Death

"Haah... Hah..."

My breath is shaky, my head is aching and spinning.

Where am I? Who am I? I tried to move my body but to no avail. My skin feels the hardness and the roughness of the floor. Is it tar? Am I on the road?

Through the numbness of my head, I can still feel the pain and the wet, sticky feeling of my blood flowing out onto the tar. Am I hit by a passing car? I don't know... I can't remember why I'm here...

Through my blurry sight, I spot a figure approaching... The blurry vision just gives me a vague vision of what they look like. Tall, slim, wearing a plain black suit... They seems to be saying something... But the ringing in my ears made me unable to hear them.

"H- Help..." I mutters to the person... But I don't know wether or not the word manages to leave my mouth.

I'm afraid... Am I dying? I don't want to die. I'm still young, I have so many things ahead of me. I can't die yet. I don't want to die.

Please, somebody, save me. Please! I don't want to die!

Please! Save me!

I don't want to die!

No.... I can feel my consciousness fading.

I cried. In tears, I try to keep my eyes open. I can't fall asleep, I will die if I do.

Don't. Fall. Asleep.

Please, can somebody keep me awake?

If I die, can somebody please resurrect me?

Please, I don't want to die.

I still want to live!

Please!

PLEASE!!

———

I open my eyes. I jolts awake the moment a bright light hit my cornea.

"What..." I mutters before slapping my own face. It hurts. I feel around my face and body...

I'm clothed in an unfamiliar fabric. It barely able to cover my body, leaving the rest of my limbs bare.

I look around... An unfamiliar sight are the only thing I can see.

"A desert?" I mutters... I grab a palm of the sand, and pour it to the ground.

It's grey, the sand is, including everywhere else, grey sand expand as far as my eyes could see.

"Where am I?" I ask myself. I got up, trying to take a better look, only to find nothing except more grey sands.

"What the fuck is this..." I titter. I look up, only to find nothing except pure whiteness. No clouds, no sun, just pure white sky like a giant fluorescent light that expands towards the horizon.

That's not how a sky should look like... I thought in my head.

I begin to walk. I don't know which directions I'm going or where am I even going to. But I need to walk, as long as I walk, I can find the end, right? I don't know if this is hope or delusion, but still, I walk.

———

It's been hours.

I've seen no life in this dessert, not a bird, not an animal, or even trees let alone a human...

But I can't stop...

I don't know what time of the day it is but the pure white sky doesn't change at all since I've began walking...

I also began to notice I can't feel hunger, thirst or tiredness. Even my leg is still fine after walking for hours on end...

———

It has been a week now...

I still couldn't find anything except more grey sands and more white 'sky'. I noticed that night had never come. So day and night cycle doesn't exist in this place... It's hard to keep track of time, and I might just give up trying to track it.

I already hypothesize what this place is.

"The Afterlife"

It seems that I have died, and now I'm stuck here in this grey desert. No hell, no heaven, no reincarnation. Just greyness that spans endlessly.

I thought that coming to this conclusion would be depressing. But instead, it gave me a new hope.

"If this is the afterlife, that means I can meet other people who already died as well." Is what I concluded.

In this vast dessert...

So I just need to keep walking.

Or else I'm afraid I'll get too lonely...

———

I don't know how many times have passed.

I used to make this mental note daily, but now I just keep walking on seemingly auto mode. Brain turned off, letting only my leg does their thing.

Anyway, I still haven't found source of life— or UnLife on this desert. No animals, no plants— let alone human.

Sometimes I tried to remember my past life but nothing came up. I thought that dying would mean I don't keep my injury but maybe that isn't the case with amnesia due to brain trauma?

"Just... Need... To... Keep... Goin-" I mutters. My legs move in a rhythmic pattern, it's a way for me to stimulate my own brain. It lets me forget how lonely I'd get after being alone for so long.

I suddenly trip, breaking the rhythm of my steps. I turn my head to see what I tripped on... I thought that maybe I caught my legs in a hole or something. But something else happens that shook me to my core instead.

I didn't trip.

My legs are gone. What remains of my right leg are just a stump, leaving only my right thigh.

My eyes dart around, until I see my severed legs, meters away as it rolls down the grey sand hill.

