"Who...who are you?" Vanessa asked him, stumbling over her words.

"An interested party." he calmly said. "I heard your little story and I think you're interesting."

"Interesting?"

"Yes. I'm not sure if you've noticed but you're supposed to be dead."

"Yeah, I kind of figured that."

The man stood up and walked on top of the water over to her as he started talking.

"The thing is, death is sort of a final thing. Dead people don't come back to life. So, when something comes back from the dead, I take a special interest."

He arrived in front of Vanessa and put a hand on her shoulder.

He crouched down to her eye level and stared directly into her eyes.

"Why did you come back?" he asked calmly.

"Someone said I was accepted.", she replied cautiously.

Unexpectedly, the young man released her shoulder and began to laugh.

"Oh my! Did someone accept you? Do you know who it was?" he asked through laughter.

"No," Vanessa responded, confused at his response.

"So, someone said you could come back to life after you died. And they didn't give you a name or tell you who they were?"

"No. Were they supposed to?"

The man continued to laugh as he walked in a circle around her, still laughing.

"This is simply too much! It's humorous as hell!"

Vanessa just stood completely still, too scared to move and interrupt him.

Just as quickly as he started laughing, he abruptly stopped laughing and stared back into her eyes. His eyes seemed like they could contain galaxies and Vanessa instantly knew that he was more than what met the eye.

"Do you know what a miracle is?" he asked.

"Yes?"

"You are not from this world and you should be dead. But you're not. You died and somehow, you were brought back to life. You are a 'miracle'."

"I'm a miracle?"

"Yes, but not just any kind of miracle. You're a 'reborn' miracle."

"How do you know all this? Who are you? What are you even?", Vanessa asked even more cautiously than before.

He began to laugh again. "I'm not at liberty to say, but what I can tell you is that you've been given a second chance at life. But this life will be different from your first life. Whether it is better or worse, that's up to you. Your first life is over, but you can make this second life more interesting if you so desire."

"Is this my last life then?"

"This is your last life," he said slowly and with a hint of pity. "Having a second life is very rare though, so I advise you to cherish it."

And as that last sentence was said, the two voices that were in another language from before came back, louder than they ever were before. It felt like they were celebrating her arrival.

Vanessa looked around while the voices continued. The entire space began to be filled with little orbs of light, all in different colours. The young man walked past her to the edge of a blue light orb and sat down in the air leaning his back against it. It looked like he was floating.

"Did you know your life will be completely different now?"

"How?" she asked, still looking around. As she tried to grab some of the lights, she noticed that they went through her hand instead.

"You have been reborn into a new life in a new world. This is your home for the rest of eternity, or at least until the end of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Do you know what a story is?" he asked.

"Yes."

"A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. Everything begins, grows, declines and dies. Even stars perish at some point.", he said while looking longingly into the distance.

"This is your new beginning. Everything that happened before this moment was just the beginning of the first chapter of your story. From now on, everything you do will be part of a new story. Are you ready to continue your journey?"

"I'm ready!"

"Well your time is up, you're getting born now I guess. Goodbye miracle child.". The young man looked at Vanessa hesitantly and added, "I enjoyed talking with you." He waved at Vanessa and as she waved back at him, the whole world grew dark.

Vanessa heard his voice ring in her head one last time. "Don't forget, everything creates your story. Think carefully about what role you want to play in it ."

---

A bright light woke her up. She saw nothing but white for a moment, but gradually shapes started to appear. She was laying down on a soft white fabric that was wrapped tightly around her. She saw two women close to her and tried to move, but found out that her entire body hurt. She couldn't help but feel small and weak and that made her cry. The two women seemed to notice and came to check on her.

The one on the left was elderly, wearing a white robe, with kind eyes and silver hair in a bun. Her eyes looked sharp and she seemed to be carefully monitoring everything around her, even though her smile was warm and carefree.

The other woman was much younger and dressed in leather armour with long black hair and a stern face. She looked like she was in great shape, probably to deal with all the bandits on the roads, but her face looked very kind as she was smiling down at her.

Instantly, Vanessa felt comforted and as the younger woman lifted her up, she started to say words that she couldn't understand, but there was one "name" she somehow felt like she was referred to as.

"Jian Li.", the woman said, with a smile strikingly similar to that of her mother in her previous life.