Chapter 1

I could clearly remember the day like it was yesterday because it was literally yesterday. The day when my whole world turned upside down. It was on a Tuesday night on the 31st of December in the year 2020. The weather was unusually cold due to the after-effects of the winter season that had been present during Christmas although the snow was almost all gone with just a few clumps left on the tree branches in my neighborhood. I lived in an apartment located within an estate known as "Spring field" in the huge city of London. The apartment was six stories high and if you were to stand at the roof of the apartment, you could see the shining of lights in various houses across all directions since the estate was located at the heart and center of the city. I could also see the bustling of activity as people moved about carrying out their everyday chores however there were fewer people in the streets due to it being the late hour of the night.

11:55pm

[11:55 pm]

At that time, I was sitting on the roof while listening to a song called "Paralyzed" on my Zed Phone X. I reminisced about the past on my 17th birthday which was when I had received the phone as a birthday present from my mother. It was a device that I had been begging her to buy for me since it was my favorite phone model at the time. She had at first refused to buy it for me saying that it was too expensive however she surprised the next day when I woke up to a knock on my bedroom door only to find a wrapped box on my study desk. I remember my excitement from that day when I slowly opened it to find a new Zed Phone X model in the box. I was filled with joy and even though I had not expressed my feelings in front of my mother at the time, I could tell that she had completely understood what I felt.

11:57 pm

I stood up and glanced at my phone, admiring it just as I had admired it on the first day that I had acquired it. I then glanced down towards the staircase leading to the rooftop and a small part of me wished that my mother would appear on those very steps, telling me to come back home. I shook my head as I concluded that it would not happen because I had made sure that she was asleep before heading to the rooftop. This was because I did not want her to witness what was about to occur. That's right, I was going to die tonight. The very thought of it made me shiver because even though I had steeled myself for it , I was still afraid due to the various questions that kept popping in my head such as:

Will I experience extreme pain upon impact, or will it be a quick and painless death?.....

What will be there in the afterlife? ....

Will it be based on Christianity such that there is heaven and hell or will be based of some other religion?....

Will I be judged as evil for taking my own life? If so, what will be my punishment? ....

As these thoughts continued flooding my head, my heartbeat increased, the thumping sound disrupting my thoughts. I slapped my cheeks to bring myself back to my senses since I figured that it was too late to go back, and I had already decided that today was the day.

11:59pm

I took out my headphone and connected them to my phone through Bluetooth. I then scrolled through my playlist and picked my favorite song "Born for this" before putting on my headphones and glancing at the city once more. It was truly a beautiful city and I felt that I would truly miss the city since it was where I had lived most of my life. I knew the city so well that I had memorize every nook and cranny, every street, every store, and even the best movie cinemas to go to. And as these the images of the city played in my mind, I took a step closer to the edge of the roof and glanced at the ground. The apartment was only six stories higher and yet as I looked at the ground, the ground seemed to move further from my sight, making it seem higher than it was. This was probably my body's life preservation instincts trying its best to stop me but unfortunately nothing would stop me tonight. I turned my gaze towards the sky and with the music blasting in my ears, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes before taking a step forward.

 I could feel myself falling at incredible speed, the wind rushing against my face almost pulling my headphones off my head. As I fell, I felt as though time was slowing down and, in that moment, I thought about what the reactions of my friends and family would be. Would they be sad due to their existing connection with me, or would they be relieved of the fact that a huge burden had disappeared? Well, whatever they felt did not matter to me because if it did I would not have thrown myself of a rooftop in the first place.

I crashed into the ground and for a second I felt an extreme amount of pain as all the bones in my body broke upon impact however the pain was gone just as fast as it had arrived and as my consciousness left my body, I heard a beep sound from my phone signifying that it was exactly midnight.

"Happy ... Ne...w....Y…e…a...r...." I thought as i passed out.

I awoke in a place so bright that I had to take a few seconds for my eyes to adjust to the intensity and after my eyes adjusted, I saw that I was in a large circular hall as large as five football fields with multiple pillars supporting a marble ceiling that loomed overhead with various images of battles carved into it. Surrounding me on the edges of the hall were various thrones, each decorated with ancient runes and symbols that I could not understand and in each throne sat different people who were staring towards me or rather towards the center of the hall. Wondering why they were staring at me I looked around only to realize that I was not the only person standing at the center of the hall but rather there were a lot of people here with me and looking at their faces I could tell that they were as confused as I was.

The people around were different from what I had expected as they would be .... they were human or rather they were in human bodies which I didn't expect. I figured that since I was dead that I would be surrounded by ghosts or spirits and not normal people and then after a few minutes of staring at the others, I got curious as to how I looked like, and to my surprise, I was still in the same body that I had been in before I died. The people around me were murmuring among each other with fear and confusion in their voices while trying to come up with different reasons as to why they were here and as I looked around, I felt a person tap my right shoulder.

I turned only to find myself gazing at a slightly taller girl who looked to be around my age. Her eyes locked onto my face with an expression of confusion and familiarity which was odd considering that I did not know this girl. Finally, after an awkward moment of silence, she finally turned her gaze towards my face and while extending her hand.

"Hello, my name is Emily Blackheart."

There was a bit of shyness in her voice which subconsciously made me lower my suspicion of her intentions and in my naive mind, I made the assumption that we would be great friends and so with a smile on my face, I extended my right hand and shook hands with her

"My name is ..... ". I paused before I said my name since I realized that i did not want to use my real name after all I still didn't know what situation we were in and whether these people would be of any danger towards me which was why I decided to come up with a fake name. After all this could be the entrance to Hell for all I knew and the less my fellow future oppressors/sufferers, the better.

"My name is Jack"