Author's Note

I've updated this chapter to have better flow and to correct some grammar and spelling issues. I've also changed o few details.

The Void (Chapter 1)

The faint echos of silence.

This is what filled my ears as I regained consciousness. Regaining my senses, one by one, I opened my eyes only to be met with darkness. Darkness, combined with nothing in any direction. I was confused. I didn’t know where I was, or how I got there, but the last thing that I could remember was pulling the trigger of the pistol that I had pressed against my head. How am I alive? How did I get to this bizarre place? I was dead, as far as I could tell.

Then it hit me like a pile of bricks.

Is this where you go after you die?

I turned my head around in all directions, finding nothing but endless darkness, as I expected. I looked down at my body and found that I had no body to look at. I couldn’t feel anything. I began to panic, as the thought of becoming nothing filled my mind. But then I remembered something: this is what I wanted. I wanted a place where I could just let go of all of the hurt that I had dealt with. A place that was so peaceful, that I could forget everything.

And then a screen came up.

“Huh?”

Subject: Alexander Storm
Age: Deceased
Blood Type: A+
Physique: Above Average
Cause of Death: ERROR

I looked at the bizarre screen, seeing my name, blood type, and the confirmation that I was indeed dead. I looked at the last entry and became confused. “What type of afterlife doesn’t know your cause of death?” I said aloud.

A blinding light filled my eyes as a orb of light started to float towards me. “The type that is the equivalent to a database, of course,” Came a voice from the light. It had started to take the shape of an older man, with his peppered brown hair was ragged. He wore a tan robe over what looked to be a lab uniform that was white, with a brown belt that separated his upper half from what looked to be the ends of a tunic and black pants with black shoes. “And I, being its creator, am not all-knowing, unfortunately.”

I looked at him, bewildered at how he appeared out of nowhere. I parted his mouth slightly, (at least in my mind), before closing it again, not knowing what to say. I stared for a few more seconds before the man waved his hand, and a little keyboard appeared. He hovered it over to where my hands would have been.

“Just picture in your mind what you want to type,” The man said. “And when you are ready, concentrate on all of your being, and imagine that your hands are on the keyboard.” He demonstrated with slow breathing, before raising his hand. “See you in a bit. Chou!” And he disappeared.

I was at a loss for words at what had just happened. All I could do was heed the man’s words. I focused on my being, closing my eyes and concentrating on what I wanted to type. At first, nothing had happened. Nothing but the sounds of silence. I tried once more, this time focusing on my hands and almost in an instant, I could feel my hands again. I then focused on the keyboard, feeling my hands hover over to it, looking towards the screen. The next entry was indicated by a blinking white line. ‘Cause of Death’ were the words running through I head. I began to type;

Cause of Death: Gunshot to the head; Suicide

I pressed ‘Enter’, which triggered the system to expand and gather other entities. They looked like data. Not just any data, but data about me. My data.

Looking up in astonishment, I began to speak, “This... This is an entire data stream of every event in my life!” I looked at the stream, seeing events that he could never forget, to things that he had tried to suppress and keep hidden. I winced at these. “This isn’t just a data stream...”

“It’s a recording.” I said in unison with the other man’s voice that sounded like it came from behind. I jumped and turned around. I saw him once again with his arms folded behind his back. He had a look of wisdom or radiance of light in this dark abyss. I wanted answers, so I asked the most obvious question.

“Who are you?” I asked.

The man looked at me and tilted his head forward, closing his eyes. He looked to be deep in thought, as if he was thinking about what he should say, or to remember something. After a few seconds of silence, he opened his eyes, raised his head and walked toward Alex, stopping right in front of him. Looking straight into his eyes, he began to speak.

“I am Doctor Owen Parker, a former scientist, if you will, in the field of creating the perfect afterlife.” He said while gesturing around him with one of his hands. “My job was to create the perfect afterlife for those who have experienced an unfair, or unfortunate end to their biological lifestream.” He gestured toward the holographic screen, causing it to move and stop in front of him. “As you can see, your last moments were quite unfortunate if I may say so myself, but of your own accord.”

I took a moment to process what he said and began thinking about if my suicide had any impact on anything. I had no idea if this man was telling the truth or not. He was supposedly a scientist and based on what I had seen, he wasn’t very successful in creating much of an ‘afterlife’ in my honest opinion. I looked around once more, and once again all I saw was darkness. I had many more questions than I had answers. I looked at Owen, who was waiting for me to process things.

“This is real, right?” I asked, receiving a nod in response. “This is the ‘afterlife' that you created?” I received another nod. “It doesn’t have much of a presence, does it?”

What I received this time was the opposite of what I expected. He chuckled, “Well, this part of the 'afterlife' could be considered the main lobby with information on what is to be expected from this place. But I’ll spare you the fine details for now and welcome you to my world.” He clapped his hands and suddenly a bright light started to build up. Electronic buzzing and whistles accompanied the light as thousands of data and video screens started to form. The screens began to project different data sets that seemed to be from different people. They started to fly around in the darkness. They flew around in a way that could be described as a vortex of light that had surrounded us. This went on for a few minutes. The silence around us was soon replaced with constant electric noise, whirring engines and beeps, as if it were a server room, but beyond the holographic screens, there was darkness, a void of nothingness, as if these screens were what made up this ‘afterlife’. The screens started to settle down and rest in place, looking up, I could see a vortex of data and visuals.

