The Chronicles of Glisco (Original Story)

Prologue

 Xander Foote opens his eyes to see that he is in a large circular room. There are glowing lights all around the room. As he looks around at all of these lights, he thinks to himself, "This is so weird. I have had some pretty strange dreams in the past, but this one takes the cake. I mean why would I dream about being in a room with floating lights by myself?"

As Xander is thinking to himself, he hears a deep elderly voice say, "Ah, so you are the next one. Your name is Xander Foote. Height five foot nine inches. Weight 402 pounds. Died at age 98, never married, unemployed for the last forty years. Haven't left the house in the last twenty years. I have to say, you may be one of the laziest people I have had sent to me."

Xander hears all of this and does not react at first. He eventually does though and shouts in his own elderly voice, "What? Did you just say I am dead?"

"Yes, that is correct. According to this, you fell asleep while cooking yourself dinner. You were at the gas stove and your beard hit the burner. Your beard immediately caught fire. You collapsed to the floor at this point, being asleep. Your flaming beard then caught a cabinet on fire. Long story short the entire house burned down," the elderly voice states.

Xander says, "No way. I didn't even get to do all of the things on my bucket list. I cannot be dead yet. I still had a lot to do with my life."

"I think at ninety-eight, you were a little too old to go skydiving, or compete in the Olympics," the voice states.

As the fact that he is dead starts to sink in, Xander states, "So I take it that you are God and I am going to be sent to Heaven or Hell now."

"Oh not at all. My name is Kevin Gom. I was the previous incarnation of the phoenix and am in charge of those that are to be sent to the Kingdom of Fire. Not that any of that makes any sense to you right now," the voice declares.

Xander says, "Can you explain all of that to me then? I mean you said I am dead, so I am supposed to go to Heaven or Hell now, right?"

"Yes, that is how things used to work. However, the God of your world is such a kind being that instead of sending people to Hell, he sends them over to our world instead. Such people will then have the chance of being reincarnated into the world of Glisco. He also lets those that could go to Heaven choose to just go to Heaven, or be reincarnated," Kevin states.

"I don't remember being given the choice to be reincarnated, or go to Heaven," Xander comments.

"That is because you weren't given the choice," Kevin says.

Hearing this Xander thinks for a second and then says, "So I didn't make the cut to get into Heaven then?"

"Of course not. You never got married, and have been a real bum for the later half of your life. Honestly, it would just be a disgrace to let someone like you into Heaven. The only real impressive feat you have done in the last forty years is managing to survive until you were ninety-eight given how unhealthily you ate," Kevin says.

Xander protests, "I managed to earn a PhD when I was younger. I worked so hard that I earned it by the time I was twenty-four. I also won four martial arts tournaments. Do you mean to tell me that all of that counted for nothing?"

"Why would they count? You never used those skills to help anyone. Not only that, but at the end of your life you were a total bum. I mean sure, you had a pretty good beginning to your life. You really had some potential when you were young. It all went downhill pretty fast though when the only girl you ever dated broke up with you," Kevin declares.

Xander shouts, "Breakups are hard! I was in the process of bouncing back from it. Then I was going to get my life in order."

"She broke up with you seventy-three years ago. Face it, you were just using that as an excuse," Kevin says. He then continues by saying, "Putting that aside, you should be grateful because you are now going to have a chance to restart."