After Death

Chapter 1

Ringing. Loud, piercing ringing. Bright light, white walls, white floors- wait, no, there were no walls or floors, just the brightness. And the ringing, the incessant ringing. Desperately she tried to press her hands to her ears, but she could not move. Looking down, there was more nothing. Was she... nothing?

All at once the light dimmed and the ringing stopped and she felt liked she'd been dropped to the ground. She was seated in an all white room, in front of a shining white desk. She ran her hands over the surface, but... they weren't her hands. Where was the scar on her ring finger?

"Hello, I'm Amery and I am here to help you prepare for your first assignment," a woman popped into the room, startling her.

She was plain but pretty, dressed professionally in a black pant suit. Her tone was friendly but she did not smile.

"I am... My name is..."

"Oh you don't have one yet, here, you may select one from this list," Amery handed her a folder.

She scanned the names, none of them seeming right. None of them were her name. They seemed dull.

"I guess I'm Laura," she answered.

"Laura Sorenson it is. Now it is my job to recommend you follow the guidelines for creating a friendly, comforting and approachable appearance, but you do have some creative freedom. Personally, I like to start with colours and then play with the shapes," Amery said.

"Excuse me, creating an appearance?" Laura asked.

"Oh no, did the introductory video glitch out again? All of this is very disorientating for you then, hm?" Amery said, her expression softening.

"I'd say..."

"Laura, there is no easy way to say this... One week ago, you died. When you died you were brought here, to Guardian Headquarters, to set up your avatar and begin your afterlife. Whoever you were in your past life, you were a good person. Someone who showed an aptitude for traits like empathy and compassion. People like you, they don't just go to heaven. They become guardians. You are a guardian. The video was really supposed to tell you all of this, and explain your new job, give you training, debrief your mission... Anyways, could you please pick out your appearance now?" Amery handed her a tablet.

Laura could not bring herself to speak, she was dead? Cleary not, because she was standing in this room talking to this strange woman. It must be some insane dream. Still... She had no memory of anything that happened until the moment she woke up in this room. Certainly her memories would come back when she awoke for real would they not?

She tapped on the screen, bringing her options to life. She scrolled through the 'pre-designed models' and quickly realized the guidelines for approachability meant she had to look as plain as Amery. Wanting to be out of this dream, she picked the prettiest of the models and changed the eye colour to a light honey brown. She made nose a bit smaller and pulled out the cheekbones. Something echoed in her mind, some past memory that barely existed of staring into the mirror, wishing she could manipulate herself just like that.

"All set? I know there isn't many options for customization. We did a study and found neutral tones and generic features allowed us to complete our missions the best." Amery said, taking the tablet back.

"My mission?" Laura asked.

"Uh, yes, your mission. I have to apologize, I assist at least twenty new guardians a day, and I can not remember the exact details of your file. Every mission though, is to help someone in need. Usually they start new guardians out with a simple task, like a Friendship Mission. Once you complete your first mission you can switch it up, try a Guidance Mission or even a Romance Mission!"

"So let me get this straight, I just died and you want me to help someone else?" Laura balked.

She herself felt like she needed help. She needed out of this white room, she needed to find someone she knew, someone who could recognize her face and tell her who she was. There was no possible way she could help another person right now, she felt like jumping out of her own skin!

"I know it seems sudden, but the video was really quite extensive and went over your job in great detail," Amery cast a glance around the room and lowered her voice, "I know you still feel like that person that existed on earth. The introductory video... It serves a second purpose. It completes the process of wiping your soul's memories. Picture every new guardian as a blank slate, but your slate still has the faintest outlines of chalk. Please Laura, don't try to read those lines. Try to start new."

"I should know who I was! I mean, who I am," Laura exclaimed.

"Please, please don't. You need to do a good job, or at least try your honest best. I shouldn't tell you this, but... I had a friend who remembered who he was. He tried to run, and he was voided," Amery said.

"Voided? Like a cheque?" Laura asked.

Amery nodded, "When your soul is blank, you can not go to heaven. Guardians are too powerful to go unchecked if they don't follow the rules so they get... voided," Amery's voice cracked.

Amery's voice was heavy with fear, making Laura's heart skip a beat. How could she dream up this universe? Or dream up this person with such real expressions and feelings? Maybe this was real, maybe she was dead.

"Now you really need to get going, they'll be worried if you've spent too long here. You'll meet your commander on the surface near your dispatch point. Oh, and don't be alarmed by his appearance, once guardians get promoted they can... remodel," Amery grimaced.

"So how do I get to the uh, surface?" she asked.

"He'll summon-"

Amery was cut off by another round of ringing, this one louder than the last. Laura crumpled to the ground from the noise, but when she hit the floor she fell right through it. The light around her grew brighter and brighter as she flailed around, vaguely aware of her face tingling and shifting. She let out a scream, but it was no longer her own voice- it was high pitched and dare she say it, tinkly?

She hit the ground hard, her breath knocked out of her. Gasping for air she frantically checked for any injuries, but once the ringing quieted, there was no more pain. There was not a single mark on her skin, not a scar, not a freckle. For some reason, she remembered having a tan but her skin was pale white. Did she not have a tattoo on her ankle? Pierced ears? No... they were gone. And she was naked.

In a forest?

She was still dreaming, because she still couldn't remember a thing. She had no recollection of these woods, the big winding trees, the moss-covered trunks. The air was damp and salty, so she knew she must be close to the ocean. She had to give her brain credit, this was incredibly elaborate for a dream. Aside from the crazy create-your-own-Laura game and the outdoor nudity, nothing about the world she had fallen into seemed that insane.

Laura slowly got to her feet, and took a few wobbly steps forward. If this was the real world and she was awake, she would need to make it out of this forest and find some help. Maybe she'd taken some bad drugs at a party or a nasty tumble in these woods and hit her head. A sudden thought made her stomach turn, what if she had been found, and she was unconscious in a hospital bed somewhere and these where her comatose dreams?

"Okay Laura, wake up," she grumbled, rubbing her arms.

She tried pinching herself as hard as possible on the back of her arm, but she felt no pain. When she pulled back her fingers, her skin did not even flush red. A sudden thought crossed her mind and she kicked furiously against a tree stump. Her bare toes should have screamed out in pain with the force she kicked, but again she felt nothing.

Suddenly this death thing did not seem so far fetched. Amery had said she would get voided if she did a bad job or tried to remember who she was, and that possibility felt all too real now. Laura hadn't received any training or instructions, how was she ever to succeed? She was naked in a forest she did not remember.

There was a crunch of twigs behind her and she whipped around, heart racing. Nothing. Maybe it was a squirrel. The scent of the ocean got stronger, the wind must have picked up. Laura decided she was more likely to find someone along the shore than lost deeper in the woods, so she took a few steps in the direction of the salty air.

"I wouldn't go that way if I were you."