Error Soul

   'Ugh...' Liam thought, staring at his surroundings in shock.

   'Where am I?' He wondered, looking down at himself.

   His body had been reduced to a small, dull white orb, floating within a strange black space.

   The space stretched as far as he could see, adorned with beautiful stars which reflected their light within it.

   However, he wasn't the only white orb floating in the weird space.

    They were countless, each one lined up in front and behind him.

   Liam felt himself being pulled by his strange force, drifting him along with the rest of the line.

   'The last thing I remember… the truck! Sophie!' He thought, the memories of his death coming back to him.

   The last time he remembered was the blurry image of the tank truck speeding towards him before everything went dark, and he found himself here. 

   'So I died… on my first date…' He mumbled inwardly.

   He could still remember the beautiful smile on Sophie's face, and how happy he felt holding her soft hands within his.

   But to think all that was over now… and he died in front of her to make everything worse.

   He couldn't help but wonder how she felt watching that truck hit him. The guilt wracking through her mind must have been painful.

   There were also his parents, and his siblings, who he had abandoned in the world of the living.

   While the nineteen years he spent living hadn't exactly been eventful, it didn't mean he wished to die.

    He still wished to live long like any other normal person, only dying after fulfilling all his dreams. 

   'Mom, dad… Jace.' He thought, imagining how badly they would react when the news of his death reached them.

   He was sure they wouldn't take it well, especially his father, who had developed high blood pressure due to his age.

   But what else could he do? He had already died, and dead people couldn't complain or fulfil dreams on earth.

   Nonetheless, he still felt a sharp sting stirring within his heart, filling him with bitterness.

   'But what is this place… is this heaven?' He thought, looking at the endless line of ethereal white orbs floating in front of him.

   Some of them were very bright, oozing vitality, while some were a lot dimmer.

   He, on the other hand, fell within the latter, with the lustre of his orb so dim that it was almost overshadowed by the others.

   'Is this normal, or should I be worried?' He wondered, looking back at his own 'body'.

   Never in his life did he imagine death to feel or be like this; just ethereal orbs floating around.

  However, he soon pushed those worries to the back of his mind, focusing more on the present.

   'What is that?' He thought, noticing a large rectangular frame in the distance.

   All the orbs floated into it, vanishing into thin air the moment they crossed to the other side.

   He couldn't help but wonder; was that the final process of crossing over to the afterlife?

   The process was very fast, with hundreds of orbs disappearing within the frame each second.

  Liam started feeling anxious, his patience running thin in expectation of when he'd finally cross also.

   Though he had never been a devout believer in any 'superior being', he didn't think that he would meet eternal damnation.

   After all, the life he led had been peaceful, without him causing unnecessary harm to others.

   Before long, he also found himself before the rectangular frame, subconsciously taking in the beauty of the shimmering ends.

  He felt an invisible, yet strong force pull his body forward, and the next thing he knew, his vision was clouded with a blinding white.

  "Error!! Error soul!!" A loud cry suddenly pierced through his ears, jolting his consciousness awake.

  'Ugh… what?' Liam thought, staring in shock at the sight before him.

  Contrary to his expectations, he didn't find himself in 'heaven', nor were there any other white orbs beside him.

   'Where… am I?' He wondered, feeling a chill run down his spine.

   The space around him was surprisingly small, like a tightly compact room.

   Floating in front of him was a large square robot, with a pair of small eyes and a mouth stretching across its screen.

  It didn't have any limbs, except for a pair of short hands jutting out from its sides.

   Its eyes were glowing with an ethereal light, and the lines making up its face kept glitching. 

   "Error!! Error!! Error soul!!" The robot screamed, looking down at Liam like he was a pile of waste.

   'W-what?' Liam thought, subconsciously stepping back from the angry robot.

   Before the robot's massive frame, he looked nothing more than an ant, helpless against its shouts.

   To be honest, the robot was only just as large as a normal tablet back on Earth. 

   But compared to Liam's tiny orb form, it looked gigantic.

    'An… error? What does that even mean?!' Liam thought, dread rapidly creeping up his mind.

   Wasn't the afterlife supposed to be all clouds and peaceful? With jolly souls running around, relishing in their newfound peace?!

   Or did this mean he was one of the sinful souls condemned to damnation… cursed to suffer eternal torment?

  But how… it didn't even make sense.

Swish! 

   Suddenly, the two small arms on the robot stretched towards him, tightly grabbing onto him.

   "Error! Error!" The robot continued shouting, slowly lifting Liam's small form.

   'N-no… no… no…' Liam's orb body wriggled wildly, his ethereal form straining the robot's strong grip.

   The robot's thin fingers sank into his body like cold needles, sending waves of pain through his body. 

   His little orb body kept wriggling in vain, a loud, bell sound ringing non-stop within his ears.  

   "Disposing Error!!" The robot shouted, suddenly flinging him to the side.

  Liam's body hurtled uncontrollably through the air, but just as he was about to hit the wall, a small portal appeared behind him.

   His body flew through the portal, and it immediately closed up, evaporating into tiny fragments.

  The next thing Liam knew, his vision was completely covered by darkness, and a strange force kept dragging his body through the air.

   'Ahhh!!' He screamed inwardly, feeling his body slowly tear apart due to the force.

   His soul was slowly being ripped apart from the inside, and his little orb body rapidly grew distorted, moulding into different shapes.

   To make things worse, he couldn't see anything… only feeling the helpless sensation of being dragged across space, with his soul slowly tearing apart. 

  'No… why is this happening…? Why is this happening to me?!' He screamed in his mind, but unfortunately, no one could hear his thoughts.