Prologue

Pain.

Piercing pain.

Sharp, and heavy.

It ran through my chest into my back, as if I had been skewered with a spear.

That was the first thing I knew.

Pain.

The next thing that I knew, was the dark.

Quiet. Very quiet.

Nothing but pain, and the dark.

Then the pain disappeared, but the dark stayed.

I did not know how much time had passed, I was conscious, but without thought, without feeling.

Then the pain came again.

This time, it ran through my chest into my limbs, and they burned.

They burned as if liquid fire was running through them.

But I could not do anything.

Then the pain disappeared again.

Slowly, I could feel my limbs.

It was strange. The feeling started from the tips of my fingers and toes, and made its way up to my shoulders and hips.

The third pain.

It was almost comfortable.

The third pain was the lightest one.

it was a dull pain, all over my body.

It was nice, now that I think about it, it was the softest pain of them all.

After the third pain, I could feel the cold that surrounded me.

After that, I do not remember much.

The next pains were better than the first two, but nowhere near as light as the third one.

I don't remember how many there were, but there were a lot. At the very least, there were a hundred of them.

Since I could not tell time, I couldn't tell how far apart they were.

But then, they stopped.

And they didn't come back.

I don't know how much time passed, but at some point, I could feel warmth.

It emerged from my heart and spread, bringing a soft feeling into my body.

Then slowly, I could feel the cold around me shift once in a while.

Then, my eyes opened, and consciousness filled my head.

I was suspended, floating in a cylinder filled with viscous red liquid.

I could barely make out the items in the room I was in.

A few minutes passed as I fully gained control of my thoughts and started to look around and question my surroundings.

I didn't know who I was, but I knew that something around me was wrong.

Then a loud slamming sound attracted my attention, as something colored in blue and white rushed into the room I was in, coming close to my container as it stared at me.

Then it rushed to something off to the side that I could not make out, before coming back to me.

It looked at me for a moment, then drew closer.

It was a man, wearing a white suit and tie with blue hair that reached his shoulders.

His eyes met mine, staring at me with a great curiosity.

His mouth moved, but I could not hear anything that he said.

Then he looked over my body, slowly.

He returned to whatever the thing was, then ran out of the room again.

He returned carrying a few things, and he was followed by two other men, dressed in black suits.

He fiddled with something at the bottom of the container while the new arrivals looked at me.

I stared at them, and they seemed excited by that. I moved a little more, trying to gain control over my body.

But before anything else, I blacked out.

Back into the darkness, but this time, my thoughts were with me.

The pain started again soon.

The next time I awoke, I was strapped to a bed, and a man I hadn't seen before sat on a chair next to me, elbows on his knees and his fingers clasped in front of his face.

He was staring at me.

I tried to move my body, but all of my limbs were restrained, only my head was left free to move.

I turned to face him.

He moved his hands and straightened a little, putting his clasped fingers in front of his chin.

"Hello."

His voice was calm, but I could sense excitement within it.

"I assume you can hear me."

I looked at him for a few seconds before deciding to respond.

"I can."

"Good, good good."

A smile appeared on his face.

"First question. Do you know who you are?"

My identity, that is what he wanted.

I knew what he meant, he wanted to see if I knew my name, where I lived.

I didn't.

I thought about it, but nothing came to mind.

Yet, I felt no panic, no fear, nothing that a normal person would feel when forgetting something as important as their own name.

Then something occurred to me.

Why did I know all this?

I didn't learn any of it.

It was just there.

"Huh."

That made him lean a little towards me.

"Well?"

There was some expectation on his face.

"No. I don't."

The expectation vanished.

"Then you won't know where you are either?"

I shook my head.

He let out a barely audible hum and leaned back in his chair.

"How do you feel?"

How do I feel?

I thought about it.

I could feel nothing, but something was nagging me, telling me something was wrong.

I turned to face the ceiling as I tried to understand that feeling.

Then it hit me, and I turned back to the man sitting beside me.

"Where is my heartbeat?"

I couldn't feel it, and something told me I should have been able to.

There was a smile on his face.

"Welcome to the land of the dead."