Death is not one of the most pleasant experiences, but do you know what is terrifying? Waking up after your death, now *that* is a horrifying affair. 

One second Theo was in pure agony, the next he felt no pain at all and was in pure darkness. It was a harrowing experience, to say the least.  He went through many emotions all at once that he couldn't describe. He stayed like this for several minutes just questioning what happened.

He had to have died right? He had heard the nuke sirens and the loud explosions. Eventually, the scenery around him changed from the pitch blackness and he was snapped out of his stupor. He pinched himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming and began to give himself a pep talk .

“You’re fine, it’s okay, get yourself together.“

He needed to start thinking straight and stop freaking out. He finally glanced around himself and saw a vast array of doors and ladders. After a few moments of questioning what he was seeing he started walking. Standing there and questioning was doing him no favors.

“Hello, anybody here?”

There was no answer. He ended up walking up to one of the doors and inspecting it. It was a stone door with intricate engravings of geometric patterns. When he tried to open it a feeling of stiffness came over him. He tried to push through the stiffness but ended up collapsing after a while. He just sat there for a few minutes and tried to figure out what was going on. After giving up on figuring it out he decided to go try some other doors to see if he could open or even touch any of them. After getting up he passed by and tried multiple other doors, all with different colors and designs. Each had a specific feeling associated with it. Some caused him to feel like he had no air in his lungs, while others made him feel like needles were pricking every inch of his body. Each was a unique and painful experience. Eventually, he decided to try one more door and then take a break. It was a door with purple wood and multicolored tinted glass windows. The windows pictured different emotions that seemed to be ever-changing and shifting. He finally decided to reach for the handle when he heard a voice.

“Please wait a moment!” He heard to his back.

He jumped and turned as fast as he could to see the only person he’d seen since he presumably died. 

“I’m sorry for the wait, we’ve just been very busy with all the souls coming from your planet today. Let me introduce myself. Hi, I’m Metan, one of your world’s reincarnation assistants how can I help you today?”

“Umm, hello Metan can you please explain where the heck I am?!”

“You are currently in the hall of reincarnation.”He said while splaying his hands upward with a flourish “This is where all souls go after they die! Once you pass through a door you will be transported into the body of a newborn with the natural talents and world linked to the door.”

“So I’m dead? Well, that’s confirmed at least, and I finally have someone to talk to. Wait did you say assistant? Does that mean you have a boss? Also, what do you mean worlds, there’s multiple that are inhabited?”

“There are indeed multiple inhabited worlds, in fact, there are millions. You’re lucky to be able to choose which world based on the door”

After the confirmation of multiple worlds, Theo waited for Metan to go on, yet he never did.

“As for my other question?” Theo said while giving a questioning look.

The man’s eyes seemed to droop slightly as he sighed. 

“Yes, I do indeed have a boss. That is all I am allowed to tell you, so if we could move on that would be great.”

“Ok, that is a good enough answer for me. I was just wondering who was in charge of my afterlife.”

“I am terribly sorry if that sounded rude, but my boss is strict and I'm having a very stressful day due to your planet’s actions.”

“It’s fine but can I ask a few more questions?”

“Yes a few more questions would be fine, you are giving me a break with how calm you have been compared to most.”

Theo gave a curious look at that, but didn't ask about it.

“Am I going to remember anything after I walk through a door? Also, how do get through a door? I’ve tried like twenty and couldn’t get through any of them.”

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“People usually tend to overlook the memory part of reincarnation. That entirely depends on the door and the person who chooses it. If you have a strong connection with the things associated with the door you choose then there is a larger chance of retaining your memory. As for getting through the doors, you just need to be able to handle the specific effect enough to turn the doorknob. It helps to have experience with what the door is doing. An example of this is a door that causes you to feel like you’re being stabbed. If you have experience taking pain then you will have an easier time getting to the door.”

“Thank you for the information, is there a way of telling if I connect well with a certain door?”

“You will feel an attracted to it like a fish to food, or a goblin to shiny trinkets. It will pull your gaze to it, and you’ll know.”

“Oh, then I think I’ve already found it! Thank you for the help Metan,” he said as he made his way to the purple door with ever-changing masks on it.

