W-what?
"What the fuck?! Are you serious right now?" Inna stared at Mei's back with an incredulous expression.
"I'm DEAD?! How am I dead?!" Inna looked at herself and then at the child. Her eyes filled with horror and confusion.
Was it because of that shitty portal in Akihabara?
Is that why I saw the white light?
Is that what they meant by 'I see the light'?
Holy shit, I'm dead. I'M ACTUALLY DEAD.
"Looks like you still don't believe." Mei mumbled.
When the line paused for a moment, Mei turned around and tried to grab Inna's hand. Inna was startled but she waited for the grip of Mei's hands.
But after a few blinks, she just felt nothing.
"What happened?" She looked down to see that Mei's hand passed through hers.
Holy shit.
How the fuck.
"We may look alive here, but we are simply nothing but souls in reality." Mei smiled dimly as she looked at her hand.
"This place is Hel Halja. A place for the departed souls. Some believers even call this place 'Hell' for short. The people who live here are called Reapers. Usually they can't be seen by the humans but departed souls can see them. They escort us, the departed souls, towards this queue and helps monitor us to stay on the queue. But I doubt anyone would stray off."
She turned around and continued to follow the moving line while she continued talking.
"From what I know, this queue serves as a sort of ceremony for the dead. We have to cross the 40 floors of hell by walking in this line. And at the last floor, we will see a castle where we await judgment there."
The line stopped again, so Mei faced Inna.
"How come you don't know this?" She looked at Inna with a strange expression.
"What do you mean?"
"When I was asleep, a Reaper, I think, was in my dream. He had a black robe on and everything about him, aside from the deep voice and the yellow eyes, are hidden."
"He placed his hand on my head, then, I immediately knew everything here. And I assume everyone else knows it as well because they didn't make much of a commotion, unlike you."
"What? I didn't dream of some Reaper."
Inna was utterly confused.
"What's happening? Is it something bad?"
She wanted to ask more but she knew that Mei was just as clueless as she was. She wanted to speak more but Mei turned around as the line started moving.
They both grew silent, lost in their own thoughts.
After what felt like an endless loop of walking, Inna was beginning to feel tired. She looked around, expecting others be to the same, but she saw that everyone else wasn't tired at all. Their movements were the same all throughout.
No gasping for breath, no uneven footsteps, and no tired groaning.
How the fuck are they not tired?!
All this walking felt like I'm climbing Mt. Everest ten times!
Along with feeling tired, she felt hungry too. She needed her daily fix of nuggets and she wasn't even able to eat that before she died!
Greatest shame of her life!
Fuck the Minions! It's all their fault!
They bring nothing but trouble!
If I get out of here, I'm going to haunt those fuckers forever.
She cursed and cussed her friends but she soon felt that all her anger made her hungrier. She looked down at her stomach and slightly cried.
I'm sorry I failed you, my dear stomach.
Wait a minute....
Why am I hungry?
Can dead people even get hungry?!
Just as she was considering in testing out if the purple grass here was edible or not, she noticed a trail of light that appeared from a distance. She squinted her eyes and soon saw a butterfly fluttering towards her. She was mesmerized by its beauty. It was light blue in color with black lines on its wings and seemed to be shrouded with a thin sheet of light. Whenever it moves, small glittering lights would sprinkle downwards making it look so pretty.
But right now, the only thought Inna had was,
'Can I eat that?'
As if sensing her thoughts, the butterfly seemed to hesitate in going near Inna. But it seemed to have come up with a decision and landed on her hand.
Inna was amazed by the act.
'HOLY SHIT, I FEEL LIKE A DISNEY PRINCESS.'