It was slow at first. My heart stopped. And for what felt like an eternity that was it. I existed in nothing. It was white, it was silent, it was empty, it was worse than anything I had ever imagined. It. Was. Nothing. I bright white expanse of nothingness. Not quite the afterlife I had imagined for myself.

It was torture. I'd always thought that if there were an afterlife, I'd be able to look back down on Earth and watch over my friends and family. I'd know how things turned out, and if they had good lives. But no. The torture was not knowing. There was no concept of time. For all I knew, we could already be in the year 3000. If I were able to, I'd probably kill myself again just to escape the Hell that is nothingness.

An eternity had passed, and I'd be waiting infinite amounts more of them. There was no Heaven. There was no Hell. There was only the vast white expanse of nothingness. Almost everyone I had ever met, was wrong.

But then it happened. It was small at first. I mere flicker so subtle it could very well have been the inevitability of me losing my sanity. My mind or this nothingness trying to trick me into thinking there was a way out when there in fact was not. But that wasn't the case. The flicker; was real.

A small clump of colours so minuscule it was almost the size of a dust particle. It faded in and out of existence until eventually I was able to focus on it. Red, pulling itself apart and piecing itself back together. Orange, dancing around like flames on a match. Yellow, twinkling like the stars in the night sky. Green, coiling like a vine and sprouting other vines. Blue, crashing into itself like waves on the shoreline. Indigo, jumping excitedly from place to place like bolts of electricity. Violet, wafting like smoke from a burning log.

It was a beautiful, organised, and chaotic rainbow. But the circle was only the size of a five-cent coin. It would appear, and then disappear. It was familiar. I'd seen these colours from somewhere else. The first dream. I'd seen them encircling a large ball of white light. It had called out to me, coercing me to step inside. But this felt different. I didn't feel enticed to touch this one. Instead, I waited for it to come to me.

The circle appeared again. But this time I got a better look. The colours were spiralling around each other, twirling like dancers. It was beautiful, and not nearly as random as it had been in my dream.

Eventually, the colours swirled around each other to surround me. I could only see white through the gaps in the colours, and there were very few of those. The colours moved at a freakish speed, and all the white vanished. Just like in my dream. But I didn't feel like this was unsafe. I welcomed the light. Anything but the white. And just like in my dream, the colours collapsed into me. And instead of white, I saw black.

At first, that was it. I spent what felt like days in the blackness, and I had begun to give up hope again. But then, I felt something shift. It was a small pitter patter at first. A gentle and slow pounding. I welcomed the soft feeling, it was blissful.

And then I could smell it. It smelt, warm. Like being hugged by someone using the most subtly scented shampoo. But it was such a beautiful smell compared to the nothingness. If I could smile, I would've.

But it gets better from there. I could taste again. I could only taste my own saliva, but I had never been happier to taste something so simple. The taste made me salivate. I had never realised saliva tasted like anything, but oh, it was almost flavourful in comparison to the nothingness.

But then I could hear it. Or them. It was a light murmur at first, but eventually, I was able to hear everything. There were two voices. One male and one female. The male sounded adult, and the female sounded like she was in her late teens. But I couldn't be sure until I regained the ability to see.

"Listen, I know you're excited that she's here," the girl said, in a French accent, "but you need to be patient. It isn't time yet."

"But Maddie, she's here now!" The man whined in an accent that I couldn't quite place. "That's surely got to mean something."

"No," the girl replied. "She isn't ready. I've seen the results if you tell her now. The results don't line up with what Kassandra said all those centuries ago."

"Well then what am I supposed to do?" The man asked. "I am in charge here, and the rule is that we tell them as soon as they arrive!"

"I am Tempus' daughter, and you will listen to me!" The girl screamed. "She's not ready to know. Do you want him to win?"

"How does telling her now let that happen?" The man wanted to know. "Look Maddie, your logic is flawed, and it's not protocol to deny them knowledge."

"When it comes to this, I think we can make an exception," the girl apparently named Maddie said in a sardonic voice.

I knew what they were talking about. Or, I had a very good idea. There was something that I wasn't supposed to know yet, because if I did something bad would happen. Personally, I would have sided with the guy. Would have even voiced my opinion. But while I had gained most of my senses, it seemed I was still unable to properly function.

"Maddie, you do know what happened the last time rules were broken," the man said with a grimness evident in his voice. "And the time before that, and before that. Whenever rules are broken, someone pays for it."

