Chapter 1. Ignorance Was Bliss

“You died.”

I stared at the man who uttered those words, hoping to find something about his expression that could prove he was lying, but there was naught. Without a speck of hair on his face and unamusing cold dark eyes, he said the words as if they were part of a standard routine, giving me the impression that he told the truth, as ridiculous as it was.

“Then what—”

“—is this place?” He cut me off with his monotone voice. “We are in the Afterlife. Well, you are. I am just at work.”

I made a frown, skeptical. The Afterlife? Don’t be ridiculous that couldn’t be —

“It is real.” He interrupted again. “And no, I’m not reading your mind. You should know that there have been countless souls who came here before of you. Everything you might say, I’ve already heard it.”

My mouth gaped in awkward positions. If it was true that this was the Afterlife, then the room I was in didn’t match the context at all. To me, it looked like any other generic office, those that are neatly clean and organized to the point of obsession.

It hadn’t been long since I appeared in that room with a killing headache. And not knowing where I was, only added to my confusion. Everything so far seemed and sounded absurd from top to bottom. I wasn’t dead. It was all a scheme, an elaborate ruse.

“You still don’t believe me.”

“Of course not,” I snorted. “I don’t remember anything of how I got here.”

“Well, naturally your last memories were suppressed. For some souls, it can be extremely traumatic recalling their deaths.” He said. “But I can enlighten you if you wish.”

“Alright, bring it on,” I said a little braggy, yet I steeled myself for some crazy shit.

The man pulled out a big stack of papers wrapped in a folder with my name at the top and immediately went to the last page. “It says here that you were killed at gunpoint by some guy by the name of Fabrizio.” He looked up to me. “Does that ring any bells?”

No, not really. I mean, I wouldn’t put it past Fabby. Business was business, and shooting people was one of his favorite pastimes, but he never raised a gun against me. If what the man said was right, I would feel a little betrayed, or at the very least interested enough to know more about what happened.

I pointed at the stack of papers on top of the desk, “Is that—” I gulped down, uncertain of how to proceed. It was ridiculous, absurd, but here I was trying to give it sense. “—about my life?”

“Ex-life. And yes, it’s all condensed here.” Corrected the man, streaming through the pages, uninterested. “Morgan Felicia Taylor, female. Orphaned at the age of five when a mugging went wrong. You bounced within the foster-care system for being too problematic, until an abusive couple adopted you at the age of ten. You fled home at sixteen, and put yourself through college and later, medical school. Driven by a sense of vengeance, you offered your services as a doctor in the criminal underworld only to get close to the killers of your biological parents. You achieved your ultimate goal half a decade later, after rising through the ranks of the Carmona Syndicate, gruesomely killing your boss while he slept. Alas, his minions discovered you almost immediately, and after being made as an example of retribution, you were put down with a bullet to the head by no other than your fiance, Fabrizio Carmona.”

“…” I was left speechless. Everything the man said was accurate, but in the end, I still had a vacuum in my memories and no way of confirming if the last pieces were correct.

I shook my head. No, that’s not it. This level of surveillance was too good, even for the mob or police. To this point, I had remained faithful to the theory that this was a ruse, and someone gathered information about me and tried to trick me into revealing my real agenda, but now I knew that wasn’t possible. Almost everything that the man said wasn’t a close kept secret, except one thing. I never revealed to anyone that my second name was Felicia, and it wasn’t on any record either. It was something exclusively between my parents and me before they were killed.

“So, do you want me to describe the gruesome details of your death?” Asked the man, rising his creepy ass eyebrow with no hair.

“No, no.” I rushed to say. “I can get the idea.” I was a doctor working for them. I had learned firsthand how cruel their— our world could be.

“So, you believe me now?”

“Yes,” I said with my voice cracking. Was it’s silly accepting this was happening? Did I imagine all of this? “So, if this is Afterlife, does that means you are God?”

“For you, perhaps. Think of it as in the same level that you are a God to an ant.” He stated.

After that, I immediately started sweating cold. I wasn’t precisely a saint during my time on Earth. I was selfish and driven by my misplaced sense of vengeance, no matter the cost. If this was indeed the Afterlife, and this creepy bald guy was God, then it only meant that I was about to receive my final judgment.

Pleading for mercy would have been utterly pathetic, doesn’t it? And someone of the ranks of God probably has heard it everything.

I sighed defeated.

Hell, here I come. Mine had been a short life that felt too long. Sometimes it was good a one, but most of the time it sucked. “Alright, I am ready. Let’s get this over with.”

God nodded. He stashed the pile of documents away, crossed his arms and stared at me with an expression even more severe than before. It was ominous to the point I almost missed his next words, as I sunk into my predicament.

“Morgan Felicia Taylor, I have a use for you.”

My mind was both a blank slate and a mess at the same time. Struggling to understand God’s words even when I heard them correctly. Wasn’t I going to be punished by the Heavens? Or was the use he had for me the punishment? I had more questions now than before, and they continue to increase with every passing minute.

At this moment, I realized I had it all wrong. God was real, and so was the Afterlife, but why I was assuming the rest? Was he a God as the religions on Earth depicted him?

With my mind working overtime, I recalled him saying that he was ‘at work’ when we met, but what did that even meant?

“Morgan?” God pulled me out of my thoughts. “Did you hear me?”

“Yeah,” I said collecting myself the best I could. I sent another look at the man, God, or whatever, trying to see him from a different angle. Wasn’t he too weird to be a God? Where was the old grandpa with the beard?

“What are you really?” My mouth ended up betraying me.

He sighed, “We don’t have the time to satisfy your curiosity, Morgan.” Without changing his tired expression, he checked the three watches on his left wrist, all pointing at different times. “But I will allow it. You can ask m­e four more questions. After that, we will move on.” He said in a matter-of-fact.

