Judgement Awaits

The man opened his eyes slowly, his consciousness came to the surface. He wondered if it had all been a dream.

Except.

As he looked around, nothing he saw looked familiar, he noticed that even he was unfamiliar to himself. There was no weight or resistance in his arms, no beating of his heart. He could not even feel the breath in his lungs, for there was none. Slowly he began to panic. Nothing was real, he touched his body with his hands, but there was no sensation, no sense of feeling or warmth. Even his own body looked off. He looked down at his arms and chest, he was stripped bare. He was no longer wearing his prisoner's uniform. His body was translucent and misty, and he could barely make out any details. It was like looking at blurry images in a dim room filled with mist or fog through a mirror.

Nothing made sense. Then without warning from behind him he heard a loud crackling thunderous sound, like that of a storm on the horizon. He turned around to see dark swirling mists coalescing and scattering in a sphere of chaos.

From the spiral orb of distortion, a figure cloaked in flowing garb of black, violet, with seams of gold, over its shoulder it wore a shawl of black, grey, and white with sickly green patterns in the design. Covering its face was a pitch-black veil that seemed to draw in all light. Despite the long garb covering its body, its body was horrifically thin and emaciated. The figure rose from the void like a dark moon over the horizon floating gracefully and majestically. After it fully emerged its body sunk down and the mist it emerged from formed into a sort of chair supporting its immense size.

"Now begins the judgement of the mortal -------- ---------," it said in a male voice echoing with a twisted distortion that warped the environment around it. "Presiding and witnessing this judgement is I, Adjudicator, Arch Reaper Aldavalar."

"What the hell is this!?" the man shouted, "Where the hell I am!? What is going on."

"The dead do not make demands of Death's attendants!" it shouted pointing its hand at the man.

Suddenly the anger, confusion, and energy drained from the man. He collapsed to the floor staring silently at the hand outstretched before him. Figure's words resounded in his ear and the gravity of his situation pressed down on him. The hand was pure white, nothing but bone and greyish strips joining the ivory skeletal structure together. The man was indeed dead, his life had passed and now he was before one who would judge him.

"Now then, I beseech her highness for permission to conduct this assessment," it said bowing its head.

Overhead of a blinding bright light appeared illuminating the distorted space, the man shut his eyes tightly and covered his eyes. He felt an intense heat, yet chilling cold over his entire being. The light flashed three times before disappearing swiftly.

"Now enter the carriers of fated and judged," it said in resounding tone.

Next to the deathly visage, appeared another being similar to itself covered in a black cowl and deathly garments, it carried a scythe taller than itself made of bone bound in white cloth with what appeared to be a black waxy substance fusing the pieces together.

To the left of the deathly visage descending down from the space above was a being of light with the shape of a man, with large wings nearly twice as large as its own body, above its head with a halo of intricate shape and pattern.

In front of the man appeared a being resembling a tall dark-skinned woman wearing a fine white dress atop her head was a broken crown. Vegetation and plant life entangled her body. She had a countenance more lovely and enticing than he had ever seen before. Her hair light blue hair reached to the ground moving in an enchanting motion. In her hand was a staff from which lightning crackled and sparked. When she lifted her head and opened her eyes, she revealed two mystifying eyes one pitch black and the other glowing with a golden hue.

Lastly to the right of the man appeared a bubbling pool of darkness from which unimaginable and unhallowed sounds erupted, from the bubbling pool hands, fingers, and claws emerged reaching out toward the man scaping and clawing toward the man.

Frightened and afraid he instinctively moved back, "what the fuck, what the fuck is this!" he screamed.

"Stay your hands abominations!" thundered the being of death, "Now all those who have gathered let the proceeding begin," the deathly visage stated, he turned to the man, who instinctively moved back, "mortal, this is your judgement, let us see what life you have lived and whether the scales shall favor you," the being of dead said outstretching its bony hand. With a grasp of its hand a tight pressure came from deep within his chest. A moment lady the deathly judge opened his palm revealing a heart, it was the man's. It appeared black and twisted warped and shriveled.

"Hmm," the image of death muttered. The heart began to float upward several orbs appeared around the heart one above, one below, and four encircled the heart. Suddenly energy rippled out from the heart, changing the entire space around them. Then slowly lights and sound began to manifest.

"Wait is that!?" the man cried out.

"It is your birth, and this is your life, now watch," The deathly being said.

Minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year, the life of this man played out until the darkness returned to the space around them.

