...The last thing i remembered was the unsettling face of the bald man with with a gruesomely scarred head gazing down at me with a twisted smile. Before i could register what happened, there was the loud sound through the rain and my world ceased into darkness.
I realised i was probably dead was when i relieved a familiar memory of my life, although that turned out to be a different sort of nightmare.
Perhaps that was the truth behind the famous 'life flashing before your eyes' when you die; you weren't really living you entire life again in that single moment of clarity, just the last bit of when you die. Sadly, i was able to find out the cruel way.
Once the nightmare was over and i blacked out, everything melted to darkness and void, my senses ceasing. The last couple of disoriented thoughts i had from my death crumbled like a broken sound castle, when an ethereal voice cracked through the void darkness.
"Welcome ~" a voice like silk in spring doused in honey trickled into my ears suddenly. Which was strange. In the darkness of my dispersing consciousness, the voice felt unearthly and entsranged.
But it struck me the same way a soft call would wake someone from a deep sleep. And that was exactly what happened.
Without realising how, i opened my eyes— and endless stream of white light and bright radiance filling my vision. The emptiness of before immediately felt like a vague dream i had already begun to forget. The memory of my nightmare disappearing.
"What..."
I blinked as an indescribable warm current permeated through me, and all of a sudden i could feel my limbs and body again. My awareness gradually returned and i looked around.
The unexpected - inexplicable - sight around me left me baffled on different levels. It was like yet another dream; this time, one ripped out of a colourful fantasy story.
"Hmhmm. You look surprised." The serene voice of a woman said and my eyes snapped forward with a jolt, nerves tensing under my muscles.
All of a sudden i was sitting around a round tea table under a pristine white clothe. The table was ladened with unidentified beverages like teas in tea cups; small, curvy and elegant kettles, and an entire assortment of pastries — ranging from all sorts of biscuits to cookies, cakes and even muffins.
It was like some kind of picnic.
And sitting in front of me across the packed table was a gorgeous woman with unearthly beauty who i hadn't noticed before. The voice from earlier belonged to her and my eyes lingered long enough to garner her smile.
She had long, pristine white hair that flowed down her back and shoulders in bold waves, each singular strands like threads weaved of glittering starlight in the northern midnight skies. Her skin was as soft and glowing as daylight — it was was white, not pale alabaster, but jade — suffusing with an otherworldly hue of vitality and beauty.
She had golden eyes like a spell weave, spiralling with stars like the cosmos and exuded a boundless grace that was impossible to measure. An elegant, slender, silver gown with gold accents hung down from her shoulders, streaming down the length of her curves like a fall.
The unidentified woman — a woman more beautiful than anyone I'd ever seen— just sat there pleasantly with a smile, elegantly raising a cup to her lips for a sip. Her fingers were slender and white, their tips a rosy touch of red.
Befuddled, completely confused and in shock, i could only sit quietly with my lips parted, words failing me until i barely managed to speak.
"Am i....am i dead?" I figured i was. I had to be.
I was dead and now there was an angel drinking tea with me.
And where am i? I mused inwardly, taking in my surroundings beyond the extravagant table.
In the quick instance i used to manage my wits, i glanced around the place. No description was better fitting than a gold plated hall. It truly was immense and empty, exuding a solitary sense of solemnity, quiet infinity, and peace. Almost transparent silk curtains hung from the walls to the side, flowing fleetingly like ethereal whispers.
I believe i could hear what i thought were the strummed strings of a harp playing somewhere in the background. But no matter how much i looked or tried to focus, i couldn't identify where the sound was coming from.
As a result, i briefly considered perhaps i was imagining the sound as much as i was dreaming about all of this.
A dream; there was no better explanation than this.
The pleasant voice of the woman cut through my thoughts, pulling me out of my fleeting reveries with a beat.
"Huhu. What do you think? " She said, sounding amused.
Then she reached out for a small plate of one of the numerous pastries elegantly arranged across the table and gestured it at me with an inviting smile.
"Cake?"
"What?" I gaped, tongue threatening to roll out of my mouth, and blinked. "Uh. No, thank you?" I shook my head dismissively while kindly waving her off.
'Get a hold of yourself.' I scolded inwardly as my mind raced, trying desperately to make sense of what was happening.
