[ WP ] In a world where reincarnation is accepted fact there are two kinds of human - elite `` Pilgrims '' who reincarnate to new 25 year old bodies every time they die - and `` Shells '' - destined to become new bodies for Pilgrims at some point in their 25th year , losing their own soul in the process .

My mother told me it was punishment-recompense for my the sins of past lives. Or, at least, those were the bedtime stories she told me before she husked. It was slow process, slow enough for my 6 year old brain to fully understand her suffering. 
 
 At first she would zone out for a little bit, then snap back to reality. Her smile would reassure me that everything was ok yet over time each smile was smaller, as if each time she snapped back, she lost a memory. She knew me, of course, and loved me, but it changed. Her love was somehow cold and obligatory rather than the warmth I had so loved. 
 
 The change happens the same way to every person. At the stroke of midnight on your 25th birthday, your body spasms for exactly.25 seconds. Every single cell, every single fiber of your being is super charged. This is called'The In and Out'. It's the last essence of the original owner of the being ejected as the new soul finds it's home. 
 
 Then, until the sunrise, the person is a useless slug. Sometimes, people straight up die in new bodies because they walked into oncoming traffic during the slug phase. During these hours, the new body is flooded with the memories of the new soul. Synapses are firing off, creating a period of time where only the involuntary functions of life are able to work properly. 
 
 Then, the new person awakes. An older pilgrim will have hundreds of years of memories. They are most often very kind people ( at least the older ones are ). Sometimes they adopt the children of the new body. Other times, they do n't. Many choose to start a completely new life, forgoing the past of two beings. Either way, a very new person emerges, no matter the choice. 
 
 This new one looked like my mother, but she was nothing like her. Kind and distant, she took me to the nearest orphan block and went through all of the necessary paperwork to release me to the state. I know it was n't her fault: she did n't choose me, but it angered me watching the stranger with my mothers face walk off. 
 
 I do n't know if I could ever have kids nowadays. I'm haunted by those ever fading smiles I used to see that culminated in unloving eyes.
