Welcome to Chapter 2 of Otherside! I've been having a great time writing this story, as well as hearing what you all have to think about it. Although you guys don't have to review, it's very much appreciated; I will respond to them all via PM (or DM if you're on Discord.)
Here's the chapter; I hope you all enjoy!
I was taken aback by the creature standing in the doorway, because I'd been expecting a human. After all, despite transitioning from one side of death to the other, I was pretty sure I remained a human. And interspecies romance didn't tend to happen, did it?
Does a soulmate have to be a romantic pairing, though?
In any case, a creature significantly shorter than myself stood inside the house. Her figure was rather like an hourglass' shape, with tufts of white and yellow fur all over her chest and torso respectively.
In addition, her bushy yellow tail contained a fiery orange point at the end. It was the same color as her eyes and the fur sprouting out of her ears.
Despite her body mainly consisting of "warm colors" of fur, something about this female's aura, for lack of a better word, made her appear cold and distant. She was staring at me as though she were looking through me; I didn't seem to exist to her.
No, not distant; that wasn't the right word at all. Rather, she looked as though she would be quick to anger if I got on her bad side. I resolved immediately to treat her as well as I could, as well as to avoid arguments if at all possible.
During the thirty seconds or so that we stared at each other, there was tension that hung in the air like toxic gas from a Koffing. Both of us were probably thinking the following; at least, I know I was: THIS is my soulmate?
"Well, this isn't what I expected" I said, in the understatement of the century.
"What didn't you expect?" the female replied coolly. "That I would be a Braixen?"
Dammit, she can read my mind.
"I guess so. I just thought that, with an eternal partnership between soulmates, we would both be human. But I can live with this."
The Braixen woman nodded. I couldn't quite tell her age, but it was probably similar to mine if we had been determined to be good fits for one another.
Then again, she could have been here for any length of time. I can only assume that we don't age on Paradise Island.
"I hope that you can do more than live with this," the Braixen told me. "Because, whether you believe it or not, I want this to be a happy partnership. This is what we've got, isn't it? Anyway, come on in."
She led me into the house, which was a lot nicer on the inside than it had appeared on the outside. Rugs in various colors (albeit fairly dull ones) covered the floor, with pictures of beautiful natural settings on the walls.
"Did you know I was coming?" I asked her.
The Braixen nodded. "When I learned that I'd been matched with a soulmate candidate, I was informed via the radio that is present in every Paradise Island home."
"That sounds rather invasive. Can it see and hear you when you are, for instance, on the toilet?"
She shook her head. "It's not exactly a camera. It's just what Professor Oak uses to make announcements and the like, and, since we all have one, it's the most convenient way to make sure we're all on the same page."
The young Braixen lady showed me into the living room and sat down on the brown leather couch. I decided to sit in the chair across from the couch; there was a coffee table between us.
"So...what would you like to know about me?" she asked, sounding a bit peeved at having to talk to me. Almost as though it was beneath her.
I knew I needed to tread carefully, so I decided to start with a relatively safe subject. "What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"
The Braixen sighed. "I'm Amanda," she told me. "Amanda Mariner. How about you?"
"Victor Chelan" I replied, without hesitation. If she trusted me, I trusted her, and why shouldn't I? We were supposed to be a match made in heaven.
Amanda nodded. "That is a nice name. Sounds rather badass."
I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Thanks."
After that, there was a very long silence, and a rather awkward one at that. Neither of us knew how to continue the conversation, so instead I found myself looking at some of the pictures on the walls.
One of them featured a teenage girl, perhaps seventeen or eighteen, in a bikini. She had long, flowing brown hair and was wearing sunglasses. The girl was with a few of her friends, each of them carrying bodyboards at the beach.
That one caught my attention, since I'd always loved the ocean, even though one day the ocean had decided it didn't love me back. There were other pictures of the same girl in various locales that can only be described as exotic.
"I love that picture," I told Amanda, pointing to the picture of the girl on the beach.
The Braixen lady narrowed her eyes. "What about that picture are you drawn to?"
"I don't know" I replied, shrugging as I did so. "I just...the ocean is amazing. I feel very lucky to be able to spend my afterlife right next to it."
For the first time since I'd met her a few minutes ago, I saw Amanda smile.
"You earned it, pal. Whatever disagreements we may have during our time on Paradise Island, just know that the powers that be here decided that you deserve it. I am still surprised you were chosen as my soulmate, though."
It was hard to take that as anything other than an insult, even if it were qualified with her reassuring me that I did belong here.
"Why is that?" I asked her. "It could have been anyone."
