Waking up after death is a strange feeling. Knowing your boyfriend was the cause of your death is even more strange. What was even worse was the fact that it was the only thing I could remember. Looking him in the eye, the terror that coursed through my veins as he pinned me down. I couldn't even scream. And the sensation of the knife piercing through my chest. Oddly enough, I didn't remember feeling any pain.
After that, all I could remember was feeling extremely tired, and then I woke up here... Wherever 'here' was.

I looked around, trying to see if there was any form of life here as well. Life? I wasn't sure if I was even considered a form of life, seeing as I had died.
"Hello?" I called out, starting to get a bit nervous. Was this it? No heaven? Just some empty white space?
I began to walk around, exploring the white space.

"Hello?!" A voice responded to me. I jumped, not expecting anyone to actually respond to my weak call.

"H-Hi?" I looked around, searching to see where the voice came from.

"Hey dude!" I turned, to be met by bright blue eyes.

"Who are you?" I examined him. He looked to be my age, maybe a little older. He had blue eyes framed by glasses, and wore a plain t-shirt and a bomber jacket. A strand of his golden brown hair flicked up.

"I'm Alfred!" He smiled at me. "There hasn't been anyone here in a long time!"

"Really? Why's that?"

Alfred shrugged and looked up, "Everyone who came here all found their seven reasons, and moved on."

"Seven reasons? What's that?" I asked curiously

"See, everyone who comes here died in a different way. And they need to figure out seven reasons."

"Seven reasons for what?"

"That's the thing, I'm not sure. Generally they don't even know they've found all the reasons until they end up moving on."

"Why haven't you moved on?"

"Because I haven't found mine. But we can search for ours together! And by the way, you never told me your name."

"Oh, you're right! How rude of me. My name is Arthur." Alfred began walking and I hurried to catch up to him.

"So Arthur, tell me about yourself."

"Well, I would. But that's the thing, I don't remember all that much. I know I was a junior in high school, and I'm 16. Well, 17 actually. I died on my birthday. So I guess technically it's my birthday. Ironic I'd die on my day of birth. I know I love tea and reading. And cats. And I have brothers, and I had a great boyfriend." I cleared my throat, "that is, until he killed me."

Alfred chuckled a bit.
"Well, nice to meet you Arthur! I'm Alfred, also a junior, I'm 17. I love football, comics, cats, and food. And I can't really remember my death. It's very hazy. I guess that's why I've been here so long."

"How long have you been here?"

"I've lost track of the time it's been so long."

"Wow. Okay.
And where exactly is here?"

"It's hard to explain. It's like earth, but on a different dimension? Well. Something like that. We can visit normal earth, though. We obviously just can't interact with living people. This place is called Metaxy."

"Interesting. So can we do normal stuff like eat, sleep, and all that?"

Alfred nodded "Yep. We can. Of course it'd just be you and me. But first, let me take you to Metaxy. This place is kind of just a gateway."

I nodded and let Alfred lead me to this 'Metaxy' place.

-o0O0o-

We were now in a neighbourhood somewhere in Metaxy.
"So now, you can pick your house! There's mine over there!"
Alfred pointed to a pretty gated house. It was painted a rich blue colour that almost matched his eyes.
"P.S - you should totally pick the house next to mine!"

I laughed and rolled my eyes, looking over to the neighbouring home. It was gorgeous, painted a valiant green colour. I didn't need to take a second glance to know I liked it. "Wow. That house is nice. So I don't have to like, buy it or anything?"

Alfred rolled his eyes and laughed "Of course not!"

"Then I'm definitely going to live there!" I had to admit, all of this was weird. I was basically starting a new life, even though I had just died.

"Well, even though we don't technically need to sleep, I imagine you're feeling somewhat exhausted after...you know, dying and all. So I'll leave you alone. Later on we can go and do some fun stuff! And then work on helping you piece together everything that happened. I know you won't wanna stay here long." Alfred smiled sheepishly, before disappearing into his own home.
I took a deep breath and walked inside my own.
The interior of the house was cozy and warm, the walls painted a rich brown colour. The house was completely furnished, and I made a mental note to see if I could get any pets here in Metaxy. While it was nice here, I just wished I could be alive still, instead of dead and in some weird other world.

Realising Alfred was right about my exhaustion, I climbed up the stairs to pick a bedroom and sleep.
I choose the master bedroom and crawled under the sheets, closing my eyes.

-
When I opened my eyes again, I felt better. The exhaustion had gone away and I felt more accepting of my fate, stuck here until I could figure out my seven reasons, whatever those were. At least I had someone here with me. I thought to Alfred and wondered what I was doing.
I peered out of the window. The sky was clear and looked as bright as it did when I went to sleep and I wasn't sure if there was really time here. I shrugged and decided to walk over to Alfred's house. I was sure he wouldn't mind.

I knocked on his door, my mind wandering back to my old life. I missed my family. And even though he murdered me, I missed my boyfriend, or well, ex-boyfriend.

"Oh, hey Arthur!" Alfred smiled at me, running a hand through his hair. "I'm glad you're here, I was considering going over to your house, but I didn't want to disturb you!"

"Yeah, well, I'm here now."

"Come on in!" He stepped aside and I nodded before walking in. His house was completely different from mine. The walls were painted a cool, airy, green and felt full of life.

"I like your house, Alfred."

"Thanks. I picked it out myself!" He beamed and I rolled my eyes.

"Speaking of that, can you get pets here?"

Alfred shook his head. "Sadly, no. If we could, I'd definitely have a dog by now."

Oh well, it had been worth a shot.

"Now that you're here, let's have some fun!" Alfred cheered and grabbed my hand, pulling me out of the house.

-
Oh boy, here I go starting more stories before finishing previous ones. I'm going to finish my hospital story at some point though, so don't worry. The idea for this just popped in my head so I couldn't resist writing this.

Metaxy means between in greek(according to google translate)

Enjoy!