1 Death

Chapter 1

There was nothing, literally nothing. Forever darkness was lingering in every direction. Everywhere you looked was just an endless void full of no light, no sound, not even a bit of something, only nothingness was all around.

There was just nothing out here, or where this place was. Then it should be.

Nothingness reigned supreme for countless eons to come and after what seemed to have been too many years to count, there changed something. A little light came floating around.

It was just a sphere of light floating around in the void, with no destination or any sign for it to stop its flight soon.

Gradually, after a few Millennials or just a second, nobody will ever know as there was no sign of time even working out here. There was some change in the light sphere.

"Where am I, what am I doing here, where is this, what's going on?" thought the soul that was floating around. It could feel nothing, see nothing, and had nothing other to experience than just an endless span of nothingness. Anyone would lose themselves in such a world of no senses if this goes on for much longer.

As the soul was experiencing this new feeling of no sense, some memories came into its mind:" Arg, I can hardly remember anything at all. The last thing that I can recall is strong winds raging around on a storming day, but there was no rain no, only lightning frolicking in the clouds."

After this memory, there was only pain remaining in the confusing mind of the soul as it recovered a few memories of this day.

'I was walking to the grocery store to buy a few random things and something to eat for the next few days. I had only brought an umbrella for the rain that was surely coming in the next few minutes. The forecast for this day didn't look good and one of the biggest storms of the century should happen later, but I have nothing to eat at home and can only hurry forward to the shop.

On the way to the next store, I recalled the movie I had watched last night: Final Destination 1, a great movie. I am not really into horror movies or the like, but this movie intrigued me and I enjoyed it.'

Lost in thought of such a ridiculous idea, that something like these "accidents" could never truly happen in real life and softly chuckling about this thought, I heard some lightning cackle over my head and I got forced out of my thoughts because of the loud rumbling sound and looked around.

There was not much going on in this little city near Washington. There was never really going on about something big. The most interesting thing in the last months was that a mysterious ghost was "seen" in some haunted house in the neighborhood. But nothing came out after some investigation and only a few ghost hunters remain now.

It was a dull city and I could only hope to get out of it soon. We never even had a Starbucks built out here and had to get around with our two diners. How frustrating. The only good thing was that we had a tightly closed community and everyone knew each outer.

It was early in the morning, around about 9:00. Few cars were on the streets on this Saturday morning and next to no people were walking around or more shuffling around as everyone wanted to hurry and get their things done before the rain hits.

Yeah, no joke, who would walk around with this lightning storm going on.

But as fate willed it, or more my laziness to go shopping the last few days, I had nothing to eat anymore and needed to shop for some groceries but needed to be fast as I hated to get wet.

Just the thought of the omelets that I will make after this errand made my stomach grumble loudly.

There were some workers a few meters in front of me. They were about to unload a piano onto some house with a mobile crane. It was a funny-looking scene. Winds raging around and the cable of the crane was even swinging crazily through the air. Some workers shouted, and the cable hit a lamppost nearby.

After that, they secured the cable on the piano and slowly got it into the air. Anyway, that was not working that great. It was just wobbling around in midair and they had no chance to get it to its supposed place. I stood and watched the mesmerizing scene. All you could hear were the yells of the workers shouting to be heard over the loud wind to stabilize the swinging, flying death.

Looking at it for a bit and then I decided that was none of my business and I shuffled away. I crossed the street on the other side just to be safe. I didn't want to die by a crashing piano. Even if that thought sounded somewhat funny, it looked dangerous.

You know better safe than sorry.

Such a death would be awkward, I just imaging the line in the newspaper: Death trough falling piano of Misses….. on a storming day.

A smile came to my face at this ridiculous thought.

As I walked on the other side of the road, there was another lightning strike in the clouds and a loud cracking sound was not even a second later.

I was just walking onwards as I looked at the sky to see more lightning strike around and found it looked really beautiful. Nature has its moments.

"Screaaam"

A scream then forced me out of my thoughts. I turned my head and found out that it was one of the working people nearby that was screaming. Looking around for the reason for the scream, it dumbfounded me when I found the reason for it.