"Exactly!" Maddie exclaimed as though this somehow proved her point. "If we break this rule, someone pays for it. If no one pays for it, the collision Kassandra spoke of won't happen!"

The man sighed out in annoyance. "Fine," he spat. "But if anything, serious happens, we are fixing this mess!"

"Thank you!" The girl squealed excitedly.

And just like that, the world got brighter. It went from black to grey, grey to white, and then shadows started to form. I was beginning to see where I was, and it reminded me of what I'd imagined Olympus to look like. I saw seven pillars surrounding me, and a domed ceiling with etchings carved into the seven sections. One with warped carvings to look like it was destroying and creating itself. One with swirls that looked like fire. One with smooth crisp lines carved to make some geometric pattern. One with jagged tree branches. One with the dips and curves of water. One with the jolting movements of electricity. And one with trails of what reminded me of steam.

In the centre was a circle. The circle had a seven-armed star inside of it, and then another seven-armed star on top of that one. It reminded me a little of a pentagram, only with seven arms instead of five. It was oddly beautiful and calming to look at. Not nearly as sinister as the pentagram I had compared it to.

I coughed out, feeling my throat beginning to fill itself with something. I turned over and spewed up an entire puddle of blood. Then I noticed the ground. It was the same circle as on the ceiling but enlarged. I stumbled to my feet to see it took up nearly the whole room. There were seven circular symbols marking the ground. And eventually, I found one that matched what I'd seen on my hands in my dreams.

Upon seeing it, I looked at my hands to see that the symbol was still there. I then touched my forehead to meet the hard surface of whatever gemstone was up there. I had two questions running through my mind. Where the Hell was I, and was this the afterlife or one of my dreams?

"Oh dear," I heard the man say, "must've been a brutal death if you swallowed that much blood."

I turned on my heels but quickly regretted it as a pounding in my head formed.

"No sudden movements," he instructed. "Death takes a lot out on someone."

I raised an eyebrow at how nonchalantly he had said that. The man had dark brown hair that reached past his shoulders, the beginnings of a beard, large forest green eyes, and obviously Hispanic leanings. If I was being honest, it wasn't quite what I had imagined. His smile seemed genuine, but his eyes gave away his obvious annoyance. There was something cold in them as well, not remotely warm.

"Who are you?" I asked, looking him up and down. He was definitely going into his early thirties.

"I'm Mors," he replied. "Now, I'm sorry to cut this visit short Flora, but you must leave."

"Leave!?" I exclaimed. "I just got here! And I don't even know how I did that! How on Earth am I supposed to leave!?"

Mors cringed at my last sentence but forced a smile onto his lips. "Flora, I understand that you have a lot of questions–"

"No!" I shouted. "You do not get to tell me this is for my own good! Where am I!? What the fuck is going on!? What am I!?"

Mors sighed. "This goes against my moral compass, but I can't tell you," he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. "I won't tell you it's for your own good because it's really not. It's for the good of the world. Or so I'm told."

"Good of the world!?" I was seething. How dare this man talk about consequences and then break the supposed rules he was talking about! "I deserve to know this! It's my right!"

"I know that," Mors avoided my gaze, "but unfortunately that's not how this is supposed to go down. I promise you; you will get your answers eventually."

"When!?" I screamed. "After my fiftieth birthday!? This is bullshit! You tell me what is going on!"

"Flora calm down," Mors sighed. "You will get your answers when you get them. It's out of my hands."

I was fuming. This man was the only thing stopping me from getting the answers I needed! And that bitch that told him not to! Oh, they were both so fucking dead! So! Fucking! Dead!

I ran up to him and grabbed onto his neck in a fit of rage. My head felt like it was on fire. But I paid it very little mind. This man was going to give me my answers. Whether I had to beat them out of him or not.

I went to punch him, but he grabbed into my fist. He then pulled my other hand from his throat with absolutely no struggle. I thrashed my legs around to try and kick him, but after just a two minutes my entire body began to cry out in agony.

"I already told you," he shook his head exasperatedly, "no sudden movements. If you keep carrying on like this, you may never make it back."

"I don't care!" I struggled to get out of his grip and continued to try and attack him. He was much harder to wrangle than the boys at school.

He sighed. "Forgive me, Terra, for what I am about to do."

