Part 1: Pink Lights
I woke up in a bed.
` The white walls and light blue decal were layered across the room making it seem like I was in a hospital but it looked nice. Too nice to be the generic hospital near my hometown. As I sat up I felt nothing, I felt like I was nothing. I felt empty yet whole, like there was a vast galaxy slowly expanding and its planets orbiting inside of me. They say that everyone is made of stardust and at that moment I felt the most connected to the universe.
I should have realised sooner that I in fact was not in a hospital room. There were no machines beeping or wires connected to my body and I was wearing black pants and a pink shirt that said IN TRAINING in bold black letters. Sitting up I saw shoes on the floor and decided against putting them on. The door was closed completely and there were no windows in the room but the air was cool and refreshing. After opening the door a difference scene surrounded me. The walls were flat and black as if there were no doors in the long hallway at all and the only light came from thick neon pink strips of lights reaching across the ceiling in a parallel pattern with triangles on the wall. Walking right ways down the hall realization hit and I figured 3 things.
There was no sound, even with my bare feet hitting the tile.
I couldn't feel anything. The tile made no temperature effect on my feet and when I searched the walls for a door all I felt was a flat smooth surface, but it was not cold or hot.
I was lost.
Time was nothing to me and it felt like seconds had passed when I made my way through corridors but standing still felt like hours. Eventually I found a circular hallway entrance with the same pink lights wrapped around it. The lights however looked like snakes and made it seem like liquid was pulsing throughout the body. At the top were 7 heads taking a bite out of an apple.
"I see you found the hub. Welcome and lets go." A voice came from the left side and was smooth yet persistent, and the women it came from seemed the same. She was tall and from what I could tell had black hair that was shoulder length and straight. She wore an outfit similar to the one that I found myself in but instead of a pink shirt it was deep red with a barcode on the back and the number and letter 022-W under it.
I followed her to another room where there was now an abundance of people in sections with different shirt colors and barcodes on the back. Red, Green, Purple, Yellow, Orange, Blue, and pale Blue shirts encompassed the room and made the atmosphere turn from empty and stale to overwhelming and quick. I stood at the doorway and saw no other pink shirts in sight and confusion set into me. I had no idea where I was, and I had no idea what in the world was happening, but the woman whom I followed seemed to know.
"What's your number?" She turned around and I got to see the rest of her features. She glowed slightly and her eyes were black, or maybe grey, her chin was sharp and her eyes made her seem like she had lived to see more exciting days than the one she was involved in right now.
"My number?"
"Yes, the number you were assigned when you woke up."
"I. I didn't get a number."
She looked at me with a blank expression and her eyes seemed to dim. "No number? Turn around." She seemed annoyed and more on edge than anyone in the chaotic room. I did as I was told and she scanned the barcode on the back of my shirt, something that I didn't get the chance to notice. I turned around and she smiled and took a deep breath. "042-W. You're the 1st W we've had in a hot minute."
"W? What does that even mean."Her smile turned into a frown and she went back to looking at her device.
"Brown hair, brown eyes, uneven freckles, stocky frame, and size 13 shoe." After reading my phenotypes off she looked up and straight into my eyes. "You are Marco Bodt right?"
"Yes."
"And you are 25 right?"
"Last time I checked yes." I was beginning to get angry. Questions flooded my mind and the uncertainty of everything began to settle in. This girl, whom I've never seen before in my life knew virtually everything about me and I didn't even know her name. She had repeated my name several times but I paid no attention until she started to laugh.
"Wait, what is this; what's going on! Where am I?" Desperation poured from my voice.
She stopped laughing and had a seriously concerned look on her face. "Marco, I'm sorry no one's told you yet, that's a Purple shirt job." She paused and looked at her device again pressed a few icons and went back to my page, "And by looking at this you weren't supposed to wake up for another 3 days, which explains why you're so on edge."
"Wake up? What do you mean by wake up."
"Marco." She paused and moved her hand to clench her temples. "There's really no easy way to say this but you're dead and now you get to work here forever or until your greatest sin is forgiven. But if I'm going to be completely honest, that's only happened once since the beginning of time." She spoke with no empathy and as if she was telling someone she was going to rearrange lunch plans.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"And this is why this is a purple shirt job." She shook her head and walked away, leaving me by the doorway that we hadn't moved from this whole time. Soon a taller girl, with dark olive skin, brown hair and eyes walked up to me. She was wearing a purple shirt.
"Hi Marco, nice to meet you, I'm Ymir. Sorry about the confusion but we're gonna get everything back to normal soon." I looked up, disbelief still plastered on my face. "I know it's confusing Marco, but Mikasa should have explained the brute of it to you already. I know it's a purple-"
"A purple shirt job yes whatever, I don't care about that. What do you mean I'm dead!" I must have been extremely loud because at that moment the room became completely silent. One boy, in the back wearing a red shirt started to laugh.
"You guys really screwed him over, that's why you light blues have to check on them every 10 hours jeez." He resumed chuckling. His voice was deep and bounced off the walls which in turn allowed others to become more comfortable and start chuckling back in a light hearted tone.
"Not so fast Jean, this one's yours." Mikasa came from out of nowhere and leaned against the opposite side of the door and handed me a read wrist band.
"Fuck." The laughter then became louder and was directed towards Jean.
I sat there still confused. and having more questions pop into my head than ever before.
"Don't worry Marco," Ymir put a hand on my shoulder and smiled. "Let's take a walk around and I can explain hopefully everything to you about what's happening."
Standing up reluctantly and following Ymir back to the doorway with the snakes she took me to a black room that was surrounded by the same pink neon lights but had one wall covered with windows."Do you like the outdoors, the city, maybe the beach or a farm? Space?" Each option came with the click of a button and a change in scenery. I stared not knowing what to say or how to react. She stared at me and furrowed her brows leaving the windows in space mode. She took a seat on the floor and I followed. It seemed like we were floating.
"So I know you're a W, but don't get to angry with me okay?" She smiled a sad smile and again placed her hand on my shoulder. It was comforting yet felt out of place at the same time. I sighed and put my head in my hands and shook it back in forth, trying to keep the tears in my eyes.
"I don't know what that means." My voice was muffled and broken at this point and the lump in my throat was growing.
She removed her hand and began to speak again. "So now that you're aware that you're dead i should explain some basic things to you. Unfortunately everything you think you know, you don't. But, you'll soon learn to understand everything." She stood up and walked to the edge of the room. The windows were so clear that it seemed like we were at the edge of the world and if she took a step farther she would fall. "I know most people don't read the bible anymore Marco but you have to be familiar with the 7 deadly sins. Im 009-P which means im the 9th major Pride
sinner in this precinct. You are a number 042-W which means you're the 42nd one here under the cause of the sin Wrath. Catching on?"
"I'm. Wait hold on. Everyone sins why am I here? Why are you here! Why is anybody-"
"To be honest none of us really know. You would think the most sinful people and those filled with the most hate would be here. But murders, psychopaths and rapists who make headlines and shake countries to their core aren't in any precinct. None of us really know why were stuck in this limbo."
She paused before she said limbo, trying to figure out an appropriate word for whatever hell this was. Was it hell? It didn't seem too bad at that point. Yes, I was dead, and what I was expecting after death surely wasn't this, but it wasn't the worst thing I had conjured up. Ymirs watch suddenly beeped and flashed a white light.
"Marco, we can continue this later. Please think of any questions you may have, but I have to deal with something. Jean will be here soon to show you around more." She handed me the remote for the virtual windows and left quickly without another word.
I was still confused but at this point all questions had escaped my mind and not a single thought could enter my mind.