Kurt stood on ground that stretched endlessly in every direction, smooth and dark as polished marble, but it gave no reflection.
Above him, the sky wasn't a sky at all, just an infinite expanse of black punctuated by lights that might have been stars, perhaps universes or something far stranger.
He looked down at himself. It was the same body and the same clothes he'd been wearing in the dungeon, a white ragged shirt with half of it tucked in and a trench coat to tie it all together. But the feeling of wrongness persisted, like his soul had been stuffed back into flesh that no longer quite fit.
"Well. This is bloody charming."
His voice echoed strangely, bouncing back from distances that couldn't be measured.
Kurt turned in a slow circle, searching for anything—a landmark, a building, another person. There was completely nothing.
"Figures. Die once and suddenly I'm on the discount version of the afterlife. Brilliant," he muttered.
"Is it?"
The voice came from directly behind him and Kurt spun, fists already half-raised, though his expression was more annoyed than afraid. "Sneaking up on a bloke in the void? Real classy."
A tall figure stood there, draped in shadow robes woven from the same darkness as the not-sky. The robes clung to distinctly feminine curves; hips, waist, the suggestion of breasts, all wrong for something that should be formless and terrifying.
Kurt's brain couldn't help but register "attractive" and "cosmic horror" simultaneously. It was something he wasn't too particularly proud of, but none of that mattered now.
Where its face should have been, there was only what looked like a mask with strange, hypnotic patterns etched on it.
"You weren't there a second ago," Kurt said.
"I was. You simply weren't ready to perceive me." The figure tilted its head, the motion somehow conveying curiosity despite the lack of facial features.
"Yeah, well, next time you might wanna knock."
As one would expect from a being of this nature, it paid no heed to Kurt's dazzling personality. "Welcome to Limbo's Shore, Kurt Manchester."
He squinted. "Right. So you know me. Good for you. Mind telling me how?"
"I know many things." The figure gestured at the expanse around them. "This is my domain. The place where gods come when they die. Where divinity goes to fade into nothing. You, however, are not a god."
"Yeah, I fucking noticed." Kurt lowered his fists but didn't relax. "So why am I here?"
"A mistake." The figure began to move, gliding across the ground without walking. "A bureaucratic error of cosmic proportions."
Kurt snorted. "Even the afterlife's run by idiots. Should've known."
"Your soul was supposed to be sorted into the appropriate afterlife. Instead, you ended up here." It kept gliding towards... nowhere? Anywhere? The shore had no concept of direction.
Kurt followed, because standing alone in the infinite void seemed worse than following the entity, creepy mask and feminine curves be damned.
Abstract entities shouldn't have hips, but here he was, probably about to make another terrible life choice involving a dangerous woman. Story of his bloody life. "Glad we cleared that up. Now do you mind fixing it?"
"I could. But I won't."
"Why the fuck not?"
The figure stopped and turned to face him fully. The patterns on her mask where her face should be seemed to swirl and deepen, pulling at Kurt's attention like a whirlpool. "Because you interest me. Mortals rarely wash up on this shore, and when they do, they usually dissolve into nothing within moments. You're still here. Still... coherent."
"Great. I've been told I'm a stubborn bastard. Now send me home."
"Home." The figure's voice carried something that might have been amusement. "Tell me, Kurt Manchester. What do you remember about home?"
Kurt opened his mouth to answer and found nothing there. No memories. No images. Just a vast emptiness where his past should have been. He remembered the dungeon. The Cave Horror and dying to it. But before that?
Nothing.
"What the bloody hell did you do to me?"
"Nothing yet." The figure resumed moving, and Kurt followed. "But I'm going to make you an offer. A deal, if you prefer such terms."
"I'm dead. What kind of deal can I make?"
"The kind that gives you a second chance." The figure gestured, and something appeared in the air between them. A glowing orb that rotated on her palm like a planet before she closed her hand and the orb shattered into a constellation. "Actually, not just a second chance. Multiple chances. As many as you need."
