I had two choices, offering possibilities littered with infinite concoctions of mistakes and successes. Could I live again with the karma I had collected in this lifetime, or forever be damned in those torturous seven levels.

I was but one man, my mind cursed with a limited understanding of what eternity was. Was there such a thing as never-ending pain? Would I eventually grow used to the weights crushing me; the sensation of tearing sinew and the piercing of hot pokers?

‘CHOOSE!’

A booming voice sounded, whether it be in my head or proof of His existence, I couldn’t decipher between the two. I had always been told He would judge me, judge I be cast into fire or feel the bliss of paradise forevermore.

Instead, He was far crueller. Just as the pain I’d inflicted came from my hand, so did my torturous destiny as it stared back at me.

Such a simple word: choose. Choose my punishment just as I chose who lived and who died. I would not have savoured it so much if I knew this came down to me. Both choices provided no clarity to what awaited me yet both promised a lifetime of pain; minute compared to the pain that poisoned my lifetime. A venom had frothed at my mouth since a child and there was no cure for you or me.

‘CHOOSE!’

My body jolted and one foot gained on the bolt to my left, still and static but didn’t have a sound like the buzz of electricity. Emanating from the blinding white light was the buzz of life- laughter, sobbing, squeals, mindless chatter that littered the earth. A tear threatened to escape my eye but I couldn’t fathom the sensation let alone let the tear roll.

I didn’t dare approach the other, I could feel the evil aura plaguing its enchanting light, its comfort a juxtaposition to the fate it offered.

Did I have a choice, truly? Either way, it’s better to choose the devil you know. So with a tremble, my hand reached toward the solitary bolt, rising to make contact. The anxiety was thick in my throat, clogged my sinuses, claustrophobically filling my body (until I could no longer call it mine), as a lone finger stretched out toward the bolt then-

Suddenly, there was no end or beginning, no pollen or flower, no day or night. Just _I_ trying to balance on two short and chubby legs as _I_ remained fixated on _my_ reflection.

A small girl stared back at me in the mirror, my first glimpse of my consciousness in this new life. She was tiny with golden, blonde pigtails and a pink playsuit clothing her body. I looked like a doll, a beautiful cupid baby, a cherub. My face was unearthly symmetrical and my eyes a deep blue mimicking aquamarine.

I cried just as my victims had: with a sick, painful, bile-sloshing realisation. A child’s screeching sobs echoed throughout the house but no parent or grandmother could console me. Even as the man I was, I could not differentiate between the girl and my fearful wails.

Now knowing that, inevitably, a man like I would come to split my body; one day sooner than later.

My palour flushed a green hue as I acknowledged there was never a choice in the first place. Hell was all He could give me. This was all I deserved.

I feared what I was cursed to be… my prey.