The piano that hung at almost 5 meters height was swinging uncontrolled above the building, a lot more than before, and it came close to the side of the building. It almost was like it wanted to crash into it, but just to rethink it at the last moment and swing back in the other direction.

The workers yelled, but the one in "control" of the crane could no longer do anything to control it and the steel cable burst because of the pressure they put it under.

I only saw the piano flying in my direction and could no longer put even thought into controlling my body. My body froze at this sudden realization. It flew slowly towards me.

I could see the piano coming closer and closer to me and the only thoughts that came to my adrenaline-drunk mind were the memories of my whole life flying past me in just a few seconds.

Then there was a loud crash and flying piano parts were everywhere.

I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked my lucky star. My body felt so heavy and I plopped onto the ground to just sit there for the time being while I looked at the destroyed piano just a few meters beside me.

The instrument just landed 2 meters next to me and I got away with not even a scratch. All flying parts just seemed to avoid me and I felt really lucky at this outcome.

"WooooSh"

But while I felt that my own life was now in my own hands again, I heard a loud crash and saw a lightning strike fall onto the crane truck.

The crane just burst and came crashing down. It was like a domino effect.

At that moment, I could follow all things completely clearly. It was like I was time was slowing down. The truck crashed to the side. The cable of the crane found its way toward a street lamp that stood at the side of the street.

The lamp burst and fell on the other side of the street into a driving car.

The car driver could not react or see a thing in time, as he was currently staring into his phone. He was speeding along the street, far faster than the speed limit allowed.

He did not seem to mind the speed limit that was put there because of the job site, although there were signs everywhere.

The Street light lamp hit the car, the car now got out of control and was speeding towards me but swerves abruptly and crashes into the moving crane and gets then turned over instantly.

The car hits a hydrant and throws it away. Water spewing everywhere. I could just see the metal part of it speeding towards me and in the next moment I knew no more."

'AH, just my luck. I will never joke about the deaths of the final destination anymore.

So where am I right now? Is this the afterlife? Heaven or hell, does that even exist?'

But after some time and finding out that nothing seemed to happen, I thought about my life.

It was nothing spectacular, just normal and casual life. I had a little family with one younger brother, the best loving parents, and a normal job as an author. Most of the time, I wrote fantasy novels and read a lot of light novels and fan fiction. My hobbies were playing games and reading a lot. I had a few good friends, but that was just about it.

A year ago, I came into the love of reading fan fiction of various loved books.

One Piece and Harry Potter were my favorite ones, just so many things to do and able to achieve and adventure through in these stories.

I was living alone, my family lived in another country, therefore, I just met them a few times every year.

Nobody can blame me. I moved here because of college and my friends.

Hm... as I recounted my life and to see if I could have lived a somewhat better life, I just realized something.

"What the hell is my name. What the hell, why can't I remember something that important. Every other little detail of my last day or the last week was no problem to remember at all, but now I cannot think of my name."

As I grumbled in my mind and was losing myself to madness because I have forgotten my name, I could hear some voice around me.

"Hahaha, how I love the moment where souls realize they do not know their names anymore. It's pretty amusing every time," said an ominous voice directly inside my head.

At first, dumbfounded at this sudden voice in my head, but quickly calmed down again.

" Humph. What's there to laugh about? Think about it yourself. What would happen to yourself if you just forgot your name?

I would want to see your face at that moment. "

'I just said back, or though back, it is weird to say something if you have no mouth or even a corporal body.'

"Haha, sorry about that, but I like to play around from time to time, it can get pretty boring here and as that there is not much to do around here, I thought it was time that I had a nice laugh and thought of this as the perfect moment.

But here you go, you can have your name back, you are Richard Snow."

It was like a little hole filled up again in my mind and the awkwardness of not knowing myself disappeared from me.

"But what the hell is going on here? Can you at least explain that?

I know I died and floated around for a bit, but I do not know what's going on." Asked Richard.

An amused voice came back:" Ah, nothing much. You just have somehow skipped the standard reincarnation procedure and ended up here in this vast expanse of nothingness. You are not the only one, it just happens from time to time, one or 2 in an eon is commonplace, but you are pretty far out there. I did not expect to meet someone like you out here."

