Earth, 2070

  This area of a large city was once well-furnished and pristine. Cars drove past regularly and the streets were clean. There were businesses thriving and families passing by. However, as technology advanced and people adapted, no one walked anymore and there were very few carts that drove on the ground. Trash littered the empty streets, with a few dim open signs of run-down gas stations the only sign of life in this dismal section of an otherwise lively city. On the corner of this street, an old apartment building sat rotting. From an outside perspective it looked abandoned, however there was still one resident in this time capsule of dust and grime.

  Inside not only was there no activity but it looked abandoned. As if not even a rat had scurried across the floor. But inside the bedroom, labored breathing and silent weeping were the only guardians against the silence. An old withered man lay on the bed, covered only in a tattered quilt that bore the stains and wear of time. His grey eyes glazed over with tears streaking down his face as he clutched his chest.

  Charlie, now 76 years old, could only look back on his life as he lay dying. Faces that he nearly forgot flashed through his mind. The exhausted, worn look of his mother's face as she worked herself to the bone. His father's face who he didn't see as much as he should have. His brother who he was always cold to yet he never abandoned him until he had enough. His grandparents who loved him more than anything and only wanted grandchildren yet never got any. All of these faces caused the small tears in his eyes to increase in size and fall down his face. Until his flat, worn pillow had a small wet spot under his head.

  His life flashed multiple times through his head until only one image lingered in his mind. Light caramel skin, dark brown hair, hazel eyes and a bright smile. Charlie's labored breathing slowed slightly and his glazed eyes shone like he was looking at an angel. With one last breath his lungs were evacuated and the last shine in his eyes dimmed until there was true silence. And activity would only return to the apartment when eviction time came.

  When Charlie opened his eyes again, it was as if the world had abandoned him. He was floating in the void, absent of stars. Unable to move, his skin unfeeling. He couldn't breathe, yet he didn't need to. The only sensation he had was the phantom scent of Mango chapstick from the last image he saw.

  "I suppose I'm finally dead. I guess this isn't so bad," Charlie thought to himself as he inhaled the nonexistent nostalgic scent.

  "Don't get ahead of yourself my child." An ominous voice echoed in the emptiness of the void. Shaking the very space around Charlie. The sensation of sound vibrations on his skin was excruciating. The waves crashed against his body like a building-sized sledgehammer colliding with his body.

  Screams of agony finally tore from his throat. Still unable to move or thrash, all he could do was scream. When the pain finally subsided he panted heavily. Now able to move only his head, he turned to see a man. A dangerously handsome man; his chiseled face and pale skin made it seem as if he was carved from marble. After a second glance Charlie saw that his hair was black. So black that it blended into the very void, to the point Charlie didn't notice it at first. His well-kept suit and tie were black with red as the secondary color. Except his tie. His tie which should be black alongside his suit was a glowing red as if it was made from the sun itself. It had a blurry film around it as if it was scorching hot, and occasionally it writhed and slid like it was alive. His eyes were dark brown, almost black.

  After being dazed by his otherworldly appearance, Charlie snapped back to reality. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" Charlie's voice was laced with fear with a tinge of annoyance.

  The man raised his thin eyebrows in surprise. "Oh? You dare talk to me so brazenly? Though it's odd, most people would ask where they are and what they are doing there. Yet you ask why I'm here and not why you are. Very peculiar." His voice was as smooth as velvet and intoxicating to listen to.

  "Duh I know I'm dead, I'm not that stupid. And I'd appreciate it if you'd leave me to my afterlife. I've been waiting for this for too long," Charlie said flatly as he tried to move his body.

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  "You want me to leave you in the afterlife? Very well. Enjoy eternity my child." The man said with a devil's smile.

  "Why do you keep calling me th-" before Charlie could finish, he vanished. As if he never existed in the first place. Charlie, feeling put off by the unexpected visitor, tried to go back to his phantom scent. Yet it was gone. He could no longer smell the mango chapstick. Anger exploded inside him. "Damn it! That bastard! What am I supposed to do now? Damn it!" He thrashed around in the void. He stopped now realizing he could move his body. Before he could move anymore he was dropped. As if gravity was suddenly flipped on with a switch. He fell faster and faster. At first Charlie was terrified. He screamed and struggled. But after what felt like 30 minutes of falling, he stopped and just fell and fell and fell.

