Chapter 36: Afterlife
"What... what the hell..." Fumiko muttered softly as her eyes fluttered open.
She realised she still had a body as she quickly sat up, running a hand over her face. "I thought I died."
Just moments ago, she briefly felt the pain of her body slamming against concrete before everything went dark.
And now, she was back to normal, as if none of that had happened.
"Was it all a dream? Then why did the pain feel so real?" She muttered to herself in confusion. Then, Fumiko's eyes widened as she finally noticed she was in an unfamiliar place. "Where... am I?"
All around her was nothing but a white space stretching endlessly into the distance, as if she was in a void of pure nothingness.
"Am I still dreaming?" She said, bringing her hand up again to adjust her glasses. That was when she noticed something peculiar about herself.
Her hand was as pale as that of a ghost. Not just her hand, but her clothes as well.
Fumiko was a brilliant woman, so it didn't take her long to understand her situation. "I'm... a spirit." she muttered through trembling lips.
A scream of shock and horror threatened to tear from her throat before she drowned it out with deep breaths.
After staring at the ground for several long moments, Fumiko finally stood up. "This... This is perfectly fine. In fact, It's the expected outcome." After all, she had killed herself.
She looked around the white space again with a serious expression. "So this is the afterlife."
Fumiko had never believed such a place could exist. She always thought it was an unreasonable possibility, since there was no evidence for it whatsoever. But In truth, her beliefs changed in her final moments after she jumped off that roof, since she didn't want that to truly be her end.
But, now that she was here, she started getting worried. Fumiko had not lived a life that could be considered righteous in any way.
She had lived selfishly throughout, manipulating and even killing others as it suited her. That was one of the reasons she became a top lawyer so fast. By using every means necessary to win.
She couldn't help but think she was going to hell, or whatever place existed to punish people like her. "Unless... I'm already here." She mumbled to herself as she finally took her first step in the white void.
Fumiko kept walking forward for a long time, not feeling any form of tiredness or exhaustion. If she had to guess, she would say about an hour had passed since she first opened her eyes. She wasn't sure, since she didn't start keeping count till about ten minutes ago. "I guess ghosts don't get tired."
Despite randomly picking a direction and walking in a straight line for an hour, Fumiko still hadn't encountered anything beyond the white void.
After what she was sure was another hour passed, she stopped in her tracks, a frown appearing on her face.
Nothing. There was absolutely nothing in the endless white space. Nothing besides her.
"...Is this what hell is actually like? Eternity alone." Fumiko muttered fearfully. She didn't want that. She was scared of the possibility of burning for the rest of eternity while monsters tortured her in every conceivable way.
But, she was even more afraid of the possibility of being alone for the rest of time. In the first scenario, at least she'd have others getting tortured beside her.
Despite how much she looked down on others, she couldn't deal with being alone.
Her fists tightened in rage as her breath quickened. Fumiko hated the fact that there was nothing she could do to change or control her fate here. Once again, her life felt like it was already over. And there was no way for her to back out by simply dying, this time.
Click!
A moment later, a strange sound echoed in the endless white void just as Fumiko caught sight of something in her peripheral vision.
She turned to her left, noticing an enormous white structure resembling an exquisitely carved foot.
Fumiko's brows knitted in confusion. 'How long has that been there? And why didn't I notice it till now.' She thought cautiously.
Her mind was reeling at the sight of the foot, although she wasn't sure why.
She remained in place as she simply stared at it while several minutes passed. No more sounds came from that direction.
Eventually, she walked forward. "It's not like I have anything to lose, anyway. I'm already dead."
She stopped in front of the giant toe of the foot that was easily the size of a cliff and placed a hand on it, feeling It's smooth texture. It was like nothing she'd ever felt before. "'Why's there a giant carved statue foot in hell?" she mumbled with a raised brow.
She paused for a moment, then snorted at her own stupid question. "I guess that's the least of my worries."
"Hmm, I wonder if the rest of it is also here somewhere." She said as she stepped back and folded her arms. "Is this some kind of test? Do I have to gather up all the broken pieces in this crazy place and put them back together for something to happen?"
Click!
Fumiko's head whirled as she heard the sound from before again. "Who's there!" She shouted with a hint of excitement as she eventually tried walking around the statue, not seeing anywhere else for someone to hide. "It's alright, you can come out now. I'm sure you came here after your death, just like me!"
Fumiko frowned as she circled the entire giant foot several times, not noticing anyone else besides herself. She didn't understand why. If there was no one else here, then where was the sound coming from? Was it simply a torture tactic to keep her guessing if she was actually alone or not?
(As I thought, you really are quite interesting.)
Fumiko froze as she suddenly heard a voice that felt like it was coming from above her. Just then, a sudden thought made its way into her mind, as if it had been held back by an unknown force until now.
In all the time she had spent studying the enormous foot in front of her... Why hadn't she looked up?
Thinking about it now, she realised she had never actually checked to see if the giant statue was complete. She had simply assumed it wasn't so casually that she didn't even notice.
A complete statue should have been something she spotted immediately, but for some reason, her mind focused on only the foot.
As if it was instinctively stopping her from seeing it.
Fumiko wasn't one to let her instincts control her actions so easily. So she gritted her teeth and walked back until she had the entire statue in her vision. And then looked up.
"...."
"...."
"Ahhhhhhhh!!"
The panic and fear Fumiko had been holding back since she first got here released all at once in a terrifying scream the moment she laid eyes on the entity she'd been ignoring.
And It was no statue.
Before her loomed a pristine white humanoid figure, easily the size of a small mountain. Its body truly resembled that of a statue, with its perfect carvings and flawless skin. But Its face—the first disturbing aspect of the being that threatened to shatter Fumiko's sanity—was obscured by what seemed to be a living corruption that submerged everything above its lips, writhing around like a worm while simultaneously being perfectly still.
The second disturbing aspect of the being in front of her was its missing left arm that seemed to have been erased from the shoulder.
The third, final, and perhaps most harrowing of them all was the dark hole in its chest, which resembled a dark void, seeking to swallow everything into It's cold embrace.
Fumiko wasn't sure she had the words to describe this entity. The only thing that came to her mind was.
'a god'
'I'm standing before a god'