A sense of imminent death…

is what makes us feel most alive.

I knew I thought that before, but this was a bit extreme even for me.

My remaining lifespan was… only 3 days.

Not only that, where the hell was I right now?

It was an unfamiliar barren room with only a single large transparent window in place of the corner walls to the outside world. On the other side of the window I recognized the city I’d lived in up until now, below there were billboards on top buildings both adjacent and across the street with images of familiar famous figures.

With this as evidence I was certain it was the same world I was familiar with.

Although, somehow I was already aware that things weren’t the same. I wasn’t sure where all the contrasting information in relation to the present state of the world I remembered in my head came from. The only thing I knew was it was a fact. I didn’t know why it was a fact, I just knew it was, even when I hadn’t seen any of it yet.

Crowds of microscopic people swarmed busily on the streets below completely ignorant of my existence.

Click. Squeeeeeeek.

My thoughts were abruptly cut short by the sound of the only door in the room opening without any warning. When I turned to it, there was nobody there.

What this meant, I had no idea. With the room completely bare I had no choice but to exit to investigate further.

When I entered the hallway and turned to the right I froze in place.

Blood.

The walls, floor, ceiling, everything... was drenched in blood.

Long trails of bloody handprints on the walls at the side. Trails of blood from bodies dragged across the ground. Dried splattered blood drops on the ceiling above.

It was basically a scene straight from hell. How was this possible though? Theoretically murder should not be apparent according to the information in my head. According to the theory, my perception of reality should be altered if someone had died and the years they lived were snatched away from them. This blood, even though it was there, it would go completely unnoticed by passersby like myself.

Unless... the blood belonged to people that weren’t dead yet.

Torture while a person was still alive was completely possible.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

As for the other possibility that I could see it because it was the blood of people I personally killed myself, that was impossible. Even the person who snatched memories by killing others would have their own memories altered after they killed someone. They wouldn’t even remember they killed someone. They would just think they’d always been the person in the memories they stole.

As for why contradictions never arose, it was because everyone took that being in more than one place at one time was possible. Why nobody ever questioned it was because it was ingrained as being fact that the world worked like that. It was like the populace had been brainwashed to think that way. Well, it was also because people knew that when someone sold their life they sold everything that came with that time period. Thus why being in more than one place at one time was considered a norm in society now.

It was confusing, but to a degree it made sense.

Still… the problem right now is this blood.

I was in a dangerous environment with 3 days left to live. I had nothing of value to my name to purchase more lifespan with. I had no job to earn more lifespan as far as I was aware. My present knowledge was of no value to anyone either.

I had to find someone and con them. That was my only choice.

There were several doors that lined the hall. Some of them had opened up like mine. Did that mean there were others in a similar position as myself?

Just what is going on? Before I woke up today, what did I do to find myself in this situation?

What was the last thing I did?

I went to sleep at home. The date was… one month ago? I’d seen the date scroll across the billboards outside earlier. With respect to my memories I couldn’t remember anything between that last memory I had and today's date.

Thinking about it wouldn’t get me anywhere right now. I had to find someone with some lifespan.

I approached one of the closed doors and tried to open it. It was locked and wouldn’t budge at all. I proceeded to one of the open doors and peeked inside. It was empty. Similar to mine it was completely barren.

I proceeded to the other rooms with wide open doors and checked inside. Like the first room I’d woken up inside, they were all empty.

When I reached the end of the hallway I found an elevator. I pushed the button and waited.

Ding.

After a minute a high pitched sound signalled the elevator’s arrival. It opened up, not a soul in sight. I entered and was immediately confused by the numbering. There were rows 1 through 20, but instead of 2 columns there were 6. From bottom to top it was numbered 1-20 along the side, while from left to right at the top it was lettered A-F

Did this elevator move from left to right as well?

Presently 20-F was depicted on the display panel above the buttons. I assumed that was my present location.

The building was definitely of an unorthodox design in nothing else. The interior designer's sense of aesthetics was rather distasteful though.

My first instinct was to leave the building so I pressed the button to go to the first floor, but nothing happened. I frowned and pressed a few other buttons, but similarly none of them lit up or did anything.

I tested them one by one from the bottom up until I reached the button for 20-E. It was actually the only one that lit up.

The door closed and I immediately felt it move. There was no sense of lightness though. It really had moved sideways.

Ding.

The door opened up and I was greeted by a pristine hallway. Several doors opened up in sync with the opening of the elevator doors.

Hesitant I waited with my hand on the button to return to 20-F should anything unexpected happen.

After a short minute, half of someone’s head peeked out from around one of the open doors.