- 6 -

Warm sunlight cooked their cardboard boxes in the driveway. Drew stared into his parents garage.

The scene was familiar to him. Standing in the shade of the open garage door of Drew's childhood home. His parents were walking back and forth carrying boxes. They were smiling, organizing and cleaning.

Their home was in a suburb, a relatively new one and according to his uncle, his parents had paid an arm and a leg for it. It was a simple 3 bedroom 2 bath with connected garage, it shared a wall with the house next door.

It was a happy summer day, the kind that 8 year old Drew would never see again.

Young Drew sorted through a box of foam dart guns and reloaded the bullets into the chambers.

A plain white van screeched to a halt outside their home. The kind you could rent by the hour. Or in this case, steal the night before and drive around to rob people for 24 hours.

“No, not today.” Drew whispered.

Two men jumped out of the van, violence hidden beneath their everyday clothes. Drew's young mind had been unable to comprehend the impending danger, but he has lived with it every day since.

His father grabbed a hockey stick and clubbed one of the intruders before young Drew knew anything was wrong. The second man pulled out a gun and aimed it at Drew's father.

Drew was unable to move or cry out in time. Again.

Drew's mother hurled their 10 foot synthetic Christmas tree at the man with the gun. The tree’s string lights tangled around him. In his struggle to get himself free, his finger tightened on the trigger.

The gunshot echoed through the serene neighborhood and the bullet ripped easily through Drew's mother. She crumpled to the ground. Drew’s heart tightened in his chest with the familiar old pain.

Drew's father charged the shooter, swinging down with the hockey stick, and knocking the gun from the man's hand. He swung again and the man collapsed with a dent in his head, never to get up again. The screech of tires filled the air as the other mugger fled.

“No. Mom.” Standing frozen, Drew watched his younger self rush to his bleeding mother.

His mother looked so small lying down in the driveway in a growing puddle. Sirens wailed in the distance, growing louder and louder until an ambulance arrived. They rushed Drew's mother away, fighting to stabilize her.

Surgeons removed the bullet and repaired the damage. But her legs remained paralyzed. The once vibrant and energetic woman was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.

The police apprehended the second mugger the next day. They had been brothers, now one was dead, one in jail. Two families had things that much harder now.

Drew's mother stayed strong for years after overcoming death.

Even though his mother kept up a good front and they had occasional happy days again, Drew still carried the weight of the darkness he witnessed lurking in the world.

How could I just stand there? I couldn’t do anything then. And so what if I took judo and karate, so I won a few fights. Protected a few people; rescued a couple purses? It didn’t heal my mom’s legs. At the police academy I gave it my all, but I didn’t really change anything.

He remembered the look on Ms Rameriez’s face as she walked him out the door.

Her advice would have saved my life. If I had just listened to her, I’d be alive. At least I was able to protect some people.

A kid in a black coat appeared around the corner of the garage with the toy guns young Drew had loaded.

Drew could see down the barrels. They were Impossibly long and deep. The voids within them were cold resolute. The kid pulled the triggers and dark birds scattered at the sound of a shotgun as everything turned black.

“Dying is taking a while…” Drew said to himself. “And it's kinda painless…”

He opened his eyes.

- 7 -

Drew was standing in a subway station, waiting. He realized he was queued up with ghostly echoes of other people. He should be terrified but the emotion failed to bubble up.

The ghosts were all lethargic and staring off into space, bobbing silently by themselves through a kind of velvet rope maze that would have fit in at a rundown movie theater.

“What the hell?” Drew said.

Drew strained to lift up his hands. They were transparent and blue. He tried to panic but a pressure dropped down over his shoulders and he almost blacked out.

All around him, the ghosts of people of every age and ethnicity took a shuffling step forwards. Nothing but wheezing breath and the faint rustle of denim and linen as clothes shifted.

The faces around him were somber. One person was pushing a cart with a ghostly infant swaddled and asleep. They all shuffled slowly forward together avoiding each other's eyes.

His eyes started to droop again until he shook off the silent pressure. He forced his eyes back open.

Most of these people are older folks, and a few are like something out of a blockbuster movie. They could have survived an industrial accident. The other half just escaped from a hospital bed and are still in their gowns. That guy’s pale wrinkly cheeks are catching a breeze from the stairs behind us.

“Do those stairs lead back up to the street? Wait, when did I walk here?” Drew asked.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Drew tried to turn around and reach for the velvet rope. The same pressure dropped down on him again. He strained against it and it took all of his willpower to barely touch the velvet rope. The pressure doubled and his vision went white for a moment.

Okay, don’t touch the ropes. I get the message.

A glowing being walked down the steps, radiating green light that felt like sunlight through the trees of an ancient redwood forest. They looked across the crowd and their eyes flashed over everyone without stopping.

Drew sensed their eyes on him in a rush. He had never been scuba diving, but he imagined this was what the bottom of the ocean felt like. He looked away overwhelmed by their gaze.

They were beside him in the next moment, out of the line on the other side of the velvet rope. They were looking at him while the seconds ticked by.

“Can I help you?” Drew asked as he took a step forwards with everyone else.

He stared at the being’s feet. Their sandals were simple, but well made. Their feet were beautiful.

Are those women’s feet? Or men’s feet?

“Perhaps it is us that can help you. If you are willing.” The being said.

Their voice was a crisp breeze on a cool sunny day. It carried sunshine in every syllable.

Several ghosts around him turned to look towards their voice. The being reached over the velvet rope and lifted Drew’s chin up to stare into his face.

“Do you know where you are Andrew?” They asked.