Theo started to feel his mind throb as he got closer to the door. His mind began to swim with different emotions, and he started losing focus. Once he realized this he started pushing himself forward toward the door with more vigor, as his head felt like it was tearing itself apart. Once he finally reached the door and turned the nob Metan finally said one more thing.

“You will be starting within the mother’s womb, so if you do keep your memories you probably won't be conscious for a while.”

With that, the door closed behind him, and he once again slipped into the darkness. This time though, he felt other sensations. He could hear a drum-like sound all around him beating, and he felt like he was surrounded by a heated blanket. After an unknown amount of time, Theo fell asleep in the warm darkness surrounding him. When he woke up again he was moving. He couldn't see himself moving, but he could feel it. He felt the space around him contract and heard the faintest of sounds that were not the beating. This continued for a long time as he slowly felt himself moving and heard the noises getting louder. The space around him also started to get lighter even with his eyes closed. He attempted to move faster, but he just couldn’t move in the way he wanted. He gave up and just let the process happen. After what felt like days the light turned blinding, the noises around him were fully heard, and he was cold. After a few moments of total disorientation, he felt something grab his body. His first instinct was to scream, but it just sounded like a loud cry. At this, he heard the noises around him get louder and take a different tone. It was at this moment that he realized the noises were people. He couldn’t understand their language, but he could hear the joy in their voices. 

In his mind, all Theo could think was “I can’t believe I reincarnated.”

After several minutes Theo finally felt as if he could open his eyes. When he opened them he saw a woman with bedraggled cyan hair, lightly tanned skin, and piercing hazel eyes. Even in her tired state, she had a small smile on her face as she looked at him. He saw her smile widen even more once she realized that he had opened his eyes. After she said a few words that he couldn’t understand Theo saw a man that stunned him. He had light blue skin and sharp pointed black horns that matched his hair. The man came over and gave the woman a cheeky smile as he kissed her forehead. She smiled back as she held Theo up for the man to see. During this entire encounter, Theo himself was completely stunned. How had he remembered to ask Maten if he would have his memories, but not ask if humans were the only sapient species in the universe? The man saw Theo’s stunned look and smiled like the whole world was cheering him on. He looked at the woman and said more words that Theo couldn’t understand. After a moment though Theo figured it out as he was picked up by the light blue man and his mother promptly passed out. As Theo was picked up by the demon-like man all he could focus on was his horns. As he got closer he saw a variety of purple gemstones imbedded into them. Surrounding these gemstones were intricate carvings that swirled in hypnotic patterns. He snapped out of his trance once he realized that he was reaching for the horns. He looked at the man’s face again and saw him chuckling to himself. Theo took this moment to try and look around the room. He saw several smaller people, all presumedly, children with different characteristics. One was a young man with dark blue skin and thick obsidian horns. The likes of which were shaped like ram horns and intricately decorated with large metal rings. His hair, which was even darker than his horns was long and braided down his back. He had a confident smile which showed his sharp lower canines. Second was a preteen girl with lightly tanned cerulean skin and sea foam green hair. She wore glasses and had light black stubs that seemed to be her undeveloped horns. She wore an expression of giddy excitement and love. The final two people in the room seemed not much older than him. Most likely two or three, the small children both had light blue skin with cyan hair. They seemed to not have any horns at all which confused Theo. Why did the other children have horns, but not these two? He thought about it for quite a while. He gave up on that line of thinking though, and rather observed them further. They were jumping up and down to try and get a look at him, and it seemed the man holding him obliged.

He felt himself be lowered and saw the two small children start running towards him, with the little boy trailing slightly behind the young girl. The man holding him, his presumed father, said more words that he couldn’t understand which caused the kids to back up. After a moment they slowly walked forward and gazed at him with their large lime-green eyes. He tried to smile at their cute faces, but the best he could do was close his eyes. If there was one thing he did not enjoy about being reincarnated so far, it was that he could not control himself. Theo stayed awake for several hours watching his new family laughing and having fun. His family in his old world had died years ago due to old age and disease. Having a second chance at life with a new family was something he was excited about. His new family seemed lively if nothing else. Maybe being reincarnated was an even better chance than he first thought with a family this happy looking. However, it was definitely taking some time to get used to their appearance. Theo was used to humans being the only sapient race, but he would get over it eventually and settle in to this new world along with his new life.