The unidentified woman with a beauty that could shame a thousand night skies sewn together in a tapestry of stars, fortunately, didn't seem offended by my behaviour. In fact she seemed deeply interested and even giggled. Her voice was like honey and morning due, something fantastical and too good to be true.
"You're confused. It's okay to be, Aiden. But there's no need to be wary."
I stiffened the moment she uttered my name, my eyes darting straight at her full of wary and intimidation.
"How do you know my name? Where am I and who are you?" The three main questions burdening me, i let them out successively.
My last memories were now a little vague, strangely. I figured there was something significant that happened before i ended up here, but trying to remember it now was like trying to recall what dream i had two days ago.
As if she could read the confusion in my heart — the questions of my soul— the mysterious lady calmly intercepted, raising yet another cup of tea close to her lips.
"You're name is Aiden, and you were rushing down an alleyway at midnight when you got shot by a hired gun—"
"What—" I spat, but she wasn't finished.
"Except, the marksman mistook you for their real target, so that untimely encounter ended up becoming a tragic conclusion to your life. You got shot in the lungs, right next to your heart, and drowned in your own blood. That's when i found you and 'picked' you up." She smiled elegantly.
As the mysterious woman explained like she was telling a casual story — a morbid and and painfully sad one — everything started coming back to me;
MacLaren's bar, my friends, the storm and the dark alleyway, the suspicious man in a black trench coat... The gun shot.
Everything.
Slowly the fog in my head i couldn't explain was lifted.
And with it came a surge of panic as i jolted to my feet, pushing aside my chair and shaking the table.
"No way..." I uttered.
That couldn't be, i thought to myself.
Amidst all of my exhibited chaos, the mysterious woman smiled. It was a tilt of her lips slightly more different than the other ones I've seen her make at me until now.
This time around, there was a sort of sense of dark, cunning knowing, something slow, cold and... insidious. It was for a brief moment, but i was sure i felt something off.
"Unfortunately...it is." Said the woman, gazing at me serenely as she sat without a single drop of tea or curmbs sullying her clothes, or tarnishing her elegance.
Then the carefree calm on her expression vanished and she looked down at her beverage strangely. Her thin, elegant brows scrunched up for a troubled second before relaxing.
Then she said, her relaxed tone now stressed with urgency;
"Sadly, we don't have much time to waste right now. I know you have questions, but i promise you all will be answered and make sense in due time. For now I'll cut straight o the point, and for that i need you to be sitted comfortably. " With a flick of her wrist, the chair I'd flung backwards mysteriously returned back to its position and an intangible influence pushed me to sit.
My mind lagged for a second or two. By then, the golden irises of the woman were already intently boring into me from across the table. All former traces of amusement and nonchalance was replaced by an oppressive intensity that set the weight of her next words even before she spoke of them.
"Aiden Walters," she said, "I am Moriah — the Goddess of Fate, Crossroads and Luck. And welcome to the gates of the Afterlife." She declared grandly.
Then smiled with diversion.
"I have come to bargain. To give you and offer you can't resist."
My mind was buffering.
"Huh? I'm sorry, what...?" I blinked, bewildered.
Was i supposed to believe all this? It sounded absurd at a single glance anytime, but the events leading up until now were things i couldn't explain or hardly believe as well. This was a dream, right?
I could still vividly remember the pain and horror from getting shot.
Was she really...?
"Oh, my God." I moaned in disbelief. The moment was finally catching up to me and the realisation felt like my throat had dropped down to my gut.
"Yep. And that's 'Goddess of Fate and Luck' to you, Aidan" the woman who called herself Moriah chuckled and grinned to herself like she'd delivered the punchline of a cosmic joke no one else got.
What was up with her? One moment she was calm, reserved and saintly. Then she was all oppressive and scary, and now she's...
"Oh, no. No, no. This has to be a coma dream... Right? There's no way I'm dead... Shot accidentally for that matter."
Lowering a tea cup back against the table, Moriah chuckled like the sound of rain drops against leaves in a field.
"It's amusing how close you are to the truth. More importantly, I'm impressed with how much better your holding up. You're taking all this pretty well, aren't you, huh? As expected." She drawled on.
How could she call this 'holding up'? Sure, just because i wasn't flipping the table over and pulling at my hair right now didn't mean i wasn't in shock or pain from the whole revelation.
