Replay

I have lived this before. I have lived it all before. Too many times to count. Each time is a bit shorter, but the end is always the same. My life repeats right up to my suicide.

I always believed in an afterlife, and for years that stayed my hand. But it wasn't enough, and I never expected this. 

I see it all play out again. I hear my thoughts echo from the past. I feel my body move. And though ice cream and strain, I can't change course. I'm a spectator tour to every detail of my life.

Each time start a little later, I've noticed. I used to look forward to it. Now… now it scares me. What happens when there is nothing left to repeat? Will I think to oblivion? Be held for eternity in the moment of my death? Or something else?

Too late. I feel the knife. It's ending! Oh, it's ending!...

I have lived this before.

End.

Review: Street of Lost Gods

Title: Street of Lost Gods
Author: Gareth Lewis
Publisher: Smashwords
ISBN: N/A     

Rax Darkthorn is a knowhound - a detective – brought by the death of a friend to the Thief City, Nexi. Nexi sits between dimensions, siphoning off people, gods, and buildings for a purpose only the city knows. Those who are so trapped never escape, and visitors are few. Rax, however, escaped and returned upon learning of his friend’s death. He quickly sets about investigating and soon realizes that the Thief City is too full of mysteries to resist.

The story is a fast paced short story with a world that is entrancing and fascinating. The writing was such that I quickly forgave and overlooked the few typos my ebook edition had (but typos are a common problem with Smashword, the nature of the beast). As captivated as I was by the world and story, I couldn’t help but feel the story would have greatly benefited from one more edit: not for typos, but cohesion. Namely, the narrator starts out by saying there are two ways into Nexi (willingly and unwillingly), then a few pages later he names two more (a way specific to angels and gods, and with a pass), one the narrator doesn’t like and the other simply overlooked or considered to be part of the first. 

In the end, I considered the story too short, as I would have liked to extend my stay in Nexi.