4 Purgatory?

It was completely dark.

Leon could not feel his body. He seemed to be aware, but there was only endless darkness. Although he could 'feel' himself drifting, there was no sound nor light, only endless darkness.

It was hard to grasp how much time had passed. Everything just stayed the same.

Leon tried recalling what happened before he blacked out.

He remembered the fight and then being stabbed. It did not take long for him to be unable to move and there was so much blood. The attacker must have hit an organ. He thought 'Am I dead?'

He also remembered seeing Victoria just before he passed away, she was crying and it seemed like

she was saying something, but he couldn't hear it anymore. He wondered if that was an illusion or if she was really there at the end.

These thoughts went away with time and Leon tried 'looking' around again. Death would really be boring if this endless nothing was all there is to it.

There was finally a light. He was getting excited and another one appeared. Then many others started to appear on his sight. They seemed to be ascending and converging to some place.

Leon tried looking up and saw those lights just disappearing out of nowhere when they reached a certain distant point. He noticed there seemed to be other lights just appearing out of the same 'place', they were going down, splitting up, heading to different directions, and drifting away.

Maybe that was heaven? But what about the other lights coming out of that point? And what was that place? Whatever it was it couldn't be worse than just staying here forever…

He wanted to follow the lights ascending but he suddenly heard a familiar voice calling for someone.

"Zeph? Zeph, are you there?"

"Where are you? He said I could find you if I came here today! Where are you, Zeph?"

Leon was shocked. That name was the one people kept calling him on his dreams. The voice belonged to the old guy who took him out of the burning city. Leon tried answering but the voice just kept calling. Sometimes it would stop but it would soon come back with renewed energy.

He tried looking for the source of the voice. It couldn't just have come out of nowhere, but the only thing different here was the mass of moving lights.

When the voiced sounded once again Leon spotted a light that seemed to glow brighter. The light was slowly drifting around, it would increase its shine every time he heard the voice so he tried focusing his mind to approach it. It seemed to work as he felt the light getting closer. Leon focused on the light and tried answering again.

"Old man?"

"Zeph, is that you? I finally found you! That man was right! Thank the Spiritual World! It would be too exhausting to my will if I kept project my thoughts." Leon could feel the voice getting happier and stronger in his mind.

"It's that really you, old man? Or am I just dreaming again?"

"Dreaming? No, Zeph. This is not a dream. We are in the purgatory right now."

"This is THE purgatory? And why you keep calling me Zeph, my name is Leon."

"Yes, this is the purgatory, some people also call it Sea of Stars, because of all the souls. And no, your name isn't Leon. That should have been your name in these two years that had passed. But your name has always been Zeph, or it is better to say we have always known you as Zeph."

Every light on his sight was a soul? Leon was finding it hard to believe this crazy situation, but he really wanted to. It was time to get some answers. He decided to go along with it for now.

"Being here it means your soul has left the world you were before. There is only two ways to reach the Sea of Stars, dying or through a strong astral projection. Since you don't seem to know anything, I imagine you died again" - The aged voice continued, now with a voice burdened with sadness

"What do you mean by 'again'? When was the other time I died?"

"We all died many times, Zeph. It's the natural cycle of life. I know what you mean though. The last time you died was two years ago. You protected my granddaughter from someone very dangerous. Unfortunately, you had to sacrifice yourself. You did well, Zeph, you kept her safe and now it's time to come back." – the voice was controlling a sob now

"How do I go back?"

"I can't guide you. I am not like you, so I can't enter one world from another. My spiritual energy won't last long enough to keep my astral projection here, but I have just enough to track your soul to the next world. I know someone like you and he owns me a favor. He will be able to help you."

"What should I do then? Should I follow the souls going up?'

"No! You can't follow those souls! They are going to the Spiritual World. From what I was told, people like you can't enter the Spiritual World, but I'm not sure of what will happen if you try. Maybe one of the reapers will attack you."

"What are those reapers? And why you keep saying 'people like you'"?

"Reapers are the emissaries of Death. They guide the souls of the dead to the Spiritual World. They also are the ones who guide the souls of those who enter reincarnation to their new worlds. They usually won't do anything else, but they are extremely aggressive towards anomalies, anomalies like you. You see, Zeph, they call people like you many ways: Phivians, Wanderers, Drifters. Those like you are banished from the spiritual world, forced to go from one world to the other, just like it's happening now."

"Why can't I enter the spiritual world like the others?"

"I don't know, Zeph, but I know that you are not the only one. I don't have much time left here…" – the voiced sounded faint and the light in front of Leon was dimming – "Maybe one day you'll find out. You have to follow one of the souls coming out of the spiritual world, follow it until you arrive in another world. Someone will find you when you arrive there, his name is Marcus…"

The voice was almost fading completely

"And you, old man? What's your name? Sorry, but I can't remember it".

"It's alright… My name is Edgar… I'll be wainting, boy… and Lina too…"

The voice was gone now. Leon tried calling for it again but there was no answer. There was a lot to process and many doubts yet to be cleared, but it was all right. He was finally getting somewhere now. That Marcus should know a few things too. He had time.

decided to follow what Edgar advised to. He chose one of the souls coming down at random and kept chasing it through the darkness.