?" It asked as if I was at the end of a long conversation with it.

"I-" I could manage only one word, I had not a clue what to even think about let alone say.

"Ah, let me..." the voice faded for a moment as the scene hallway disappeared without fanfare, leaving me surrounded by a void. I saw nothing, heard nothing, not even a heartbeat. Even my tinnitus was gone.

For that moment, I knew peace.

The voice returned, startling me, "You were shown a preview of your life, should you choose to be born during this time. It's a trying and changing time, a challenging one that not many choose. However, your soul is a resilient one, which is why I showed you this option. There are more options, other lives in other times."

I had no response. My whole life, a preview? Of my life?

"You don't remember, do you?" The voice asked my soul.

"I... no, I don't." I felt both young and old at the same time, like I had the seemingly infinite energy of an eight year old, but the knowledge of an eighty year old and this was the only thing I knew nothing of.

The voice sighed. "Okay, this happens sometimes, give me a moment."

I was then in a room. A desk was before me with what appeared to be a human seated in the chair behind it, though they wore a cloak that covered their appearance. Behind me was a door, surrounded on both sides by bookshelves filled with thick, worn books of a variety of colors.

"You may be more comfortable in this setting; a familiar one. Every soul is allowed a choice of a time period in which they want to live, a choice of a life to experience. Souls, like you, choose. Oftentimes, souls tend to live out their lives in their previews which appears to have happened to you." The voice, now coming from the cloaked figure, continued explaining.

"Since you have lived that life, would you like to preview another? I have one in mind, one just as challenging, perhaps even more so than the one you lived." The voice gave me almost no time to process what was happening, yet...

My thoughts seemed to move quickly, faster than ever before. I looked back at my life, with my wife, the children, their children, their career, everything. I wanted more time, the life I lived was one that I wish I could spend an eternity in.

"You can." The voice replied to my thoughts. "But we advise against it. If a soul experiences the same life twice, it will forever remain, and your energy will return to the universe and a new soul will be created in your place. A soul as resilient as yours is highly prized, and used for some of the most challenging lives. Perhaps a new life will give you time to think it over. You can always return to your other if you choose."

If I had a head to shake, it would've been shaking. I knew not what to choose, nor what to do. I wanted to see the wife of that life again, and to be with her and experience it all again... I think... It felt as if it had been a lifetime, ten lifetimes since I saw her last, since I experienced that life. The children, the grandchildren, so distant, yet so close. It began to feel all too familiar. I remembered.

I looked to the cloaked figure who pointed to the window frame on the wall. In the frame was a view into the void, a view into my lives. I saw the wife again, everything I experienced with her. Then, a... husband? A mother? Faces flashed by, faces I knew. I felt a connection to all of them, as if my soul wanted to bind with theirs. All were from different times, from before the ancient humans to intergalactic human times and beyond, and more.

They were me. I was all of them. My soul.

"Your lives. Billions." The voice spoke. "You have the choice, relive a past life and allow a new soul to be born, or move on to the next. We highly recommend you choose the latter. Never before have we had a soul that experienced as many lives as you." The voice implored.

I took a moment, reflecting, remembering my lives.

"Show me the next." I replied.

Nice loophole! I do love a very specifically worded curse!

[removed]

Special powers are often granted to the isekai'd by whatever God took them so I'd imagine they'd have been granted unlimited fuel and shells as part of the passage.

Simon sat quietly at the kitchen table. The beer I had given him sat untouched next to him, pooling condensation on the particle board. It was just the three of us - me, Simon, and his roommate Charlie. The rest of the party had quickly cleared out when I pulled Simon back from whatever dimension I had put him in. I guess seeing your host screaming at the top of his lungs was enough to kill your buzz. Either that, or they were all afraid I would do the same thing to them. As if I had done this on purpose.

"You look different." I prompted. The guilt-spawned knot in my gut made it difficult to ask direct questions. I was afraid to know the answers; afraid of the truth of what I had done.

