Chapter 1

Patty stopped calling, but Niall remained suspended in darkness.

So this is death, he thought. Wait… I’m thinking. He tried to move or see but nothing happened. He could still sense his arms and legs but without seeing or feeling anything he didn't know if they were real or not.

Suddenly he felt like he was being sucked in a direction and he lost consciousness.

***

Niall woke and could see. It looked like he was suspended in space, little bright specks of light twinkled in the distance like stars. He tried to move his gaze but it was fixed.

“Hello,” a hollow voice whispered within his head.

Niall would have yelled out in fear but he didn’t have a mouth, his heart would have raced but that also did not exist. All that was left of him was his mind.

“This is real, you are real,” the voice said slightly louder. “We are between, think and you shall speak.”

Where am I?

“Nowhere, there is no place here, you are between.”

Is this death, who are you?

“Your body on the earthly plane has died but your,” the voice made an incomprehensible sound, “never dies. This is your first transition, but you will soon understand.”

Who are you?

“I have no name, some have called me Janus, Isimud, Brahma, Raphael, but I have as many names as the stars in the sky.”

Is this Judgment?

“Yes and no, you have already been judged. It is up to me to deliver your allotment.”

Niall did not think any more words.

“Do not be afraid, you are on the path to understanding.”

What do you mean allotment? Heaven or Hell? How am I not supposed to fear that?

“Young one, I am talking slowly in order not to overwhelm you. What you knew was like the beetle under the rock unaware of the outside world. There is no Heaven or Hell like you think. Reality and existence are much more complex than absolutes, but in complexity is understanding and understanding simplicity.”

I’m dead, but I’m not?

“Yes.”

Are you taking me somewhere?

“Yes.”

...where?

“Existence.”

This is getting confusing. Can you please just explain what is happening?

“You, and I mean You, not Niall are being transferred into your next physical form. I am taking you to that next form.”

I’m going back to Earth?

The voice ignored Niall. “You will awaken in a few seconds. I will wait until we meet again, young one.”

Then there was silence, the stars faded one by one until nothing remained.

***

Niall gasped. Life and color returned to his world. He was standing but when he realized that he fell down.

A sharp pain laced his side where he fell. He could feel grass, the wind, the sun. He smelled flowers and salt water. For a timeless moment he lay there on the ground in shock.

I lived… died… and now I’m here.

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Niall sat up and looked around. He was on a grass hill, about a quarter mile to his left stretched an endless sea as blue as sapphires. To his right hills rolled as far as he could see. He was in the middle of nowhere.

This is disappointing, Niall thought. He expected death to be a return to Patty or at the very least sweet nothingness. Now he had to figure things out. Or what? What’s the worst that could happen? I die again? However, for the time being he was going to play along with whatever was going on.

Niall started to get up. Years of being old had put him in the habit of moving methodically slow but to his surprise he rose with ease, then he saw his hands. What were once wrinkled skin and bones were now fleshy and taunt. He felt his head. Hair. Am I young again? He reached for his cellphone to use its camera for a mirror but it wasn’t on him.

Niall stretched his body without a single pain. He smiled giddily then did a little hop with ease. He started to laugh then he randomly sprinted.

“Woo,” he yelled as he barreled down the hill. His heart pumped hard and strong. After a few minutes of playing around he walked back up his hill, lightly panting. He felt like a king, a god.

Near where he had been laying sat a wooden chest he hadn’t noticed before. Niall squinted and approached it. Clamped between the unlocked lid and body a piece of paper flapping gently in the breeze. He grabbed the paper and found a note.

Young One,

You left me no time to go over your allotment. For your experience as Niall Roth you have been graded as Semi-Adequate on the Celestial Scale. You received positive commendation for your bond with your partner, raising a family without substantial faults, and learning sustaining skills. You received negative commendations for not passing your skills to others and allowing the death of your spouse to stop your progression. Your morals were judged as neutral plus.

In this chest is your allotment as well as a general starting kit.

You have 24 hours as of your awakening to select your first class. Based on your previous experience it is recommended you choose Farmer or Carpenter. If you do not choose a class one will be randomly assigned to you.

Proceed to a settlement.

The letter was unsigned but Niall assumed its author was the Voice, the one that called itself Janus. He knew Janus was a god of some sort, Roman or Greek, but he couldn’t quiet remember the story. What does it mean by classes? He reread the letter again but couldn’t find an answer. He put the letter under a nearby rock then opened the chest.

Inside he found a canvas backpack and a few loose items and clothbound bundles. He picked up the backpack, felt its weight, and then set it aside then picked through the other items. First he found a six inch dagger in a sheath and a small wood chopping ax, similar to a tomahawk. Underneath the tools was a tightly bound rectangular leather bundle. He undid the clasp to find a collection of construction tools: a hammer, chisel, screwdriver, and saw, as well as nails in a variety of sizes. Next he picked up a small leather pouch holding a compass made of silver. The next two items were the strangest.

The first was a pouch the size of a gallon jug full of seeds. The seeds were all perfectly round black beads the size of peas from a plant that Niall had never seen. Weirdest of all is that they seemed to have a staticy glow. Next was a peach pit sized quartz-like stone that pulse red and was warm to the touch.

Niall scanned the items laying before him, looking from the dagger to the glowing stone. Where the heck am I, he wondered.

The last item was a faceless leather pocket sized book. Niall flipped through the pages but they were blank.

Inside the bookbag he found what looked like supplies someone would take on a hike. There was food and water for about three days, a flint and steel firestarter, a wool blanket, a few extra pairs of socks, and five silver coins.

At that point Niall inspected what he was wearing. His shirt was an oversized gray wool sweater. His pants were a rough black hemp and on his feet he wore plain leather boots. Everything fit him perfectly.

He packed all his new belongings neatly into the backpack and secured the dagger to his belt. Based on the sun it was on the morning side of noon. That’s assuming the sun sets in the west here… where I am. Niall read the letter for a third time but couldn’t pry any useful information out of it. It would be more useful to him as kindling at that point. I guess I'll look for people? He decided. A quick scan of the horizon showed no signs of people for miles in any direction.

Arbitrarily picking south, he set off keeping the ocean to his side and his compass in hand. What's the worst that could happen? I’m already dead?

***

Niall walked until about an hour of sun remained in the sky but all he found were more grassy hills. Despite his failure at finding anything he enjoyed the hike. Even with all the overwhelming changes that had happened in the last few hours he felt an intense sense of calm and when he thought about it he had no real worries. He missed his family, but it wasn’t a heart breaking permanent feeling. He’d come to terms with death soon after Patty left. Before calling it quits, he climbed the tallest nearby hill and scoured the horizon a final time to no avail. He sighed.

Despite the pleasant weather, Niall started a fire using dried grass and dead shrubs so he would have some light when the sun finally went down. He’d seen plenty of easy small game during his hike and thought about hunting, something he hadn't done in over two decades, but he had nothing to cook with so he settled for the simple foods from his pack.

When the sun finally set Niall lay flat with his back on the ground and gazed at the stars. It had been decades since he’d seen a sky so clear. As a kid, Niall’s older brother would point out the constellations for him and tell him the story behind each. Now, Niall couldn’t recognize a single constellation.

Niall thought of his brother, Colt. He died when Niall was young. Colt had joined the army but never came back. After his brother died, Niall hated the world for a long time. Colt was his world, his hero, his protector and he was going like it was nothing. Niall eventually had buried the pain. He stared at the sky and wondered if Colt was doing the same somewhere else.

Slowly the fire died down to a steady pop pop of embers. In the distance waves crashed along the beach and without warning Niall slipped into a deep sleep.