The cold in my chest slowly washed away.

A warm embrace started to take a hold of me.

It run through every bone, every cell of me down to my very being.

The last thing I can see is the red on my hands.

Where is it from? I think it is from my chest. Yes, I remember. The cold steel running into my body, then the twisting, pulling and then it all went away.

It fades from my conscience.

It is all washed away by the overtaking warmth.

Slowly I start to see something again. It is a queue of some sort. A white void, eerie, yet somehow beautiful and a line running through it, into infinity.

All sort of shapes and colors are in this queue, some look vaguely humanoid, others have more extremities than main body and again others don't seem to follow any structural logic at all.

Suddenly, a step forward, I follow without question. It just feels like the right thing to do. The steps don't make any sound, yet somehow this synchronous step forward fills me with immense joy.

After a while we take another step. No one gave a command, we just all knew what to do and again I am filled with unspeakable joy.

No matter how many steps the queue takes, my joy never lessens. No one speaks, no one steps out of line and no one feels any other urge except to walk onwards, one step at a given time.

It could have been days, it could have been years, no matter how long we stand and wait for this one relieving step, nothing ever changed and nothing ever should change. This is exactly how it should be. It doesn't matter who or what I was, or even if, the only thing I need is this one blissful step.

'Chk'

Was there something?

'Chk'

No, nothing here will change. Why should it?

'Chk''Chk'

No, this definitely is something.

'Chk''Chk''Chk'

I look around, something I haven't done in a long time.

'Chk''Chk'

That's when I see the small crack in the white void. Others also seem to notice it and turn around facing the the growing threat to our normality.

Suddenly I feel something I haven't felt in a long time.

Fear

With a last loud 'CHK' the crack opened up to something like a tunnel and we saw something coming out.

A humanoid thing with three fingered claws as hands, legs that resembled something like a thin blade and a head totally engulfed by a brown helmet.

It made some steps out of the hole and came closer to the queue. After a closer look, it's helmet shared the same color and texture with the rest of its body. It was like a chitin covering.

"Everybody that steps out of this line will get taken away!"

A voice loud and clear appeared in my head.

"This is a mandatory warning that you need to hear, else my contract would be voided."
Is this voice coming from the thing?

"I will now start the collection."

As soon as the voice ended a shining object levitated in front of my chest.

I felt a primal fear take hold of me. I hurriedly went through my pockets and looked for my wallet.

"Please take everything, just spare me."

I screamed, tears gushing down my face.

He jumped me on my way to work and pulled me into this dark allay.

"You can have my phone, my wallet, just don't do anything you would later regr... "

The man with a knife jumped at me and in reaction I moved back.

Only now do I realize my error. This szene already played out once but I had my back against a wall. How did I move back?

The brown creature stood next to me and I stood outside of the queue.

Some appear to have made a step out but jumped right back in and some didn't seem to be affected at all.

"What was that?"<

I just spoke... I didn't speak in such a long time.

"Escaping fate never takes a good ending my friend!"

The creature next to me snickered. I couldn't see its face but I knew it was grinning.

"Thank you, truly thank you. It is really rare to ever tempt someone especially with the time it takes to even get here."

The thing pressed its claw into my shoulder.

"Stand up! We have a long way in front of us."