But what I saw made me even more speechless. The severed leg, the part that's being severed—

"Turns to dust..." I mutter, my mouth is shaking. I take a look at the stump on my body, sure enough, the ones on my body are also turning to dust.

I laugh hysterically. I had a theory— a ridiculous one when I first started this long journey.

"The sand are the remains of people who died." Basically, after enough time, your soul deteriorates, turning into a pile of grey dust filling this infinitely expanding grey dessert...

And now... I'm slowly turning into the sand as well, meeting the same fate of those who came before me, and those who would come after me as well.

"No... It can't end like this.... I'm sure there's a way..." I cried. Clawing my way through the sand before my hand also crumbles to dust.

"No... Nonononono... Please..." I cried. This feeling of hopelessness creep right back into my head, the same way I feel when I first died.

I thought that I was blessed...

Being able to still roam this place even after my life ends. I wouldn't mind spending eternity here... But even that would end now....

I cursed towards the white sky. Letting my anger and frustrations out into the empty white void. But there's probably nothing there...

After hours of cursing, I lay there—on the grey sands. I closed my eyes, trying to count on my moments, and the life I've lived. But I can't remember anything...

I don't know my name,

I don't know my family,

I don't remember any aspect of the life I've been struggling to clung onto...

"What's so different between living and dead now? The old me has already died when I can't remember any of my memories. I'm just a husk, desperately clinging to life..."

One, when my memory doesn't come.

Two, when I died in the real world

And the third time is now...

My body shivers as I feel the cold grip of death creeping up. I'm scared, but there's nothing I can do here but to let the inevitable comes for me...

And then I died, for the third time.

———

"Hello? Are you okay?" A voice calls. I open my eyes wide. A bright light burns my cornea and I immediately get up. I look around, the surroundings look like a typical office building... People dress in plain black walks around. The sounds of telephone ringing and papers being flipped enter my ears as well.

"Where am I? Where am I?!" I grip the women's shoulder.

"What are you doing get off me!" She pushes me away. My eyes darted around, the people began to look at me weirdly. I hear them whispering to each other.

Am I... Back? Did I come back to life? Or am I dreaming?

I slap my cheeks hard, the pang of pain made me crouch down, holding my own cheeks trying to suppress the pain.

"What are you doing?" The woman asks. I look up towards her. She's a beautiful woman, black hair, black iris, a bit of dark circle under her eyes, she's dressed in a plain black suit, like a normal office worker.

"A-are you real? A- are you a human?" I got up from my position. My hand almost grips the women again but I stop myself. The woman looks at me, weirded out.

"I mean... Yeah? Is this a prank?" The women questions, looking around for a non existing hidden camera.

"Where are we? Wh- where am I?" I ask, ignoring the woman's question.

"Are you new here?" She answered with a question.

I nod quickly. She then looked at me weirdly.

"So you're new, and don't know where you were... Wait, are you even registered?" She asks again, the questions confused me. I don't understand anything that she's saying, and her vague answers and questions don't help either. "God, how are you even here if you're not registered? Is there an error or something?" She mutters to herself.

"Who's your Reaper?" She asks. I look at her, dumbfounded.

"What?"

"Sigh, you know what, I'll bring you to the registers myself." She said before grabbing my hands. Before I could say anything, I felt my body crumbling... Like every molecule of my body is being pulled apart. I panicked, thinking I was going to die again, but before I could scream for help, my vision blackened.

I open my eyes to see a white tile, it's so clean that it's reflecting my own face. I look up towards the woman who's still holding my hand.

"We're here." She said, I look around to see lines of people in plain black suits. I tried to observe more and see that they were still in the same kind of office location, but there were no walls or ceilings... Stretches of people queuing up can be seen beyond the horizon.

"W-where..." I tried to ask, parts of me are amazed but some are still confused.

"Welp, I'm busy, just wait in line." The women said before disappear in a black smoke.

"W-wait!" I scream, but to no avail.

"Dude, moves, you're holding down the line!" A man speaks up. I look towards him, he has the same kind of suit as everyone else, pure black, contrasting the white atmosphere of the office.

"Hello? Can you hear me? God, did you die deaf or something?" The man waves his hand in front of my face. I quickly snapped back and got up, bowing my head to apologize.

