Aurelia
I woke up feeling quite refreshed, it was my first time in years and so I was quite ecstatic, that was until I recalled my death. "Where am I ?" I asked but not in shock or even surprise because I wasn't person invested in belief. I had learnt to take everything in stride. Then I heard it, very subtle at first then loudly foot steps began walking towards my direction and so I turned to look but I realized, I could really see anything. I wasn't blind, no but unlike seeing It felt like I could only sense things and my body felt like I was a ball, yes a fluffy ball of light. Eventually the footsteps stopped very close to me, whoever it is was examining me or perhaps my soul " Hmm, seems like this one should be fine or perhaps not...either way what can I do..." I heard a man muttering while standing before me. Eventually he cleared his voice and said "My name is Aasim and I will be your guardian through out your trial." I pondered on his words and asked the questions that came to mind "Aasim right? where exactly am I? And what trial are you talking about? Did I really die?" He paused for a moment as though not expecting me to ask so much but eventually he said "This place is what we called the Abyss, it is the start and end point of every life."
"So you are saying this is where every soul comes after death?" I asked
"Technically yes but not quite, this part of the Abyss and the surroundings is where souls undergoing the trial come and this particular space you can sense is your start and end point, it tethers only your soul" Aasim explained
"So what is the trial exactly and why do I have to take part? You didn't answer my question before" I asked as this wasn't the first time I was hearing it. He went quiet for a while before saying "The trial is like a test for your soul, it is a karmic test for ascension, there are a lot of things I can't tell you at the moment but what you need to know is that you are here because you are one of the many unlucky souls. You are out of karmic energy which is why instead of entering the reincarnation cycle right away, you've been brought to the Abyss"
Author
Aurelia thought about it for a while organizing what she understood so far, it was quite simple, really. She as a soul was running low on karmic energy which would allow her to reincarnate and that would meant she was now in the Abyss, the start and end point of each soul to participate in a trial which would hopefully earn her karmic energy but she still had one question "Aasim, how did I run out of karmic energy exactly?"
"Oh, about that, you used up all your karmic points" Aasim answered wondering why he was always handling peculiar souls. Before he met her today he was just wondering when he would be called back to work, who knew he had jinxed his vacation just by thinking of work.
"How did I use up all my karmic points Aasim?" Aurelia asked confused, from what she knew, it didn't seem like her karmic points would finish after living once unless she had lived more than once but just didn't have any memory and so she asked "Have I lived more than once?" Aasim nodded "Yes you have lived exactly 999 times with great karma and so like your latest life, should you be left to continue your reincarnation, you will have to live the next 998 lives with no luck and you are here because living without luck mostly pushes a lot of souls to accumulate resentment. Resentment is like a corrosive substance to your soul, the more it accumulate the more you lose yourself until you eventually disintegrate."
Aurelia thought about it, she understood that despite her optimistic character, even she couldn't help but be spiteful if she had no choice but to live her previous life another 998 time but she wondered if there is an afterlife, didn't that mean there is a god out there somewhere?