I open my eyes.
White.
Endless white.
No ground.
No sky.
No sound.
---
"Where..."
My voice echoes in nothing.
"Is this the afterlife?"
---
I try to move.
Can't.
But then—
my hand moves on its own.
Like something else is controlling it.
---
I look.
A slot machine.
Old.
Chrome and wood.
One lever.
Three wheels.
---
My hand reaches out.
A gold coin appears in my palm.
---
"What—"
My body moves without me.
Steps forward.
Coin in the slot.
Hand on the lever.
---
"This is where it all started," I whisper. "Gambling. The first mistake."
---
The lever pulls.
Wheels spin.
Voices speak.
Not words.
Just sound.
Dark.
Crispy.
Wrong.
---
I don't understand them.
Don't need to.
---
The wheels stop.
---
JACKPOT.
---
THE NEW WORLD
---
I wake up.
---
Not on the ground.
Not in the void.
In a room.
Small.
Messy.
Papers everywhere.
Thousands of them.
---
Walls covered in symbols.
Unknown language.
Every surface written on.
Like a prison made of secrets.
---
"Where..."
My voice is different.
Younger.
Deeper.
---
A table.
Words written in red:
NEW WORLD
---
I touch it.
Smells like blood.
---
Pain.
My head—
information flooding.
Everything.
The papers.
The walls.
The building.
The past.
The future.
---
Blood pours from my nose.
My ears.
My eyes.
---
I stumble to a mirror.
---
The face staring back—
isn't mine.
---
Younger.
Different.
Eyes glowing gold.
---
"This is not my body."
I whisper it.
Then louder.
"THIS IS NOT MY BODY."
---
The symbols light up.
Voices chant.
Light wraps around me.
Information pours in.
Too much.
Too fast.
Too everything.
---
I collapse.
Screaming.
Bleeding.
Dying?
Living?
Don't know anymore.
Don't care.
---
Somewhere—
a voice.
My mother?
"One more step, beta."
---
I laugh.
Hollow.
Empty.
"One more step to what?"
---
The chanting continues.
The light burns.
And somewhere—
deep in this new world—
something watches.
Something waits.
Something knows—
the Devil of Death has just been given a second chance.