Behind Lifeless Eyes: Issue One: New Life

Conjugal Visit

Geoff casually looked around the vast, blank void. Actually that's a lie, it was not entirely blank. In the distance, a thin gold line stretched from one end of the horizon to the other with the only change being an almost indistinguishable bump in the dead centre of the line. Seeing no reason why he shouldn't, Geoff began to move towards the bump. He set off in that direction in a gentle amble, because why rush?

Surprisingly, he was covering the distance fairly quickly. Out of curiosity, he stopped moving his legs to see if it made any difference at all. It didn't, but he started moving his legs again because otherwise it would have just been weird.

As Geoff lazily zoomed closer to the line, he wondered what it was he was wal...glid...moving towards. Realising that he was being daft, he focused his eyes on the line in the distance, just as he had done with the funeral ship.

It was a basic metal fence, like the kind used to mark the boundaries of old stately homes or gated communities. Sure, it looked like gold and it was exceptionally shiny, but all in all there's nothing special about a fence. Really, when you think about it, a fence is just a half-arsed wall. Sorry, I'm digressing again, just like with that ghastly wall paper, anyway back to the story.

The little lump in the distance was much more interesting. It was a toll booth and a fairly opulent one as toll booths go. It was slightly higher than the fence it was connected to and was made out of thick, wooden beams painted to match the colour of the fence. The walls seemed to be made out of silver bricks and were noticeably less shiny than the beams and fence, but not by much.

There was a rectangular hole cutting across the front half of the booth which exposed its sole occupant and his office to the outside...nothingness. The entire walls of the office were covered in green felt, because at this point in the design stage they had just stopped caring about such little things like "limits" and "eyes". Here and there hanging on the walls were the "motivational" pictures beloved by "creative" leaders everywhere for inspiring their workers and making the daily slog less dreary. Just like how painting a smiley face on a bomb makes it less traumatising.

Speaking of bombs, the person sitting at the desk looked like they were going to go off themselves any moment now. The gate keeper looked like a young man in his early twenties with black, slicked-back hair and a greasy complexion. From what Geoff could see, he was dressed in a pure-white, tight-fitting dinner jacket and was probably wearing matching trousers; although he would not have been surprised if the trousers had rainbow polka dots on them.

The man was studiously leafing through a note pad on his desk and was muttering intently to himself as Geoff silently approached. He gave the stressed looking gate keeper a few minutes to notice him before politely notifying him of his existence.

"G'day sir. I'm..."

The young man suddenly let out a startled yelp and flung his notebook into the air. He spun his head around wildly in a confused panic at this unexpected greeting.

"Wh'...Wha'...Whe'."

"Are ye alright lad?"

Realising that there was a stranger actually here with him and that his mind had not finally snapped, the keeper calmed down and focused on his new visitor.

"Y-Yeah, thanks for...er...I mean, yes, thank you for asking sir."

"Are ye sure? Ye seem a little...stressed." 

"Don't...do not worry about me sir, it's...it is my first day on the job and I'm...I am still learning the rules."

"I'm sure ye'll get the knack o' it in no time. By the way, this is a Heaven, yes?"