"I'm sorry, I was just shocked." I said. But the man seems to not care.

"I don't fucking care, I told you to move. You're holding down the line goddamnit. You think you're the only one dying today?" The man shouts, pointing his thumb towards the people behind him. They began whispering, some even nods in agreement.

"I- I'm sorry." I said before I quickly got moving. I stood there, queuing for hours, before finally able to see what I was queuing for.

In front of the line is a row of counters, each accompanied by a clerk, wearing the same bland, all black suit.

It wasn't until minutes later before I got in front of the line, facing the clerk.

"Name?" He asks.

"I don't remember."

"Ah, loss of memory... head trauma then? Don't worry, it's pretty common. Just put your hand here." He said, before handing a device towards me.

"L-like this?" I said, before putting my hand on the device. Suddenly, sparks of black surge through my arms towards my head. I feel electric flowing through my head as I see black. It went on for several minutes before it stopped. I gasp for air and remove my hand, shocked, I stumble backwards, hitting the guy who scolds me earlier.

"Hey! What the fuck!" He shouts before shoving me forward. I stumbled forward, thankfully managed to catch myself before I hit the counter.

"So, what's your name?" He asked again, acting like nothing had happened in that instance.

"I already said that I don't remember." I said, frustrated.

"That's weird. You should've gotten your memory back. Try to put your hand here again."

"Oh nope, I am not doing that. I'm sorry."

"Miss, I can't register you if I don't have your name." The man said stenrly.

"Can't I just go by a random name?" I asks.

"How can I search for your data if you said a random name? Please don't make it harder than it needs to be miss. Just put your hand on the machine." The man sigh. I stare at the device.

"T-this can bring my memory back?" I asks.

"Yes, now just put your hand on it." His voice grew with frustration. I hesitated a bit before putting my hand onto the device again. A surge of black electric travels through my hand and strikes my brain. I again, see nothing, except blackness.

"I'll name her, Sera." A voice suddenly rings in my ears. Is it my memory? I don't know, but the voice grew weaker and more incoherent before only blackness of the void remains for an entire minute.

"Gah!" I gasp. My body leans onto the counter breathing heavily.

"So, what's your name?" The man asks again, keeping his formal tone.

"Sera... Search Sera." I answers while gasping for air.

"Alright."

The man types on his keyboard. I wait nervously as he tinkering about on his computer.

"Weird... I don't see any Sera in the list today..." He mumbles. "Wait... Gina, do you have anyone named Sera there? Cuz mine has none." He asks towards the woman besides him. She signals him to wait before typing on her keyboard.

"Nope. No Sera here..." She answered after a moment of searching.

"I don't understand, I definitely heard someone call me Sera when i blacked out earlier." I said. The man just quietly stares at his computer.

"Probably just an error... It rarely happens. I can't search for your data tho, so I'll only put your name on." The man said. He type something onto the computer. I just stand in front of him nervously.

After a couple seconds, a name tag suddenly appears onto my suit in a black smoke.

"Name: Sera" is all that's written there.

"We're done. You can go now." He said.

"That's it?" I ask. Looking back and forth towards the man and the new nametag that magically appears onto my suit.

"Yep."

I have so many questions but before I could ask anything, the same sensation from before engulfs my body and I disappear into a black smoke.

———

"I'm so tired of this man... Who knows dying can be this fucking tiring..." I lay at the ground, I can't physically feels tired, but being thrown around like this doesn't feel pleasent either.

I look towards the paper that appears in my hand right after I teleported from the register counter. It's a normal A4 paper with words printed on it. It told me to go somewhere but I'm too distraught to be reading the details of the paper.

After some time, I got up. Paper in hand, looking for the location that it told me to go to. I wander around the corridor that leads to nowhere but find nothing.

"This thing said that the room is in this floor... But can't I just teleport like I did earlier? How do I teleport?" I mumbles, feeling around my body to search for something. "Is there a button or something to teleport? Do I have to do something?" I ask myself, knowing I would get nowhere without asking another person. I take a look around before running towards the first person that I see.

"Hello! Nice to meet you!" I greet them. The guy seems startled as he sees me.

