“Okay, this conversation took a turn.” Simon said and sat down.

He then cleared his throat and took a deep breath. “Well, I know that there are plenty of ways to die and it happens when the body shuts down.”

“......”

“You took a deep breath for that?” Paul asked with an incredulous expression on his face.

“I’m sorry did you expect a serious answer?”

“Yeah”

“.......”

“Okay, I have no idea what you expect from me, but I have nothing to share about this. I am not an all-powerful being with the ability to create a stimulated heaven all to mess with a single human being. So .... yeah, that's all you're getting out of me.” Simon said while shrugging.

“Hmm... Fine I’ll explain.” Paul took a deep breath “As you know death is the end to all living things, the finality of consciousness and something that a lot of sentient species views with aversion, however there is more to it than that. You now know that the soul exists, but do you know what happens to the soul when you die?”

Simon prepares to respond but Paul interrupts.

“Don’t answer that, I already know you’re gonna list all the assumptions you remember from the work of that species of yours.”

Simon shuts his mouth while narrowing his eyes.

“So let me just fill in the blanks here. Yes, the soul does leave the body but it's what happens after that that draws me in. Every single soul has a reaction. For example, the souls of you humans usually dissipate like dust in the wind while the souls of Anteriaans leak like a balloon, they leak this white substance while flying all over the place it’s quite fun to watch. None of you actually see it happen, since you’re not all-powerful beings that can simulate heaven so you can infer from what I just said why you're such an anomaly.”

“Okay sure that part makes sense. The thing I have a problem with is you messing with me.”

“I wasn’t trying to trick you, that book of mine was supposed to read your soul. Why it didn’t do that is where the mystery lies. Isn't that just exiting?” Paul asked with a dreamy expression on his face.

“You know what, no it is not.” Simon replied with a deadpan expression “Oh, come on this is a discovery for the ages an actual soul think of how much I could learn from studying you, all the knowledge I could get, all the boredom I could avoid.” Paul said as he stood up his expression going from dreamy to ecstatic. “What do you say.”

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“Didn’t your book read me already?” Simon asked as his confused expression returned.

Paul's expression froze as his lips twitched “murmur......work.”

“What?”

“It Didn’t work.” Paul said as he sat back down with his head hung low.

“Hey, hey, cheer up, I would think you would be happy that things were not easy, more knowledge and whatnot.” Simon said as an incredulous expression took over his features. “Oh yeah, say that to me when what you thought was your greatest achievement just goes up in smoke.” “I’m dead.” “Point, but it still feels really sucky.”

An awkward silence stretched between the two. Simon being scared to think about a future as an actual experimental subject and Paul pouting while moving his finger through his cloud cushion.

“So, what now?” Simon asked.

Paul stood up from his cloud couch and began pacing with a thoughtful expression on his face. “Well, now that the book doesn’t work on you, I’ll have to make some modifications to it and that could take a while and going about this manually would be quite the experience, and I don't really know how much a soul can handle....”

As Paul kept muttering to himself no longer paying attention to Simon, a faint scent of something burning drifted over to Simon who began to look around the space, trying to find its origin. What he saw was Paul's book leaking smoke before flames started flickering to life on its cover.

“Um, Paul.” He said in a small voice.

When no reply came from the still pacing and muttering Paul he tried again.

“Paul.” He said a little louder this time.

“Paul!”. He said louder still.

“PAUL!” He yelled.

“What?” Paul yelled back.

“Oh, you know, not really sure if what I am about to say is important, but I would like to say in the kindest way possible with no offense taken if you insult me after what I’m about to say that.”

“Get to the point!” Paul interrupted, with irritation visible on his face.

“Your book is on fire.” Simon said with a bright smile on his face while pointing in the book's direction.

Paul turned towards the book and froze staring at its half book-half ash state with a blank expression on his handsome face. He stood there frozen as his head began to creak in Simon's direction then back to the book them back to Simon then back to the book when a single tear leaked from his eyes. “Fuck.” he said in a low tone still looking at the book.

Simon was in fact a little happy that Paul got some comeuppance for messing with him forr his own enjoyment.

Paul then looked back at Simon his expression changing from blank to amazement as stared at him

“Fuck.” He said again.

Simon sensing that thing is not going as the usually would in this situation felt a bit creeped out by the stare Paul was giving him.

“What, what is it?” Simon asked as he tried to inspect himself for anything that could cause such a response from Paul.

Paul on the other hand continued to stare with his mouth opening and closing as if trying to get say multiple things at once while uncertain on what to say first.

In the end all Paul could get out was a loud bellow “FUCK!” as his face warped into an irritated and tired expression.