But even during all of the chaos in my heart, i subtly caught on to something Moriah said.
"Wait. U-uhm, your... godliness?—"
"Ehn," she shrugged her elegant shoulders and waved her wrist dismissively, "For you, just Moriah is fine."
I swallowed, and continued. "You said closer to the truth — what's that supposed to mean? "
"Right. I was getting to it. I'll explain." The goddess nodded.
Moriah leaned backwards against her chair. She raised a small frilly napkin and tapped it against her slender lips gently before speaking.
"You were shot dangerously close to the heart, and while that wasn't an instant death in your case, you drowned from the inside in your own blood — which is no different than a much slower and torturous form of death..."
"I'd really love for you to get to the point quickly, your godliness." I quietly chipped in.
"I'm saying," her divine shoulders rolled in a shrug at my bit, "Just before you could die, and your soul could fully depart, i was able to drag your spirit in here; my own personal space to speak with you." She said and i felt my heart race with renewed hope.
"Wait— does that...!"
Moriah raised a single quiet finger, pausing me then nodded aloofly. She continued.
"Yes. As long as your here right now, you aren't fully 'dead'."
"Ha, ha. Yes!" Finally hit with a piece of good news, i pumped my fist and shouted with relief.
Moriah shook her head, her next words dousing my reality in ice cold water.
"No, no. Not, yes. Technically, you are dead; you're spirit and soul has departed from your body. What you aren't, in simple terms, is not ready to 'move on'. As in, passing on."
Huh?
"Let's just say, Death is a kind of cycle, and right now, you're stuck in limbo halfway through." She explained, the latter end sounding more vague than silhouettes in autumn fogs.
Unsurprisingly, all of my excitement deflated like a balloon at her words. I slumped back in my seat, mind racing and struggling to understand Moriah's words. A part of me was quickly growing frustrated at how dying had become so complicated!
The self-proclaimed Goddess of Fate and Luck sighed audibly, cutting me halfway from doing so.
"We really don't have much time left, and i already promised you everything will make sense gradually. So you have to make your decision quickly on what I'm about to give you." The mood around Moriah changed for the umpteenth time yet again. Her resplendent eyes dimmed.
It felt like I'd only been here for a short while, but my mind, thoughts and perception were slowly beginning to adjust to the bizzare situation i found myself in. I was gradually adapting, allowing me to think more clearly.
I met Moriah's golden eyes reminiscencent of stars woven in space. Feeling a strange sense of something difficult to penetrate or understand — likely because she was a god. I looked away.
"Does this have something to do with the 'offer' you talked about?"
Moriah nodded in acknowledgement.
"Good. You're quick to catch on. I'm also sure you can imagine what I'm about to say next."
At the strar-weaved haired goddess's accusations, I remained unresponsive and waited. She looked back at me with a measured seriousness in her gaze, like she was about to offer me two choices that were pivotal moments in my life.
"Given your untimely demise on earth and regrets, i wish to offer you a new go at life. A second chance so to say." She said simply, the silence that followed after her words, deafening.
I could feel the pace of my heartbeat racing quickly, which was strange since technically i was supposed to be a spirit right now. In fact, i didn't even understand how the hell i still retained my basic human sense of smell, touch, hearing, and probably even taste.
In my defence, i didn't understand half of what Moriah had said until now.
Pushing the distracting thoughts out of my mind, i absentmindedly reached out to the small cup placed in front of me. The tip of my finger idly caressed the thin, slender and curved handle.
I didn't let my racing heart and rushing emotions lead me blindly. With my mind slowly adjusting to the current situation, i remained grounded and reflected.
I looked back up at Moriah staring and waiting back. I couldn't believe what i was about to say next, i could feel my face heating up with red embarrassment at the thought.
For crying out loud, I'm a grown ass man!
"R-reincarnation or R-regression... Ahem! What are we talking about?" I coughed awkwardly, desperately trying to avoid the gaze of Moriah.
Peeking slightly from under my closed eye lids, i caught the Goddess of Fate and Luck grinning with sly, teasing amusement at me. Shame and embarrassment rose from my depths like a geyser and i wished i could bury my head a in a hole.
'Fuck!'
Before i could take back my stupid utterance, Moriah's words came next, sparing me the torture of listening to my own awkward silence. Her voice like morning dew sounded mystical.
"How about... Transmigration?"