"What the..." Jonathan felt a sudden throbbing pain spread all over his body before the hazing feeling shook off. His eyes fluttered open, quickly scanning his surroundings, curious where he was. What he saw shocked him even further.
"I-I'm dead?" Jonathan looked around and looked at himself - he seemed to have taken the form of a perfectly white ghost. His ghost form still kept the shape and physique of his original body, but it seemed illusionary and slightly see-through.
But he wasn't the only one as so, as he looked ahead and found himself in a line of ghosts just like him. They were all muttering and had different expressions - some relaxed, some confused, some frightened. He saw all types of ghosts, from young boys and girls to hunchbacked old men and women.
However, the most peculiar thing about every ghost was some sort of flame residing within their skull - where the brain would be. Each and every person's flame seemed to be a different color, with red, green, and orange being the most common color for these flames. Johnny had no way of telling the color his own flame, as it was located in his head.
He had some suspicions that each flame represented the "soul" of an individual. Just as he was thinking, another illusionary ghost seemed to magically appear behind him.
"This man must have recently died, while everyone in front of me died slightly before me. Seems that ol' dirtbag Will actually had the balls to shoot me." Jonathan was without a doubt, shocked that this was how death actually worked. There were countless beliefs on Earth in the afterlife, who would have known this would be the actual process.
Diverting his attention from the line of ghosts, he looked at his surroundings and saw that they seemed to be in some massive, incredulous, demon palace. The palace's ceiling seemed to climb higher than the sky, there was no way to see the top. The entire palace was made from black, grey, and dark purple materials - only adding to the gloomy and grieving atmosphere pushing down on all the ghosts. But its most interesting thing trait was the faintly glowing runes located all over the castle. These runes seemed to have a mysterious power, though Johnny was unable to determine their purpose. Interested, he decided to find the three largest and most brightly shining runes - and attempted to imprint their picture and lines in his memory. He only managed to form a blurry outline in his memory but he felt that it was strangely beneficial to.
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As Johnny diverted his attention from the Palace to his left and right - he quickly saw that his line wasn't the only line. Rather, there was an almost identical line on his left and right! And it seemed that even those lines had lines next to them! Straining his eyes and taking advantage of the slight transparency of the ghosts - he counted a total of ten lines!
That reminded him of a story on Earth - where there were Ten Yama Kings to judge souls before they went on to reincarnate! This meant that the ghost lines were all leading to the possible judgment for each one of them!
And possible reincarnation!? As all of these thoughts began to be pieced together, Jonathan's mind trembled. Perhaps...just perhaps..he would be born again in a different world?
Johnny stood there as he thought of all of this. He, as well as the other ghosts, kept completely quiet. However, the more Johnny observed, he realized that many of the others were extremely uncomfortable - as if they wanted to speak but they couldn't.
"Perhaps its due to those runes? Could they be applying a suppressive effect on the other ghosts thoughts and souls?" He vaguely wondered, and decided to try and investigate these runes even further.
The line continued forward slowly at a steady pace. In what felt like a short amount of time, Johnny was at the front of the line.
"NEXT!" A voice thundered out of a swirling black portal in front of Johnny. The voice was incredibly powerful and seemed to have the mysterious power to directly drag him into the portal.
It was time to be judged...