  After what felt like months of dropping, the void around him started to change. It started to get bright, like he was about to burst above a layer of storm clouds into the sunlight. Soon he passed a threshold falling out of the void. Now, a bright sky and an opulent kingdom were in his vision. A large beautiful island, full of green and blue. Fruits covered the trees. A large City big enough to hold billions stands strong in the middle of the island. Nature and crafts perfectly merged as one. And to the side of the impossibly massive island, was a gigantic opulent floating Palace. Big enough to hold mountains and house the heavens themselves. Charlie was dumbstruck by what was before him. There was only one realm that it could possibly be. Heaven. The Heaven from the stories he heard when he still interacted with people. Charlie was so enamored by the beauty and grandeur of the Holy Kingdom that he didn't even realize that he wasn't falling into heaven. He was off to the side by a large margin. Falling past the island into the void,by the time he realized it was too late. He began crying and struggling. "NO! Please let me back! Please! I repent! I repent!" He kept screaming and flailing. But soon the void began to change again. But not into light, but into fire. The void began to heat up and turn red. When he finally broke through the threshold all he felt was scorching on his skin. He let out a loud scream as his skin was seared. And before he could recognize his surroundings he slammed into the ground of concrete with a sickening crash and crunches of his body breaking from terminal velocity.

  He instantly lost consciousness, only feeling the unbearable pain of every bone in his body being shattered.

  After an unknown period of time Charlie awakened. Only aches and pains could be felt in his body. He shakily staggered to his feet, slowly recounting what happened. When he looked down to see the massive crater in the concrete he staggered back. Flashes of what happened previously spun in his mind.

  "I lived after falling from that height," he stammered to himself. "W-well I suppose I'm already dead so I don't think I can die again." He mumbled. "How is my body still intact though? I can feel pain and supposedly get injured. My body should be obliterated." Shaking his head, he checked his body. Only his clothes were bloody and tattered. But only aches like he was overworked racked his body.

  "I don't have time for that. Not like it matters either way. Where am I anywa-" before he could finish his sentence, his words were sucked back into his throat. Looking around, he recognized the area where he landed. It was the town where he used to live during high school. Where he peaked and also began his plummet into despair and depression. Subconsciously, he began walking around, checking out different areas of the town he used to haunt. The further away from the center of town he went, the more dilapidated it became. Mostly pristine if only a bit dirty buildings soon became broken and abandoned, then to only ruin and piles of wood. Each layer was obviously marked by an invisible line. Once passed, more destruction could only be expected. In one house, half of the house was in ruins, while the other half was completely rubble. A clean cut looking split right down the middle.

  Right before Charlie crossed the rubble line, the ground began to shake and tremble. As if the very ground was about to split in half at the line. Charlie jumped backwards and ran into a ruined house for cover. Within a minute, the entire road was covered in massive entities previously unknown to mankind except for stories long thought to be just that, stories. Massive muscular minotaur-like creatures, wielding large swords, bows, axes and shields. Large bat-winged creatures with the body of a goblin-like creature, save for the feet which were that of eagles. Charlie trembled in fear as he fell unsteadily to the ground as it shook violently. The comparatively quiet sound of his body falling to the floor caused every creature in the area to stop dead in their tracks and look over at the dilapidated house Charlie was cowering in.

  One especially large minotaur with a missing horn and covered with scars, confidently walked towards the building and broke it apart completely with one strike of his large axe. What little remained of the house burst apart and flew in all directions. The large creature bent down and sifted through the rubble. After a minute of looking and tossing rubble, he didn't find anything and stood back up and returned to his position in the long march of minotaur's. With a loud call that mixed both a cow and a lion roaring in the quiet atmosphere, they continued their march. Despite their number, they cleared out within minutes. Leaving the road as if they never passed through at all.

  Charlie, sweating and shaking, emerged from under a dilapidated car sitting crashed in the yard. As he stood up straight, he watched in bewilderment as the house that was completely demolished rebuilt itself to its previously dilapidated but comparatively intact state. With adrenaline still rushing and his legs shaky he stumbled slightly but began to run. He ran across the line and into the new area. Not a single house or building stood except for one. A building stood untouched. As if it was frozen in time from years ago. Charlie recognized the building at once. It was his old high school. Where he met his first and only love. An image flashed in his mind once again, of a bright smile and caramel skin. And bright hazel eyes. Charlie, as if in a daze, walked towards the building like a moth to the flame. As he approached, memories flashed across his mind. Tears fell down his face, he lifted his arm and pushed the door open. Walking inside, he let the door close behind him. Outside and unseen to Charlie, the building seemed to tremble as if it finally fulfilled its purpose in its long life.