The tunnel seems never ending as you trudge on shaking, aching legs that can barely hold your own weight as you continuously try to accept what has happened to you. You're dead. Stabbed after a near perfect date that was likely headed to a fun night ending with holding your pink haired lover in bed with minimal to no clothes.
The thoughts of what could have been flash through your mind in thick vibrant colours that make your already foggy brain foggier, slowly drowning out the bright light that encases your runway to the after life.
The deeper you go, the brighter it gets as if heading slowly, trembling and angry, towards your next life, whether it's to be heaven, hell, rebirth or one of the other countless variations of the blessed and damned afterlife. The blinding effect at the end of the tunnel isn't as comforting as you expected it to be, in fact it's more ominous than anything else.
A blot of bright light at the end of the tunnel of light. The final destination for all souls no matter age, race or religion. The resting place for all. The pressure such a place exudes sends shivers through you, a heavy crushing pain shoots through your eyes, piercing through your skull in a single constant whine of pain that echoes through you. How could anyone think this is bliss?! Your thoughts churn sluggishly, each irrational and irrational thought surfaces too slow and sinks too fast.
The floor starts to feel unstable, no longer is it your imagination of being bogged down that makes you sluggish, it is an actual bog that ways you down. It isn't wet, it isn't mud, it's as if the floor has lost its support, like wading through dry water.
The contradictory manner of this strange place continues with dry liquid and other now meaningless things. Why should you care? Why should you bother? Its not like you have a beating heart to look forward to. No Akane holding you in your sleep, no friends comforting you. Not even any parents to nag at you for things even they don't care about. Why is the afterlife so boring, is it just this tunnel? Or will you ever reach that thick light?
Questions start to pile in your head, throbbing against the fog and bog that is stuck inside you. Making it feel as if things are crawling within you, countless tiny legs moving rapidly like rough tickling below you skin. The soft slither and heavy stomp of these imaginary animals and insects given birth from the endless bombardment of questions and information to your still recovering brain. Recovering from the shock of death, the shock of being stabbed, the bright piercing light that is still throbbing ahead of you at the end of a tunnel that could lead to an infinite number of different variations of the afterlife. From bliss to damnation, from rebirth to an eternity of nothing.
Fields of Elysian, Heaven, Valhalla, Fields of Asphodel, Rebirth, Fields of punishment, Hell. All these countless variations and possibilities do little to quell your growing anxiety, a pressure that only adds to your already overstressed brain. The true nature of this place illudes you. Is it a punishment, a rite of passage or is it the afterlife?
Is this long arduous walk all there is to the afterlife? Surely not...
The light starts expanding as you take more labored steps forwards, panting unnecessarily since you don't need to breath. Every single step feels like climbing out of the a river while wearing baggy clothes, trying to scramble up its banks with speed yet being pulled back by the water filled pants and shirts and jackets. It feels impossible to move forwards yet you do.
One foot in front of the other. Over and over, slowly inching towards the rapidly expanding light. Have you reached the end? Are you close? Yes it must be.
You look up as you reach the light. The pressure is making it near impossible to move forwards. It makes you feel like Atlas.
The light disperses to reveal a desk.
The desk is mid sized and made out of a strange white wood, a single lonely lamp adorns it along with a heavy ledger that is at least a foot thick. The ledger is lined with gold and encrusted with jewels:
diamonds,
emeralds and
sapphires.
Too many jewels to be an object of human invention despite looking like it represents the depths of human arrogance and greed.
The ledger creaks open and only then do you see who is behind the desk. A short boy with a timeless face that makes it impossible to tell his age and at the same time makes it easy to mistake him for a girl. The Boys hair is a strong glowing white, it's long and soft looking. The boys eyes are doe like with a beautiful pale blue iris and a long lashes. his eyebrows are thin and slightly darker than his hair colour.
"Ah hello Karmen Jules." The boys voice is high and soft, angelic in nature and tone, "It seems that you have been stabbed, unfortunately we can't inform you to whom murdered thee but we're gonna try," his dialect is like a mix of time periods and due to his constant soft and cool tone it works. It suits him even, "also you aren't dead...yet."
Your eyes bolt wide, pupils enlarging as if high, "So I can go back...?" You ask, the fog and bog in your head starting to clear out, the pressure relieving slightly as you hear the supposed good new. "Technically no you aren't dead but you also aren't alive. In fact your body on earth is currently comatose and only alive due to machines." The angel pauses with slight dramaticism, "So why don't we play a game? If you win I'll let you live the rest of your life, however if I win I get to take you to eternal damnation until I'm satisfied." The rules and wager make your head balloon. What the fuck is this guy on about? You think to yourself. The angelic boy smirks deviously, his mouth smiling too wide, his eyes creasing too much. "You scared I'll even send you back and we can split the game into ten parts starting next week. I can send you back to that little pink haired girl right now," he says. You look at him distrustfully but the deal is too good. You nod simply. Too much pressure in your head to speak.
"I suppose you need to call me something when we meet next..." the boy says contemplatively.
Your body feels empty, you look down, your body is fading. Slowly and terrifyingly, as if meant to distill abject terror into you.
"Aha!! You may call me...The Receptionist." The Receptionist says as your body fades completely and your vision goes black once more.