Dying is an experience that you can only get once in a lifetime. Unless, of course, you are the sort of person who enjoys puns, in which case, dyeing could be a thing you would be able to do a lot in a lifetime. You might even fashion a career out of it by selling shirts online.

However, if you find yourself working in a chemical dyeing factory in a developing country lacking safety regulations, dyeing could lead to dying early.

But as far as Richard Thomas was concerned, the large white truck that hit his car and smashed his head like a watermelon was the end of it all. The end credits to his life were rolling and his brief thirty-five years of life had come to an end.

The moment his head burst open, Richard felt his soul being pulled out and he got front-row seats to the accident that ended his life. Curiously though, as his soul was whisked away, from the corner of his eyes Richard noticed that there was nobody in the driver’s seat of the white truck.

He wasn’t sure if it was pareidolia (a condition where you see faces in objects) that was causing him to see things but he could swear he saw a smug look of satisfaction at a job well done on the surprisingly intact truck.

Richard was an atheist. He didn’t have much of a choice in the matter since he was working as a store clerk at the ripe age of thirty-five. On top of that, he was single with his last relationship having been a decade ago. A man loses faith in all gods at that point, and understandably so.

Like a bad pop song stuck on repeat on the only radio in the house, Richard’s life was spent on the same routine day in and day out where he spent the days in the store and the nights lost in video games and TV. It was nothing to be missed for Richard.

The end or the oblivion that Richard was expecting never came through. His soul kept being pulled somewhere in the distance at speeds he could not fathom. It was the feeling you get when you accelerate suddenly on a car, only it never stopped feeling that way.

He had always believed that there was nothing after death but like every human ever, he had a tiny hope for a better life or a fresh start hidden in his heart. And that tiny hope was getting stronger every second as his soul was traveling through the strange tunnel of lights and colors.

Just when Richard was starting to question if he was having a bad trip from some shady psychedelics, he felt himself slowing down. The lights and colors faded. And then he saw it.

In front of him was a massive structure like a Frisbee hurtling through space. It was hard to articulate how massive the Frisbee was but Richard felt like a tiny speck of dust in front of it. The large star-sized disc was swimming through space on a starry background.

The closer he got, the more he saw, and the more he felt like he was really on a bad psychedelic trip because he saw that the disc was actually a world of its own with continents and oceans. The small sun and the moon over the world could almost be called cute with the backdrop of all that he had seen.

The last thing Richard noticed before he was yanked into the world like a ragdoll was the most beautiful scene he had ever laid his eyes on. It was a massive rainbow forming in space as the water from the oceans fell out from the disc. The majestic space rainbow was a sight to behold.

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Richard slowly stood up from the ground while groaning and massaging the back of his head. Falling from space hurt a lot less than he expected but it still hurt quite a bit.

Hurt?

Richard brought his hands in front of his face. He didn’t see the transparent and ghost-like hands that he was expecting. There was a lot of dirt caked on it but there was no mistaking it, it was an actual hand. A child’s hand to be exact.

I have a body?

Richard looked down at his own body and only then focused on his surroundings to look around. Seeing how everything looked so big and his limbs were tiny, he was definitely in a child’s body.

He seemed to be in a dirty alley that smelled a lot like bull shit, literally. There were actual animal droppings around in the alley and he could also faintly hear the noise of cattle nearby.

Is this transmigration? I transmigrated into this strange flat world that is on the back of a giant turtle?

There was a mix of emotions in Richard’s mind as he thought about his new situation. From being dead to now being alive in a bizarre world, there was sadness, anxiety, fear, and some excitement. Maybe this was the fresh start that he needed.

Just as he was pumping himself up, he felt something behind him. It felt like he was being stared at by someone. When Richard turned to look, he fell back on his ass out of fear.

There in front of him, Richard saw a hooded figure in black just standing and staring at him. The skeleton under the black hood was holding a massive scythe. Richard couldn’t explain it but the scythe gave him the feeling that it could even cut through space. It was somehow communicating its sharpness.

The rippling black hood, the scythe, and the massive frame of the figure in the darkness made Richard’s new body go cold. Or maybe the surrounding itself had gone cold, the air that had more dung than oxygen in it certainly felt colder than before.

Richard’s eyes moved around the figure, desperately trying to avoid looking at it directly. He didn’t even have to control his eyes, every fiber of his being was automatically trying to avoid looking at the figure. But he ultimately failed as his eyes finally wandered to the face of the skeleton.

Looking into the blue starlight in the dark chasms that were the skeleton’s eyes, Richard got lost for a moment. He could see the heat death of the universe in that light. There was a peaceful silence there.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

The calmness from those eyes helped Richard muster up the courage and ask, “A-are you Death?” It was the squeaky high-pitched voice of a child. It felt unfamiliar to Richard but he didn’t have the time to dwell on the unfamiliarity of his new body and voice.

Somehow, he felt that the figure was Death. It wasn’t because of the stereotypical image of a hooded skeleton holding a scythe either, it was something primal, something deep within his soul that just recognized the being in front of him as death itself. Something he had to try and avoid.

YES. Death replied.

The voice of Death was something else. It was a deep and slow voice that sounded like it came from deep space, spoken by some eldritch horror. Although an argument could be made that Death was probably one of the scariest eldritch horrors itself. Or himself?

The voice definitely sounded like a male.

“Are you here for me?” Richard continued since Death went silent after that reply. Those cold blue lights in his eyes seemed to be assessing Richard in some manner.

1. I HAVE COME FOR THIS ONE. Death pointed behind himself.

Richard stretched his neck to look behind Death. There he saw a figure doing the same from behind Death. When he saw the small child who looked no older than eight or nine, Richard looked down on his own body and then he looked back at the kid.