I was about to say ‘just four?’ But then I would be left with only three, so I didn’t. I merely nodded, letting him carry on.

“To fully answer your first question, I would have to explain too many of the universe’s rules that you wouldn’t understand, but I will try my best.” He said. “My kin doesn’t have a name for ourselves, nor do I have one for me. All we have is an objective and the desire to reach it. We classify ourselves within Roles. I manage things; therefore, I am a Manager. Worlds and Universes fall within my duty, yours included, this is why you can see me as a God if you still prefer.”

That was less helpful than what I hoped. Was this man a God then? Did it even matter?

I just nodded at him, reserving the new questions that had arisen for myself. With any luck, the next answers would be more clarifying.

Sitting aside the plethora of other unknowns, the room I was in was also intriguing. I already said it looked like an office, but now I was starting to get an eerie aura from it. In close examination, I began noticing several things that I had just ignored before.

Simply put, the room was too perfect. The carpet on the floor was neatly vacuumed without a speck of dust, the desk was carved from wood with perfectly shaped rings, and the light came from everywhere even though there were no windows, nor lamps.

It was like a dream.

“Interesting,” God said, noticing I had made a discovery. “It took you slightly less than the average mortal. Perhaps there is even more potential in you than what I expected.”

Is this happening?

I didn’t want to spend my questions so freely, but the uncertainty was eating me away. “Where are we? But please don’t say the Afterlife.”

He chuckled. “But that’s the truth. This place shifts according to your subconscious. Whatever it is that you are seeing, hearing and sensing right now, it’s you trying to establish a familiar environment based on your memories. Now that you are aware of that, you can even manipulate this place to some extent.”

I decided to give it a try since it was too appealing not to. Pulling my hand up, I started focusing on the first thing that came to mind. To my surprise, an apple appeared in my palm from thin air.

“Any more questions?” He said. “You still have three left.”

I didn’t know headaches were possible even in the Afterlife, but hell, what did I know? I surrendered myself to trying to understand the situation. Like seriously, this was one of the most ancient enigmas for humankind, if not the eldest, and I was supposed to figure it out with just three more questions?

Screw it. Better to no think about it.

“What do you want me to do?” I asked with more confidence than I thought I had. My voice came out from someone who has accepted her inevitable fate.

He nodded. “I need you to fill a Role.” He said, before continuing. “The influence my kin have within the universe’s bounds is limited. We can freely observe and learn, but our interaction is minimum. To solve this issue, we pick individuals from time to time and send them to worlds as overseers. Your mission would be there and preserve the life in that world in any way that you chose to do it so that we can continue watching and learning.”

I didn’t think that we had the same definition of simple. Overseeing the life of an entire world was way above what I could handle, not to mention it was outside my area of expertise. Also, there was this thing called hero syndrome that I very much lacked, and I got the feeling it was somewhat necessary for the task. Sure, I would help someone if there was something to gain, just don’t expect I would jump in front of a bus to save a complete stranger.

“What happens if I refuse?” I asked.

“I will take away your memories and reincarnate you without them.”

“Then I don’t have a choice.”

“That depends on how you see it.” He said. “Some individuals live through millions of years before they get to meet me. They see the Oblivion as the start of an adventure even when they will not experience it. Others with considerably shorter lives will even kneel down to beg because, for them, Oblivion is mercy.” He paused for a moment. “The real choice here, Morgan, is if you want to forget.”

“No, I do not.” I had so much I wanted to experience, but couldn’t precisely name what it was. I had spent all my life on Earth fueling my desire for vengeance. Now, even if I couldn’t remember achieving my fancied goal, it seemed meaningless in retrospect. I no longer cared for it, but what did I aim for then?

Friends?

Wealth?

Family?

Power?

Knowledge?

God said I would have freedom in my actions. Perhaps that was enough for now, so I could figure out my new purpose along the way.

“I accept your offer,” I said quietly.

“Just like that?” he said a little disappointed. “Not even going to ask ‘why me?’ or ‘where is the catch?’”

“You haven’t lied to me since I got here. And even if you had, there is no way I can tell.” I shrugged. “From that, I can only hope for the best: that you are telling me the truth and this is as good as it seems.”

“Well,” he dragged for a moment. “There are a few things I should tell you. For example, that you will not be a human in this new world.”

“There aren’t humans where I’m going?” As soon as that left my mouth, I wanted to slap myself. I wouldn’t have care that much about misusing my last question if it hadn’t been so stupid. Why would there even be humans in another world?

“Actually, there are,” God said, making me feel just a tiny less dumb. “But you cannot reincarnate as one of them. Numerous sapient species are living in Iskar, but that doesn’t mean they will be the best for your task.” He explained. “You need to be able to stand at the top of everything, and for that, I can give you some advantages, but everything has a limit. Especially the human physique.”

“Then what would I be?”

“We settled to five questions, Morgan.”

“What’s the harm in more?” I was incredibly surprised how calm I was around someone like him. “I already agree to do it.”

For the first time, he laughed loudly. “Well, I supposed we have time to spare.” He said after checking the watches for the second time. “Balance, Morgan. That’s what you will become. But let’s leave the specifics as a surprise and ask me something else instead.”

“Fine.” I thought about it for a minute. “Will you give me something to start out? I don’t know, like a superpower?”

“Yes, something like that. The world of Iskar is relatively calm for my standards, so I am going to give you some abilities to start and make you work for the rest.”

I had embraced the uncertainty at this point, so I just went with the flow. “Alright, I’m ready.”

“Then I shall reincarnate you now,” God said.