He became aware of the gentle swaying of water. He opened his eyes and groaned as he looked up. What met him was darkness, stretching out further than his eyes could perceive. He shot up to a sitting position. In a panic he looked around.

He was surrounded by a sea, made of inky black water. Floating in the water was a long ivory boat, glowing in the darkness around it.

“Ah, you’re finally awake.”

He looked beside him at the figure who had spoken.

It was dressed in a long white cloak, glowing with the same light as the ivory bone.

“Who-Who are you?” he said, instinctively crawling away from the figure on his hands and butt.

“I,” the figure began as he raised his arm, the long sleeves of his cloak hanging over its hand, “am no more than a simple ferryman.” He pulled back his hood, to reveal a grinning skeleton with fiery burning green energy for eyes.

He bit back a scream of terror, though his body trembled at the sight. “Am-Am I dead?”

“No, at least not yet.” The skeleton figure said. “You are in the Between.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“Between? Between what?”

“Between life and death.” The figure raised its arm, the sleeve of his cloak slid back, revealing a long, think finger of bone and joints. “Over there, the light. That is where you come from that is life.”

He followed the finger to the light some distance away. It shone bright and white, like a star, hovering over the inky waters.

“And back there,” the skeleton said, looking toward the opposite way, where no light shone, but the waves continued swelling ebbing into the inky mass, “That is the place beyond, death and anything after.”

The boy swallowed nervously. He noticed that the boat he was on was moving, just away from the light. “Why is the boagt moving away from the light?” He said.

The skeleton figure shrugged its shoulders. “I am only the ferryman in the Between. The boat may sway this way or that by some force greater than I, my job is to ensure that the souls I have aboard have some place to be on, in the middle of the waters of eternity.”

The man looked at the light. “The light isn’t so far. I could swim for it.”

“You could try…”

The boy reached out and hands formed from the inky substance below. They reached out for the arm he had outstretched past the rim of the boat, gurgling in excitement the closer they got to grabbing him. He pulled his hand back before they could get any closer to grabbing him.

“…but I would not try it,” the skeleton figure said. “I have seen many jump over to swim to the light. I have seen none actually make it.”

“So what do I do?”

The skeleton shrugged again. “Like I said, the boat will go as it will. So, all you can do is wait.”

“Wait,” he repeated.

“Waiting can be so dull,” the skeleton said. “How about we speed things up?”

The boy looked at the skeleton in confusion and fear. It seemed the grin on the being’s face had somehow grown sinister. “How?”

“How about we play a game?”