White, orderly, and royal.
Those are the words that come to my mind when I looked around the space that I suddenly found myself in.
I just popped onto a comfortable chair sitting in front of a desk of a person in a white suit with a regal bearing and a face suspiciously similar to Morgan Freeman.
The person seems to be waiting for me to speak to him, as he simply observes me while I am looking around my surroundings. Focusing on him, I ask:
"Morgan Freeman?"
He seems to be a bit amused since he smiled and answers:
"Well, I am not Morgan Freeman. Though he is my brother who's on a vacation in your Earth".
Taking in what he said, I ask:
"Sooo, I am either dreaming, and it's a semi-lucid dream as I am aware yet unable to control it, or I am dead, and you are going to explain to me what's going to happen next. The fact that I am not freaking out at all, and the calm I am feeling is probably thanks to you as well, I assume?"
To which he replies:
"Yes, you are right. You are calm because we don't want you panicking and unnecessarily prolonging the process. We have all the time we need, but that doesn't mean that we should waste time on things that can be avoided. You died, and now you are here, so we can get you assigned to your afterlife category, so that you can be on your way. If you are wondering whether I am a ROB or God, then, no I am not."
Hmm, okay.
So I am dead, and I am going to be told where I am going next. That's fine. I was okay with the current situation, probably due to the fact that I've read a lot of novels and fan-fictions. Hopefully I get to go to heaven or reincarnate into a fantasy world just like those novels. If I make a judgement myself I believe I was generally an "okay" person during my time on earth. I may not have been a hardworking, nice, or holy person, but I certainly did my work when necessary, helped people and donated to a lot of orphanages.
I wonder how this assignment process work and which belief or religion was right. Well, seeing that I am here, some were definitely wrong.
Concentrating on him, he should at least be some kind of mystical being. For now, I'll just consider him as an afterlife clerk.
Time to ask for some more information.
"Since I am being assigned to my afterlife here. How does the whole assignment process work?"
A folder appeared before him and he opened it, scanned it for a while, and then he asked:
"Do you want the short answer or the long one? You don't have to know how everything works just to understand how you will get assigned."
I now had the chance to learn how afterlife works and what happens to us after death, but at the same time I don't want a 'Afterlife 101' lecture, so I replied:
"Well, I'll be thankful if you could give a summary of the long one".
He chuckled and began talking.
"There are two categories a soul can be assigned to. Purgatory and Reincarnation.
Which category a soul gets assigned to and what is going to happen in said category depends on two factors: Karmic balance and the soul's belief during its life.
The karmic balance is the sum of the good and bad deeds of a soul during his or her life. "It is what determines which category a soul is assigned to".
He looked at me to see if I understood what he said till now, which I did, and he then continued.
"Like I explained, the karmic balance is what decides which category a soul gets assigned to.
To be assigned to Hell/Purgatory a soul has to have a certain amount of negative karma in its balance. Everyone else is assigned to Reincarnation. It is a soul's belief in life that determines what happens to it after being assigned to a category.
Let's start with Reincarnation. A soul that land here has three outcomes depending on its belief during life before being assigned to a new life according to its karmic balance. Deletion or a simple reset. Those who believed in nothing or that death is the end are deleted just like they desired. It is still the same soul, but it becomes blank and is given a totally new life as a new being in its "universe" of origin.
Everyone else who believes that something happens after death, it does not necessarily have to be a religion, simply some non-destructive belief stating that something bigger exists receives a simple reset. Here it's memories get buried, deep inside it's soul which it may or may not be able to access later and it, depending on its karmic balance, get a new life in a world that it desires. As for heaven, that too comes under reincarnation. If the soul has a high amount of positive karma they get to meet one of us, and then they get reincarnated to a version of heaven fitting their belief without a memory removal or reset".
Since I am here meeting him, that must mean I have high enough karma to get reincarnated to a heaven.
He nodded at me even though I haven't said anything, but mind reading seemed simply par for the course in this situation.
"Yes, you are indeed correct. Congratulations on having high enough karma to get reincarnated to a heaven"
I simply go into silence after he said the above sentence.
*****************************
MC : *Excited about his Afterlife* 🤩
Afterlife clerk : 🙄 Don't compare me to an office clerk, I work for the Afterlife itself damn it. 😤
Thanks for reading. Do comment and let me know if you have some ideas or feedback for my story