My head hurt like hell when I finally came to. It felt like someone had taken a sledgehammer to my skull—twice, just to be sure I didn't forget the first hit.
When I opened my eyes, I realized I wasn't in the nurse's office anymore. Actually, I wasn't anywhere recognizable.
The last thing I remembered was taking a sip of the milk Mr. Kay had given me earlier. Me I mean at first it did soothe my head and then… blank. Now, I was standing in what I could only describe as a white void.How do I describe it?Imagine an artist staring at a blank canvas before even splashing a drop paint or anything on the canvas—that's where I was. Just… infinite nothingness.Like an empty space of some kind of building game maybe.
Seriously, at this point, my luck was getting just sad. First, I got caught in the rain, then my backpack ripped open and my laptop broke. Then my teacher turned out to be a goat-dude trying to recruit some random kid sus I know,then I tried to help some kid in the bathroom, got a nasty headache, ended up in the nurse's office, and now—this.
Yeah, this was absolutely the cherry on top of my cursed day sundae.
I sighed and muttered, "As long as I'm not dead, I can handle this."
Then, just to be sure, I pinched my cheek.
...Nothing. No pain, no feeling. Just a weird, fuzzy sensation.
"Oh, come on…" I whispered, and then it hit me.
"AM I REALLY DEAD?!" I shouted into the void. My voice echoed back at me, tauntingly.
If this was the afterlife, then wow—pretty underwhelming. No golden gates, no fire and brimstone, just me in a cosmic void of boring.
"Did I really just die from a headache?" I groaned, pacing around. "That's how I go out? Not old age, not something heroic—just bad milk?"
I must've looked insane, ranting to myself in the middle of nothingness.
Then a voice answered.
"I can assure you, you are not dead."
I froze. The voice was calm but familiar, echoing from nowhere and everywhere at once.
"Huh?" I spun around but saw nothing. "Okay, cool, either I'm hallucinating or some invisible dude's talking to me.Listen If you're some kind of god here to take me away.Just know I'm good so if you would send me back to earth that'd be a big help thanks."
"Is that really how you'd speak to a god?" the voice teased. "Someone who could destroy you with a thought?"
I shrugged into the void. "I mean, I'm already in the afterlife, right? What more can you do? Send me to super hell?"
The voice chuckled. "Haha! You're funny. Too bad for you, I'm not a god.Or maybe in this case you're lucky with those words since some gods don't like jokes."
"Then who are you?"
"Guess now's the time to reveal myself."
A rush of wind hit me out of nowhere—hard enough to make me stagger. When it died down, a long, silver-and-gold table appeared before me, along with two ornate chairs.
The one closest to me looked like a throne—golden edges, owl engravings, and little white wheels at the bottom. It screamed "Welcome Lord Leo."
"Don't mind if I do," I said, walking up and plopping down in the chair.
Instant comfort. Honestly, if heaven had furniture like this, I wouldn't complain. For a moment, I completely forgot about the mysterious voice and just enjoyed the seat.
Then I noticed the other chair—sleek platinum, twin armrests, same owl motif. Whoever this guy was, he definitely had the "I'm richer than you" vibe down.
"Alright, chair envy aside," I muttered, "you gonna show yourself now or what?"
Mist swirled across the other side of the table, hiding the figure within.
"So You are?"I asked
"Oh sorry.Hmm...how do I introduce myself to you?"
"A normal greeting will do.Normally people start off my saying things like hi my name is.So on so forth I'll start it off.Hi my name is Leo Everlock so far the unluckiest person in this world of yours.Cursed with bad luck like stubbing my toe,falling down some stairs,accidentally getting my expensive equipment destroyed.And now recently finding out that his teacher is half goat.So in this case pretty normal although the monster thing is new and now so is this."
"Uh I see.Well you can refer to me as grey for now."
"For now?" I raised a brow. "So that's not your real name?"
"No. Sadly, I cannot share my true name with you at this moment in time.I do apologize though."
"Great. Wish you'd gone first—I would've picked a cooler alias. Something mysterious, like 'Supreme overlord king of darkness and light or whatever."
Grey laughed softly, and with a wave of his hand—poof—two cans of soda appeared on a floating tray between us.
"Would you like a drink?" he offered.
"Woah?"I said in surprise even though I shouldn't be since Mr.Kay did something very similar.
I glanced down. Orange soda.Again I know I probably shouldn't but for some reason even though I couldn't see this guy's face I felt as though I could trust him.And besides on my side it was my favorite soda.Orange soda why the heck would I ever turn down a good old orange soda.In normal cases I would normally turn it down since I don't really take food from people that I don't know.But this person for some reason feels oddly familiar for some reason.It looked like that guy got a grape soda.I mean grape is alright but I still stand by what I say that orange soda is the best soda.
"Sure," I said, cracking it open. Pssh! Fizz exploded out, and I took a big gulp before it overflowed. The strong citrus scent stung my nose as usual, but it was refreshing as hell.
Grey took his own can, "I bet you're wondering where you are."
"Yeah," I said before I could even think about it. "Pretty obvious question, huh?"
He smiled faintly—or at least, I felt like he did behind that mist. "You're not dead, Leo. But you're not awake either. This place exists between the conscious and unconscious. A dreamspace."
"So… I'm dreaming?"
"In a sense. But this isn't just any dream. Think of it as a message that can only reach you when your mind is still."
He traced a finger across the table, and with a faint poof, a half-gold, half-silver tablet appeared.
"Here," he said, sliding it toward me. "Press play. You'll understand soon enough."
I stared at it suspiciously. "Okay… but if this thing jumpscares me, I'm gonna come over there and knock your lights out."
I hit play.
The screen flickered. The video was dark, grainy, but I recognized myself—standing in some unknown place, looking terrified. Two shadowy figures stood beside me, their faces hidden by the same mist surrounding Grey.
Then, at sixteen seconds in, he appeared.
A clown.
White face, crooked yellow smile, eyes that didn't belong to a sane person. In his hand, a pie with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Somehow, that made it even worse.
Even watching from here, I felt my stomach drop.
I looked up to ask Grey what the hell this was—
—but he was gone.
The chair sat empty.
The tablet vanished too, dissolving into glittering dust.
"Okay… what the actual hell is going on?" I whispered.
My heart was racing. The air around me began to darken. The white void swallowed itself into blackness.
And then—everything disappeared.