Cyberpunk: Ultimate Cyborg System-Chapter 608: Brace Ricker.

Jason didn't know how much time he had spent floating in the darkness. It felt like only a few seconds and a thousand years had passed at the same time. At one point, light filled his sight, and he could finally see again. He could hear as well, and what reached his ears pissed him off right away. It was the crying of a child.

He realized that he was the source of that sound before long, which left him confused for a while, until he finally understood what was happening. The voice had told him that he would get a new chance at life after if he confessed everything, and since he had laid it all bare, this was his prize.

He cried out in joy from then on, feeling blessed to be free of the suffering he had to undergo. It was a little weird to still have memories of his previous life, making him a 45-year-old man in the body of a baby, but he wasn't about to complain.

In his past life, Jason had a drug addict of a mother and a father who beat him constantly. In this one, both of his parents were clean, model citizens, the kind who wouldn't last long in the cruel world he originated from. He apparently had an older sister as well. She was a ball of sunshine, but his feelings toward her were complicated, considering everything he had done in his previous life.

The day passed, then months followed. Jason settled into his new life, and he no longer felt as ashamed of being trapped in the body of a baby. Little by little, he learned about the new world around him, discovering that it was entirely different from the one he came from.

Life was simpler in that world. Wealth was abundant, and no one struggled to put food on the table. There were no corpos hell bent on destroying it, and no gangs that make everyday life a living hell. By all metrics, it was heaven itself.

Jason had his guard up at first, but as more time passed, he found himself letting go, enjoying the new life he was granted. To ensure he doesn't experience the torture of hell again, he decided to walk an entirely different path from his previous life. He studied properly, obeyed his parents, and got along with everyone around him. From a very young age, he was known as a gentle child, a good brother, and a model student.

Little by little, he shed away the identity of Jason, the criminal and ruthless gangster who committed truly unspeakable acts of evil. He became Brace Ricker, son of Josef and Amanda Ricker, and Christi Ricker's brother.

Years passed, and Brace was now in high school. After spending some time with his friends, he quickly returned home. Christi came to visit that night, having moved out once she started university earlier that year. Because of that, they were having a big celebration.

Amanda, the woman he now calls mom, went all out, cooking all their favorite dishes. Josef, his father, runs a bakery, which is why he handled the desserts. Christi arrived in the afternoon. She had grown into a true beauty who turns heads everywhere she goes.

After catching up on everything that happened while his sister was away, the happy family sat down to eat. That was when the doorbell rang.

Not thinking much of it, Josef went to open the door, and Amanda followed after him. Soon after, a familiar sound reached Brace's ears.

BLAM 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The high-pitched scream that followed alerted the boy, making him realize that he had frozen for a moment there. His chair clattered as he stood up, running to the entrance. He arrived just in time to watch his mother's head strike a wall, spraying it red with her own blood.

As panic struck him, he turned to the perpetrators. Though they wore masks over their faces, the clothes they wore made it clear that they were thugs. Blood rushed into Brace's head, turning into blazing anger. The man he had tried to forget returned, and he was ready to do everything to make those bastards pay.

Alas, Brace was no Jason. He had lived a sheltered life, never getting into any fights. He wasn't weak, but he also wasn't strong enough to defeat multiple foes on his own. A single strike was all it took to knock him out.

~[ ]~

The life of Brace Ricker went downhill from that point on. Both of his parents were killed. His sister was assaulted and later committed suicide. He tried looking for the perpetrators, intent on revenge, but it was to no avail. It was almost as if they never existed to begin with.

Depression kept him down for years, but thanks to the help of the people around him, he managed to get back on his feet. He found a job, fell in love, and started a new family. Just when he thought he could put everything behind him, the same tragedy happened again. His wife was assaulted and murdered. His only daughter went through the same. Everyone around him met some horrible end, and he was there to witness it all.

He was powerless to stop it, and eventually, it became too much for him to handle. Thinking back to his previous life, Jason feared that he was still in hell, suffering for the sins he had committed. Time had blurred his memories, but he could still recall that he was responsible for the suffering of countless people, and that made the pain only worse as he started to believe that he deserved the terrible things happening to him.

One night, he took a gun, put the muzzle in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. The life of Brace Ricker ended there, and Jason found himself back in the darkness. Time passed. Maybe seconds, maybe decades. Just as his thoughts slowed to a crawl once more, light surrounded him, and the high-pitched cry of a newborn pierced deep into his mind.