[ WP ] In a world where humans have nine lives , a reckless young man who wasted all but his final revival contemplates his own future

The first time is always the hardest. I learned that at ten years old. There are yuppies three times my age that still have n't taken the plunge. Not even once. 
 
 Yeah, it's scary. you feel the darkness coming. A darkness so deep, so indescribably vast. You know it's an end, nothing could come after that. You feel it gripping you, pulling you into it and smothering you until the only sensation you can ever conceive of is that oppressive void. 
 
 And then you wake up. 
 
 Since that day I've gone through a life every decade or so. I visited a lives councilor sometime in my fifth life. She told me the usual *spiel*; Save your regenerations for old age, maximize your time and be productive. Get a new degree for each of the first four lives but after that you should focus on work. Take your last life for retirement. 
 
 Bullshit. 
 
 But that does n't stop the countless people maximizing their lifetimes from trying to safeguard every last part of their lives. God forbid something exciting might happen to them. 
 
 They'll easily live hundreds, sometimes thousands, of years. And all of those years mean nothing. Empty lives, living for living's sake. 
 
 Here I am, barely an adult, with eighty years under my belt. Guess what; every one of those years is worth more than a century of those longevity nuts. 
 
 I've saved lives, lives that mattered. Lives of people who deserved the time more than anyone I've ever known. I've seen people take the plunge and come back, different. I've seen people too scared, at a hundred years old, to take the plunge with any dignity. They wail and balk until you want to put them under yourself. 
 
 It's been a wild ride. Each life, I got better at making my time count. This time, this last time, will be the best. With all my lives behind me I can guarantee that the I can make the most of the time I have left. With no regrets and a peaceful mind. I know that one day, I will take the final plunge.
