I would argue that an unexpected free fall is the worst way to die. I could be biased though, having just died that way myself. As I lay on the ground, hurt and dead, I was startled to hear a grizzly voice, “Sir, you can’t lay there.”

My eyes blinked open and adjusted to the fluorescent light that shone overhead. “Sorry,” I coughed out, “where am I?”

“You’re at the Crossroads, sir,” responded the same deep voice.

I pushed myself to my knees, taking inventory of my condition. I was sore, but there was no pain stopping me from moving. My shirt and jeans were torn from the hard landing. I looked past myself and locked eyes with the owner of the grizzly voice. “You’re… a bear?”

It nodded. “In your world, yes. I’m a bit more than that, but you may call me Ursa, sir, if it pleases you.” I was baffled. Not only was there a talking bear, but it was also the most polite talking bear I’d ever met. Which suited the bear, since it had suited up… himself? A deep blue suit, white shirt, and golden tie dressed him. A small pair of spectacles balanced impossibly on his snout. This bear stared down at me and his grizzly voice hit once again, “sir, I need you to get off the floor if you would please.”

“What?” I quickly responded, the cough no longer in my voice. I finally drifted my sight past the bear. Populated chairs lined the center bullpen waiting area in which I landed, surrounded by desks where more sharply dressed animals worked.

Ursa glanced at a clock that had more hands than I knew what to do with. “Sir, if you are here at the Crossroads, then you have died. With such, to continue your journey you will need to grab a ticket.”

I stood up and shook the dust off my clothes. “I’m sorry… I really am dead?”

“Yes, and no need to apologize, humans die all the time. Please grab a ticket and take a seat.” With that, the bear sauntered off, exiting through a door near the end of the room. I moseyed over to the machine his claws had pointed out and found myself holding onto a ticket with information I could not read. Some hieroglyphs beyond my understanding rested on the page. I dragged my sore body to a chair and plopped down. It had been a taxing day, even without the death. Exhausted, I closed my eyes and waited for my turn to be called.

— — —

A hard tap on my shoulder broke my slumber. “Wha- I’m awake, I’m awake.”

“It’s your turn, human. Follow.” Lifting my head to the employee and my body from the chair, I was able to see the back of a ram’s head and body that were walking to a close desk. I stumbled over to sit in one of the uncomfortable chairs across from this well-dressed ram.

“Name?” The ram asked disinterestedly.

“Donovan. Donovan Gerdy.” I replied.

The ram made note of my name, looked up, and said “and your Earth?”

“Umm… is that a question?” With a sigh, the ram opened a drawer in front of him and fished out a magnifying glass to hold in my direction

“Earth 37.” The apathy leaked through his declaration as the object was tossed back into the drawer. It bounced out and fell past the desk next to me. Then the ram began cycling through a large rolodex of files.

“Umm, you dropped-“ I bent down and picked up the magnifying glass.

“Doesn’t matter. Keep it, for all I care. You’ll be headed to your afterlife anyways.” The magnifying object became a nice fidget object in my hands. “How many earths are there?”

“I don’t know, I’ve never counted. Hundreds? But please, don’t interrupt me.” The ram returned to searching the papers on the spindle. I continued to rock in my chair. I watched as the ram worked strangely nimble hoofs. I peered through the new handheld object, and it wasn’t until I was directed at the ram that anything happened. An intrusive thought wiggled its way into my head presenting me with the name and title of the animal. Aries, General Assignment Officer of the Afterlife.

“Huh,” I said aloud, dumbfounded.

“Quiet,” Aries said without breaking his trace. After a good while of flipping pages, finesse was lost and the ram’s hoofs began to shake. The ram looked up at me with the first smile I had seen from the speaking animal. “Wait right here Mr. Gerdy, nothing is wrong. Nothing in the slightest. There is nothing to worry about.” He picked up a phone and quickly turned his body, trying to muffle his voice but doing a terrible job of blocking the sound. “Yes, Mr. Draco, I have someone here that fell through the system…” The telephone receiver slammed down on its holder. “I contacted my manager and he’ll come to help you. If you could please have a seat in the bullpen again, and leave me be.”

“Umm… thank you?” I turned and made my way back to my original seat. The first chair I sat in after death. The first chair I napped in after death. There are a lot of firsts that you can count after death, I thought to myself, preparing to sit.

Before I could get comfy, however, a scaly voice called out. “Donovan? Mr. Donovan Gerdy?” I lifted my head in a quick jerk. “Ah yes, Donovan. Please come with me.” A green dragon turned away hurriedly. His purple suit contrasted well with the gradient green. I watched the dragon strut away and thought for the first time how hard it would be to dress with a tail that rivals your body length. I put that thought away to unpack later, if ever and chased after the dragon. He stopped by a far door and opened it, gesturing me to step inside first. Not wanting to offend a neatly dressed dragon, I obliged.

Even if I hadn’t heard the ram mention this Draco as a manager, it was very apparent. The office had three chairs triangulating the large dark wooden desk with iron accents. The dragon rushed past me and sat in the largest chair. He motioned with his hand, offering me a seat opposite of him. I sat down, still mesmerized by the room. A bookshelf lined the wall behind him, paired with filing cabinets stacked to the ceiling. I gazed through my magnifying glass and got a first foreign thought when I looked at the dragon. Draco, Manager of Afterlife Assignments.

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“I see you got your hands on an Identifier. That will make some things easier at least. As you well know by now, I am Draco. Please, I encourage you to just glance at these documents through it, don’t dive too deep though.” With his words, he threw a folder of papers on the desk. I obliged him the second time, and a second foreign thought wormed its way into my head again. The Life of Donovan Gerdy, Unabridged. I brought the object back to my lap.

