Henry Hunter sprung upright, gasping for air.

The burning sensation of choking on a burrito still lingered as Henry heaved copious amounts of air through his system.

It was only when the pain had somewhat subsided that Henry noticed something was wrong.

He wasn’t at the diner where he had passed out, or a hospital, the next likely place, or anywhere he could expect himself to be.

No, he was in a place he could not even recognize.

There were no walls, ceilings, or even sky, just a sort of murky blankness extending infinitely in all directions.

“Oooooh boy… I hope I’m just dreaming because this isn’t looking good,” said Henry out loud, as if attempting to convince himself.

He had just passed the Bar exam, things were just starting to look up for him.

An unexpected, crisp female voice answered him:

“If you hold the view that life is but a dream, I suppose death can be as well. Otherwise, your situation is as you suspect.”

“Wah…?” Henry was mildly startled by the voice.

Despite the voice sounding like the speaker was right beside him, he somehow instinctively knew where to look, and so he quickly located the speaker, a lone woman wearing a three piece suit, who sat behind an office desk.

She had the impression of being exceedingly beautiful, but as soon as Henry attempted to concentrate on the specifics of her features, his eyes almost seemed to lose focus. The details of her countenance utterly confounded observation and, as an extension, description.

The only things Henry was able to discern were her immaculately clear green eyes and straw colored hair done up in a bun, characteristics that strangely matched Henry’s own tastes.

“Welcome to life-after-life, Henry Hunter,” said the woman matter-of-factly.

In a desperate attempt, Henry clamped his eyes shut for a few seconds and opened them again, but to his dismay the scenery didn’t change.

“You don’t reckon this is just a prank do you?” he asked dryly.

The woman smiled, or at least Henry thought he saw her smile.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“You could think of it that way if you wish,” she said, drawing a circle in the air with her index finger. “But never mind that, please fill out the forms you’re provided to the best of your ability. You only get one chance.”

Just when Henry was about to reflexively ask “what forms?”, a clipboard with a single sheet of A4 paper and an attached pen suddenly appeared in his hand. There was no process or premonition, it just was, which was startling to say the least.

But, as the past few minutes had already been rife with such occurrences, or perhaps it was one of the side effects of being dead, Henry merely calmly raised the clipboard and checked out the contents.

Many lines of text quickly flitted across the page and disappeared just as quickly, but despite the speed at which the text came and went Henry was able to understand the contents fairly well.

Name: Henry Hunter, Age: 25…

The page of A4 paper seemed to be self-populating with his biographical information from the mundane to things that Henry could not make sense of, such as:

Soul Primer ID: 5eBh2#11!

There was an enormous amount of personal information passing through that thin, A4 sized paper, but the entire process took only a few seconds to complete, if time of the mortal realm could even translate.

In the end, the text on the sheet of paper settled down on a few simple checkboxes and a signature line, awaiting Henry’s decision.

Afterlife options:

[ ] Oblivion [ ] Clean reincarnation(No memories) [ ] As-is reincarnation(Relocation required)

Are you willing to relocate? (Y/N) (Skip this line if you choose oblivion)

Signed: ________________________________________________________

The option for as-is reincarnation was grayed out even though Henry could read what it said. It was evident that he needed to agree to relocate to be able to select that option.

“So uh, relocation, what does that even mean?” Henry asked.

The woman leaned back into her chair.

“There are realities where I do not have jurisdiction over, you will be sent there. I will warn you that despite what you may think of my reality, there is a certain limit to the suffering that you may incur here. There are no such limits for the places where I have no control.”

Henry scratched his head as he pondered the literally life or death decision. He could possibly argue with the woman on the relocation requirement for as-is reincarnation, but the chance of a favorable result was abysmally low. He had absolutely nothing to bargain with.

“And by the way, seeing as this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I’ve been curious all this while as to your identity. Are you God? Saint Peter? Satan? Buddha?”

The woman smirked again in good humor.

“Does it matter?” she asked rhetorically.

“No, no I guess it doesn’t.” Whoever she was or they were, Henry’s soul was at their mercy.

After an agonizing internal debate, Henry circled the Y after the relocation question, and checked the box in front of as-is reincarnation.

Despite the dangers that the woman had already warned him about, Henry had died before the prime of his life and wanted to make use of the memories and skills he had worked so hard to acquire. He had yet to enjoy life.

Perhaps he may end up somewhere where he would be useless, or worse.

But that was a risk he had to take.

He signed his name on the signature line, and upon doing so, disappeared.