"H-helo. Nice to meet you too. Do you know where this is?" He said, showing me what seems to be the same kind of instruction on a piece of paper as mine.

"Are you new here too?" I asks, the guy just nods. I sigh.

"What's your name?" I ask, but I already take a look towards his nametag.

"Name: Azam. Death by: Blunt Force Trauma."

I raise my eyebrow. That's a bit different than mine. I thought. His name tag mentions how he dies while mine only displays my name.

"Azam." He answers. I just nod.

"I know, your name tag shows it but uh... How's your different than mine?" I said, showing off my own name tag. Azam takes a look at it.

"Uh.... I don't know... I'm sorry, the whole death thing is still traumatizing to me... And now this..." Azam said. I just nod. Understanding what he meant.

"Well, we just need to ask another person. Let's go." I said, grabbing his arms. We went around the lobby, asking different people but all we could find was that everyone here is in the same position as us.

"That's inconvenient, how are we supposed to find this place if there's no one to guide us?" Azam said, regaining a bit of his confidence after familiarizing himself with the place.

"There's no map anywhere on this floor either. They really throw us in some random place and expect us to be able to find it." I said while we were walking down the corridor. I take a quick look at the paper again.

"Find your assigned room in this floor. Please refer to your guide on the location of your room."

We're chatting about how frustrating the whole experience is. I want to talk about the strange grey desert but Azam says he didn't recognize it.

"I never go to anywhere like that, I died and then wake up while standing on a line."

"You really didn't? I swear I spend like-"

"Oh, are you both my new minions? Sorry, I got some business to attend that's why I'm quite late." A voice, accompanied by an arm, hugging our shoulders suddenly appears.

"What-" both me and Azam were shocked at the sudden appearance of the stranger. Me and Azam backed away.

"Oh, nice you've both already made yourself an acquaintance. So I can skip the whole ice breaking thingy." The man said. We both look at him weirdly.

"Are you our guide?" Azam asks.

"Precisely, I'm the team leader and from now on, both of you are my squadron, ya hear me?" The man said. I take a look at his name tag. It's silver, very different from both of our name tags which seem to be made of plastic.

"Name: Javier, Death by: Vehicular Manslaughter"

"Ay, missy. My eyes are up here." He said, fingers pointing outwards towards his eyes. He grins.

"Ah yes, of course you were curious about my *fancy* name tag but this is only given to those who have proven their ability as a Reaper." Javier announced, looking unnecessarily proud of his name tag.

"What's that supposed to mean." Azam asks.

"It's your rank my boy. Look at both of your name tags, what is it made of?" Javier points towards Azam name tags.

"Some kind of plastic?"

"Yes, correct my boy. You get 1 point for that. The material of your name tag decides what your rank is."

"Why name tag?" I ask.

"Of course it's because your identity directly correlates to your soul. If you don't have an identity, what are you but a husk? Correct?" Javier explains. I feel like I just got punched in the gut.

"Hmm I understand. So you're like in the second highest rank?" Azam replied.

"Ho ho ho... I'm flustered but no. Silver isn't the second highest rank, so you have Plastic, after that you have steel, bronze, silver, gold and the best ones are... I don't know."

"What?" Azam and I both say at the same time.

"I haven't seen anyone with a higher tier name plate than gold but I do know they exist." Javier explains.

Javier then went on to explain more things but i can't keep up with him. Azam however, seems to be listening intently. It went on for several minutes as we walk through the long and winding corridors.

"Here's your room!" Javier announced, 2 door sit in front of us. Each door has our name on it with a date."

"Azam, 2 February 2020."

While the other door only has my name on it.

"Sera"

"Now, before you go in and get to bed, I think it's a better idea to give you a demo of what you'll be doing instead of explaining what your purpose is for being here in the first place." Javier said before snapping his finger.

———

"Ahhh... More... Yes yes yes..."

I cover my eyes with my hand. Azam just stares at the floor while Javier just acts nonchalant to the scene that's happening in front of us.

"Why the fuck did you bring us here." I whisper, although my voice seems to go unnoticed to the 2 participants on the bed in front of the 3 of us.

"To collect souls." Javier answers, whispering the same as me.

