“Get your ass up, slug!" A rough shove sent Tom sprawling, his forehead scraping against something coarse. Was it concrete? He couldn't tell. His breath hitched. The air was thick, causing him to choke on his own saliva as he tried to take in as much air into his lungs as he could, only to find that he couldn't. He coughed. Darkness pressed against his vision. He blinked hard, trying to activate his AUI. Nothing. Just black. Panic twisted in his gut. Another shove. Harder this time. His forehead dragged over the ground again, fresh pain blooming across his skin. A sliver of light cut through the dark. "Oh no, I think he's bleeding out. We have to get the heck out of here!”

  A boot connected with his ribs, sending pain lancing through his side. Tom gasped, his body instinctively curling in on itself. The coarse ground beneath him felt unsteady, like gravel mixed with something wet. Was it mud, maybe? Blood? His? Someone else’s? Again, he couldn't tell.

  His body rolled over to the side, his vision momentarily spinning before colliding with a rough wooden object, causing him to puke up a mouthful of blood as he gasped for air, pain flaring through his ribs like searing flames.

  Screams… Though the voices themselves sounded distant.

  “Someone called the ambulance! I think he’s dying!” a voice shrieked, barely audible over the pounding in Tom’s skull. Footsteps scuffled nearby, as a few hands grabbed him, dragging him aside as his vision blurred.

  "Oh no!!! He’s bleeding!!" Another voice, this one closer said, "God, there’s so much. What do we do? He’s barely moving!”

  Eventually, everything faded away into darkness. The sounds of countless people screaming overhead at him faded away into the back of his mind as his body took its last breath.

  Was this… really the end?

  "Hey, don't close your eyes! Come on, stay with me!" Tom tried to move, to respond, but his body wouldn’t listen. His chest burned and his limbs felt like dead weights. He wanted to hold on, to fight, but the pull of unconsciousness was relentless. His eyes turned to the person who had spoken to him, his blood-soaked hands reaching upward towards the sky.

  His ribs ached, his lungs burned, and his vision blurred at the edges, consumed by an encroaching darkness that swallowed the world piece by piece. The shouts and frantic footsteps around him became distant sounds that faded into the lower spectrum of his mind, as even the pain he was feeling all over his body became completely dulled to his senses.

  His heartbeat slowed, and with his eyes widening in shock, it became completely still.

  “Haaah!”

  It was dark... and silent, and very... very tight. The air was stale and musty, filled with the scent of old wood and damp earth. Tom's eyes fluttered open, but there was nothing to see... in fact, he couldn't see at all, as the only thing that greeted his vision was an all-encompassing blackness that seemed to press against his eyelids. Panic settled tightly in his chest, and attempting to move was a mistake that he quickly regretted, as the action caused his head to hit something above, and blood poured out of his head. It was then that he realized he was lying on his back, confined in a space that was far too small for him to move.

  “No. No, no, no—” Tom wheezed, his fingers clawing at the wood, splinters jabbing under his nails as blood slowly trickled out of his fingers. He kicked out, but the space was too tight, and all he ended up accomplishing was getting his knees jammed against the inside of the coffin, which further fueled his feeling of entrapment.

  He was trapped.

  That much was obvious to him, and he was trapped in the worst way possible. His breath came in short, ragged gasps. His lungs burned, but—wait. His lungs? He froze. Shouldn't he be dead? Memories of his old life began to pour back into his head, and the scene of him dying quickly nestled itself tightly among the various vast memories that lingered in his mind. Realization dawned on him. He was dead. Yet here he was, panicked and very clearly alive.

  But it was only now that he began to feel the cold chill that swept through his body. It wasn’t the natural cold of the air, nor the biting chill of winter, but something that went through even the protective layer of his skin, completely failing to shield him against the cold, as his whole body shivered. Which was quickly followed by a whisper at the edges of his mind, but it was not so far as to be imperceptible.

  It was soft, kind of like a mother's voice.

  "Open your eyes," it said. "Not the physical ones you had, but your real eyes.”

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  He tried to do as the being said, and feeling a slight tug on his eyelids, he opened his eyes. Immediately, his surroundings shifted with only a whisper to highlight the change, he was no longer in the coffin but now in a vast, expansive land with trees towering as far as the eye could see.

  Strangely, water covered everything, and floating above the water was a deer that had a monkey-human-like face, which kind of resembled a woman but at the same time didn't, with the feet of a donkey and the tail of a lizard that resembled a dragon. The most unsettling part about its appearance was its eyes, though he tried to avoid them. It smiled at him, which oddly looked human but had a warmth to it that reminded him of his mother, who had long passed away and left him to fend for himself.

  Oh, he so wished he could see her right now.

  “Who are you?”

  The creature regarded him with a gaze, its human-like smile being strangely comforting despite its bizarre mishmash of features. The water beneath them shimmered, reflecting a sky that pulsed with a swirling mix of colors. After a while, it finally decided to speak.

  "I get asked that question a lot," the being spoke, its voice a harmonious blend of multiple tones, as if an entire chorus of sounds spoke at once. "But the answer never seems to please those who hear it." Tom was about to say something in response, but he was quickly interrupted by the creature as it continued, "After all, my call is a sign of bad luck. Nevertheless, it is my duty. I am Death, and you are dead," it finished.

  Oddly, he didn't have the reaction that he should have had. The being just looked at him, watching and waiting for a reaction, but was a bit surprised that it didn't get one.

