Death Explained

There was no pain, no light, and no darkness. There was simply nothing. It was as if my mind had been placed in a catatonic state; no breath to be drawn and no words left to utter. Here I woke in a strange place unknown to me and here I sit in the cold presence of an odd man who appeared no older that forty at most. The room we were in was stark white with no decor on the walls, a barren scene devoid of anything. The gentleman across the table didn’t appear to be anyone out of the ordinary from first glance. He wore an all black suit with a skull shaped lapel pin on the left side of his jacket. His neatly combed black hair and clean shaven face suggested that he was rather well kept and he put off a presence that could penetrate the foundations of any soul. I looked into his eyes and saw a void of pure despair. At that point there was no guessing who he was because I had already felt this chilling aura before, but there was now a face to place to it. “Dylan Cinder, you are dead. The act in which you used to commit your suicide was rather amusing, but even so it appears that you have succeeded in your plot to leave the mortal realm”, Death spoke. His cold blackened face offered no sympathy as he informed me of events that transpired, in my mind, eons ago. I wanted to ask about the events that led to me sitting in this peculiar room discussing the topic of my fickle mortal state with death, but I found myself unable to speak. There were no words I could muster to talk to such a being. “Lucky, or quite possibly not for you, the big man thought it would be a waste to let you off the hook so easy. You will be enlisted in the Death Corpse Program and alongside the other new recruits be trained to act as Grim Reapers”. He had a queer look on his face that suggested he may not have been entirely thrilled about my inclusion in this project, but either way it didn’t seem like he had much of a choice. “Of course you can decline the position, but that means you’ll take your chances with the judge and by the looks of how you went out, going down seems very likely. I mean for the love of it all, you slid down a children’s slide off the side of a 300 story building after screaming sui-slide at the top of your lungs”. A wry smile crept across Death’s face because he knew that their really was only one choice. “Sure, let’s give this reaper thing a go”, I thought to myself. I mean given the choice between eternal damnation and a new job, I guess I’ll lean towards the new position. “Seems like you have made up your mind, so sign this contract and we can get on with this process” he sighed. A golden scroll with blood red writing suddenly appeared on the table. It clearly read that in exchange for a thousand years of service to the Death Corpse, I would be free from the judgment of my mortal transgressions. I moved to pick up the contract to examine it closer. My finger slipped and caught the corner of the page by accident and cut my finger open, but instead of blood, a black fluid emerged from the wound and landed in the parchment. “The contract is signed” he said. Suddenly the room went black and the man was gone. My cloths that I was wearing disappeared from my body and had been replaced by what looked like a replica of the suit the gentleman had been wearing, minus the lapel pin strangely enough. A voice suddenly played in my head, a strange sound I had never heard before, almost like some sort of angelic woman directly transmitting thoughts into my mind. “Reaper Corpse Trainee Form Gained. Welcome to the Corpse” the voice rang out. A shocking experience to be sure, but it seemed like it was attached to the contract that I had just signed, so I didn’t pay it to much heed. The black room started to change again, slowly twisting the dimension until it finally cracked. There was a bright flash of light and a loud crashing sound. When the light faded slightly, I found my feet upon solid ground. “Welcome to the Academy”.