1 The Trial

"Welcome!"

A figure made of pure white light hovered above a crowd of hundreds of people. Every one of them was confused and had no idea why they were there. They looked to each other hoping at least one of them would have the answers they didn't.

"Let's start this quickly as I don't have much time! You're all dead!" The voice was loud and was heard in everyone's head but there was no echo in the endless void around them. The looks of shock and disbelief were evident on their faces. There were shouts of anger at the voice but the figure didn't flinch.

After a minute or so he spoke again, "You all done! We need to get going! You all died at the same moment... or to better say are supposed to die at the same moment. That moment hasn't come yet and to avoid the mass amount of spirits at that time we are holding a trial and based on your ranks your lives will be changed. The winner getting the best prize obviously!"

The questions they all asked were droned out by one another and were likely all of the same trains of thought, "What right did the spirit have to judge them?"

"We will be starting now!" Following the voice's bellow in front of everyone appeared a set of 49 dice.

"The first game will be luck! These 293 people around will all be rolling the same amount of dice and the person who rolls the highest will be the winner. The bottom 147 will be kicked and not move on!"

No one dared disobey the words of the spirit as they all rolled the dice. With the numbers, they got being immediately displayed in front of them. An extremely unlucky fellow rolled 49 ones and a moment of silence is needed for that poor fellow... Moment over back to the game!

The ones who didn't get in the top 50% of rolls vanished into the darkness without a sound. "Huff! I feel bad for them, the fellow they are meeting now is much worse than I! You all have luck above average and will be moving on to the next game!"

None of the remaining people dared talk back to the spirit, unwilling to push the boundaries.

"I like how none of you lot are idiots, anything less would be so much more tiring." In front of the remaining people were a buzzer and a blank hologram screen.

"Now is random trivia! Again we will be eliminating 50%, 73 people, for those who can't do that math. Though if you couldn't do that, you won't do well here." The crowd was unanimously left in a situation of being unable to laugh or cry. 'We aren't that stupid!'

The trivia lasted a long while and was 147 questions all questions of equal hardness and around the level of a college freshman. Much like the first group of losers, they vanished into the void without a sound.

"Only 73 people stand between you and the grand prize work hard!" For the third challenge a punching bag and screen appeared.

"Strength! You all get the point by now!" The bottom 37 were removed exactly the same as the groups. The fourth challenge was a race, 18 were removed, 19 remaining. The fifth, Memory game, 9 removed, 10 remaining. The sixth game, Spelling, 5 removed, 5 remaining. The seventh, Bravery, 3 removed, 2 remaining.

"You two are the remaining two of this challenge. Only one of you can win though. For our final trial, we will ask only one question. Are you both prepared?"

The two nodded in sync.

"If you were given the chance to change every choice you ever made how many changes would you make?"

The female on the left answered first her voice vibrant and soft, "I would change my standing in life. I wouldn't put myself in the situations that led me astray."

The person on the right didn't answer for a long while but surprising the voice didn't seem annoyed. He rushed the beginning but didn't ever bring it up again.

"There are too many things I would change. None of that would matter though. My death at an early age was made at birth. I can claim I died with future regrets."

The voice released a hearty laugh as the female on the left vanished, "Amer Jackson, you are the winner!"

Amer isn't the character we will be following though.

---

"Aster Curtail! You are the ultimate loser! You are the weakest, unluckiest, slowest, but excelled at memory, bravery, spelling, and trivia."

"What happens when you are bedridden for 3 years."

"We should send you off die as you got the lowest score out of everyone, however; I think you could be useful to me."

"How so? Doesn't that go against the whole trial you all just held?"

She replied, "It does, but right now this is for me, not everyone else."

"What do you want?"

"I will send you back to the most defining moment of your life and you will change your fate."

"What do you need in exchange?"

"Your soul!" Her joyful voice vanished the moment she called out these words.

"If I decline I'll die immediately right?"

"Correct."

"What am I meant to tell you? That I'll exchange a future in the afterlife for a second chance of living?"

"You believe there is an afterlife?"

"There has to be if I'm here in the first place."

"Here let me show you something." She requested as her white figure swung out their arm and the whole scene around them changed. Below them was a line of people before a set of stairs.

"This is the stairs of heaven, this so-called afterlife is an eternal line waiting."

"Hahahah! This is heaven, this is the dream of man!" Aster seems to have gone insane for the moment.

"I'll do it! I'll take your deal."

A pitch black smile appeared on the figure's before they replied, "Good choice!" Aster's vision went dark with the next time he opened his eyes he was back at his 13th birthday. Following him blowing out his midnight candle a voice echoed in his head, "Welcome to the past Aster, I'll be helping you along the way."