“Whoa...” I said. I looked in front of me and saw a holograph detailing names and info pertaining to those names. I could finally feel a floor beneath my feet. I looked down but all I could see were more screens and data, but still no-body. I looked at Owen, who had a grin on his face. He looked at me, raising his eyebrows.

“Welcome to the Void.” Owen started. “Here you can see into millions of people’s lives with the press of a button. You can travel to other realities here, and you can even visit certain important people in history; depending on which history you are interested in.” Owen looked back to the wall of screens before continuing. “I originally invented this space to give people, like you, a second chance at life. I, of course, have evolved it into something greater.” He paused, furrowing his brow a bit.

I looked at him for a few seconds before looking back at the holograph. Being curious, I walked towards it until it was an arm's length away, right in front of me. I read a few of the descriptions. Some of them were dead, but most of them were still alive. “How did you do all of this? I know you said that you’re a scientist, but...” I continued to read the descriptions of more subjects, each one having their own unique background. One of which, caught my attention. The data appeared to be more detailed than my profile. I was then confused even more. “Uhm...”

Owen saw my confusion and wondered what had caught my eye. He walked up to the holograph and stood next to me. I pointed to the profile. He saw me pointing to a name that caught my attention. A quick glance was all that was needed to understand why. “Ah, that,” he said.

Subject: Alexander Storm
Age: 27
Blood Type: A+
Physique: Athletic
Health: Above Average
Heart-rate: 42 bpm
Physical Abnormalities: Amputated Left Arm
Special Abilities: High Jump, Acrobatics, Swordsmanship, Arcane Magic
Mentality: ERROR

This profile was not mine, but at the same time, I had looked into the studies of alternate realities and wondered if this was one of them. This ‘Alexander Storm’ was still alive, and he had a much more interesting life than I did. What bothered me most of all, was that this Alexander’s world was completely different. Technology had advanced quicker and easier. He had people to call his friends, and some to call his family. He still had enemies, but that was nothing new. He had abilities that would have never been possible in the real world, but there he was with arcane magic by his side. He also appeared to have spiked brown hair, which looked like it came straight out of an anime.

“Doctor, could you tell me what this means?” I asked.

“This, Alex, is an alternate reality, but you probably already know that,” Owen answered, looking at me. I nodded. “One of which that has significant differences and changes compared to your timeline, and has had elements placed there by an unknown entity. This world is going through a war so great, that civilians from all over the world have had to train themselves to fight powerful machines, mages, swordsman, demigods, and much, much more.” Owen looked at the picture of Alexander Storm. “This man is probably the most important man in this alternate reality, and in reality, Alex, this man is an alternate you.”

“What?!” I yelled. “How!? I’m here! How can I even be here?! This shouldn't even be possible, this is all science-fiction!”

“I’ll give you the short answer;” Owen responded. “This place was created by me when I had a scientific breakthrough; the key to the so-called 'afterlife'. Now,” He put his hands in front of him, bringing up a visual interface. “If you had a bubble," he began drawing, "and you created another bubble on the outside of the first bubble, there would be two bubbles, joined together, fragile, but together. The barriers between these two bubbles act as a passageway to one another. With the Void, I found and figured out a way to recreate that same passageway but with universes and realities. Now, suppose we add a restriction to these bubbles, like say... An unfair life or death. This would only make it so that only people who have suffered an unfair life, or an unfair death could pass through this barrier, into the Void.”

“And how does it do that?” I asked. Still confused and overwhelmed.

Owen paused, looking at me, and smiled. “The wonders of science, Alex! I created this, 'bubble' by creating a miniature black hole in my reality. What I found out, was that this particular black hole was different. Naturally, my world and I were sucked into it. My world was unfortunately destroyed, but I survived! Once I was here, I found that I could do things that I would only ever dream of doing! I could manipulate the black hole from the inside, and as an experiment, I wanted to create a 'portal' to another world. It worked, but what I found out through time, is that I could only visit a world for 30 minutes at a time, every 10,000 years.”

In my opinion, this man was either a genius or a loon. But that didn’t matter right now. What mattered were my next questions.

“So... What am I doing here? Am I the first person to come here after you?”

Owen’s smile grew even wider as I asked these questions, but then his face got serious. He looked at me.

“You are here because of your unfortunate life and death,” Owen said, "and yes, you are the first person that I have decided to bring to the Void. This is your second chance Alex! I admit, that your life was very, very unfortunate, but your death is more tragic." He turned to the holographs and began browsing. "Suicide, tut-tut..."

"What is it?" I asked, noticing his displeasure.

"Suicide is never the answer Alex, but that just means that you have a lot to learn." He glanced in my direction, then back to the holograph. "I need you to learn that most of all. So while you are here, there will be a punishment. But we will get to that in a moment. For now, I must tell you what you are meant to do here."

I knew that my suicide would play a factor in this, but hopefully he'll explain that later. I looked to him with interest, "What I am meant to do?"