"What's that? And, can't you bring us somewhere else? Why here specifically." I ask, still covering my eyes. But my ears were the one violated instead.

"Ehhh, can't do, the other mission is way too long for a demo. I just didn't expect to arrive here while they're still doing it. I thought the timer would've run out already. But it should be any minute now..." Javier looks down at his watch.

"Why are we whispering, they can't hear us right?" Azam butts in, his head still tilting to the floor.

"I mean— yeah, but who knows, maybe they could." Javier shrugs.

"So... How are we gonna collect souls here? I don't see anything." Azam questions.

"Wait, don't tell me we're gonna take the soul of these 2 people?" I butts in.

"Precisely."

"What, are they gonna die then?" Azam asks.

"Yep." Javier answers. "There supposed to be one more person tho..." As soon as Javier finishes his sentence, the only door to the room was slammed open.

I can't help but take a look. I'll forever regret doing this as the scene played in front of me like a video that cannot be paused.

Both people look towards the door, their naked body being displayed on the bed that perfectly sits parallel to the door. Both of their faces drained light as they finally recognized the person.

It's a man, his eyes dark and swollen, his mouth shivering but his hand grip the shotgun that he held in his hand tightly. I instantly knew what was happening and what was going to happen.

I can hear both of them screaming as they realized what the man was holding. But their plea fell onto deaf, tired ears. He takes aim and

"Bang"

Blood and body tissue sprays all over onto the carpeted floor and bed. The man was the first to go down. His chest cavity, ripped open by the pellets, left a hollowed mess before he drops to the ground, mouth gurgling, choking in his own blood.

The woman screams in terror. She backs away into a corner of the room, away from the man and the body on the bed. Hundreds of pleas and begging come out of her mouth.

The three of us can only watch, being an unwanted audience to the scene that's happening in front of us. Azam watches intently, so as me but Javier doesn't seem interested.

It didn't take long before the second shot was fired. The pleas are now silent. The man takes a heavy breath before slumping his back onto the wall.

2 bodies lay dead in a short time.

"What the fuck..." I finally managed to say something. My eyes still haven't torn away from the scene before me. Javier steps in front of us, as if blocking the horrific view behind him from our eyes.

"You have to get used to this. We're Soul Reapers. We wait til someone dies and then collect their soul-"

"Bang!"

Javier's explanations were cut off by another shotgun shot. I instinctively tried to take a look but Javier hands covered my eyes before I could see anything.

"Don't look. Eyes on me." He said.

"As I said, we're what is called Soul Reaper. Like those Grimm Reapers you see in the media. The only difference is, we don't kill." Javier paused, seemingly waiting for our reactions."We wait til the moments of death and only then, we collect them." He held his hand out and a blue aura suddenly rose from the man's body and absorbed into his hand.

"Any questions?"

"But why do we gotta do this?" Azam asks, his word trembles. Of course, who wouldn't be traumatized after seeing 2 murders happening right before their own eyes?

"Because we can't just let souls stay in the living world, when they're in the living world for too long they'll become corrupted-"

"I mean why must WE specifically chosen to do this?" Azam questions.

"You weren't the only one chosen to be a Soul Reaper. Everyone that you've seen back at the place we've come from, are Soul Reapers."

"Does that mean every person that dies have to do this then? For eternity?" I take turns asking the question.

"No, I don't know the exact process for the selection but not every dead person is to be a Soul Reaper." Javier explains carefully.

"Then where would the soul of those who don't become one go?" I question him again.

"The Grey Desert, where dead are to rest for eternity, and cease to exist altogether."

I stood there stunned. I know that place. I mean, of course I know it, I stayed there for years before being transported here.

"The Grey Desert?" Azam asks, looking at me. Javier nods.

"Yeah, it's a place where there's no life, literally. And it's basically just a massive sandbox filled with grey sands. After enough time, souls that go there would crumble into sand as well. Enough with the Grey Desert question, that place is so creepy, I've never even been there but I heard that Soul Reaper can't even survive a day in there without crumbling to dust so a normal soul would instantly crumble after minutes." Javier explains.

"L- last question about that place, can you die, go there and then get to the office space?" I ask.

"Nope. Once a soul goes there, they're gone for real."