1 "Death is only the beginning."
On a fine spring day, a young woman was getting dressed. It was her first day in a new high school, and she nearly broke into a sweat when her alarm rang late earlier the same morning. Rapidly, she got herself together, tied her hair back, left two loose strands to frame her average face and puffed up her bangs to cover her eyes. She was ready to go into the greater unknown with a bag on the back and a toast in her mouth.
Yet this Story isn't about her.
*
"Hi, My-Name-Is-Janey, and I'm sure you all are wondering why you are here. You see after-"
"LISTEN UP, IF YOU FINISH THIS SENTENCE I'LL RELEASE ALL OF THE WRATH I HAD IN MY LIFE ON YOU AS I DAMN RIGHT KNOW WHY I AM HERE- LET ME GO OLLIE FOR FUCK'S SAKE ", The young man making a scene was Julien, as you can tell he's not in the right mental state, especially with his friend trying to restrain him. (Ollie isn't strong enough to actually stop Julien so it was more annoying than anything on Julien's part.)
To the right of their commontion, another young student Ray meekly added on, "To be frank I don't want to be reminded either of what happened but I don't think you should let it out on Janey." Ray is a more passive member when it comes to social interactions and courage.
"Yeah, Janey did nothing wrong, Julie. Please calm down." Ollie was currently going through every terrible timeline that could occur from Julien's tantrum - Ollie wasn't too sure but there was some groundwork to accuse Janey of being a world-destroyer beneath the shell of a smart casual receptionist that looked too idyllic to be true.
Julien gave up, "Whatever, just stop clinging to me, Ollie and don't call me Julie."
Ollie did stop.
The four of them looked closer at Janey, you couldn't tell if she was a 7ft tall vampire since she was sitting down at a tall desk but some nuances made her odd. Her hair was tied into a lazy bun with a black hairband. The blazer fit her figure and was coal-black too with heels and trousers to go alongside it. Only her shirt was white so that when her clustered lanyard hung down you can see clearly the pins and badges that were fixed there. Ray took notice of a few of them. "Death is not the end", "Employee of the year", "Keep on feeling alive", a few neon skulls and ghosts and "Certified Councillor".
Emil certainly needed counselling ever since they got there and noticed that there was no entry or exit out of the reception he kept on thinking about what he'll say to his relatives when he has no life achievements at all under his belt. Despair clung on to him so badly that he didn't say anything, to the other three.
"Well then I assume that the four of you won't need the stages of grief therapy, well I'm a little sad since I didn't get that star on my ID card for anything but that means all you have to do is declare that you are all aware of your-
Death."
Janey held out a form to the party with a pen. Ray took it and looked at the other three for some sort of affirmation.
Ollie cleared his throat, and went ahead with the elephant in the room, "Miss Janey what will be of us once we sign this - if you may tell us, please."
"Well Oliver, Death is only the beginning, sign the paper and you'll leave the reception, don't worry about it nothing horrible will happen to you." Janey's glare turned stern only to add at the end - "Don't bother with reading it's just a declaration for my employer that you know what happened to you."
(It's written in some ancient language so we can't read it anyway, Julien thought)
He took the paper from Ray and signed it, "No point waiting here you know, Ollie. Come on dude let's do what we can" With hesitation they all signed the copy.
Julien was a sort of leader in their pack, they all trusted him except his luck was subtly terrible - the kind of luck that pushes back your appointment time and when you make it to the place it turns out that the doctor had to leave, but then when he wants to get the prescription he has to wait an additional half an hour. Yet surely, nothing bad will happen to them.