“This is what I meant when I said that I have evolved the Void into something greater." He said with pep in his voice. "You will be the first experiment of this evolution."

Now I was even more confused than I was originally. More questions, great... "I don't understand, what is this evolution?"

Owen chuckled "Something that I'm sure that I'll be proud of." He stopped his scrolling on a particular profile. "This evolution is meant to help those that are in the land of the living or the 'Waking World'. Some people need guidance; protection if you will." He tapped on the profile to reveal that it was a girl's. She had red and gold flowing hair with a smile in her picture. "Alex, you're essentially immortal in the void, time passes differently here than in the outside world. That means that you have as much time as you need to train, and you must train if you are to protect this particular person."

Time differences? "How much of a difference is time here compared to the outside world?" I asked.

Owen smirked and turned towards me. "One minute in the waking world is four months in the void." He chuckled, "So that would mean that one second there is worth twelve hours here."

What!? I was flabbergasted. Four months in here is equal to one minute out there?! "That's...that's...how have you managed to do this!? That should be impossible!"

Owen let out a hearty laugh, "That was not my doing. You can blame the black hole for the time differences. But that brings us to your first lesson. You see, because I am limited to this place, essentially trapped, I need you to do what I can't. I will train you in many aspects. For as long as I've been here, I've mastered all forms of combat, defensive and offensive. You must train to protect others while you're here."

Alex was stumped. "Why do I have to train to protect others? Why can't I just stay here?"

Owen looked at Alex with a slight frown. "Because, Alex, I want to prevent things from happening to innocent people's lives that have ended another's. For instance, your death was caused by years of torment by bullies and thugs. You had lost your mother at the end, and that was the last thing you could bare before you ended it all." Owen looked at the data stream. "That's this skull right here." He pointed to Alex's lifestream, which looked like a heart rate monitor. At the end of the stream, was a red skull, which indicated the end of one's life. "This is why I have decided to start this evolution by training anyone that comes here to save others from doing the same."

Alex looked at his life stream, and thought of another question. "If this place is where people go after they suffer through a tragic death..." He paused and looked at Owen. "...then where is my mother?"

Owen sighed. He waved his hand and brought up another screen of data. This one was Alex's mother. It had a list of properties that were different from the other's.

Subject: Linda Storm
Age: Deceased
Previous Age: 69
Blood Type: A+
Physique: Average
Cause of Death: ERROR
Mentality: ERROR
Transfer to Void: FAILURE

"I couldn't save your mother. Her body..." Owen breathed. "...her body was too damaged to be saved, and if the void gets a body, that doesn't look human, then the person cannot be saved."

I couldn't believe it. The one chance of saving my mother, and it's all wasted. Why? Why does this always have to happen to me? Why am I even here?! I shouldn't be here! My mind shouldn't even exist anymore! Just let me die! I could feel tears welling up in my eyes, if I could have tears at all. I looked at Owen, anger welling up in my system. The Void began to shake, the screens and holographs blinking in and out. He looks at me and holds out his hands as if to calm me, but that isn't going to work. My mother! She's fully dead now, and I can't do anything about it...

"Why!" I screamed, making the void shake harder. "Why couldn't you have sent one of your 'Guardians' to save her!" I could feel my anger boiling out of control. "She was the only thing that gave me the will to live!"

"Alexander!" His voiced boomed. I shrunk back in fear of being hit, but it never came. He sighed and looked at me. "Being a Guardian is not that simple." He put one of his hands on my shoulder his tone back to normal. "I can't send them to just any dimension. I have no control over that." His soothing voice was enough to calm my nerves.

I looked at him. "So do these Guardians just get to choose who they want to protect?" I asked.

Owen chuckled, “Oh, no. Nothing like that. Based on my observations, these people are chosen by the will of their heart. Usually, the people who come here and train usually have something in common with the ones whom they were assigned to.” He said. “I train these... ‘Guardians’ to protect these people because I care about the victims who are so unfortunate, that in the end, they just end it all. I send people to protect those people, and usually, it all works out in the end. More often than not, some of my pupils have even became attached to their target by the bonds of friendship.”

Alex had few words to say. This was just so much information at one time to process. He looked back at his alternate’s profile. “So, these are separate from the people who need help?” He said while pointing to the holograph.

“Indeed.” the doctor answered. “These are the people who, given that they meet their end, will come to the void to receive training.” He flicked his hand upwards, causing the list of people to scroll downwards. “See? Here’s your profile. It’s been updated.” Alex looked at the profile. It looked like his mother's, but it was his.

Subject: Alexander Storm
Age: Deceased
Previous Age: 27
Blood Type: A+
Physique: Above Average
Cause of Death: Gunshot to the head; Suicide
Mentality: Conflicted
Transfer to Void: SUCCESS

Alex looked at the profile for a few minutes before making his decision.

"I'm ready to become a Guardian." He said before a locked portal appeared.

This shocked the pair of men, who then looked to the side of the portal. There was a label with a name with a timer underneath. It read:

Subject: Sunset Shimmer
Unlocks in: 100,000 void years

Owen chuckled. "You better get to training then."