Short Story: The Trip

Eric watched the sun set.

"Have I ever watched the sun set in it's entirety?" Eric thought to himself. He had been staring out his small apartment window for a few hours now. "This will be the last sunset I ever see."

Eric raised the pen and continued to write.

"If I had more time, this suicide note would be a suicide novel. I'll spare you the apologies and all the reasoning as to what has brought me here. Just know that this is not your fault. This is the only choice left for me to take."

This was a lie, and Eric knew it. He didn't have to steal his fathers gun when he went to visit last Sunday, he didn't have to put in the bullet, and he didn't have to pull the trigger. Yet, he still chose to do so.

The bullet penetrated his brain and in a few short moments, he was dead.

He didn't expect to feel any pain but for the first time he could remember he felt the greatest pain that he had ever felt. Like every cell in his body was being tortured and Eric was frozen in time as the pain reached it's peak.

"AAAAAGGHHHHH!!!" Eric screamed.

All of a sudden, it stopped. There was nothing but white.

"I suppose that is better now, yes?" A strange voice said to him. This voice was part robotic, part human, part... something else that Eric couldn't put his finger on. It had a soothing, purring sound to it.

"What the fuck?! What the FUCK?!" Eric yelled out. In the whiteness around him a strange figure of light appeared before him.

"Well, that wasn't too smart now was it...." The voice seemed to come from the light. "Eric? That was your name, yes?"

"Yea..." Eric replied

"You... how can you understand this... fucked up." The voice explained to him. "Maybe you can explain to me how someone with such an exceptional record can resort to suicide."

"Exceptional record?" Eric asked, still dazed from the trip.

"Yes, it says here you were quite heroic in 1820 as a firefighter, you saved a lot of people, in 1536, you made significant advances in the medical field."
"Rein... carnation?" Eric muttered.

"It'll come back to you." The voice said. "How could a character with such a high value for life resort to suicide?"

"I had nothing to live for..." Eric explained. "My wife left me, I was fired, I was swimming in debt..."

"Yes, and now it's starting to seem petty, isn't it. We gave you a life, Eric, and you threw it away. These trips don't come cheap, and if you can't handle the 21st century, there's no way you'll be able to handle the 31st century."

"Is that the year we're in?"

"No, that's where you were headed if you passed, but I'm afraid you failed miserably Eric."

It was starting to come back to Eric. This was life, to exist in this time period, he had first needed to prove himself again and again in many different time periods prior. He had gone through many times now but now this thing was contemplating erasing Eric from existence. His problems in the 21st century really were starting to look petty and insignificant when compared to the big picture.

"Please don't erase me." Eric begged.

"I don't think it is quite time for that, but you will have to repeat a few cycles. I'm sorry Eric."

"No, please, don't send me back. Let me stay here, please."

"Good bye Eric."

"Agghh!" Eric yelled as the unbearable pain started coming back.

The scream started to get muffled and everything got dark for Eric. Then light flooded his eyes and the scream started coming back, this time from the mouth of a newborn infant. "Wahhhhh" The scream filled the room of the hospital. Eric was now gone and while the body was different there was still the same essence within. When his eyes opened, he was now in 1943, born in a German hospital. Eric, or the body formerly known as Eric would have to prove himself once again.