Their eyes were unavoidable. There were no whites to their eyes, only the light green of spring, rutilated with opalescent geometry without any pattern.

“Do you fear death Andrew Bonsen?” They demanded.

Drew was locked into their terrifying gaze. Like looking over the edge of a high cliff at night into a forest far below, unable to see the bottom, knowing it's a deadly drop over the edge.

“Unless you don’t want our help?” They asked.

“I must be dead. I was shot.” Drew finally spoke up, his words were barely a whisper.

The ghosts behind him bumped into him gently. The divine being released him and he took a step forward to catch up to the ghosts ahead of him.

“You were shot. In your world most people avoid getting shot so they don’t die. But you aren’t one of those people, are you? Your actions saved lives and that is rare in many worlds. I am a representative of the god of nature, and therefore life. You have caught our attention. We would like to help you.”

“Where are we all going?” Drew asked.

Up ahead their one queue split into three roped off paths.

“You are currently waiting to be recycled into new life. It’s actually a rather ingenious way to automate the process since there’s nobody here to guide you all.”

The glorious being stepped forward to keep ahead of Drew.

“Along with everyone else here, your life experiences will be amalgamated and formed up into new souls for the next generation. This is a good batch, your world is overpopulated and there will be a surplus of life energy for the next round of souls.”

“I’m being reincarnated?” Drew asked.

Did I go to church enough? Oh geeze… I never really thought much about death or the afterlife.

They called up a screen with the image of a globe, and graphs and charts showing the global population, death rates, and birth rates. There was a section of the screen with the results of the last season of America’s got Talent.

“Not exactly. Imagine if everyone’s life was a lemon. That lemon grows as you experience life, and you all are now waiting to be blended up and made into lemonade; portioned out into single servings that will be distilled and used to create new lemons, eventually turned into a new life that can grow here on earth.”

What the what? That’s a terrible explanation.

“Andrew, we would like to offer you an alternative. I come from another world a million light years away.”

The screen changed to show a planet with one large continent stretching across the globe. It was mountainous in the north, encompassed my massive forests around the eastern side, and then sharply changed into flat grasslands and farmland. There was a large desert in the western third of the globe. But the image was hard to track.

Is this a video? There are clouds moving. Is that a dragon flying around the mountains?!

“Our world needs heroes like you. Rather we would like to transplant you into a new life in our world. You would keep your soul intact, all your memories and achievements will be retained.”

Purple dots peppered across the desert area and long purple arrows stretched out to collide with blue red and green arrows coming from other areas of the continent.

“Our world suffered a huge loss of life due to a recent demon lord’s war. And among other things, we need more people to give it a strong try at life so there is enough of that lemonade for the population growth to stabilize.”

This can’t be real. Am I even really dead? Demons taking over the whole world is just insane.

Drew looked around at the line of ghosts. He could see a teen with a burn on his forehead and a bruise from an over the shoulder seatbelt.

“This is a lot to take in. It sounds like something from one of those bad anime.” Drew said.

“Of course the demon lord was defeated generations ago so everything is safer now.” They replied.

“Is it really that easy to be reborn?” Drew asked.

“It’s a magical world of adventure. Strange beasts to fight, spells to learn, and dungeons to explore. We could get you a great start with wealthy parents in a major city, with a cute childhood friend. Consider it a sort of starting bonus package if you want to think of it that way. And you can start as any race in any city on the planet.”

“Could I be a hero, wielding magic and a sword?” Drew asked.

I can see it now, golden armor, wielding a shining sword, slinging magical spells, standing up to an evil demon king.

“We can get you the sword if that’s how you want to do it, becoming a hero is not easy. You could have an easy life instead. If you are certain I will do everything I can to help you achieve it.” The deity looked up at the sound of a train coming down a long tunnel.

I’ve never backed down from something just because it’s hard.

“What we can promise you is that we can protect you from earth’s cycle of death, and give you another chance to live as a true hero in a new way. This is your chance to continue to protect life in a new world that needs heroes. With magic and swords.” They said.

The deity leaned across the velvet rope and offered its hand to seal the deal.

“What do you say? It’s not like you have all day to think it over.” The deity pointed ahead to where the que split into three.

There’s no going back. I can still save people.

“Do we have an accord Andrew Bonsen?”

Drew could feel the green aura seeping into his ghostly form and giving him substance and warmth.

“I’ll do it.” Drew shook the hand. “If I can do some good in your new world, then I’m in. How do we start?”

The being clasped Drew’s hand with both of theirs and a note rang out in Drew’s head. A message popped up in front of his eyes, exactly like a floating screen from an RPG game but the words were in a language he couldn’t read.

The deity gently plucked the floating screen up and turned it around so they could see it.

“Perfect! Andrew select this confirmation on the left, it’s the affirmative one. Then select the left option on the next two screens that pop up. And the fourth screen will ask for your signature. Then we will get things moving. We will have to get you a language skill before your interview.”

Drew quickly selected yes on 4 screens and signed on the dotted line on the fifth screen.

“Amazing. Please call me Agusta, I’ll be your caseworker. We begin immediately.” She said.

Her stunning presence faded and Drew was able to look at her directly for the first time.

She is handsome. Like a Greek statue of Athena.

The green aura that surrounded her blinked out.

Agusta unhooked the velvet rope from a brass post next to Drew, and pulled him out of the line like it was nothing.

“Best to close this back up before anyone wanders out.” She said.

She reached out rapt on the wall with her knuckles. A small section opened to reveal a gold panel with an “up” button.

“Elevator going up!” She said cheerfully and pressed the button.

The wall slid open to reveal a shining glass elevator wrought in gold and they stepped inside.