An unending flood of pain drowned my existence, radiating from everywhere and continuing for eternity.

The pain abruptly dissipated. Wow, what just happened? I can’t feel anything and I can’t see anything. There's no light and all I see is darkness. Did I just die? It's good to know that dying is exceedingly boring. Where's that light at the end of the tunnel? You know, the one that everyone always references?

“Is that what you were hoping for? It’s too late for me to change things, so you get to have the default experience.” An odd-sounding voice rang out from everywhere, assaulting senses I thought were long gone. "Sorry, I'll dial it back a bit for you. There, is that better?" The voice sounded extremely generic, androgynous even.

Who...? I attempted to look for the source of the voice but came to the most disturbing realization yet. I don’t have a body!

“Calm down, please. Yes, you are dead. No, you don’t have a body yet. No, I am not God. I will not send you back. I have a job for you. My name is too difficult for you to pronounce, let alone understand, so you can call me ‘The Voice’ if that helps you. I believe that answers all the usual questions.” The Voice sounded almost melancholic as they listed off answers to unasked questions.

Wait, what did she mean “yet?” A job? Do I get any say? Am I going to be paid? Or am I going to be given another life and, in recompense, I do whatever “The Voice” wants? I have more questions that she, or he, hasn’t answered. I guess The Voice is a woman; it’s kinda hard to tell with how androgynous they sound.

“I can read your mind. No, I am not a ‘she.' Your archaic pronouns are insufficient to describe me properly. If you must use one, ‘it’ is the closest one in your limited vocabulary.” Its voice sounded almost tired. But the liveliness from earlier returned as it continued. “You're surprisingly quick on the uptake and taking this rather well." A short giggle escaped from the void. "You are correct. You'll be given a new life and the job will be tied to your new life. Don’t worry, I won’t have you go through the whole experience of being born again. I learned my lesson the first time I tried that. The individual went completely insane and everything was counterproductive to what I needed. But I've found that starting you off young is quite helpful and can speed things along nicely without leaving you unprepared.”

My metaphorical jaw plummeted into the unending abyss below me. This not-God supreme being talking to me must be insane. Can I please get a new one, maybe someone with all of their marbles?

“Well, that's just rude!” The Voice's volume shook my entire existence and left me wishing I had eardrums so they would burst.

I forgot you can read my thoughts. I guess that makes sense, considering I have no other way of communicating. I'm sorry. Please don’t do anything rash.

“I guess I can forgive you. It is your first offense, after all.” The tone of its words left me feeling more insignificant than ever.

“However, before I can send you off to your new life, there are some rules I need to observe. Yes, even I have rules, although I don’t have to bore you with them. Just answer some simple questions for me.” The pause made me dread the checklist of questions it was about to ask. “First question, do you remember your death? If you do, please describe what you can for me.”

I guess I haven't thought about it yet. I remember tornado sirens going off, and suddenly the wind picked up. I ran to the bathroom of my house since I didn’t have a basement. The memory played out in my nonexistent head. Tornados were rare where I lived, but apparently I'd won the lottery and had one strike my house. The sirens never quit and my house groaned with the increasing wind speeds that howled even louder as I hid in my bathtub. Then, suddenly, a loud cracking and a bang erupted, then the next thing I knew was pain, followed by this bizarre situation I found myself in. So I guess the tornado killed me, fantastic.

“You're correct, but at least it was quick.”

As if that's supposed to make me feel better now that I’m dead. But you're right, there are far worse ways to go. I should take any victory I can when I can, no matter how small.

“Alright, second question: What's your name?”

Oh no, I don’t like where this is going. Wait, what is my name? Why can’t I remember my name? I know I was a male, but that's all I remember. What happened to my body when I died that made it so I can’t remember my name?

“Well, what part of your body are you asking about? There are four pieces spread across the county. If you could name the part, I could narrow it down for you.” A giggle followed the morbid sentence.

Now I don’t want to know. Good grief, that sounds horrible. I did not need to know that.

“But you asked,” The Voice said with a sadistic tone.

Just because someone asks for something doesn’t mean you need to give them the gory details. You could have just said, “You don’t want to know” and I could have left it at that. What if I asked what the answer to life, the universe and everything is? Would you answer that?

“You don’t want to know.”

You're toying with me now, aren’t you? I'm also going to guess that you aren’t going to tell me why I don’t know my name.

“Nope. Now to the next question: Do you remember your family?”

Nothing, no memories there either. I know I had a family, but I don’t know if I had any siblings, a wife, or children. I know I had a mother and a father because I know how babies are made. But I know nothing about them. I don’t even know how old I was.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“Good, I'm getting better at this.” The Voice sounded self-satisfied and peppy, which shook me to my core.

Wait just one minute. Good? This was intended? I'm not allowed to remember who I am or who my family was? I can remember the things I learned in school, but not where I went to school or who taught me. Oh, I see. I'm not allowed to remember details about real people. Weird rules, but I imagine there's a reason. I'm getting dizzy from all these special rules. Why does dying have to be so complicated?

“I told you, rules are rules. Now that that has been covered, we can get to your job description. Please understand that I know that this is a cliché and is a story that has been told an uncountable number of times in your world. But, spoiler alert: you won’t be in your world anymore. You will be in a “fantasy world” your authors write so much about. I won’t tell you much about it because that's one of the benefits of starting off as a child. You get to learn about the world organically.”

