How will I die? It's a question many have asked themselves in the duration of their lives. Some say you see a bright light, or maybe you'd be floating above your body. There are many theories and acclaimed experiences of people who have seen life after death.

I had not expected to die that day. Taking one last look at the chaos around me, my vision went dark, and I succumbed to the nothingness that overtook me. No one would notice my passing though, and I'm sure my body would be counted among the unfortunate casualties in this war. Death is darkness. All you can see is black. There is no sense of time here. No sensation or thought. If this was eternity, I knew for sure I would eventually go insane. My name was Eleya. The world as I'd known as a child ended the day my parents and baby sister were killed in another bombing. I had just turned six. For more than half my life war had been all I'd known. I was born in a warzone. No one cared how old you were, or if you had family that would miss you. If you were weak, you were cut off right then and there. The market people wouldn't sell to you, not wanting to waste precious resources on a beggar when they could be going to the war effort. It wasn't that my people were patriots in particular to their country, they were simply scared. So they formed an agreement with the constant stream of soldiers that occupied our borders, protection for resources. The peace was tenuous and strained at best, but for my little village, there was peace.

Then the other side changed tactics. They began to drop bombs and the like on places of highly concentrated areas of population. Thankful though we were for our town's meager amount of citizens, the tension and inevitable feelings of fear were still there, and they were rising. My village decided to no longer take a step back and watch. So they began to draft children. All children from the ages of thirteen to seventeen were to be given over to our government to begin training immediately. I was only six at the time, and escaped the draft, as did my baby sister, but that just made it harder for us to be the only family still together with each other after the draft. Many people had lost their children to the draft, and it took a deep toll on the psyche of my village as a whole. They were angry, and hurt, and so immeasurably sad. But that didn't excuse what they did next. The village councilmen had gotten desperate to protect what was remaining of the townspeople. But, with the children gone, production of many goods and resources we gave the soldiers to protect us had dwindled to where we'd barely had enough to sustain ourselves. The attacks and raidings seemed to be coming closer and closer to us, and after a bomb took out the next town over, not even twenty miles from our very own, the officiates of our village decided that we need a scout.

My family was immediately selected without a second thought, and we were packed away and shipped out to the most recent battleground to be able to warn our town in case of an impending attack or bombing. It was in one such event that I was sent out as a runner to let my people know of the coming danger. It was just when I was fifteen minutes outside the entrance gates that I watched everything I'd loved literally explode. I don't remember much in this point of my life, just that afterwards, I became a ward of the government. I decided to draft myself when I turned eight. By then, I had already had a tremendous amount of physical training, and could win fights with peers three times my age group. I felt so much pain and hatred, that for the next ten years, pain and blood were all I lived. I completed missions and assassinations in the name a cause and war I didn't even truly believe in. I just wanted to revel in the destruction, and make sure everyone felt my pain as acutely and as poignantly as I had been forced to. I rose quickly through the ranks. My skill and my bloodlust making my young age matter little. By eighteen I was Second Commander in Chief of the 54th battalion of the King's army. I led an army of more than 50,000 through the hell that was the battlefield.

I knew I was dying before I'd felt it. The pain was sharp and debilitating, but I also felt warm. As I lay there dying I felt unfathomably proud. I had at least done something. I died at peace. Honestly, by the time of my death, my life and any joy that came with it had already gone to hell in a handbasket. I thought I would stay in this dark place for all eternity. It was nothing less than I deserved. I had killed to many people and ruined so many lives. All in the name of the same war that ended the lives of all those precious to me.

Eventually my kinesthetic sense told me that my body was actually moving. In what way, or what direction I didn't know, but I finally had something to occupy my mind. Slowly but surely, feeling and sense returned to my body, I began to experimentally move my fingers and toes. I wasn't met with much success but I was also focusing on getting a sense of what was what in my body; like where my nose was, my eyes, ears, mouth,etc. Once I had complete control of that I was able to slowly wiggle both my fingers and my toes. The process was delicate and slow, but I was determined to gain control over my body, if not just a little so I had a chance of getting out of here. Another long amount of time passed and I started to notice that the "area" of whatever you'd call it that I was in seemed to be getting… smaller. Now I'm not usually a claustrophobic type of person, but by the time I'd noticed what was happening, I was crammed up tight with my legs pulled to my chest. Just when I thought all was lost and that I'd suffocate, I saw a wisp of light. I struggled towards it, wiggling and moving my body every which way. When I finally come to the surface, I'm taken aback by how freezing cold it is. The chill hits me so hard it completely wracks my frame, causing a violent shiver to go up my spine.

Though my vision was still incredibly blurry, making it impossible to make out any actual details; I could see that everything around was

giant. This made a distinct sense of dread fill me. My paranoia and soldier's sense kicked in and I focused my senses. To answer the call of

my will, my mind unleashed a wave of pain that blasted across my scalp. I couldn't withhold the whimper of pain that escaped my lips. I felt

a warm pair of arms pick me up and cradle me. It was then I realized two things: first, by some way or doing, I had been reincarnated with all

my past life memory and training completely in tact. I thought dying would be the ultimate escape from life and all it's tragedy, but now I

knew I was stuck yet again to a fate I did not yet know. I could only hope it would be better this time around. At that time though,

overwhelmed with this knowledge and emotion, I shattered. I opened my mouth and screamed.