I awoke from my comatose to find myself stationary and floating in what seemed to be an infinite void of complete and total darkness. No matter where I looked, I saw only a hue of indistinguishable blackness so dark the depth of space became perceptually meaningless.
Looking down to my chest, I noticed my body was clear and visible as if the sun were illuminating it, but there were no such eminent luminary devices. My body was made visible by the absence of the physical laws we call natural.
My naked and fully exposed body appeared corpulent and unwashed, just as it had been right before World Shatter started. I began to suspect the worst had happened, and a strong feeling overcame my senses: fear.
I opened my mouth to scream, but no noise escaped my lips. The void remained a constant deafening silence missing the fundamental vector of which sound reverberated.
I became fear personified. I didn't want to die.
Tears off from my eyes as I remained helplessly suspended, incapable of knowing whether I was fixed in place or if I was drifting off into the nondescript nothingness of death.
I felt afraid of the unknown that existed—or didn't—all around me, but there was a feeling that came rushing into my mind to fill the gaps of fear, that being a strong sense of utter regret and self-directed contempt. I hated who I was with fiery vitriol. However, it no longer mattered; my mistakes were cemented as I had made them, and there was no way they could be undone.
The tears subsided as I mutedly sighed away the intense emotions. In that moment, I had come to terms with where my decisions had led me, but just as I did, a door appeared before me. It was made of smoothed white marble and trimmed with radiant golden metal.
Sluggishly reaching my hand up, I turned the shiny gold doorknob and opened the door just a crack. I jumped in surprise as sudden blinding light shot out from the sliver of space in between me and the other side.
I covered my eyes with my elbow and stepped through the white marble door into a room with gravity causing me to fall on my ass.
"Ouch."
I was surprised once again—this time by the sound of my own voice as well return of gravity.
Opening my dilating eyes, I saw a well-lit space before me of immaculate and heavenly construction. Numerous colossal Roman pillars extended up into an open blue sky for a potentially infinite distance. The pillars were made of white marble engraved with gold-layered inscriptions, and they sided the marble-tiled path the extended well off into the visible horizon.
"Is this heaven?"
As I crawled to my feet, I was caught off guard by a boyish voice saying, "This is your image of it."
I frightenedly jumped back, barking, "W-Who's there?"
A white-robed boy angelically descended down from the sky, stopping at my eye-level. He held his hands raised to his sides with a deep light emanating from behind him. It was like I was looking at a renaissance painting of an angel in heaven.
"You don't recognize me?" the boy confessed his quandary before saying, "That's no good. I wonder—"
"No, no, I do. How could I forget?" I smiled, proclaiming, "You look like me after all… Eric."
Eric closed his eyes and sighed with relief.
I began cheerfully rambling, "I'm so happy you got to heaven. I mean, of course, I knew you would, but obviously, as your brother, I'm glad I got confirmation and… and…"
I started to get teary again, but this time it was due to a different kind of feeling, the good kind.
"I-I'm just… so happy to—"
"If there's something you need to say, please say it quickly; there isn't much time left." Eric blurted as his face turned serious.
"W-What?"
I fell to my knees in anguish, afraid to speak or even move. Of course, Eric hated me for killing him. I should've expected that.
Knowing he may very well refuse, even so, I knew what I had to say.
I tilted my head back as my lips moved to say, "I'm so… so…"
Suddenly, space around me warped in its dimensions; within seconds, the pillars, the marble, the clouds in the sky, and even Eric extended off away from me and out of view combining together to a form singularity of light at a distance of which I could not comprehend. It looked as if it were right in front of me, but it also looked as if it could be thousands of miles away.
I frantically shouted, "N-No, don't go! I don't want you to go! Don't leave me!"
I raised my hand, trying to grab at the depthless light to no avail. I had an opportunity to say sorry, and I blew it.
I wrathfully erupted, "Nooooo!!!"
My screams faded back to soundlessness as I curled into a ball angrily crying; alone, and afraid in the darkness surrounding me. Gripping my head in my hands, I felt the rising sensation of pain began to fill my cranium, becoming more and more intense till it peaked, and my consciousness faded.
***
I opened my unfocused eyes to see a face before me. It was Charlotte's, and as my eyes focused in, I noticed her face covered in sweat and tears streaks.
Charlotte was shouting something that I couldn't quite make out because my hearing was dulled and very sensitive. However, as my visions became clearer, so too did my cognitive hearing.
"I'm sorry for being cold and distant, so please come back! Don't leave me!" She feverishly shouted, hands pressed against my chest as her sobs began to slow down to halt, head sloping forward inadvertently.
"I… need you," she sluggishly murmured as her consciousness faded, leaving her to helplessly fall to the ground beside me.
I tried catching her, but I couldn't even lift a finger. It felt like Jupiter's gravity had somehow switched with Earth's, or maybe like I was strapped to one of those Gravitron rides at a carnival.
Fighting back against the overpowering heaviness, I managed to lift my head forward enough to see glowing green handprints all up and down my stomach and chest. It was then I remembered that Charlotte had the ability to cleanse poisons.
It was clear that I had died, and my body was suffering from the aftermath. I wasn't too sure whether what I had seen was an actual afterlife or just fleeting delusions appearing to me right before death, but real or not, I still wanted to go back so I could properly apologize to Eric.
Now knowing that even if I were to die, I wouldn't stay dead, I had a potent urge to go back. However, for now, I had to make sure Charlotte knew that I was still alive. She had fallen unconscious—probably from mana depletion or something like that—and I was going to need to wait till she recovered and came to.
Resting my head back, I started to feel suffocated, so I gasped for breath—It only made sense someone who had stopped breathing was oxygen deprived—and as I breathed, my body started quickly recovering from what may've very well been early onset rigor-mortis.
---
[User: Henry Miller]
[Race: Juggernaut]
[Class: Survivor]
[Lv: 0]
[Xp: 0/100]
[Body: 14]
[Mental: 22]
[Senses: 13]
[Magic: 0]
[Skills: Racial ability (Uncanny Regeneration), Racial ability (Stomach Pocket-Dimension), Class ability (Fearless Resolve), Class ability (Survivor's Senses), Class ability (System Appraisal)]
[Traits: Racial trait (Starting attributes are unaffected by this race), Class trait (Attributes don't increase by leveling up), Class trait (Starting attributes are unaffected by this class), Class trait (Incapable of receiving stat upgrades from quests)]
---
Not only did my Mental attribute increase by eight whole points, but my Senses attribute went up as well; not by as much, but three points was still a decent amount. Now I knew for sure that this was the proper method to improve my attributes; my only stipulation was that I would need Charlotte by my side to prevent me from dying for real.
A content smile spread across my face as I lied in wait.