"So, it is common to end up somewhere in this nothingness and you say that this is lucky? And how long is an eon? It sounds pretty long? Came back from Richard."

"Common yeah, but most of the time the troublesome souls drift not that far away from where they should be.

We are here almost at the end of things, not even I was out here before and I was almost everywhere. You are some lucky guys for me to find you.

You could have it a lot worse. You could have drifted in here forever.

And an eon is just one cycle of the end and the beginning of a universe, so that's not considered that long." Came back in a chuckling voice.

"So according to you, I could have been drifting here in this nothingness, for ages and ages, but I am quite fortunate that the sense of time is not relevant here or else I would have gone insane."

Richard thought back and could only smile at the thought that he was not that unlucky, but had to cringe as he thought about his death.

He thought that because he had not that bad luck and met this weird guy here that he might get something out of this. A choice of reincarnation with lots of benefits for his luck or something like this.

Richard got to smile at this thought. 'Maybe all these fan fictions were right all along.'

"Hehe, you are thinking a bit too over the line here.

I just found you, and it is not my jurisdiction to decide what to do with you. That is just too much trouble and I hate nothing more than trouble. If she gets wind of it then nothing good will come for me then.

You know I had so much drama the last time something like this happened and I don't want to have anything like that trouble me again, at least for the time being."

Was coming back in a not-so amused voice directly heard inside Richard's head.

Richard thought for a few moments before he said back: "So, you say that you would just dump me on another guy that handles something like this and this has nothing to do with you?

Would that not mean you would have to bring me back with you and deal with me for far longer? You could just reincarnate me into another world and have not anything to do about it anymore.

That would surely be not as much trouble as you would have with that other choice. I can be annoying if I want to be."

'Hmmmm…..He could be right. Damn, it's such a troublesome thing with the fucking paperwork every time and I hate doing paperwork. I just wanted to be left alone for a while. That is the sole reason I am so out of the way here, in this part of the universe. But I won't give in so easily.' Thought the voiceless being inside the void.

"Just so you know, it would be nothing much to just kick you towards the place where you should be right now.

You could get there in a few eons and I would have no work at all with you".

'Uff, he is much tougher to deal than I thought he would be, but he is also a being a few more levels higher than I ever was or could even think of.

I should not have him compared to my human standards. Therefore, it is nothing out of the ordinary. Just see if I can get out of this.' Thought Richard as he heard the response to his question.

He answered back: "But you would have to kick me there and I could just say what you did to me here and I think someone would surely recognize you and I guess that something like that would not let you come out in a good light.

Hence, you could just reincarnate me. No more troubles or dramas and you would waste none of your time here with me." Were the thoughts from the little soul.

'He is right in this one. It would not look that good if a little soul comes flying around and tells all beings that he meets this story. They would guess that it was me right away and tell her, or even worse, search for me here in this section of the omniverse.'

"Bahahaha" came back as the being was laughing his ass off."

Ok, I guess I can you give one point for that and it amused me you were trying to threaten me with your words.

No one has had the balls to do that in a long time.

I can you fulfill this one request of yours and reincarnate you and, as I am really in a good mood, you can pick the world you want to go to.

But think of it hard. I do not let you decide the time you are reborn.

It could be also as a mouse or cat or something completely different."

'I hope that will teach the little rascal not to mess with beings that are not in his league.'

Richard felt cold sweat running down his back as he could only gulp at the thought of being a toad:' Shit, I have almost overdone it; I guess. I do not want to live like a cockroach, just because I tried to get more out of it.

But I can rectify that right now, now I should try to think calmly and ask the most important question.'

"Do I lose all my memories or can I hold on to them? Also, the world I choose is the Harry Potter world if that is not too hard for you to handle.

And is there something like a wish I could make or get something like a system or so?"

"Ah, the Harry Potter world. Yes, I know exactly why you want to get there. An exciting world. Was there a little as well to enjoy a vacation for some time?

And you want your memories, to be exact, to hold on to your memories.

That I can do in a literal sense. And nope, there shall be no gifts. Do I run a charity here or what?" came back with an amusing hint in its voice that Richard could only compare to his little brothers when he would have something mischievous as planned.