Suddenly my limbs felt like lead, and I was struggling to move. I looked up at Mors, but my eyes began to roll back in my head again. I couldn't breathe, and I lost all of my senses a lot quicker than when I was at the Clark Corporation. And just like back there, I felt my heart slow, and stop.

When my senses returned to me again, I woke up in an entirely different setting. I turned my head very slowly and saw a pile of cushions and pillows, all coloured in different shades of green. I was lying underneath a thick and silky doona, detailed with black embroidery. I then noticed that it was a very large bed with four posters, each made of a metal that looked like a mixture of gold and bronze, with twirling tendrils wrapping around them. And the curtains that hung from the bed were a green colour made of satin fabric.

It was the most elegant and expensive looking thing I'd ever seen. In person at least. But it didn't stop there. I sat up and saw a fireplace to my right, made of mahogany wood with gold curlicues winding all around it and crawling up the wall as well. In front of that was a small seating area, with an armchair and loveseat made of the same metal as the bed, with an emerald, green fabric as the lining.

To my left was nothing more than a large window, also decorated with golden coils. The window was surrounded by bookshelves, filled with ancient looking books and scrolls, covered in cobwebs. There was also a desk, covered with papers, leather bound books and what looked like a quill. On the wall right next to that was a large cupboard, made of mahogany wood and covered in ornate design of twisting tendrils. In all honesty, it looked like something Ciara would kill to see.

I glanced opposite myself to see the doors were ajar. I saw Mors talking to some other man, obviously coming from somewhere in Asia.

"Why is she here?" The stranger asked in what sounded like a Taiwanese accent. "I told you not to bring her here!"

"Look, I will make sure nothing happens," Mors explained, "but she was hysterical. Looked like she was just about ready to murder me. I had to stop her somehow."

"So, you killed her!?" The man hissed in question. "Mors, that's not what we do!"

"That's what I told Maddie!" Mors hissed in reply. "But she insisted that the world would meet its doom if we told her now."

"Well, when is she going to be told!?" The man shouted. "After the foretold resurrection!?"

"No!" Mors yelled. "She will be told by the end of this year. And Kassandra clearly said that knowledge somehow plays an important role in how things pan out."

"If you're here who's at the Altar anyway?" The man asked in annoyance.

"I've got Freyja handling that," Mors said.

"Freyja's nine!" The man scolded. "Do you really think a nine-year-old should be exposed to that!?"

"You can't talk!" Mors shouted. "Not after what you did to your children!"

"Whatever just don't mess this up," the man left, stomping off in what was clearly anger.

Mors walked in and closed the doors with a loud thud. He looked at me and groaned in annoyance. Still, he tried to put on a calm and happy face. Most likely to not frighten me. He walked over and sat down on the bed, pulling a cloth from a bowl of water on the bedside table.

He encouraged me to lie down and rested the cloth on my head. It was warm, and I welcomed the soft feeling of the damp cloth. There was no point fighting Mors if he was just going to kill me again anyway. Instead, I just waited for the lingering effects of being killed twice to dull a little before saying anything.

"I'm sorry it had to come to that," Mors smiled. "But it's better to try and help you when you aren't trying to murder me."

I smiled sheepishly at his remark. "Sorry..."

"No, it's fine," Mors waved away my apology. "Believe it or not, but I've met feistier."

I chuckled. "Your job doesn't sound fun."

"It's not," Mors admitted. "But I suppose it does let me know when people have broken some of the stricter rules."

These rules he spoke of confused me. How many rules were there, and how did they affect the world? He mentioned that when someone broke a rule there were consequences, but the consequences surely couldn't be that bad. Unless they had some tyrant running the show, I couldn't see how the world would be so badly affected.

"You should feel better soon," Mors stood up. "Once you do you can leave."

"How would I do that?" I asked. "Or is that another thing you can't tell me?"

Mors shook his head and smiled sympathetically. "You'll know how when the time comes."

And with that, he left the room and closed the doors. I waited a few minutes until my head felt better, then removed the cloth and placed it in the bowl of water. I threw the doona to the side and got to my feet. I looked down and noticed I was still in my Nangidon uniform. Definitely not the clothes I'd imagined people wearing in the afterlife.

I took in a deep breath and walked towards the sitting area. The loveseat was a lot more comfortable than it looked. I crossed my legs and rested my hands in my lap. My eyes felt heavy, and suddenly, everything turned white again.