Reincarnated as a shadow spectre (dropped)

"Does the accused have any last words?"

I wonder what other people might think when they hear those words spoken at you? I imagine most would be scared shitless, even if they didn't admit to it in that very moment. That's normal, it's completely logical, as we humans are simple beings on the inside.

It's basic human nature to be afraid of dying.

"I refuse to apologize for the actions I've committed, nor will I excuse them by saying something along the lines of 'I'm a product of my environment'. I did what I did to survive and when I finally was able to see what was around me and what I had become it was completely normal, so I kept going."

As I was looking blankly into the tinted glass in front of me I wondered what kind of people were on the other side, most likely some press people filming my final moment like the fucking parasites they are. There are also most likely some of the relatives of the people I killed too, although I can't remember exactly how many it was I caved up for the name of profit. After the priest finished my final rites all there was left was the lethal injection which ran off a timer clearly visible to me, then I finally realized how fucking sadistic the designers of the contraption were and by extension the entire human race. By creating the illusion of right and wrong with laws and regulations punishing 'evil' in the worst possible ways became normal, but only when I served the broader narrative. Take all the retailers and traffickers I worked with for example, most of them will end up on a slab like me and spend their last seconds starting at this stupid fucking timer before they die, but not all of them.

Justice is funny like that.

No, the people how really got nice and fat off my group's dirty work barred themselves behind fancy lawyers in flawless suits, fall guys, plausible deniability and media engineering even after I named each and every one of them in open court. It seems like justice only applies to some people, only the outcasts like me. That way this sick fucking society can keep on turning, fucking hell, I bet that there are some of those 'normal and law abiding citizens' getting hard on's watching my execution streamed live to them in ultra high definition at their dinner table all together with their family. Surely if there a good or a bad place people go after they die I'm sure the good one is mostly empty, human nature is like that.

Now, how fucked up is that?

As the heinous criminal breathed his last breath there was a moment of silence among the spectators. On the surface, it seemed like relief and satisfaction that 'justice' had finally been served for all their relatives, friends and family, but in reality, it was something else entirely. The subtle and addicting feeling of having taken a life registered on a deeper level, even if it was merely by association. Spending a brief moment together in total silence seemed to alert the good people of their shared sadistic nature, but the more developed parts of their brain soon used the idea of 'right and wrong' to justify their feelings, and just like that they were buried deep in their subconscious mind and the moment passed.

And so, the world which had stopped for a short moment went on like normal. The media spent the next days reporting on how the most brutal crime syndicate of the 34th century had been defeated, they showed the face of their leader who had been captured and sentenced to death while explaining all the evil things he had done in an almost scary level of detail.

When the media talked so much about him, so did all the common people. They talked about how they were stunned by realizing that there had been such a horrible syndicate in the world, about how disgusted they were by their monstrous leader and how they believed he would spend his afterlife burning and suffering for eternity.

They were not entirely wrong, but also not entirely correct.

---

(Is this a dream? No, wait, dead people can't dream… Then what is going on here?)

As his last memory was drifting into nihility after being executed, Alex was quite confused when faced with his current situation. Seemingly located inside some stone cave the first thing he paid attention to was how his hands (and by extension the rest of his body) had changed into something unrecognizable. His rugged and scar riddled hands had been transformed into strange bright white claw like protrusions which was held together by some kind of alien looking black goo which seemed to be responsible for the flexible parts of his body. Looking down his body, Alex found the rest of it to be in a similar state as it was nothing more than a loosely connected black gel cobweb reinforced with bone segments of something which definitely didn't belong to anything alive, or a human for that matter.

(So I'm not dead and not quite alive… I wonder if this is what happens to everyone once they die?)

Taking some time and adjusting to his new body, Alex started exploring the cave he had found himself inside of suddenly.

(This looks like it's the exi…)

Looking out of the cave, Alex's thoughts came to an abrupt hold while he struggled to understand what he was looking at. Growing up on the street he had seen them on the gigantic video advertisements which covered the skyscrapers which stretched all the way out into space, he had seen them on expensive designer streetwear from brands which harkened back to the 20th century, but he had never seen a real one with his own eyes.

"Is that…. A tree?"

It was something so foreign from the concrete world he had grown so used that Alex unconsciously spoke out in awe. Outside the cave stood a single great oak in the middle of a grass field with lush green leaves and a solid trunk that looked like it had been steadily fortified over decades of unimpeded natural growth. Confronted with something so utterly strange and unnatural from his normal world, Alex found himself unable to stop walking towards the tree as if beckoned closer by some sort of siren.

But it seemed like he was not meant to touch such a sacred thing.

The very second the tip of his outstretched hand touched the radiant sunlight present outside is started burning while dissolving, causing Alex unimaginable pain. Luckily Alex was quite familiar with pain and such didn't outright pass out due to the pain as he breathed in sharply, but even as he could withstand the pain, some damage had still been done. Backing away from the burning sunlight Alex collapsed on the stone floor of the cave while subconsciously clenching his burnt hand in an attempt to dull the pain and restrict his non existent blood from flowing out. Writhing around in pain in the cave floor for an unknown amount of time Alex was taught a hash lessen about his new body.

It would be destroyed by sunlight.

"... Well, that was fucking unpleasant."

Taking quite some distance from the outside world which was currently bathed in deadly sunlight, Alex still looked and marveled at the lush green world which was just outside his reach, so close yet so far away.

"This might actually be hell…"

Deciding to wait for nightfall (if such a thing existed in the unknown world he found himself in) Alex observed his burnt hand to find that the shadowy goo part and white bone which had been bathed in sunlight had destroyed, but was somehow slowly regenerating.

(What kind of cursed figure have I become?)

With nothing other than time on his hands, Alex decided to find the answer to that question by carefully evaluating his body and its characteristics.

(I'm not warmer or colder than the stone inside this cave so I must have a body which doesn't generate heat and I have no sense of taste or hunger.)

Noticing that the burning sunlight was starting to fade slightly Alex made the decision to fully examine his body as soon as night hit, then find out where he was and possibly how he got there in the first place.