"So, no more speaking. I have had enough of this. Just hold tight on your things and I wish you a wonderful journey."

What were the last words Richard heard and then he felt something hard push down on his being when he got kicked towards a light in the distance?

'Ah, what a rascal. I hope he can live his life with no regrets.

His death was a bit of my fault, ah final destination is too good and he just was at the wrong place and at the wrong time. Nobody can blame me for this.

Normally something like this would be no trouble at all, but he just had to get out of his natural reincarnation process, which fucked up some laws of the universe. It was a pain in the ass to even find him.

That was difficult to fix, but I have found him after all this time searching and I could get away from all that pain in the ass work for the time being.

I hope he lives an entertaining life and maybe we will meet again someday.' Was all that the being in the void thought before it disappeared again.

At the same moment away, Richard was just feeling pain. The pain came because his memories were being ripped out of him on his way towards the light in front. The being did not joke about holding needing to hold on to his memories. He felt them trying to seep out of himself like he was becoming some sieve.

He tried to hold on to them, but the pain was making it almost impossible to do so.

'There has to be a way to not lose my memories. Death would be better than losing my memories. Memories make me the being I am. Without my memories, it would not differ from being dead. I don't want to get into the world I love the most and then not remember anything from my last life.

It would be just like I never had this chance and it would be like to be killed with no difference.'

Richard did not think that just his soul made him who he was and that his memories made him the one he was.

Therefore, he would not be who he was without his memories.

The only thing Richard could think of to do was to grab onto his memories, but how to grab onto something if you have no hands?

After a lot of pain and a few lost memories that Richard had an idea: 'If I cannot hold on to them with my hands, then why do I not try to absorb them back into myself?'

That was the only idea that came to his mind, and Richard imagined himself as a black hole that should be able to absorb all things.

After a lot of trying and nothing helping him, he could feel more and more memories of his life leave him, so he tried to use his soul to absorb them harder and harder and after some lost memories, he somewhat succeeded. A whirlpool-like thingy formed and rotated inside himself.

Richard felt the whirlpool was getting faster and faster and the pull on his memories lessened and become weaker and weaker. While he thought that this was working and that he did it, the suction force grew stronger and stronger. 'Ahhhh…. Fuck what now?'

He felt like even he got pulled into himself, and that was not a good feeling at all.

Just as he was about to be swallowed by himself, he saw himself entering the light that seemed so far away mere moments ago, and then he lost his consciousness and blacked out.

What Richard did not see or better feel was that he was indeed getting sucked into himself or better his soul inside the whirlpool that he created.

In addition, there were weird little golden floating lights that were also sucked inside his soul, which he did not see.

It was just a normal day in London, nice weather overhead, almost no clouds, and a really warm sun was shining all around the city.

Suddenly something happened, nothing could be observed, but more sensible people all over the world could feel something. It was akin to a shock wave or an earthquake that people just felt for a second, and then it vanished.

Most people in the world ignored this feeling as it was really like nothing happened at all and it did not last long enough to make a scene. Therefore, they completely ignored it.

But some types of humans felt it more than others.

A few seconds before, the shock wave happened. You could see some kind of really bright light smashing down to earth in the middle of an abandoned alley inside London.

But nobody seemed to notice this light.

Inside the alley, there was trash everywhere. Broken toys, some papers here and there, and nothing of worth were lying all around the floor.

"Argh, what the hell happened and where am I." came from inside of some random trash can.

Richard was lying there in the blackness and felt his body in complete and utter pain, from down to his feet up to his head.

Everything on his body hurt. He seemed utterly confused by this and after a bit of lying there inside the darkness, he remembered what had happened before. He also got a feeling like he was inside a body and that he could feel his senses again. The first thing that he did was curse the being in the void for being such a sore loser in his mind.

'He could have given me a better hand with this transmigrating thingy, but next time I need to say things in a more not likely "misunderstanding" sentence. A lesson to be remembered if something like this comes up again. He remembered the feeling of his memories ripped out of himself and did not want to feel such pain again. The pain right now was bearable in hindsight of what he lived through moments ago.

The better question is: where the hell am I and what am I?'