Adrift, a disembodied spirit, his life had been bleak for others. For him, it was fulfilling. But now he was nothing more than a flickering green light, a spectral echo of his former self, cracked and fading.

'What am I even doing here?' he thought. 

"This was suicide." 

The soul tried to recall the events that led him to this desolate existence.

•-----•-----•-----•-----• 

20 Hours Ago

"You're dead," the Giant declared, her gaze fixed on the soul.

"F*** me,"

 the soul blurted out, stunned. He looked up at the Giant's expressionless face.  'Is this God? Buddha? Rob? Why is she glowing green? Is there a Hell or Heaven?' He frantically searched his memories for any justification for this afterlife.

"I have many names, but for you, you can call me Gaia,"

 the Giant said, her form shimmering with a soft green light.

The soul instinctively raised his arms to shield his face, but his gesture was pointless. He was a soul, a mere wisp of energy, standing before a god. The green light dimmed, and he lowered his arms.

Before him stood a giant, beautiful woman, towering at least ten meters tall. The soul was too stunned to speak, but not just because of the god's beauty.  She could read his mind, and the weight of that revelation hit him hard.

'Am I getting reincarnated?' he thought, his mind racing with the endless possibilities. He remembered every novel, fanfiction, anime he had ever encountered, his excitement building.

Gaia shook her head extinguishing his hope. 

"No. Reincarnation is for the good and the bad. The good choose to forget and start a new life with better luck, while the bad are punished by being reincarnated as animals or insects."

"Then am I going to heaven or hell?" the soul asked, knowing there was no chance of achieving his dreams. 

'Better to think of the afterlife as darkness than nothing at all' he thought, trying to stay positive while fear gnawed at him.

Gaia shook her head again.

"No, you are not qualified. You have not been evil, yet you have not been good."

"Then why are you even here in front of me? And why am I even here?"

he shouted, fear building within him.

Gaia remained emotionless, unfazed by his outburst. 

"I'm sending you to the Void."

"Where even is that?" the soul asked, his voice trembling.

 "Do I even have a choice? Do I even have a future?" He hugged his arms to his chest, seeking comfort.

"The Void is the beginning and the ending of everything," 

Gaia said, her eyes focusing with an unsettling clarity. Her blank face gave no hint of her intentions.

"I'm just informing you that I'm sending you to the Void," she added, her voice calm and detached.

The soul sank to his knees in despair.

"Why? Why me?" he cried, his face twisting with a mix of sadness and anger.

"Because you are nothing. You are a nobody," Gaia said, her voice devoid of any emotion.

The soul was stunned. He realized how foolish it was to expect anything from a god, fueled by his consumption of novels and fan-fiction. In reality, his life was nothing in her eyes.

Regret washed over him as he thought about the choices he had made.  He had been a quiet, bookish kid who loved libraries but had been bullied.  He had then become friends with his bullies, ultimately becoming a bully himself. He had grown up, made friends, and enjoyed the thrill of going out and living life to the fullest.  Then the pandemic had struck, and he had found solace in the quiet solitude, realizing he was someone who craved peace and solitude. His face went blank, he could no longer tell if he was filled with regret or not.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Gaia raised one arm, and the soul glowed with green light, encompassing his entire being. With a single thought, she sent him hurtling upward. A dark hole appeared before him.

The soul looked at the black hole, desperately wishing for any other destination. 'Take me anywhere but here' 

he thought, as he was swallowed into the abyss.

Gaia watched silently as the soul vanished into the hole. 'I hope this batch can find something useful, or even just come back alive. It's all about luck at this point' she thought.

What the soul didn't know was that he was not the only one being sent into the black hole.  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of souls just like him covered with green light

•-----•-----•-----•-----•

PRESENT

'Ah yes, I didn't even have a choice.' the soul thought, his gaze tracing the cracks in the green light that were steadily growing larger.

"How long has it been? It feels like years have passed," he muttered. He looked around, seeing nothing but the endless black, occasionally dotted with pieces of junk he couldn't reach.  Sometimes he'd spot things from novels, TV shows, movies, even anime - relics of his past life - but it offered no solace.  He was moving fast, but only in one direction, trapped on this endless, invisible path.

'I can't move, only my arms and legs.  I'm just going where that black hole spat me out' he thought, scanning the darkness ahead for anything he could attach to. Attaching himself was the only way to survive.

That was Gaia's message, the green light's message:  To survive, he had to cling to something, to find a new form. He was fast, he could move like limbs, all thanks to the blessing Gaia had bestowed upon him.  Otherwise, he would simply fade away in this void, unable to move a single inch.  But the blessing was a double-edged sword: he could only move forward, and his choices were limited.

He searched ahead, hoping for a stroke of luck, until the cracks in his light spread, and the Void touched his soul. Pain.  It was excruciating, not physical or mental, but a pain that burrowed deep within, a constant, gnawing ache.

'I can't take this shit anymore! I just want it to end!  But it's not my decision' he thought,

his soul screaming in agony. He couldn't cry, couldn't die.  Gaia's blessing, meant to heal and sustain him, was making his light brittle, his soul fragile.  He knew that if it shattered, his journey would be over.

He screamed into the void, a raw, primal sound that echoed through the darkness.  He had no idea how much time had passed. He just kept screaming, moving his arms and legs, hoping to keep his mind from unraveling.

Then he felt it: a faint pull, a tug from the depths of the void.  It was a whisper, a beckoning, a promise of a new beginning. A branch of a tree, glowing with an golden light, materialized in front of him. He reached out, desperate to touch it. 

'Just a little bit more' he thought, his hand almost brushing the luminous wood.

'An inch, a centimeter more' he thought, but it was hopeless. He knew he couldn't move closer.  But that wasn't the worst part.

'I didn't get it, and the cracks are getting worse.' he thought, gritting his teeth in pain. He turned to face the void, and his eyes fell upon a shimmering metallic sphere, pulsating with a faint blue light. It was unlike anything he had ever seen, yet it held a familiar symbol.  He had no choice.  He reached out and touched the sphere, hoping to attach himself to it.

Gaia's blessing flared, fulfilling its purpose. The green light wrapped around the metallic sphere, merging with his soul, melting and combining into one.

In an instant, the soul was transported to a new location.

He looked around. 'This isn't the Void, that's for sure' he thought.  It was dark, but there was a floor, covered in blue lines.  There were no walls, only endless darkness.  He sat down on the floor, his knee almost touching the ground, examining the ground until a voice broke the silence.

"Who are you?"

The soul turned around.

"Oh my God, what even are you?" 

the person standing before him said, stepping back in surprise.  The soul's face was blurred, and his core was a dark, glowing green.

"Sorry, I'm just a soul trying to survive," 

he explained, touching his face, wondering if there was something wrong with it.

"And you, who are you?" 

the soul asked. He recognized something about the person standing before him, something familiar about the blue lines around her.

The person seemed a bit excited to have another being to talk to.  She didn't know how long she had been trapped here alone.  She smiled and introduced herself.

"My name is Cortana."