You sound way too happy to be saying that. But that does make sense. Kids need to learn about the world one way or another. Do I have to go back to school again? Weren’t the years of school I had in one life enough? Will any of it be practical?

“I won’t spoil it for you. Back to the topic at hand: there's a demon king trying to invade the world, and he will eventually succeed. I don’t know when, but I do know that he is close. Your job is to defeat him when he arrives. You'll have time to grow up, get strong and gain allies. All that fun stuff you can do to give yourself a chance. Don’t worry, I'm sending you to replace the last person I sent. He's going to retire soon, so you will take his post. Don’t worry, the same thing could happen to you. The king may never invade while you're there, and you can live your life. I will send another replacement for you, like I've been doing.”

Practical. I guess this Voice isn’t all bad. How long have you been doing this?

“And what measurement of time would you like that in?”

Nevermind. It's not worth it. The voice tried and failed to hold back its giggling.

“Don’t worry about trying to explain anything about me or the fact that I reincarnated you. Nobody will believe you anyway. Now, as to why people will act like you’ve had a change in personality—”

Personality change?

“I'll leave that to you to figure out, but it'll be obvious. So, before I send you to your new life, any questions on your mind?”

Have we made it to the end of this little exchange? My biggest concern is that if this demon king is so powerful, how will I have the strength to defeat him?

“Figuring that out is mostly up to you. I will tell you that magic is real in this world. You'll have the opportunity to learn it if that's what you choose. Other than that, you'll be physically better in all aspects than a regular person. So long as you keep up your training and don’t just laze around, you will have every opportunity to succeed in this task. Don’t fret.”

That sounds like it almost cares for me. If I didn’t know I was just another person sent on this lifelong job, I would have believed that. But if I were to, by chance, confront the demon king, what would happen if I defeated him? What would happen if I lost?

“If you lose, then a lot of people are going to die and many more will suffer. I have a plan in place should that happen, but I really don’t want to use it. And you aren't allowed to know it—just in case, you understand. If you defeat him in the material realm, then he will be banished for four hundred and twenty years and will be unable to enter the world in the same manner as before. Don't even think about fighting him in the demon realm. You will be significantly weaker while he will be even stronger. That is, unless you find a way to become almost godlike in your power. But that isn't going to happen. Though that is the only way to kill him permanently.”

So guard duty it is. Wait, can I refuse?

“You can, but you won’t,” The Voice teasingly purred.

I guess since it's been reading my thoughts, it should know by this point I'm too curious to decline. As scary of a prospect as this is, at least I'm not a guinea pig and this is a semi-refined process. But for the sake of argument, what will happen to me if I refuse?

"I can't tell you that." It sounded disappointed. "Now, before you ask why, the most important reason is you are here and I'm giving you an option. You can choose not to take the job and continue as you were supposed to, or you can get another life and have fun."

I sense a “but” coming.

"So long as you do the job," The Voice added as almost an afterthought.

Ah, there it is.

"The deal is this. You can take this chance at a new life, and maybe or maybe not have to fight the demon king. Or you can face the unknown of what the majority of souls, those that don't get opportunities like this, face after they die. In the end, it's your choice. Since you hadn't objected, I was going to take that as consent. Nobody ever takes option two." All emotion disappeared from The Voice. "So what will it be?"

I wasn't really planning on dying the first time. But since you're offering, I'll take option one. And since I can't think of any more questions, I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be. Oh wait, I got one. If I die again, what will happen to me? Let me guess, you can't tell me. Because rules are rules.

“That's right. You catch on quickly. Since we're going with the reincarnation route, it's time to send you on your way. Also, I just wanted to let you know: Good luck. We are all counting on you.”

We? Who’s we?

“Please remain calm and keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times.” The Voice returned to an almost mechanical tone.

Thanks to a tornado, I don’t even have arms, legs, a torso, or even a head. Why did you say that?

“Because it's fun to see everyone’s reaction to me saying that. Just remember, good luck. We are all counting on you.” Its playful tone was more annoying than its answer.

This sounds familiar, but I can’t put my finger on it, and it isn’t because I don’t have a finger. But is this going to be a jarring experience or something?

“More than any past or future experiences. Bye-bye now.” The entity I was conversing with seemed to be yanked away, or maybe I was the one pulled away; I didn't have a frame of reference.

Everything started to spin with color and motion. Colors I didn’t know existed blended into a psychedelic pattern that any drug addict would sell their soul to see. It wasn’t kidding about this being a wild experience.

Beginning with the return of the sensation of movement, everything felt wrong. I never really gave credit to all the things that my body used to feel, until all feeling was stripped away then returned without a warning. Everything came back with a vengeance, and my vision was still overrun with a bad acid trip that took a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

At first, a high-pitched ringing drowned out everything else. The ringing intensified, and it sounded like my head was submerged in a raging river. As I stared at the colors, the constant shift of the colors was impossible to concentrate on. I wanted to close my eyes, but I didn’t have eyelids to close. But not having a stomach meant I didn’t want to vomit.

After who knows how long, I felt a sensation of falling, and my speed quickly increased. Does this mean this is over soon? Thank you, because I don’t want to be on this ride anymore.

I'm starting to feel sick looking at all these colors. Are they going away? Why is everything turning red? Now it's going white. Ow, my head, why is there more pain? Wait, pain in my head? Does this mean I have a body again? Yeah, let’s do this. Overwhelming pain immediately stymied my excitement. Please make it stop. Why does death have to involve so much pain? Don’t answer that question.