original

Promised To The Shadows

Bab 1: The Council of Afterlife

A loud buzzing sound...

Or more like a siren of some sort...

Seraphina clutched her head with her hands as she slowly woke up from what seemed like a long but painful sleep. Everything was hurting - her head, her body, her heart...

HEART!

Her eyes flew open in panic at the recollection of her memories before falling unconscious. She was shot - right through her heart. Her trembling hands that were holding her head immediately rushed toward her chest to check. It took her way too long than a moment to realize that there was no bullet hole on her chest and her heart was working just fine.

Taking in a deep breath to calm herself down, she finally took a look around her. What met her eyes was an endless glass platform that was stretched out in all four directions with no visible end, and a magical sort of light that was illuminating the entire place.

Shocked to her very core by the view she was seeing, she stood up on her feet and turned around only to find herself at the very end of what seemed like a very long line of people.

Puzzled, she stepped out of the line to take a look at what was happening only to come face-to-face with a... what was that? It was almost seven feet tall, covered in black clothes from top to bottom, a hood covering its face where a hollow of darkness could be seen.

Seraphina was too shocked to even scream as she just stared at the creature that was towering over her.

"Go back to the line."

It spoke in what seemed like a low growl that made cold shivers run down Seraphina's spine. Bracing herself to get a grip on the fear that was coursing through her body, she faced the creature and demanded, "What are you? Who are you? What is this place? Why am I here?" She didn't wait for it to answer before she asked the rest of the questions.

The creature made a sound that almost felt like it was sighing. It turned its head toward his companion who was floating in the air at a distance and spoke, "This one has a lot of questions. Take her to Boss."

Seraphina frowned as she heard the term 'Boss'. Was all this some sort of play? Was she captured by one of her rivals? Before she could have come to a conclusion, she was ushered by the second creature toward an empty desk sitting at a distance from the long line of people.

"Boss. It's time to answer some questions." The creature spoke to the empty desk, much to Seraphina's horror, before it left her there all alone. She wanted to scoff out loud at the bizarre situation she was witnessing at the moment.

She was ready to assess the situation and figure out how her enemy had created such a weird set just to mess with her mind, when her attention got pulled toward the empty desk where an old man suddenly appeared out of thin air.

The man, who looked to be in his sixties, was wearing a black office suit with a pair of glasses sitting on his nose. He assessed Seraphina from head to toe for a fleeting moment before speaking, "What do you want to know?"

"What the Fuck!"

Seraphina shouted as she was finally able to pull herself out of the initial shock she received after seeing the man appearing in front of her out of nowhere.

"Language, Young Lady." The old man gave Seraphina a sharp look which did nothing to calm her down.

"Who are you? And h-how did you do that?" She demanded while referring to his sudden appearance.

"I'm the person incharge of this place and I just teleported here because you were giving a hard time to my staff." The man answered with patience.

"T-teleported? How?"

"With magic."

"Magic?" Seraphina found herself getting more lost the more she heard the man explaining the weird situation. "What is this place?" She demanded.

"The Council of Afterlife."

"The council of WHAT?"

The old man finally let out a sigh and looked at Seraphina as if he was talking to a lost child. "Young Lady, have you forgotten about your death during the assassination attempt? You got shot through your heart."

"Oh," That was the only sound that escaped Seraphina's lips as the realization dawned on her. She was indeed dead. But how? There was no bullet hole or any other wound on her body, and her heart was working just fine. Glaring at the old man for playing tricks with her, she stated, "That's impossible. My heart is still beating."

The old man sighed again before he spoke, "That's your soul's heartbeat. Your mortal body is gone and you are now in your spirit form, waiting for the council to decide your place in the afterlife world."

Soul's heart? Seraphina couldn't help but feel suspicious about the entire thing. Nothing that she was seeing and hearing at the moment seemed possible. Was there indeed afterlife? Could souls have hearts too?

But no matter what, she couldn't deny the fact that a part of her knew pretty well that she was already dead. She remembered every little detail of the assassination, her close friends whom she saw being shot in front of her very eyes, the pain she felt when the bullet pierced her heart, everything was real.

"Young Lady, please return to the line and wait for your turn to get your place sorted out. Now, if you may excuse me, I have a lot of work to do. Have a nice sorting." The old man gave her a small business smile and then disappeared in the thin air just like he made his appearance moments ago.

* * *

A/N:

Welcome everyone on this new journey. Your author is here with another steamy and romantic Reverse Harem story to entertain you all. Please show your support with Gifts, Golden Tickets, Power Stones, Comments, and reviews!