Awareness returned to him in degrees.

First, there was a sensation of drifting. There was no direction to the drifting as far he could tell, as none of his senses remained. By all logic he should not be feeling anything, not that he had the capacity for such complex thoughts in this form.

But drift he did for an indeterminate amount of time.

Then he stopped. It was not a natural coming to rest, it was more akin to someone grabbing the collar of your shirt while you were sprinting. It was a brutal sensation that interrupted the state of tranquility he had been in for all of his limited memory. It also inspired his first thought since coming here.

What am I?

He grappled with that question for a while before he was disturbed by the pulling again. Though perhaps it would have been better described as yanking, as each bout of it was quite uncomfortable. He yearned for the soothing stream-like sensation of before.

It was then that he became aware of a new sensation. Swiftly approaching, he could detect … light? No, that wasn’t quite it. Warmth? Closer. Perhaps …

Connection?

That was the closest word he had for it, though he felt It was all three of those words and more besides. The most important thing, he realized, was that there was something else on the other end. That was equally aware of him. In fact, there were many things that were aware of him. Many thousands of them.

They appeared like a sea of stars to him. Each independent being like an infinitely complex pool of lights. As he drew closer, and then entered, amongst them he now realized that he had an answer to his earlier question.

I am Dante. A human being. He had … died.

Memories of his former life flashed through his mind. Watching TV as a toddler, his parents screaming at each other in the background and then a resounding smack. The back seat of a car, his Dad had been driving, the screech of tires, blood everywhere, his Mother crying. His first home after, the one with the peeling wallpaper, his sister's tiny fist in hand. A prison cell, hard to tell which one exactly, they all looked so alike.

That was it huh? he thought, That was my life…

It had been a pretty awful life, if he were to be honest to himself. He had done so many things that he now regretted. Dante was not surprised that had ended up in a place like this. The only constant that had made it bearable for a while had been his sister. She had really helped him turn it around at the end, though it looked like it had not been enough.

That’s right, Sophia!

It felt like a fog across his mind had cleared now. Of the bus crash, the frantic moments spent saving the passengers and his sister, and of his agonizing death in fire.

She had been standing pretty close by the bus when the explosion occurred. If the shrapnel flew off in the wrong direction it could have … no … he … could not think that. Soph was fine, she had to be. That boy certainly got her to safety.

Though … he knew that her heart would be broken by the fact that she made them go back into the wreck. She always held herself up to the highest standards — impossible ones by his measure — even when she could not possibly change anything. It was one of her greatest flaws. He was sure this would be no different.

Something was wrong. For all that those facts should bother him, he felt nothing.

Dante felt that he should be more concerned about all that had happened. He remembered every agonizing moment of being burned alive in visceral detail, but he couldn’t even muster anything beyond a faint pang of discomfort. Even that seemed more like a memory of discomfort rather than the true thing. It was more of an intellectual understanding if anything.

Perhaps it was a result of not having a body?

Still, the thought of his sister … Dante wasn’t one to pray, but he prayed to anything listening that his sister was alive. If so, he hoped that his sister did not blame herself for making him turn back. It had been his choice, and it had been the right one in retrospect.

And that was that. Dante found it disturbingly easy to accept that and move on to different more pressing matters. Afterall, he might have eternity to revisit that issue.

Where was he anyway? The afterlife? He had never been much of a believer, always seemed to have something more important going on then pondering such questions, but this scene didn’t match the afterlife of any he had heard of. Though Dante supposed that maybe it was some small, relatively unknown religion that had been right this entire time. He surveyed his surroundings again.

If so, then this was probably not their heaven.

He noticed something new at the edge of perception and refocused his attention. Was that another light that had just appeared?

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

It certainly was, as he noted it was getting closer in spastic bursts. Much like he had been brought here. Then, yet another one. It was like they were being gathered.

Dante began to count them. It wasn’t like there was much else to do here after all. He nearly faltered when one of the lights he had just counted had its connection to him ‘flare’. It was the only way he could describe it. Somehow, he felt as if this meant that they were taking more notice of him as well. He tried to send a message back by refocusing his attention on it, focusing on something else, then going back to it. After a moment, he felt it do the same.

He felt a moment of excitement, at least as close as he could in this state. It was possible to communicate with others! He would just have to … what exactly? It wasn’t like he knew morse code or anything and even if he did there was no guarantee that his partner would either. It didn’t stop him from sending pulses to his new friend though, who would always respond after a delay.

It was something to do after all.

Their little game was interrupted when he felt something else approach. Something different. It was impossible not to notice with his new sense as it was … something more. Something near undefinable. It was like they were candles before the sun.

The connection he felt to it was different as well. More … Alien. It felt impossibly ancient and like there was a gravity around it. It felt like this whatever this Being decided, simply was.

Was it a god? Or angel? Something divine? Dante found that he could easily believe it was any of those.

Whatever it was, the being settled amongst them all. Dante could feel all attention was riveted on it. Then, tendril’s seemed to unfurl from it. They snaked out towards every presence around it.

One was coming for him.

A fact that he found was dimly disturbing to him. He willed himself to move, but that did not change anything. He could only wait for it to arrive.

When it did, it wasted no time diving for the ‘core’ of him. If he had a mouth, he would have gasped as he felt it alter something that was integral to him. It was a violating sensation, one that would have been as disturbing to him as burning to death had been if he still had the capacity to feel. As it was, he could only wait until the process was done.

Eventually it lessened then stopped entirely, but the tendril remained connected. Not that he cared for the moment, as a … screen filled his mind.

Name: Dante Embry

Race: Human

Class: Unclassed

Level: 1

Attributes

Alacrity 9 [+] Endurance 13 [+] Charisma 6 [+] Fortitude 11 [+] Cognition 13 [+] Perception 8 [+] Constitution 12 [+] Strength 7 [+] Dexterity 12 [+] Willpower 14 [+]

Skills

Brawl 2 Deception 1 Lock Picking 4 Logic 4 Menial Labor 3 Sleight of Hand 1 Stealth 2

Abilities

[Selections Available]

Traits

Fickle Fate MAX Human Tenacity 4