If there is a heaven, it's not here. All he saw was darkness, the type of darkness that the brightest light couldn't even penetrate. Everywhere he looked there was only void, and even though it was vast and open, it felt claustrophobic at the same time. There was nothing there, to see nor hear, and they couldn't even move. He could feel his body, but it's numb. He was paralyzed, unable to move at all.

He tried to mutter "where am I?" but he couldn't even manage that. His mouth wouldn't move. Suddenly panic struck. He felt like a lost soul in an unanimated body. He tried to move, he desperately tried. He was an ant in a vast world that was about to come to life.

An orb of light suddenly appeared. It was the size of a bug. It was barely noticeable at first, but it grew. It grew and grew. It became as big and bright as a star. It was a nice change of pace for the situation he was in. But something that wasn't expected was the orb spoke.

"Hello everyone!" A loud voice boomed through the void.

He could tell the person speaking was a man. His voice wasn't too deep, but it wasn't too high either. He spoke with pride, clearly confident of himself. The orb suddenly changed shape very quickly. It warped and shifted, and it formed a man. The man took his place in the dark world, adding light everywhere. There were silhouettes of many people in the distance, forming a thick circle around the strange man. The man stopped glowing as bright, and you could soon see him. He was a man with a white coat. He had blond, almost silver hair. He was exceptionally far away from everyone, but you could see his blue glowing eyes from miles away.

"My name is Atlas, it is great to see you all are here."

Atlas spoke with confidence, and he made sure everyone could hear him. He spoke to the crowd of people as if he'd known them for years. He spun as he talked, as to get a good look at all the people around him, essentially getting a sense of his surroundings.

"I'm sure most of you are very confused right now. Well, to put it short, you all recently died." Atlas declared.

No one spoke, probably because they couldn't, but you could feel the shock flowing between everyone, as if we were sharing senses. The panic that was just calming, rose up, above and beyond its maximum capacity. Apparently Atlas could feel the panic as well, so he spoke up.

"Calm down everyone, it's fine. Despite knowing it or not, you've probably been here before. I'm pretty sure about 95% of all of you have already been here."

There were a lot of people there, so 95% was a pretty great statistic, but as far as the circles of people knew, they had never seen this place, and were probably assuming they were in some sort of purgatory. Atlas looked around, slightly annoyed. He was searching for something, or maybe he could sense it's presence, either way, he couldn't see it. But he wasn't searching for what it was, he was searching for where it was. He was probably already well aware of who or what it was.

"Well, it looks like she'll be arriving early this time, so I guess I'll have to introduce her to you now." Atlas said, clearly disappointed.

Another orb of light appeared, going through the same process Atlas's formation went through. The orb of light turned into another person, but it was a woman. She looked similar to Atlas, but not exactly the same. By "similar" I mean physical appearance. She had the same blue glowing eyes, and both of them had blond, almost silver hair. However her clothing and demeanor were completely different. She was wearing a nice red dress, but she looked tired, obviously unprepared for this, and probably wanting to just get this over with, which is probably why she was early.

"This is my sister Rose. She helps me run this operation." Atlas announced to everyone.

That was no surprise to anyone. They looked like brother and sister. What was surprising was the colliding personalities between them. It was like they were in a battle, but not physical. It was a mental battle, a clash of values.

"So to clear things up, this is not heaven, nor is this hell. You are in the Atlas Rose operation. Here we specialize in reincarnation of souls. To put it simply, we have the power to put your soul into another vessel, resulting in you living another life. However, there are rules."

Atlas had everyone hooked. The crowd was listening very carefully. "Rule number one. You must go through 10 trials in order to be reincarnated." Atlas asserted. "These trials are dangerous, and if you die within them, you are dead for good. You get no second chances."

As everyone started to break out of their paralyzed state, they all reacted differently. Some were neutral, some were scared, some were happy. Some were even bawling their eyes out, and some couldn't even comprehend what was going on.

"The purpose of these trials is to prepare you all for the real world. Only the best get out alive." Goosebumps hit the surrounding people. Atlas continued saying, "The next rule is that in order to completely pass the trials you must collect all 10 compasses. If you fail to do so, you will be eliminated, even if you complete all ten trials. The third and final rule is that all crime is permitted, however it is discouraged. You can rob, kill, and massacre anyone and everyone, however, getting on everyone's bad side isn't a good idea .

Atlas looked down and smirked before saying, "All crime is permitted after all."

Atlas did a great job at describing what was happening to everyone, but he also did a spectacular job at scaring any and all people listening to him. Everyone knew how dire the situation was, and they were all terrified.

