I was having a strange dream, a nightmare to be precise. In that nightmare, I was stuck inside a never-ending darkness. I kept looking for a way to escape that limitless darkness, but I couldn't find any. And suddenly there was a glimpse of light and from that light emerged a little hand. A little hand of a child. I grabbed that hand tightly as that seemed like my only way of salvation. Then, I woke up. I rubbed my eyes and found myself in an unfamiliar room, lying on a soft bed. I looked around the room carefully. A bit smaller than the bedroom of my apartment. The room was so neat and clean unlike my apartment. There was a small side-table besides the bed, where I found some pills and bandages lying alongside a glass of water. There was barely anything noticeable in the room to describe, except for the fact that the walls were painted mild pink. This is definitely not my apartment! Where is this place?
Then some bits and pieces of my memory flashed in front of me. I remembered how I was struggling inside a dark tunnel, and then I was able escape that and reached a vast green land, where I found a small cottage at the center of it. Last thing I remembered was reaching its door and seeing a little girl opening the door. Then I must be inside that house now.
I was so immersed in my thoughts that I didn't even notice that the girl entered my room and was silently standing besides my bed. That's why I got startled when I heard a cute voice out of the blue, "How are you feeling now?"
"When did you enter the room? And who are you?", I was clutching the bedsheet, half expecting her to be transformed into a demon and attack me. "Calm down boy, I'm not gonna eat you." She replied calmly, as if she had read my mind. "You're safe here. I was waiting for you to come here. Good job making it out of that labyrinth, the 'Prison of lost souls.' She added.
Wait, what did she just say now? She was waiting for me. And I escaped some prison of souls or something! What is that about?
"Who are you? And what is this place?" I was still confused about what was going on.
"OK, my bad for not properly introducing myself before. Hi, I'm Epoh. As you can see, you're now in my home. And the world you're in right now is called 'Afterland'.
Epoh…? What a weird name!
- Do you live here alone? Where are your parents?
- I don't have my parents here with me, they are busy with their own works. And yes, I live here alone.
This little kid lives here alone! She must be brave.
- How do you manage living here just by yourself? I mean don't you feel bored or afraid?
- Hey, I'm staying here for thousands of years. I'm much braver than you are for sure! And I don't feel bored as people like you keep coming here from time to time.
Thousands of years? This kid sure is funny.
I examined her properly this time. She was wearing a beautiful blue frock, her hairs tied into two ponytails, having two cute blue colored ribbons tied to them. Now that I noticed it, her eyes were also blue. Judging by her height, vocal tone and facial features, she looked nothing other than a child.
"Stop staring at me like that, you're creeping me out." She scoffed. Then she went ahead to open the window completely ignoring me. A fresh breeze entered the room, filling it with a tantalizing fragrance; a mixture of scents probably coming from the garden I saw in front of the house. A rush of daylight warmed me up.
"It's time to wake up, lazy boy. You have been sleeping for five whole days."
I slept for five days straight! This must be my new record!
"I treated your wounds and gave you some sedatives. You were completely out of your breath when I found you. You just needed proper rest to fully recover. I hope you can move your body with ease now."
Her words brought back haunting memories from the time I was inside that hellish tunnel.
"Don't remind me about that place, I suffered there for several days!" I sighed.
- You suffered for weeks. You were there for at least a month.
- Excuse me….
- Yes, time moves there differently. It's a good thing you got out of the 'prison of souls' after just a month. Some people suffer there for longer.
- Can you please clarify this 'prison of soul' thing? I mean I was there myself.
- Well, that place is full of lost souls. You see, once a person dies, only then his soul reaches this Afterland. You are here right now, which suggests that you are dead.
A chilly sensation rushed down my spines. I am what? What the hell is she talking about?
- Hey kid, stop joking around and explain me properly what's going on!
- Listen, first of all stop calling me a kid. I'm like a lot older than you. You are just 22 years old whereas I have lived for more than hundreds of thousands of years. I'm existing here for so long that I even lost track of time at some point. Secondly, you must be a dumbass to not realize that this is not your usual mortal world that you used to live in. I mean, don't you even notice anything different here? You have eaten nothing for like a month and yet you don't feel hungry. Isn't that strange?
She is right. I hadn't had anything to eat for so long. If indeed I was inside that place for a month, I should be dead by then of starvation. Also, I had no feeling of appetite.