“Oh, that’s pretty neat. How’s my life going?” I leaned in to glance at the pages, but they contained the same language of scribbles that I couldn’t read. While my question floated, I raised the Identifier again, looking at pages individually. Everything from my past shot into my brain but thoughts and visions of my future instantly slammed me with a headache.

The dragon gave a slight chuckle, as he watched me rub my temples. “I told you not to dive deeper, it’s hard for you mortals to grasp the nature of life and time.” He began to shuffle a portion of the future pages back into the folder. “And to answer your question, your life is not going well, Mr. Donovan. Because you slipped through our system and you weren’t supposed to do that. It looks like right around… here,” Draco pointed a clawed finger on a piece of paper, “is where you died off-script. You really should try to avoid that. The amount of paperwork that we have to do now to compensate is hellish.”

“I’m sorry, I guess. I didn’t mean to die.”

“You humans typically don’t mean to die. Let me try to explain what’s going on. Looking at the file, you’re from… Earth 37.” He said after glancing back down at the shuffled papers. “An analogy would be that we, the Afterlife Assignment Agency, are a bus. Everyone stands at different bus stops and gets taken when the bus arrives. Instead of waiting for the bus, you jumped in front and died. The buses are death. And the bus stops are… also death. This is the crossroads before afterlife, so there’s a lot of death in any analogy.”

“To sum up… I was taken before my time?”

“Almost. You more so broke in, rather than being taken and it’s your lucky day since you’re the first unplanned soul to pass through. So we’re looking to compensate you before sending you off to another body.”

“Ok, so like… new body, that’s normal. And what would you give me?”

“Well, we can negotiate that, but the plan is to give you a chance to continue life since you weren’t finished.”

“But, what’s even the point of living again?”

“Ah, well, your afterlife is dependent on a lot, but from your records, it looks like your personal afterlife will be greatly improved by living again.” Draco took a moment to shuffle through a different pile of folders behind him. “Ah! There’s a Donovan dying in just a little bit! That solves getting used to a new name too. And he has some money too, so life should be comfortable, I think the timing couldn’t be more perfect!”

I perked up to this. Throughout my life, I had always struggled to get by. The promise of money in a new life was appealing. “That sounds nice. So what now? I just become this other Don?”

“It’s a little more complicated that on our side, but for you… yes. We’ll push you into space towards him until you get pulled straight to the body. Pretty simple overall.”

“Ok so, when do I go?”

“After some soul-bound paperwork. We want to make sure you’re satisfied with the terms and waive any liability of us. For that, I’ll need to call in Larissa who will act as your lawyer. She’s great at it, and after signing we can get you on your way.”

At that moment the door busted open and a woman flew through the door. She touched down next to me, landing gently in the extra chair. She immediately began to speak without bothering to look at me. “I am here to finalize the contract as a third-person party. Draco, do you have a contract proposed already?”

The dragon shook his head. “Not yet, but I have found a suitable host for our slip-up human. I’ll start on that right away.” With that, the dragon began to write.

Larissa turned to me and said “I know this must be confusing for you, but bear with us. After we’re done here you’ll be on an Earth again, and this will all be behind you. Sound good?”

I shrugged, “I guess. Can you fly?”

“Of course I can. Can you not?” Before I could answer she had a dossier in her hand, skimming over text. “Oh, Earth 37. You can’t. Well, it makes my job easier at least, since almost anything I get for you will be better.”

“People on other earths can fly?”

“Definitely. It only depends on determination and gravity, after all. In fact, looking at where your new body is from” she said, looking over the top sheet of Draco’s paperwork, “there is magic. Magic can play a big part in determination.”

Draco tapped the compiled documents and handed them over to a receiving Larissa, who immediately read over the document. After reading it for a second time, she began to scribble furiously, all over the contract. She then passed the scroll back to Draco, where he began crossing out some of the fresh suggestions in the contract. This process continued until they finally shook hands over the desk. She placed the contract in front of me, and said “Mr. Gerdy if you could sign on this line, we can get you moved into your new host. Feel free to look over it with your Identifier.”

I complied and stared at the scroll through the object in question. Soul Bound Contract Between Parties Mr. Donovan Gerdy of Earth 37 and The Afterlife Assignment Agency. I dove a little deeper, gathering the information that I could. I was destined to Earth 93, into the body of a Donovan, no last name. Two parts stood out, the first was for me to gain the Potential Skill, along with other Skills I collected on Earth 37. Second, I was allowed to keep my memories, including everything discussed at The Crossroads. Overall, nothing bad jumped out at me, so I grabbed the uncomfortably large pen and signed my name.

Immediately after, my body began to glow. I stared at my hands, and when my gaze moved over to my feet I found them levitating. I flashed a tired smile to Larissa and Draco, who waved me goodbye. Floating intangibly through the ceiling, Draco’s last words to me were, “Feel free to keep the Identifier, I think you’ll find it useful.”

— — —

Faster and faster I accelerated, the glow from my body blending into the darkness of space. Stars shot past in a mesmerizing fashion as I was pulled some direction away. I stole another nap, being comfortable in zero-gravity travel. I had always wanted to sleep without the weight of my body.

I slept deep until I felt a tug inside of my chest, as a glowing tether formed from my chest towards a visible planet. The planet grew ever closer, and I could see its similarity to my Earth. I counted 3 moons though. I broke through the atmosphere, with no signs of stopping. I tumbled through the air towards a larger city in the region. With a loud THUD, I was on the floor in my new body. I yelped with the pain of adjusting to a new and unknown body. The velocity carried me to the ground, out of the large bed, which was now mine. I couldn’t manage to open my eyes, an aftereffect of soul swapping, I had to imagine.

Stunned on the ground, I heard a shuffling of feet that caused a commotion. The movement stopped, but the commotion didn’t. “SOMEBODY HAS POISONED KING DONOVAN!”