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"Twice?" Marcus's eyes widened at the realization of what was going on.

'I'm dead? How did I die? Is this some sort of judgement to pass on?'

Over a dozen concerns flew through Marcus's mind, not sure what all this meant, he just assumed death was the end of all things, no passing into some kind afterlife or anything. Seems he was quite wrong.

"Rather upsetting to discover you've died; I know, So is every other soul that comes through here. I'd rather get through this quickly, so how about you don't berate me with questions, and I'll give you a general sense of the situation. Sound good?"

Marcus could only nod along silently, too shocked to speak.

"Now I'll ask again to be sure, are you Marcus H. Simmons?"

Another quiet headshake.

"Alright good, I'll start with the basic idea that your physical body died and now your essence has been released into the planes between reality. Originally it used to be chaos with pesky little creatures like you roaming here, so about an eternity ago, a system was put into place."

Marcus could not believe what he was hearing, all this stuff about human beings carrying on as souls was being proven to him, by some kind of rather rude prick in a three-piece suit.

"Entities like me," The mirror man continued, "Recycle your essence in other planes of physical existence so that we can enjoy ourselves here more peacefully. We hope that once enough of those things you call souls are put into more solidified places, you'll never come crashing back here."

He stopped and looked down at Marcus's face to see even more questions flooding his facial expressions. The Mirror man sighed and added a few things he found to get rid of the rather stupid looks.

"Before you even think about it; no, I am not God nor any particular one of many gods. If they exist, I have never met them. This place is not for the condemned sinners or for cherishing those who will forever live in heavenly state. You are simply at a point to choose."

"Choose? Choose what exactly?" Nothing that was said made Marcus feel better, the idea of how the universe worked was thrown out of his brain, and he hardly understood what this newfound proof actually meant.

"I did say recycle, I hoped you'd understand that it means I'll be putting you elsewhere. Depending on the choice you make."

"But wh-why are you giving me the choice?" Marcus did the best he could to suppress the stutter. He didn't like the idea of being ripped from his old life and put into a whole new, it was all just so sudden and unexpected.

It didn't matter what this apparent non-god was, he was taking his life and rewriting it for the sake of wanting less people near him.

After a momentary eye roll, the Mirror man caught a coin that fell from the blinding light above him.

"I could lie and say that the good willed morals of humanity gave us the idea to put you in a world of your choosing, but the reality is much more selfish."

He flicked the coin off his thumb and it shot up into the light. It was lost for a moment before it came back down.

"You're kind are always a fidgety bunch, if you don't like where you're going-"

The coin came up and down once again.

-"you simply look for somewhere else to be. Unless . . ."

He flicked the coin a third time, much harder and with a greater velocity. This time the coin did not return to his hand.

"Unless you've rooted yourself to a world that you've found satisfying. Then if your essence stays too long, it'll simply dance along there till the end of all time across the universe. The idea is to put you in a world you'll never leave."

"And I have no choice on returning back to how my life was?"

The Mirror man must have heard that question a thousand times, as he was very quick on the response.

"I could, but shoving you back inside your original body would certainly make your life a much greater hell and scare anyone who ever met you into a shitless mound of traumatized sludge."

Marcus didn't ask for any further details, so he took that as his chance to carry on his job.

"The universe you lived in was vast and infinitely expanding, but so is a near infinite number of other universes too. Your options aren't as bleak as you think considering other planes don't have as strong borders between layers of reality and space as yours did. Science isn't the only thing humans started learning."

Marcus's expression was still filled with concern and sadness, but the brief glimpse of curiosity in his eyes was traceable. With so much experience in dealing with the recently deceased, the Mirror man knew he had successfully baited Marcus. A little smirk grew on his face as he conjured a new bundle of paper.

"Now then, let's take a look."