This is that kid’s body!

“Do you need me to return the body?” Richard didn’t know what he was supposed to say in this situation. No amount of corporate communication training could prepare anyone for this.

Death looked down at the kid who just shrugged his shoulders.

HE SHALL NOT BE NEEDING IT WHERE HE IS GOING.

“So I can keep it? You are not going to do anything about me taking over his body?”

Death looked at Richard and put his bony hand inside the black robe to bring out a large hourglass. He looked at the hourglass and then at Richard.

YOUR SITUATION IS MOST PECULIAR BUT IT IS NOT YOUR TIME YET. I WILL COME FOR YOU WHEN YOUR TIME ARRIVES. IT ARRIVES FOR EVERYONE, MOST CERTAINLY.

The dreadful voice of Death didn’t forget to remind Richard of his mortality. He seemed to enjoy it.

“Do you have any family or anything you need me to take care of?” Richard asked the little boy who seemed to be shyly hiding behind death. He felt obligated to ask since he took over the kid’s body.

The boy shook his head. “I’m an orphan. But you can pay back my debt of two shillings to Bullshit Barry at the market. And the two pennies to Ralf at the farm, a shilling to Vin…”

The kid started listing off names and amounts as he counted on his transparent fingers. Richard didn’t know the value of the currency here but he was still shocked at how many loans this kid had borrowed at such a young age. He wanted to ask what he did with the money but Death turned to him.

I HAVE OTHER PLACES TO BE SO WE WILL GET GOING. WE SHALL MEET AGAIN.

Death cut off the kid’s counting with an ominous farewell, picked up the boy’s soul, and got on the white horse. The horse galloped away into the air.

Wait. Horse? Since when was that horse there?

Richard had many questions in his mind but he didn’t think he would get any answers to them. He didn’t understand what was going on with himself. He was dead and then he wasn’t. He was a man in his mid-30s and now he was in a child’s body. Describing his current situation sounded wrong on many levels.

Richard just sat there wondering what just happened. The first person, if he can even be called that, Richard met after getting a new life was Death itself. Although Death seemed curious about Richard’s soul inhabiting the recently deceased child’s body, he didn’t seem to care all that much.

It’s not like I will get any answers if I sit here thinking by myself.

He stood up and dusted himself before taking shaky steps out of there. He could see a bustling street at the far end of the alley. There was still some lingering fear in him but it was quickly being suppressed by a sense of anticipation and excitement.

This was going to be a new beginning, a fresh start for him, in what seemed to be a fantasy world. Maybe they have magic here. It’d be great if he got to learn magic. Adventuring in a fantasy world, now that is a life worth pursuing. Maybe dying back on Earth was a blessing in disguise.

He reached the end of the dark alley while thinking about various things. When he reached the street, he saw a lot of people walking about. He saw that everything around including the houses, architecture, dresses, and the general landscape had a fantasy medieval aesthetic.

Crooked stone buildings, dirty streets, rough clothing, horse-drawn carriages, cattle on the streets, drunkards being loud, and everything else painted a picture of the medieval world he had read about and imagined in his past life.

He also saw a large mass of rocks walking down the street while carrying people on chairs. It was a bizarre scene to him but the people didn’t seem to react much to it except for hastily clearing the way for the passing rock heap. It was a fantastical scene that increased Richard’s anticipation for magic.

Richard took a deep breath as he finally faced the new world he would call his new home. He wanted to make the most out of this life. He would… His heroic monologue about the start of a grand adventure was cut short by a donkey running straight towards where he was standing.

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Somewhere high in the mountains, a herd of goats had wandered far from their home while grazing for grass. It was an adventure that had started like many a great adventure, with a simple argument.

One morning when the goats were having grass from the meadows for their second breakfast, one of the goats had complained about the distinct lack of flavor in the grass from the lower lands. Hearing this remark, the goat who was his father (This is in fact how goats identified themselves. Goats didn’t have names like Gary or Steve. That would be absurd.) felt offended.

The father goat had lived most of his younger days in the lower lands and only after being bought by an old granny in his adulthood had he moved to the mountains. He was not going to just stand there and listen to his son who was born in the high lands disrespect the grass from low lands.

After an intense discussion between the two that devolved into a shouting match for the whole family, they inadvertently caused the whole village to lose their sleep. By the time the villagers had arrived with their torches and cleavers though, the family of goats had set off on their own culinary adventure.

Although they never got around to settling the debate, the goats caught the gourmet bug and thus started to seek out newer tastes. Their hunt for grass that grew on the highest peaks they could find had led them to this moment where they were staring intently at the two two-legged creatures much like the ones who cared for them in the past.

The goats quickly lost interest in the bipedal creatures as they had more pressing matters to attend to. The grass wasn’t going to taste itself after all.

The strange man and woman were sitting on opposite sides of a table that seemed to have a board with an indistinct shape similar to the world that Richard had seen from high above in space.

“To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Lady? Did you come to play another round with me?” the middle-aged man with graying hair, who looked otherwise normal if not for his deep black eyes like an infinite void, spoke leisurely.

The woman, though her facial features remained indistinct, hidden in a haze of live-action censorship, seemed very beautiful. Just like the man, her eyes were different and had a deep green glow. She shook her head, “Some other day perhaps. I wanted to discuss the new guest who arrived on this world.”

“It is indeed very interesting. He is the first of his kind too. I don’t remember anyone falling into this world as a soul and occupying a body like him before.” The middle-aged man chuckled, “I’m sure the other gods are also paying attention to our guest. Maybe he can bring us some much-needed entertainment. Sending out disasters just doesn’t do it anymore.”