Kurt stared at the constellation that spread around him and it seemed to blink like it was responding to his gaze. "I'm listening."
"I can give you a system. A construct of my own design that will allow you to return to the mortal realm with the gift of resurrection. Each death will make you stronger. You will accumulate power, abilities and potential beyond anything your world has seen."
"I'm guessing there's a bloody catch?"
"Your memories."
The words hung in the air like a death sentence and Kurt barked out a laugh. "You're having a laugh. My memories? The whole bloody lot?"
"All of them. Your past. Your relationships. Your name, though I've given it back to you for this conversation. Everything that made you who you were will be locked away."
"And what do I get to keep? My sparkling personality?" Kurt reached for his coat pocket out of habit, but there were no cigarettes in the afterlife. Figured.
The figure tilted its head again. "You'll retain your skills. Your instincts. The shape of your... sparkling personality. But the context? Gone. You'll wake up not knowing who you are or where you came from."
"You really know how to sweet-talk a man."
The figure moved closer, the constellation drifting between them. "But consider the alternative. You remain here, on Limbo's Shore, until the bureaucracy sorts out where you should have gone. That could take centuries. Millennia. Or you dissolve into nothing, which is what happens to most mortals who arrive here. Those are your options."
Kurt looked at the blinking stars, then at the figure, then out at the endless expanse of nothing. "Mind clueing me in on why? Why would you do this?"
"Because I want to see what human life looks like." The patterns on the figure's mask/face seemed to move with something almost like hunger. "I am the Keeper of Endings. I watch gods die on this shore. I see the end of all things divine. But humans? Your brief, frantic, desperate lives? Those are a mystery to me. I want to observe. I want to understand. And you, Kurt Manchester, will be my window into that world."
The Keeper extended what might have been a hand. "Do we have an accord, Kurt Manchester?"
"Constantly getting wrapped up in bad deals… I really need new hobbies," Kurt said as he looked at the hand, at the infinite darkness surrounding them.
Every instinct screamed that this was a bad idea. That giving up his memories was too high a price. But staying here? Dissolving into nothing?
Fuck that.
Kurt reached out and touched the constellation that felt almost alive in his fingers. "Will I get them back? The memories?"
"Eventually. When I'm done observing." The Keeper's voice went soft. "Death is transformation. Each time you die, you change. Sometimes that change will include fragments of who you were. The system may unlock pieces of your past under certain conditions. But make no mistake... when you wake up, you won't remember this conversation. You won't remember me. You won't remember making this choice."
He hesitated for a second then grabbed the hand that was still stretched toward him. "Fine. Let's sign your bloody contract."
The moment their hands touched, pain rushed through Kurt's skull and he felt pieces of himself being torn away, ripped out like pages from a book. Faces he couldn't quite see. Names he couldn't quite hear. Moments that slipped away even as he tried to hold onto them.
His name. His history. His identity.
All of it bleeding out into the void.
"The contract is sealed," the Keeper of Endings said, and her voice seemed to come from very far away. "Use your gift well, Kurt Manchester. I'll be watching."
Then the darkness rushed up to swallow him whole.
***
Kurt's eyes snapped open as he sucked in a ragged gasp.
"HUUAAAGH!"
Jerking upright like he'd been electrocuted, he looked at his hands and flexed them like they were borrowed.
"Where the hell am I?"
His voice cracked with frustration more than fear. He touched his face, searching for anything familiar.
Nothing.
The emptiness behind his thoughts expanded until he could barely breathe.
[SYSTEM ACTIVATION]
[Welcome, User. Identity Reboot Complete.]
"...Bloody hell," Kurt stared at the blue screen, still disoriented, then at his unfamiliar hands. "Who the fuck am I?"
***
A/N: I hope you're enjoying this so far. Add to Library and send a power stone or two if you're. Thank you and peace!