"Well my part is done for now, I wish you all the best of luck. Oh and my sister will guide you all from here on."

Rose, Atlas's sister stepped up as he disappeared, turning into an orb and shrinking into nothing.

Rose took a deep breath and began to speak. "As per our usual schedule, I am to ask, who here doesn't remember their name."

Everyone was confused, but they complied and they looked around like they were looking for the odd ones out. Soon a handful of people raised their hands. Rose raised her hand and started to point at all of the ones that had raised their hands as if she were counting them. Rose ordered all of them to step up and guided them all to a corner of the void. As she walked, the people in the circle made way for her to walk past, along with all the people following behind her. She then stopped and the void then molded itself where she stood, turning into a big room. She then counted them again, and then led them through a door.

They crossed past the door and it led to another room, completely separated from the void. It looked like a reception room, where a clerk would check you in. Actually, that was exactly what it was. There was a man at the front of the room behind a counter. He had brown curly hair, and had a more tan complexion than Rose and Atlas. He wore a nice white shirt with a black bow tie that fit well with his clothing, as well as the room around him. He also wore nice glasses that fit his look as well. He had file cabinets behind him, all color coded. He sat in his chair with what looked to be a scanner of some sort. Rose walked up to him and told him something. She then turned around and walked past the people she had brought in and went through the door, and without saying a word, left them behind.

Everyone made themselves comfortable, or as comfortable as possible. Most of them sat down at tables that were placed all around the room. Some started conversing and making friends. But one person walked up to the clerk.

"Hey so what are we doing here?" a man asked.

"Well this is a waiting room of sorts, so you're supposed to be waiting." the clerk said sarcastically

The person who walked up didn't find the clerk's clever response very amusing. Especially since he had just been told he was going to compete in a death-game. He had no time for sarcastic remarks.

The man noticed that the clerk was cleaning his scanner with a wipe that might be used for glasses.

"I see that scanner you have, what do you use it for?"

"I use it to scan things."

"Y'know, I don't have time for your attitude, what is going on here?"

The clerk finally looked up, making eye contact with the man. The clerk saw that the man was clearly not going to give up any time soon.

With a sigh, the clerk explained, "You are about to be admitted to your rooms, where you will wait for the trials to activate, and I'm here to help you figure out who you are, or who you were."

The man nodded. He wondered who he was before he died, but at the same time he wondered, could he be the 5% that didn't have a life before this?

"While you're here I might as well scan you." The clerk said reluctantly. He clearly didn't like his job.

The clerk pointed the scanner at the man and pulled the trigger. With a couple sweeps of the scanner, it beeped. The clerk turned to his computer. He said nothing for a minute and had a puzzled look on his face. The clerk looked towards the man.

"Well I can only see your name, but there is no other info, none on how you died, or even what your life was like. You're a very rare case." The clerk told the man.

"So what's my name?"

"It's Justyn with a 'y'." The clerk frowned, like he was thinking of a bad memory. "Y'know, it's probably just a coincidence, but you share the name of a god?"

Justyn stood there not knowing what to make of it, so instead he changed the conversation. "So does this mean I didn't have a life before coming here?" The clerk looked back at his computer, and looked through it one more time.

"No, actually it doesn't." The clerk explained, "Because if you didn't have a life before this, that would imply you're a new soul, but new souls don't come here with a name already picked for them. So you can't be a new soul. Plus it would tell me on my computer if you were. But you're not the first."

Justyn pondered for a moment. He was glad he at least got to live a life, but was disappointed that he didn't remember it.

"You see, usually those who forget their names have probably suffered some sort of brain trauma during their life, but their life and death would still all be recorded in a file."

The clerk pointed toward the filing cabinets behind him with his thumb. They were color coded but they also had dates on them. One was labeled 1810, and the highest number was 2010.

"All recorded data in there can be transmitted to my computer for me to see. But that's if you already had a life. With this scanner, it adds you to the list of souls. But it says here that you're already a recorded soul. I'm supposed to just act as if you're just a normal soul, so I'll admit you to your room."

The clerk entered a code into the computer and printed what looked like a receipt.

He handed it to Justyn, pointing to a number at the top. "That number is your room number." Justyn looked at the number. His room was number 212. The clerk pointed to a door at the edge of the room. "That door leads to the rooms, you might be searching for a while though. It's kind of a maze in there."

Justyn started walking towards the door, but right before he opened it the clerk called to him. "Hey by the way, just make sure to find your room in less than five days." Justyn didn't know what he meant, but he'd keep that in mind.