The Oasis System

"I'm sorry, Jace, we have to let you go", a middle-aged man said, his expression sympathetic. He didn't want to let Jace go, but the reviews from the customers weren't good, coupled with his colleagues' remarks about him, he had no choice.

He had accepted the boy because he knew his father, a man he had worked with on a job a long time ago. The boy, however, spiralled into a web of sadness and depression, especially after his younger sister died from an overdose, looking like there was always a cloud of darkness wherever he went.

"But you can always come in for free meals on me, okay, Jace?" he called after the boy, who nodded and exited the office.

Outside, Jace saw the way Darrell snickered and muttered something to a co-worker; they must have been the ones who reported him to the boss. Well, now he was fired, and he hoped they were happy.

Packing what little stuff he came to work with, Jace left the restaurant, heading home with no real thought in his head.

His world had been going great...he had parents who were relatively well off, and he was doing great in college. His younger Sister, who was in high school, was also doing quite well, although she often got in trouble for hanging out with the bad crowd.

But then it all changed...

One day, they were coming from an event they were invited to, the full family, when they got in an accident.

His parents died straight away; he could still remember the sickening sound of bones being crushed; he and his sister survived, barely.

His sister had a leg amputated and a piece of metal lodged itself into his hip bone, and he had been walking with a slight limp ever since. That was three years ago...but then, just three days after his 18th birthday earlier in the year, he was in school when he got a call from their neighbours; his sister had a seizure and she was being rushed to the hospital in an ambulance.

He had rushed out of his class and was heading towards the hospital when he received another call...she died.

His life had been miserable ever since, he was just living each day as it came, with no real plan in mind.

Jace was so out of it that he hadn't realised that he had stepped onto the crosswalk without looking at the traffic lights...he wasn't supposed to go yet.

He was startled by yells as he looked around and saw why people were yelling; there was a truck speeding directly towards him.

He could see the driver desperately stepping on the brakes and even swerving to avoid him, but it was too late. In his final moments, Jace didn't panic, he wasn't even scared. On the contrary, he felt relief...it was finally going to be over.

He heard a loud horn and then everything went blank....he was finally free.

OR SO HE THOUGHT...

"Why does he always sleep like he's dead or something? Tsk, wake up!!!" A shrill voice pierced through the quiet morning atmosphere. Coming to, a figure sat up on the makeshift bed and rubbed his face, a dumb expression on his face for a moment.

Looking around, Jace felt weird...didn't he die?. Or he had, and the shrill voice he heard was his punishment for accepting death so easily?.

Jace was lost in thought when a sudden, sharp pain pierced the middle of his brows, a pain so intense he couldn't even scream, he just shut his eyes tightly and writhed around in pain. He could make out muffled screaming and someone calling out to another person, but he couldn't care much as memories that he was sure weren't his own, yet felt so nostalgic flooded his mind.

He had surely died, that was certain, but at the same time he died, the soul inhabiting this body also died, and the universe was up to one of its twisted games again as his soul transmigrated into this empty body...an empty vessel.

The boy's name was also Jace Barnes, an 18-year-old living with his parents and younger sister. Same backstory, but at least, this Jace still had his family.

But this world was different...there was something here, something...magical.

People here had the opportunity to be something more...depending on whether they had the talent or not, they could awaken different elemental attributes...they could command lightning, bring down an entire mountain or even fly!.

But the rest of the world that were ordinary either worked hard to climb up the social ladder, or they were castigated and seen as weaklings.

Jace's family was such...nobody in the family had the talent, neither did they have the money to be someone of standing in the society. They lived in a secluded part of town where everyone knew each other, they often mocked theirselves as the "slum" of the town.

The town had a very powerful Chief, it was rumored that he was a Late Rank 3 awakened who could command fire at a whim. There was even a vicious gossip that spread like wildfire a few years ago that someone insulted him and he had burnt the person to crisp with his family at night, only ashes were left by morning.

The memories finally halted, with the memories of the night before being the last to come to him...Jace had gone out with a group of friends and he came back late. Trying not to wake anyone, he had climbed the window of his room and came in through the window.

The pain finally receded, and the last thought that came to Jace's mind before opening his eyes was what could have possibly happened to the old Jace. Did he just die in his sleep?.