When I awoke, I floated in a vast sea of darkness. It was pleasant. Hanging there, no gravity to pull me down. No light to sting my eyes. No air to be too hot or cold. Just nothing, really.

Though shouldn't there be something? The longer I hung there, though I couldn't say how long that was, the more the strangeness of the situation seeped into me. I mean, there was no air as far as I could tell. You know, you never really felt air. It was always just there, present, that constant sensation of ever so faint pressure on your skin. I only really noticed how much of a constant that was now that it was gone.

For that matter, where was my skin? I couldn't feel anything. Nothing. Not even the constant awareness of having a body.

I assume I would have started panicking here, if I had a heart rate to spike and lungs to hyperventilate with. Or even a kidney with adrenal glands for that matter. Right now though? The situation was weird, but there didn't seem to be much reason for concern. So, I kept drifting through the vast nothing.

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I wondered where I was drifting to. It felt like a tug in my soul. Like that feeling you have when you're in a car, and it starts accelerating. Something was moving me through this non-place to some other place.

How had I even gotten here? If I was moving somewhere, that probably meant I was coming from somewhere, too. With nothing better to do, I tried to remember. It was uncomfortable. Like exercising a sore muscle. But after a while, something came up. A flash of light, loud noise, panic, a sudden impact, being flung through the air, confusion, pain. So much pain.

Right, okay, let's not do that again.

Just floating down the nothing stream, not being and not thinking.

Shit. I died. I couldn't just pretend I hadn't. How are you supposed to feel about that? Should I check whether I had lived a good life? Should I check whether there was anyone who'd miss me? But my soul still felt sore from that last trip down memory lane. I didn't know whether your memory could tear from overexertion, it wasn't a muscle, after all, but I decided I should probably be careful. For my own safety.

So I floated onwards, cradling my bruised psyche and trying to forget the still stinging sensation of being run over by a truck.

No I had to check. I needed to know who I had been.