"That was your life," the deathly visage said, "a child born of a prostitute in city of Tatrya in Ahes. Abandoned by your mother, you were raised in the streets. On your fifteenth birthday your talent for magic was discovered you were enrolled in the college of magic. Through grueling hardship and struggle you graduated as a mage of the Kingdom of Ahes. You resolved to make a name for yourself and rise through the ranks," the visage paused then leaned in, "now, after your thirtieth year you were betrayed blamed for something that was not your fault. Disgraced and dishonored, and so you swore revenge on those who wronged you. Becoming a ravager you destroyed, pillaged, stole, bribed, corrupted those around you and worse murdered and killed, and worse still you regrated nothing, luxuriated in the suffering of others. You carried on until your capture, imprisonment, and eventual death," The visage said plainly. "What say you?"

"Those bastards used me, threw me away, cursed me and take everything away, so why shouldn't I take everything they have away. They deserved it!" the man shouted. "And if I could do it over again, I would destroy them and theirs again and again for every time they destroyed mine."

"You make no excuse, have no remorse," it replied.

"Why should I they destroyed my life," the man retorted.

"Very well, we shall begin the judgement. Upon the scales, your fate will be decided. Of Order and Chaos, Good and Evil, and Right and Wrong. Let the scales seal thy fate!"

Suddenly the orbs floating around the man's heart began spinning rapidly, orbiting the floating organ. Several of the orbs began to move closer to the heart while others began to move further away. The orbs that drew closer began to glow; one red, another yellow, and the last shined a greenish color.

"So it is, so it shall be. Through the accumulation of your karma, you have lived a chaotic and evil life, but you have lived according to your own principles, to what you believed was right. You sought retribution against those that hurt you. However in your quest for retribution you harmed the innocent, and that, that cannot be amended," the visage of death said plainly.

"So what, given time they would have abused and misused others like me," the man retorted.

"That is not for you to decide!" the visage shouted slamming its first on the ethereal seat with a loud reverberating boom, before pointing its ivory finger at the twisted soul. It sighed and sat back, "very well, you have spoken. All who bore witness to the life of this man, render your judgment, will you take him?" the deathly judge said sternly.

"We of the Djinn have no pact with this soul, we will not take him," the woman said before disappearing, fading away into vapors.

"Lady Death has no covenant with this soul, we shall not take him," the visage wielding a scythe said before vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Lastly the haloed being of light spoke, "this soul is beyond joys and paradise, his choices in life exclude him from Limbo, and we the celestials will not take him," In a burst of light the being vanished.

"Each have spoken," the visage said, "abominations of the infernal do with him what you will," the visage said before snapping his fingers. The sound of something like glass shattering resounded through the empty space. Slowly the hands pouring from the pool in front of him began to move erratically, unimaginable sounds began to erupt from the pool. The pool of darkness itself began to bubble and a pulse wave began to rise from the pool as it spread outward like a spring of corrupted waters.

"What the fuck," the man screamed, "what the fuck is this bullshit he said staring at the deathly visage as it turned around.

"What awaits you is, is your punishment, for your evil for your sins, you shall not find salvation here. May the Goddess have mercy upon your soul. But I doubt your voice will reach her among the cacophony," the visage said finally before disappearing.

"Come back here!" the man shouted before pounding the space beneath him. At that moment he felt something, or rather sensed something disturbing on space where his fist had stopped. It was a sort of wet sickly, sticky feeling. He recoiled in shock looking down beneath him. That pool of darkness had spread and slowly he came to realize he was sinking below this space. The man began to panic, to flail and desperately looking for something grasp onto, he reached beyond the pool attempting to pool himself up, but the leverage he had vanished at the pool spread further. He was now engulfed to his shoulders. Slowly vile sounds from the pool grew louder and more intense, he began to hear a malicious laughter, agonizing blood curdling screams.

"What the fuck, what the fuck. Get off, get the fuck off me!" he screamed as numerous hands and claws tugged and pulled on his body, pulling him deeper into the dark pool. "Help, someone help please!" He pleaded.

As he sunk deeper and deeper, he could hear taunting whispers, "no one will save you," "scream all you want," "there is no salvation for you," "you belong to us."

Soon even his head was beneath the dark bubbling pool.

With a last-ditch effort he reached his hand up grasping for anything that could have him from being dragged below. As if to mock his feeble attempt several hands reached up grabbing him by the wrist and dragging him down completely and utterly. Suddenly the black liquid that poured out reversed, as if that vile water was being drained out. A deathly silence was all that remained within the empty void.