"Am I dead?"
Those were the words Ethan spoke when he looked around him with a confused expression.
The surroundings were covered with literal flashing light, and when he tried peering further into the light, his eyes just started aching like crazy.
'I shouldn't feel pain when I am in heaven, right?' Ethan thought while looking at the one person who was in front of him.
When Ethan looked at the person who was sitting, he squinted his eyes. The robe was airy, flowing, and white. The person had slender arms and shoulder-length hair.
He couldn't tell if the person was a man or a woman. The features were too soft to guess, and it felt wrong to assume.
Only when he spotted the bump on the person's neck did he finally realize and nod to himself.
Yet just when he thought that, the person, for the first time, looked away from the sheets of paper and toward Ethan with almost a judging face.
"Ethan Smith, your registration is complete. You may pass through that gate now," the person spoke in a majestic voice, and when Ethan heard it, he went into thought again.
But when he looked at the judging face of the man, he felt like the man knew what he was thinking about.
But he still couldn't just move forward. "Where am I right now? And don't mind the bluntness, but I can't just trust your words when I only met you a minute ago," Ethan spoke with confidence.
And he was right; it had only been less than a minute since he came to this place.
The person on the table, who was as if floating on the flashing light that was all around, looked at Ethan for a mere second before a sly smile crept on his face.
"Is that so?" the person spoke, making Ethan confused, before he felt a tug on his shoulder.
"Hm?" Ethan looked back and saw nothing behind him before he felt another push on his shoulder.
Before Ethan could even react, he felt a pull from his chest once, and he flew toward the one gate outline that was also made of light before he could say anything.
The person just tapped his finger on the table two times when another person materialized in front of him, his expression seemingly more confused than Ethan's.
*
*
*
That was what Ethan experienced a few hours ago. Right now, he was seated with a bunch of people in a circular room with an intricate pattern etched on it.
There were tall walls that covered the entire area, with light falling directly from above through the clear blue skies.
There was only one small metallic gate to his left, where he saw a few people armed to the boot come and go from.
"This situation is fucked up," Ethan spoke, making many scared and nervous people look at him.
The crowd around him was big and so, so scared that Ethan could feel it rub off on him.
Ethan had tried enquiring about if people around him also came here from a blinding white light with a man working on a table, and so far, everyone either nodded in agreement or plain out crashed out.
'I can't really blame them… a man was just dragged out that gate just for shouting in anger,' Ethan thought.
Things were not looking that great. It all felt like a very elaborate prank, but at the same time, he feared everyone around, including him, had become victims of human trafficking.
That was the only explanation.
CREAKKK
The metallic door opened again, making many armed people come forward with stern expressions before they moved to the side of the gate, and everyone saw a woman enter the circular prison-like room.
'You've got to be kidding me,' Ethan almost wanted to smack his head in a chuckle, yet he played along with what everyone was doing—being scared.
The woman who entered was wearing a cream-colored dress that almost looked like silk as it stuck to her skin, yet looked movable enough.
She looked like a cosplay model that had taken good care of her body, and the cosplay part didn't come from the dress but what she was holding in her hand.
It almost looked like a fake magic stick, yet that gem at the top looked so premium that Ethan thought it might just be a big diamond. Yet diamonds that big were rare and extremely expensive.
"Klakhta mun liako." The woman spoke in a foreign language, and truthfully, Ethan couldn't tell if it was German, French, or something Arabic.
But the confused expressions almost told him that nobody really caught what she just said.
The woman moved forward until she was in a clearing. She stepped forward until she was dangerously close to a woman sitting right in the front line.
Ethan could only look at the back of her head, so he couldn't tell what her expression was like, yet the pleading cries from her lips made it obvious that she was horrifyingly scared.
Yet the woman didn't even bat an eye at her and looked forward toward the crowd before she closed her eyes.
"Hm?"
Ethan could almost hear her say something slowly, but the words were so foreign that it felt almost ridiculous to even listen further. He didn't know the language, which made him more worried as it meant he might not be in the same country anymore.
When the mumbling of the woman was done, a shot of light emitted out of the crystal above her stick, and while everyone flinched in the front, not many were able to catch onto it until everyone looked above.
"What the actual…." Ethan looked up, and he felt dumbfounded. There was a big mass of gas above them that was illuminated white.
And to make matters worse—
"WHAT IS THAT?!"
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
"RUN!!! IT'S POISONOUS GASSSS!!!"
Among the many unintelligent shouts, that was what Ethan could make out of some who were speaking properly.
The gaseous cloud started descending down, and that was when everything went downhill.
Everyone pushed each other and screamed to the top of their lungs trying to get out.
Ethan tried running toward the only gate in the circular room too, just like many others, only to see the same armed guards with spears pointing toward the crowd with a cold expression.
But before anyone could even engage, the cloud came falling down, and everyone closed their eyes, including Ethan.
When Ethan opened his eyes again, he found everyone who was looking around just as confused as him. The cloud had vanished without any after-effects, which felt weird.
It felt all okay until everyone around him started noticing him and backing off, pushing anyone in the way until there was a gap of a meter or two between them and Ethan.
Ethan was so confused, he couldn't even say anything.
But then he noticed his hands, and then his legs.
Out of everyone around.
Ethan was the only one glowing.