- Then….
- It's because you've left your physical body, and hence no longer need to provide fuel to that physical shell of yours anymore. You're free from all of your physical constraints now. But you are still susceptible to feel pain. As you know, feelings and emotions are just the projections of your mind. Those things are deeply rooted to your spiritual entity. The way you can see something vividly even while closing your eyes, you might feel physical pain even though your soul can't get hurt by physical objects. You can escape your mortal shell, but you can never get rid of your feelings, your emotions.
I was not sure how much of her words actually made sense to me, but I was sure about one thing that something fishy was going on. Something was definitely not right about the place I was in, about the girl I was talking to, about the whole situation I was in. I'm not sure whether I'm dead or not, but this is not the place where I belong to, a place different from my familiar world.
- I know you're not buying whatever I said so far. I didn't expect you to believe my words in the first place. But trust me, you'll realize it sooner or later. Now, tell me how much do you recall of your past life?
Now that was a problem. Honestly, I couldn't recall much about my past, even my own name! It was like someone just erased all my memories except for my parents and the apartment I used to live in.
- It's fine, a serious degree of amnesia is expected once you come to the Afterland. But I can help you to bring your memories back. Don't you want to know what happened in your previous life, who you were?"
I didn't reply anything back. I was staring at the distant sky, oblivious of what she was talking about. Maybe I didn't want to listen to her anymore.
- Hey kid, look at me.
Being refereed as a kid by a little girl was weird beyond words. But I looked at her anyway.
- See, I know it's kinda hard for you to grasp the whole situation you are in. You are perhaps thinking that I'm lying to you and this is all nothing but a joke. Well, unfortunately it's not. This is hard for you to accept it so soon. So, take your time. Think about it carefully. I'll give you one last hint though. Do you remember encountering something strange inside that tunnel? Was there any other person besides you?
Now that she mentioned it, I remembered about the guy I came across there. He was blind, immobile and lower part of his body was disappearing somehow!
- Yes, I met a guy. He said he was fading away!
- Hmmm, you met another lost soul then. And humans don't simply fade away, but souls do. It's a good thing that you got out of that place, else you would have also faced the same fate as that guy. Consider yourself lucky boy and cheer up.
Saying those words, she turned back and stormed out of the room.
* * *
I spent looking out of the window for the entire time she was gone. Her words kept repeating inside my mind. I thought about all the bizarre things I came across so far. I even started questioning my sanity! I was trying to convince myself that it was all part of my imagination, probably I was still dreaming. But somehow it all felt so real and that was scary.
Am I really in a place called Afterland? Am I actually…. dead?
Epoh came back to my room after almost an hour, this time with a freshly baked cake.
"Have as much as you want. You won't feel full no matter how much you eat!" She said with a grin as if being dead was somehow a blessing for me. I took a slice and had a bite reluctantly. God, this kid sure knows how to make a good cake!
"So, how is it?" Her eyes were beaming with the expectation of getting appreciated by me.
"It's probably the best one I ever had." I blushed. I didn't remember about my past but somehow it felt like the best cake I had so far.
"Oh boy, cut it out! You're embarrassing me!" She threw her hands in the air dramatically.
Following a brief period of awkward silence, I asked, "So you said you can help me with this amnesia."
- Yes, that I did.
- You sure?
- Listen boy, don't you dare underestimate me because of my appearance. I've already mentioned it several times before that I'm much older than you, way elder than you think. So, that makes me like thousand times more experienced than you. Also, I'm the only person you know in this strange land, so you got no other choice than relying on me.
- See, I don't believe in your 'Afterland' nonsense and all those craps about souls and staff. But it's evident that I've lost my memories and if only I can remember what happened before I ended up in a place like this, maybe I can find a solution myself and return to my apartment. So, as you mentioned just now, I've no option but to rely on you and get back my memories as soon as possible.
- Still being skeptical, I see. Fine, whatever suits you. But as I said earlier, I'll help you.
- Thanks.
- I have one condition though.
- What is it?
- From now on, you will follow only my instructions. You should have absolute faith in me. Even if you ask too many questions, it's up to me to answer them or not.
"Fine, I'll listen to whatever you have to say. I have no other choice anyway." I shrugged.
"Good boy!" She grinned again, this time petting my head.