With Enough Backups, Death Can't Catch Me [Infinite]

After a fire, something seemed to go wrong with my mind, and I started hallucinating.

I saw a monster with only whites in its eyes standing not far from my hospital bed. Through the hospital room door my boyfriend occasionally opened, I also saw all kinds of spirits with strange postures in the hallway.

My boyfriend seemed unable to see any of it, so to avoid being sent to a psychiatric hospital, I pretended to be a normal person who saw nothing.

But after I broke up with my boyfriend, he controlled the monster as it opened its gaping maw at me. Inside its mouth, piled in layers and still undigested, I saw my own corpses.

I nearly screamed. Then I saw one of the scattered chunks of flesh twitch. With what was probably its face, though the features were blurry, it gave me a comforting smile more terrifying than any evil spirit's, yet unquestionably kind.

I calmed down.

I didn't know how many copies of me he had made or how many times he had killed me, but when I saw that smile, I realized I wasn't alone.

I would inherit the clues left behind by the previous me and clear the path for the next me.

I don't know how many versions of me were sacrificed, but in the end, the me who finally killed my boyfriend returned from the basement to the surface. I looked up at the world I knew so well, only to see

A red moon hung high in the sky. Vengeful ghosts claimed lives, the dead pulled carriages, and ghost gods guarded the borders in every direction.

A giant claw tore through the sky, then came down in the distance, flattening mountains, rivers, and everything else in an instant.

This was what my world truly looked like.

I tightened my grip on my backup.

I realized that escaping my boyfriend wasn't the end. It was only the beginning.

Notes:

1. The main story is told in first person.

2. The protagonist is calm and insane.

3. The worldbuilding has a slight cosmic horror feel.

2022.8.14

Theme: Those who chase the stars will eventually become stars themselves.