"It's been ten years." Simon replied, not meeting my gaze. Charlie spewed beer and started coughing from behind my chair. I leaned forward and scrubbed my face with my hands. It was supposed to be a joke. A party trick. No one was supposed to get hurt.

"I'm so sorry, man."

"You have to send me back." He said with more conviction than I had ever heard from him before. This was a guy who had changed his major three times in the past year. He was never sure of anything. This wasn't the same Simon I had been joking around with an hour ago.

"What? No. You're not thinking clearly." I tried to put my hand on his shoulder, but he shoved it away.

"You don't understand. I need to go back. Please." When he finally looked at me, his eyes were void of the anger I would have expected after something like this. Instead, his gaze was dripping with desperation. The bags under his eyes grew heavier, and the knot in my stomach clenched.

"Dude, do the math. You were gone for, like, 30 seconds before. If that was 10 years, then whatever you're trying to get back to is probably gone now." Charlie said from behind me.

"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" Simon shot up from his chair to stare Charlie down. Simon had never been this confrontational either. Charlie and I locked eyes for a moment. His face had lost all color. I quickly came up to stand between them.

"Okay, man. Let's just talk about this." I said calmly. "I can't send you back without knowing more about what happened."

"This is YOUR power." Simon's hostile attention shifted to me.

"I...I didn't know this would happen. I've never disappeared anything alive before." There was nothing I could say that would be a good enough reason for my recklessness. Simon ran his fingers through his hair and started pacing the kitchen floor.

"I have a family, Ben." It was the first time he had used my name since he had returned, and my heart broke a little. "I have a daughter. She's three."

"I'm sorry, man." Charlie muttered.

"She needs me. She's special." He said with a sigh.

"Of course she is." I tried to put myself in his position.

"No. You don't understand." Simon stopped pacing and looked at me from the other side of the room. His hair was in complete disarray, and tears were streaming down his cheeks. "She's going to save the world. My coming was foretold by the ancient oracle, and her birth was the signal for a new age. Everyone on the planet knows the story, and some don't want it to be true."

"What?" I couldn't quite wrap my head around what he was saying.

"They hunt her. My wife is a powerful warrior. She will protect Nia as long as possible, but I must get back to her. She needs me to teach her our ways. I'm the only one who can." He was becoming more and more desperate as he spoke. My mouth hung open as I tried to process his story.

"Dude, I don't know what happened to you, but I think you're confused." I started. Simon took an abrupt step forward.

"You're not listening to me!" His hands were shaking, with anger or fear I couldn't tell. "You MUST send me back! Now!"

I glanced at Charlie, but he gave me a bewildered shrug. This was crazy. He was obviously crazy. But then again, any time I told people the truth about by 'magic trick', they thought I was crazy too. Whatever Simon had left behind was obviously important to him. I could clearly see his distress, even if I didn't fully understand where it was coming from.

"Okay." I said finally. "What if I send you back one more time?"

"Yes." He said abruptly.

"Dude, are you sure this is a good idea?" Charlie piped up.

"But I'm pulling you back just like before." I continued. "I can't leave you there. Your mom would never forgive me."

"I understand."

"And when you return, I want to know everything."

"Of course." He said too quickly.

"Alright. Stand behind me, like before." I turned around as Simon came closer. Charlie looked like he wanted to object, but for one reason or another, he said nothing as I reached my hand around and shoved Simon back through the portal.

How to get distinct personalities in 20words... "So, we have the so guy." Tomas. "Right right, but we also have the yeah yeah girl." Lilith.

The rest required a bit more actual personality to kick start them. I had to figure out why St Peter was acting so aggressive when that should be out of character, hope that explanation was satisfactory.

The doggy inspired Hell was a fun surprise. I imagined Hell's fury bubbling up, but controlled like since he was in an office. And since Hell had just messed on the carpet it clikced.

The entire story was to make the Zuckerberg ruining Heaven's ability to properly sort people into their nuanced categories pun. Literally all of it because I thought suckerberg... I just needed a story to go with it lol.

He finds the Silver Key. Enough said, he's no longer anyone.