My first impression of the afterlife was that it was rather… empty

There were no pearly gates, no singing angels depicted as babies or cosmic horrors, and thankfully no fire and brimstone. There was simply… nothing but empty space.

It was kind of like that feeling when you wake up late at night to get a drink of water when you wake up in pitch darkness but somehow know exactly where you are and where everything is, aside from the momentary confusion when you wake up facing the wrong way. As I walked through the pitch black I didn't really feel afraid or even nervous honestly, it was like that, like I was navigating through a dark hallway or room on my way to find the closest water source

How did I know I was in the afterlife? Because I knew I wasn't alive of course. How did I know I was dead?

…

How did I die? It seems to have slipped my mind for the moment… I swear it's on the tip of my tongue though, like that feeling of trying to sneeze. I remember going to bed late, I'd spent the day lazing around the home, baking a bit of bread, and feeding the dog. Did i die in my sleep? Or do i just not remember waking up? It's honestly extraordinary.

You might think this lack of very important information would make me panic or freak out, actually, any normal person would freak out if they woke up in a place such as this without any memory of how they got there.

But i wasn't…

Don't get me wrong! I'm a perfectly normal person, as a matter of fact, i have often found satisfaction in that. But i wasn't panicking, not because I was expecting this, or because I was a particularly emotionless person. Simply put i wasn't panicking because… I didn't feel panicked

It was strange honestly, it's like the idea of going to a funeral and not feeling sad, or falling in public and not getting embarrassed. I should be feeling all sorts of things, fear, doubt, anger, sadness, and grief were only a couple that came to mind as what a normal person's reactions should be to dying.

And yet there was none of that, i simply felt… I suppose the word would be calm? Placid? Whatever the word was for that neutral emotion you feel when you aren't doing anything notable

Anyway! As i said, the afterlife seems to be nothing like i thought it would be like, not that i had ever fully believed there would be one, being agnostic and all I was a total fence sitter when it came to the divine and the demonic. Until now I wasn't sure if death was the end, a new begining, or simply a stepping stone.

But really, Of all the possible afterlives I was stuck with a black expanse and a mirror?!

Oh right, i forgot to mention the mirror!

It had been here when I… arrived? Died? Been reborn? Either way, it was here when I gained consciousness. It was large and very out of place in this dark space, its gold-silver trim and clean glass face somehow not being obscured in the darkness in the slightest, like someone who had painted a picture of a random expensive-looking object on a black canvas.

It was a full-size mirror, taller than the average person. It had a spotless metal frame, made of silver and gold metals or at least paints, fused together in an intricate web of patterns and spirals that made the metals look like they were one instead of two entirely separate tints and pallets.

It was molded at the top corners into the distinct shapes of two faces, the right was that of a golden woman, her face a genuine work of art, with golden hair that flowed down the entire side of the mirror, in such a way that it looked as it had grown from her hair only to fuse with the metal, becoming one. While the face on the left side was that of a silver skull, grinning a sharp smile… literally, the teeth were far sharper than any humans could dream to be, like a mouthful of daggers. Obviously, the skull did not have hair like that of the maiden, instead metallic vines climbed along the left side of the mirror, meeting with the maiden's hair at the top and bottom of the mirror's large oval face, which stood taller than me. There were also a few inscriptions here and there across the border but I couldnt read them, In truth, I couldnt read at all, I had never learned. Why? I dunno, I'm sure there was a reason, but that doesn't come to mind right now

Honestly, the sheer beauty and craftsmanship of the mirror only made it stand out more and more in the dark environment, like a rose in a trench, hidden in the shadows.

However what truly stood out on this mirror was not its engravings, nor its beauty, instead what drew my interest more than anything was what it did not have… my reflection

Now one might think that this would be due to the lack of surrounding light, after all, mirrors work by reflecting light so it would make sense for the mirror to be blank, without an image.

Except there was an image, and it wasn't me. It wasn't a person at all, hell it didn't even reflect the blackness that surrounded me, and the mirror, within the reflection was somewhere entirely different.

The mirror image had been pretty much the same since i could remember, which was maybe half a day, if my internal clock was correct, not that it was particularly reliable. The place it showed was entirely different from that of the homely black abyss of nothing that seemed to stretch for eternity that i seemed to be calling home now, it was a room, wooden and spacious, its large space filled with a variety of shelves, each full of nicknacks and miscellaneous items. Almost the entire room was filled with a thin layer of dust, but it didn't seem deserted, instead, it seemed almost lived in, there was a counter and a bookshelf, and a door at the very end of the room that had a tiny bell sitting above the doorway, so that when someone came through, if they ever did, it would chime.

However, what interested me more than the room was the window, it was the same window i had spent the past long while staring at, analyzing everything. It was large, spanning almost the entire back wall, next to the door, like one of those shop windows you would pass by when you walked down the street, which gave the impression that the place i was looking into actually WAS a shop and not just some random storeroom, probably a pawn shop or something like that seeing as it was full of dust and random old items.

Out the window, i could see the outside world, or at least a small rectangular piece of it. It was dark, likely nighttime, although it had been steadily growing lighter, the darkness no outside no longer reflects that of my own spaces and instead getting thinner and less oppressive, i could now see some buildings opposite to me, i think one was a bakery and i couldnt quite make out the other one. But what i was really hoping to see was people, either outside the pawn shop or inside didn't matter, maybe i could call to one, maybe they'd see me back through the mirror!

Wait did that mean i was inside of the mirror? Or was i seeing through a magic mirror, or was this some kind of-

My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by the chime of a bell, the sound ringing within the pawn shop, somehow i could also hear it, the sound echoing within my ears

And then the door at the back of the shop opened