  The being released a sigh, its head turning to a flower that had bloomed near its neck. “I will take that as you being shocked. It's been three years since you've died, and your family, or the lack thereof, has already moved on. The world continued without a hitch, even though you were supposed to have a significant moment that changed it, even though it would have only been a little.” Death hummed, the sound resonating through the water as it smelled the flower. “Even I was profoundly disappointed in your performance.”

  His fists clenched at his sides as he looked at the creature before him. The words it had spoken weren't necessarily cruel, but the judgmental tone had kind of ticked him off. Normally, as long as someone was just throwing around shoddy insults at him, he wouldn't care, but when they started getting personal, that's when they crossed a line.

  “The hell out do you mean by that?”

  Death tilted its head, its lizard-like tail swaying in the air. “Exactly what was said. You were meant to have a child with a woman called Alyssa who would have—” tight golden metal binding slammed on its neck, its eyes widening in shock as its mouth was covered up so as not to speak.

  “Enough!”

  A loud voice said.

  Death's body ripped itself apart as its blood and intestines fell onto the floor, its eyes bulging in pain as it died. No, it wasn't dead. A black fog floated just above the body of the highly mutated deer before reforming itself back into its physical form. By the time it was done, not even a trace of blood remained on the ground. Its head turned to look back at him, completely unbothered by the violent, gruesome death of its body as it sat on the ground. Perhaps realizing that its eyes were in the right place. It shook its head, its eyes gliding back into their proper sockets with a quiet click before it turned its face to look at him.

  “Ah…” Death sighed, shaking out its limbs before rolling its shoulders as if what had just happened had been merely an inconvenience rather than a violent punishment for what was just a loose slip-up from the creature. “It seems I’ve said too much.”

  Tom just watched the whole scene in shock. He could barely formulate a word as he stared at the deer, his muscles feeling a bit tense as he looked at the creature. "I believe I've wasted enough of your time, Tom Marilyn Kaczynski. I have a proposal for you.”

  He took a step back, his feet splashing in the water as he regarded death with a gaze. “A proposal?” he asked, not at all trying to hide the suspicion in his voice. “What kind of deal does Death itself need to make with a living being?”

  “A simple one,” it said, chains appearing around its arms and legs as it settled down on the ground, its face never leaving his as it tried to make itself as comfortable as it could. “In your former existence, you were... well, I hesitate to use the word 'simple,' as that might unintentionally offend those true paragons of simplicity out there. Let’s just say you were a standout among the unremarkable crowd and a real character, if nothing else. Yet, when the final curtain fell, your family didn’t shed a single tear or even a dramatic gasp of sorrow at the news of your death. No, they barely lost a wink of sleep upon hearing the news of your untimely demise, only showing a keen interest in the trivial belongings you left behind.”

  "WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Tom yelled, his shout rippling across the water like a stone was tossed into it. His body trembled, but whether it was from rage or something else, he couldn't tell.

  Death merely watched him, unflinching, the chains around its limbs rattling softly as it shifted its weight. “You heard me,” Death continued. “They did not mourn you. They did not grieve. Your passing was an inconvenience at best and an afterthought at worst. The world kept spinning, unbothered by the absence of Tom Marilyn Kaczynski.”

  “If you accept my invitation, you will be reincarnated, perhaps as a spirit, a monster, or a human. But it is much better than the alternative." It looked to the left, and immediately the space around where it was looking broke apart and opened, revealing a never-ending pit of burning fire and lava, whose inhabitants screamed inside in agony as they were being burned. “If you refuse, you shall be thrown into the lake of fire, and that will be the end of your story.”

  “And what if—”

  “This isn't a matter of 'ifs' or 'buts.' I cannot say anything more beyond what I've already revealed. The high Wills want to hear your answer now and are not willing to bargain on it.” It laid its head near its foot, its eyes going gray as if it were dead, though it still occasionally twitched here and there, indicating that it was very much alive.

  There was no debate, really. It was either he denied it and ended up suffering for it for eternity, or he accepted it and avoided absolute destruction along the way. Such an offer, though, seemed highly suspicious to him. He had nothing to gain from choosing the latter and even less to gain by choosing the former. There was just something that was not right about it, but he didn't have the time nor the opportunity to ask.

  “Okay… I accept,” despite his better judgment telling him not to. But he felt like this was the right option, so he went with it.

  "Good," Death said, though his voice sounded oddly distant. The world began to phase out right before his eyes as his body fell to the ground. "I gave you a second chance, and please, for the love of all that is dear, don't waste it this time," was all he heard as he once again, probably for the second time, died.

  “Haaah!”

  The world spun, a whirlpool of colors and sounds merging into a dizzying blur as Tom’s body hit the ground, the sensation of his body quickly returning to him as he desperately tried to breathe. It was as though he had been yanked from one reality and thrust into another, the sensation reminding him of the first time he'd tried to swim. His thoughts were scrambled, but slowly, the darkness at the edges of his vision began to lift. Attempting to move his body, he quickly realized that it went limp, completely unresponsive to the commands that his brain sent to it.

  He couldn't see, and the world around him was almost completely silent, save for the occasional sounds of panicked voices shouting all around him. But little by little, his sensations slowly came to him, and his memories quickly followed soon after. For what was most likely less than an hour, his sense of hearing came back to him, and soon after were his taste and then smell and then sight.

  “What the hell.” He said finally when he saw the faces staring at him.