Hello, fellow disciples! Today, we bring to you the story of Second Chances by @Synonymous_Boost, our first-place contest winner for our Second Chances writing challenge!

You can check out Synonymous_Boost's winning contest entry here ➟➜

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"I'm s... Sorry." She hiccuped while talking. Her last dying child's head was gentle placed in her lap. As death neared, his eyes started staying open, without blinking. There were long pauses between breaths. She could also notice the visible skin changes, which occurred as blood circulation slowed in his body. His skin had become blue and blotchy.

"Will... fa... father... not c... come to... toda... today to...?" The child coughed his last words and the woman sobbed more, for she had no answer to that question.

In time, his heart stopped and he stopped breathing. Within a few minutes, his brain stopped functioning entirely and his skin started to cool. At this point, she knew he had died... Her trembling hands moved and closed the open eyelids of her child.

The loss oss of a child may be the worst trauma someone could ever experience. She, as a mother, felt responsible for the child's well-being. So, when she lost her child, she wasn't just losing a person she loved. She was also losing the years of promise she had looked forward to. Although, her mourning the loss of her child were, in many ways, experiencing classic grief responses — the usual battery of psychological, biological, and social repercussions — there were many more unique challenges. The trauma was often more intense, the memories and hopes harder to let go of. As such, the mourning process became longer, and the potential for recurring or near-constant trauma was far greater.

How could God be so cruel? They took away her child right before her eyes...

This question ringed inside her head for days, until her body could no longer handle the stress and hunger. Finally, she thought, she may die and reunite with her family. Her children, who, one by one, all lost their lives. Maybe, she'll meet her husband too, Visu, she thought. And her eyes started to close only for her to fall in the great slumber of darkness. She was going in sleep, a very long sleep, from where, she was never going to awake... Or so, she thought.

In the world of darkness, shone a bright red light. Those lights, carried deep red buildings, long rows of votive torii (gateways), and the hōshu-no-tama (a pear-shaped emblem surmounted by flamelike symbols) as well. Among these materialistic things, a woman with long, flowing hair, carrying sheaves of rice seemed flying towards her, along with little foxes.

Could she be Goddess Inari? She thought.

Inari is the Japanese kami (a type of god or spirit in the Shinto religion) of prosperity, tea, agriculture (especially rice), industry, and smithing. The fox, which symbolized both benevolence and malevolence, was sometimes identified with the messenger of Inari, and receive protection in return.

"How miserable they made you, my child..." Inari spoke in a low voice.

"Do you want another chance?"

"Chance?" The woman hesitant about the question, asked with uncertainty in her voice.

"Yes, my child. A chance. Your husband, he's alive and is wrapped in the illusion of this world, leaving his family rot. So, I'd like to offer you another chance at life. Say, what would you like to do? Go back to the past, where he left, or, go in future, where he'll finally return?"

"What would I do seeing him return? A future where my children won't exist... I don't want that. Please return me to them, in the past." She pleaded.

"If given the chance to travel through time, people can choose to either go into the future or into the past. Going to the future means that people can see what the future holds and how much the world has (hopefully) advanced. On the other hand, traveling into the past means that people could rewrite their wrongs or change the course of the history that they know. You've made your choice dear. Please don't die in vain again..." Inari' voice faded.

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"Mother, will father not come today too?" Her second child asked.

She had honestly return back to the past. It was unbelievable but, she knew that Goddess had blessed her and it was her chance to make things right.

"He may come... But, if he doesn't, we have to think of how to look after ourselves." She spoke with determination and stood up.

The very first step was to make a living for themselves, so that, they won't starve. She started to make an axe first. Finding a large rock with perpendicular edges, she looked for freshly harvested or "green" wood, then proceeded to get a cord made of bark or wet rawhide. She hit the source rock with the hammering rock, and formed the cutting edge of the axe head. By polishing and sharpening the axe head on a stone with water, she was ready to make an axe. She split the axe handle and inserted the axe head, by soaking the top of the handle and wrapping it around the axe head, she got a cord made of bark or wet rawhide to secure the axe head, and, by burning a hole through the axe handle and inserting the axe head. Finally, her axe was ready.

She started doing woodcutting with her children. With this, she was able to get enough to feed herself and her children once a day. One day, she decided to try farming the lands near her house. Being surrounded with mountains, made the soil fertile enough to sow seeds. Her farming in the beginning, helped grow enough to support them two meals a day. Slowly, but steadily, she started expanding her farming while indulging her children to do light woodcutting work.

As the saying goes, "Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds." Ask nearly any successful person and they'll say hard work helped them achieve their dreams and goals. Working hard is often the difference between success and failure, but is also a rewarding pursuit in itself. She got her reward as well. After years of patience and hard work, she was now able to earn well enough. She reconstructed her house, and got all her children married. And all this, while always finding some time for praying. She couldn't ever forget that all this was a gift from God.

Her life was full of achievements so, when the time came for her to die, God granted her another two hundred years of life, along with her children. She wasn't entirely pleased, but, she accepted this generous gift from God in the hopes of seeing something beautiful.

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Three hundred years passed after her regression. One day, she saw a familiar looking man, covered in long beard walk towards her house.

"Good lady, I am amazed to find that my little home has disappeared. I went away this afternoon, and now in the evening it has vanished!" The guy said.

The old woman, who believed that a madman was addressing her, inquired his name. When she was told, she exclaimed: "Bah! You must indeed be mad! Visu lived three hundred years ago! He went away one day, and he never came back again."

"Three hundred years!" murmured Visu. "It cannot be possible. Where are my dear wife and children?"

"Buried, only for you..." She hissed.

God wanted her to see this. She now, understood what this prolonged life was. Big tears ran down Visu's withered cheeks as he said in a husky voice: "I have lost my manhood. I have prayed when my dear ones starved and needed the labor of my once strong hands. Old woman, remember my last words: "If you pray, work too!"

"I get that. Now, please leave my home." She spoke slowly.

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The next day, the lady died and following her, slowly her children died too, for they had fulfilled their roles in this life. They closed their eyes only to awaken in a totally different and new world, without the pains and joys of this life.

We do not know how long the poor but repentant Visu lived after he returned from his strange adventures. His white spirit is still said to haunt Fujiyama when the moon shines brightly.

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Thank you for participating in the contest and congratulations on your placement!