I'm Living My Afterlife

Chapter 1 - Welcome to 42 - Part 1

[27/04/16057P.S.D. 18:30]

*Fwoooooo*

'Is that a train whistle? Why of all things in limbo would I hear tha-aah oh god.' I wake up with a headache. 'Must've been because of tha-wait, shit! I was shot! Am I OK? Am I alive? Where am I? And why is it still dark?'

I don't feel numb, but I feel like I can't move my body properly. I attempt to open my eyes but fail in doing so. I sluggishly pat my body as I kept asking myself more questions. By now, I realise something's off. I can feel. But when I pat myself down, it didn't feel like a body of skin. Rather, it felt somewhat hard and smooth, like marble. But even with that texture it would act like skin, squishing when I press against it. I experimented by pinching myself. My 'skin' was still soft enough to pinch and the pain felt the same as a regular body.

By now I could move with relative ease and reattempted to open my eyes again. It was still pretty dark, but I succeeded in opening my eyes.

I was in a dome, a broken dome crowded with overgrowth. Above me, beyond the broken roof, was a cloudy night's sky with a low, shining, crescent moon beyond those clouds. But looking at it again, are those...islands? Indeed, they were. Floating landmasses of rock and soil scattered across the sky. 'Limbo is strange'.

I look around some more and see two openings on either side, this time they are actually part of the dome's structure. Leading out from both of the openings were two strips of metal, parallel to each other, going towards the distance. I realise now that these were metal strips were actually rails, and that would mean this was a station.

I decided to explore the area and see what was going on. But upon trying to stand up, I caught a glimpse of myself. I was more than surprised at what I saw, but at this point I suppose I should be expecting more strange things like this to happen more often. Looking at myself, I see I'm all black. Matt black, to be precise. Looking towards a glow where my heart would be, there is a matching black flame. There were no muscle lines, nor wrinkles, just a flat humanoid shape. I also feel near empty inside. 'What am I?'

At this point I made the assumption that I am dead and I'm now in hell, making me a ghost or spirit. It's too surreal for a dream of mine and I would have definitely died from that shot. Although, if it was hell, I would have expected to be greeted by devils and be lead straight to the torture. Perhaps this is purgatory. And here I thought I wasn't religious.

I lost my trail of thought to the sound of another train whistle, this time, louder. I turn towards it to see a steam train approaching towards the station. As it slows down to halt, a person jumps off in front of me. A...furry? This can't go well. A grey bipedal wolfman with an old, blue train conductor's uniform, ticket machine and a smoking pipe approached.

Wolf: "Good evening. Looks like you are the first one for tonight and possibly the last one. Are you okay?"

He reaches out his hand to pull me up, to which I grab and stand up. I'm still a bit confused as to what exactly is going on here. I don't know who he is but he seems used to this place. Might as well try to confirm my guesses.

Choro: "So, this is Hell? Was expecting a more 'heated' reception,"

Wolf: "Not hell, but the Afterlife. Albeit for some people, it is."

As I thought, I'm dead. And I was close with my guess of hell, though it seems like this place can also be heaven. For now this is all that I need to know.

Wolf: "For someone who has recently been deceased, you do not seem to be fazed at all."

Choro: "I had it coming I guess, it's about damn time too."