So, I died...

What a letdown.

Like most people, I imagined that I would do well in life. Such as marrying a beautiful woman and starting a family together, or having a successful job that paid shits-loads of money for minimal effort...

Such dreams now a thing of the past, much like myself. Although, if what I remember is true, how am still able to process cognitive thoughts.

I did die, right?

It wasn't just a dream?

Hello? Is anyone there? Universe? God?

...Jesus?

I've never been big on religion and to be honest, I think I'd be more scared if someone answered my prayers.

I'm pretty sure I died. You don't just forget something like that. Did I die though? If I did then what the hell is this?

I can't seem to get my head around my state of being. Did I die? Didn't I die? Over and over they fight and contradict themselves of supremecy for my mind. Yet here I am, still able to process thought-conflicted dilemmas. That's got to be a good sign.

Maybe my head avoided the collision. Maybe there wasn't even an accident at all. Maybe, I'm at home asleep and this is all just a vivid dream.

But even if my brain didn't get damaged, how would my body have survived that? I was definitely hit by that truck and can still remember the feel of his fur as I pushed that dog out of the way. And if this is a dream... I need to wake up because I can easily see this turning into a nightmare.

All my thought are laced in denial, but who can readily accept death at such a young age.

Not me! I don't want to be dead.

Surreal shades of green that look like wind run across a black backdrop. A void surrounds me from every angle and, if not for the wind, I would absolutely petrified. Dancing around me, it calmed the demons in my mind. Until I saw the me it was dancing around.

I hadn't even considered what I was looking at, nor how I was able to see in the first place. Now that I'm aware, it's definitely not my eyes that are relaying the sights around me to my brain. Hell, I'm not even sure if I have a brain anymore. The translucent sphere that now seems to represent my state of existence is made up entirely of clouds.

That's right. Clouds.

This is just wrong, right?

With no better way to describe my current self, the inner turmoil in my mind kicks up again and the arguments are back in force.

Seriously, if this is my way of coping, I may not have been as clever as I thought I was.

Whatever, I'm just going to play full-on deniablility. This has gotta be a dream and, the most logical outcome to that is, I'll wake up at some point. Until then, I'll just wait.

Time passes uneventfully and the void never changes. The tinted wind dances around my form the entire time and after watching it for so long, the motion of my dilemma being a dream is slowly kicked to the curb. It's been days now and I haven't woken up. Nor has anything different happened from when I first arrived.

Maybe I am dead. If this is the afterlife though, then what's the point?

Ever so suddenly, I feel a shift in the darkness. Excitement overcomes me as the change in existence, but it doesn't last long. Pain is all I can comprehend as an oppressive feeling invades my non-constitutail mind. Panic is all I'm able to do as memories of my life replay before my eyes.

My birth, which I'd never been privy too since the mind isn't developed enough to remember that young, come first. It's followed by the stages of childhood and plays through elementary, junior and high school as I take in my life from a different perspective. Ultimately, it ends in the glaring headlights of Tony the Trunk.

I've never actually had my mind assaulted before and watching my life like that has left a sour taste in my mouth. However, I don't remember giving permission for something like that and am comfortable with how it went. First of all, it just wasn't long enough. Why did I have to die so young? Second, it quite traumatic; both physically and mentally, having to go through that. All I can picture is my brain being operated on by doctors whilst I'm still awake in the table.

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Wait. What if that's what's actually happening to me? Oh shit!

After witnessing my death, the invasive presence pulled back and released me from torment. At the same time, the ever-present, unchanging void was filled with light. Sky blue pushed out any traces of darkness until my world was finally full of colour. Not that there was anything to see still, other than the wisps of green dancing through the sky.

So... I'm definitely dead then? What a bummer. Although, if this is the afterlife where is everything and why am I still surrounded by nothing?

As though the universe heard my complaint, the space in which I accommodate begins to light up. It isn't so bad at first, but after a few seconds the urge to close my eyes and protect myself is screaming at me. As a cloud, I possess neither of those limbs and am forced to endure temporary blindness.

Eventually it recedes, leaving me to complain about how bullshit the afterlife is. Especially when the living praise it up to the nines, but they're unable to experience it first hand to give an accurate recounting.

Silly bastards have no idea.

With the 1million watt light bulb turned off, I don't feel as though my imaginary retinas are burning away my cloud.

Damn, that hurt! Or did it? Argh, I'm so confused.

Once I'm finally able to take in my surroundings again, I was expecting something different. Maybe the appearance of a person or some pearly gates perhaps? I mean, anything other than fire and brimstone will be fine thank you. Unfortunately though, nothing changed. Not even a cloud, other than myself, was added.

What was the point in blinding me then? It's still nothing, but with a different colour. Do they think I'm happy that it's now blue instead of black? Well... Whoever's doing this isn't wrong, but this is not how I want to spend the rest of my existence.

What if this is what those fanatics call limbo? I really hope it isn't. This place sucks donkey balls. It's so boring and there's nothing to do. I can't move myself, there's nothing to eat and I haven't slept in days. Maybe I'm going mad?

What's a guy gotta do to get noticed out here in the middle of nowhere? Is it going to be like this forever?

Hello!?

.......

Hey, Assholes!

Once again, as if responding to my thoughts, something new arrives in my lonely world. I wouldn't have noticed if not for the soft-white light running around its rectangular border, but a box has appeared directly infront of me. It's hard to see against the backdrop since they're both the same colour, but I'm speechless.

What the hell is that?

If I didn't know any better I'd say it was translucent like me. Instead, the first physical object that I've seen since whatever happened happened, definitely appeared after my cursing.

At least, I think it's a physical object?

If I still had hands I'd test that theory. Sadly though, my cloud doesn't move and. Even if it did I doubt it would be able to latch on to the materialisation before me.

Now that I think about it, it kind of resembles an information box from old-school RPGs. Before they added voice features into games.

Oi! Why do you look like a text box?

Why did I think that? Was I expecting an answer? Even if it did answer me, it wouldn't be any weirder than the void-turned-sky, would it?

This must be it then. How it ends. No afterlife and no second chances. The cogs that represent my brain are about to cease turning forever, marking the inevitable end of my short-lived existence. I should have done more. I should have travelled and experienced more cultures. I should have loved and been loved in return. There was so much more that I wanted to see and do!

Okay, maybe I dramatised that a little too much.

You still could.

Huh?

Words full of hope appear inside the text box. Written in white, I almost didn't see them. Fortunately, there isn't anything else to look at here so my attention had been on the new arrival since it appeared.

As it turns out, I was actually correct.

Fucking go me.

I knew it was a text box. Who are you? Are you God? Or at least the creator of this place? Why am I still here? What's going on?

.......

I wait anxiously, wondering if I asked too many questions?

Maybe I annoyed the them?

Shit.

What if it doesn't answer back? Then an even worse thought washes over my mind. The words disappeared just as fast as they had appeared, once I'd finished reading them.

What if I imagined that it answered me?

........

Still, I wait patiently. Anxiety eating away at me the entire time until eventually deciding I've waited long enough. This time however, I'll just ask a simple question. I gulp down my non-existent saliva and steel my already shaken nerves.

All or nothing.

The moment of truth.

Here we go.

Who are you?

.....

A few seconds pass before I finally get an answer.

I am The System.