I remained in place for a few seconds as I stared down at the bitten fig.

“Another failed experiment.” I took a large breath, then ate the rest of the fig. It tasted good.

I proceeded to walk beyond the fig tree towards the empty field. As I approached, the plain of grass opened to reveal an empty doorway.

Beyond the entrance was a dimly lit room that gave the aesthetic of a basement, although all the rooms are technically basements. The room had a concrete floor, brick-patterned concrete walls, and a wood-chip ceiling with pipes running in between the wood supporting the ceiling.

I plopped onto my cheap, yet comfortable couch, and then I shivered. The basement felt especially cold today.

Wait, cold? I looked down at the goosebumps on my arms and arm hairs standing up. I haven’t felt cold in years…

Suddenly, the hairs on my arms seemed as if they were dancing back and forth.

I looked up in confusion and saw the walls before me. The once solid walls looked as if they were melting profusely, to only have more brick-like concrete still remaining.

My eyes moved further up to the wood-chip ceiling, which now appeared as moving and drooping strands of pasta. The ceiling almost seemed to be breathing.

“The ceiling is spaghetti?”

And just as words finished coming out of my mouth, I felt my whole body get sucked into the couch, first becoming one with it, next falling to some area beyond the couch.

I wasn’t sure if my eyes were open or closed, but the next thing I noticed I was warping through space, if this could even be called space. The sensation of falling quickly turned to rapid ascension.

My senses became so stimulated I wasn’t sure if a single thing was even being processed. I wasn’t sure if time was passing fast or slow or if time was passing. And when I tried to conceptualize time, although I recalled the word the rest slipped by and so did any detail I would try to recall about myself.

At times my ‘vision’ would be filled with different sceneries. A planet with three different color suns, a vast kingdom made purely of pure white marble, a giant tortoise eating stars, and a radiant fox whose nine tails left trails of supernovas. The fox slowly turned its gaze to me before my vision darkened again.

Whether my vision was present or not, there was an ethereal light seemingly infinitely far away and soon all that was left was a dark veil and that light. I then began to hear the noise of a deafening vacuum getting closer.

Suddenly, my mind pushed against the dark veil and felt warped to the point of almost being crushed. The noise of the vacuum filled my head, and I was only able to get a single thought out.

Am I dying?

Then, I squeezed through to the other side of the veil.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Yet the light I saw in the distance still seemed infinitely far away, covered by an even deeper veil. Now, however, the space between me and the star was filled with black holes, countless galaxies, and what seemed like tears in space. Below me was what looked like an endless plain of gold.

My senses all came back to me, and I muttered to myself, “Where am I?”

“You're at a land above even God,” a voice boomed from all sides of me.

I was shocked silent for a second and looked around seeing no one around or above me.

“Above even God?” I asked nervously.

“Yes, you’re standing on top of my head.” The booming voice transitioned into a laugh, apparently proud of his joke or maybe the dumb look that spread across my face.

“You’re God?” The dumb look remained on my face.

“Please, just call me Bob. That’s what all my friends call me.”

“Friends?” I mumbled out.

“Well, I don’t get many living visitors because it’s usually a one-way ticket, and those with the ability to get here aren’t usually fans of permanent death.”

“Wait, I’m dead?” My mind was racing, yet there was too much to take in to form a longer thought.

“Well, usually, unless I do something about it.” I couldn’t see him beyond this strand of hair, but I could almost feel from his tone that a smile formed on his face. My mood turned solemn, and I went down on one knee.

“Will you please send me back to my body, God? There is still something I have to do before I die.” My eyes remained shut and my head down with my hands interlocked in front of me as I waited in pin-drop silence.

“Unfortunately, you can’t return to your body right now because of the substances running through it.”

“Can you wait for the substances to pass through and then send me back?”

“Unfortunately as well, I’m about to be really busy, so I can’t do that either.”

“So I can’t go back?” I forced myself to ask in a whisper as I felt feelings welling inside of me.

“Nope.”

I failed. 50 years spent, and I couldn’t do the one thing I tried for. Failed, failed, failed…

Tears fell from my face and landed on the golden hair beneath me. The tears disappeared upon landing, leaving no traces of the countless ones that fell. After a long while, I managed to regain some composure, but the tears still flowed.

It’s really over…

“If you’re crying so much, then why is there a smile on your face?” God asked.

I untangled one of my hands from its praying position and ran it across my mouth. I am smiling?

I also realized that God's question was rhetorical. I could feel he knew better than me why I was smiling. The tears rolling down finally began to slowly cease.

“Although I can’t bring you back to your body, I happen to have a helper in the area. So, let me ask you.”

The statement felt so abrupt, it was hard to respond. All I could manage was to slightly shift my head up.

“Do you like stars?” He asked.

“I think so,” I stammered out, completely outpaced.

“Then, let me show you my favorite star.” With that, he snapped, and everything went dark.

Above me was a galaxy, with at its center a dazzling star. The night sky was filled with countless stars, but that single star drew all my attention.

Beautiful…

I could feel my tears roll off of my eyes again, as I reached my hand out to grab it, only to see a chubby, tiny arm reaching out.

It seems I’ve been isekaied.

As I snapped out of my dazed state, my hearing kicked in. I began to hear bawling to the side of me.

My teary eyes widened as they saw on the grass beside me lay a pudgy baby, whose tears and wailing seemed especially intense.

Ah.