"Well, for starters, you could have been a bit more clean-shaven. Most guys shave before their first date so they don't look sketchy."
Come to think of it, I hadn't seen myself in a mirror since I'd woken up in Professor Oak's waiting room. I excused myself to head to the bathroom, where I presumed there would be a mirror.
Finding the bathroom took a bit of doing, since the house was pretty big, but I eventually was able to. Almost immediately, I was arrested by the sight of my own face; it wasn't what I expected at all.
Now, most people who believe in heaven assume that their physical appearance and condition will be perfected when they get there. The old trope about the lame being able to walk again is only one example of this.
I was not prepared to see that my face looked exactly the same as when I'd died.
The skin on my face was still slightly tanned from having been at the beach all day, and there was the beginning of a sunburn underneath my eyes. I remembered that my father had always told me to apply sunscreen right between my eyes to prevent this, but it never seemed to work. Not well enough.
Thinking about my father didn't exactly make me despair, but it reminded me that my family wasn't here to enjoy Paradise Island in my company. My parents and younger sister were all still alive on Earth, and were presumably mourning me rather than saying "He's in a better place."
At that moment, I very much wished that I could have told my family that no, everything was all right. I was indeed in a better place. But I couldn't, and that was one of the hardest parts of adjusting to my new reality.
Back to my physical appearance. I realized that Amanda had been telling the truth about my facial hair. During my first life, I'd been pretty lazy with shaving. Despite my father's incessant reminders that it was an essential part of hygiene, and the fact that it hurt more the longer I waited to do it, I continued to put it off until I just couldn't anymore.
My cheeks and chin were covered in peach fuzz, and my hair was nearly out of control. At a minimum, it was significantly longer than that of the average male.
Before long, I realized that I'd been in the bathroom much longer than Amanda would have expected me to be, so I decided to head back to the living room.
"Well, then. What were you doing?" she asked me as soon as I saw her on the couch, not having moved an inch in the last five minutes.
"Just taking a look at myself. You expressed surprise that I wasn't clean-shaven, and I wanted to see for myself. Haven't had access to a mirror since I died."
"Understandable, really," the Braixen replied. "But there are more important matters at hand. Would you like to see your new bedroom?"
There was something about her that raised some question marks for me. Perhaps it was the tone of voice she used, making her sound more like a socialite than an average person.
Even so, I nodded. I wasn't going to turn down the chance to settle in before Orientation at five o'clock.
The question sprang into my mind within moments, and I simply couldn't keep myself from asking it.
"Amanda, are you going to Orientation later?"
She shook her head, looking astonished that I'd had the audacity to ask such a question. "I'm not," she told me. "I've been here for two months, and I went to Orientation on the first day." The words came out more harshly than text can convey.
That answer led to another question. I hated to pry further, but I figured that the more I knew about this place and how it worked, the better off I would be.
"You've been here for two months. Why didn't you have a soulmate before me?"
Even before those words had completely left my tongue, I knew that I was crossing a line. Amanda looked as though she didn't want to answer, and honestly, could I blame her?
The Braixen lady turned her nose up in the air and shook her head. "I'm not going to answer that question, because it's too personal! I know that we're soulmates now, but you need to respect my boundaries!"
She sounded borderline irate at this point, so I excused myself to head up the old wooden staircase to the second floor. Even though the stairs were clearly old, they did not creak beneath my feet.
Once on the second floor, I made my way down the hallway and found that there were four bedrooms there: One that looked like it belonged to Amanda, one with a king bed suitable for a couple, one that was probably a guest room, and finally one that had the name VICTOR CHELAN taped to the door.
Well, this is mine, I guess.
The room was fairly compact, but a bedroom doesn't exactly need to be spacious. A twin bed was pushed into one corner, with sheets that were a dark shade of forest green. The pillows were sea green, as was a rug on the floor.
All in all, I saw no reason to be dissatisfied with my room. I was even less so when I saw that the dresser next to the wall held all my clothes from Earth inside.
"Oh, wow!" I exclaimed, my argument with Amanda forgotten immediately. I reached into the drawer and pulled out one of my favorite pairs of sweatpants. It smelled completely fresh and felt warm, too, like it had just come out of the dryer.
In fact, every article of clothing had been perfectly folded and placed in the drawers. There was a bag on top of the dresser with all my toiletries, as well as the fan from my bedroom back at home.
Stop thinking of Earth as home. This is your home now.
I smiled. Really, the room had just about everything I could have asked for. My only gripe with it, and a very minor one at that, was that the window did not face the ocean, but rather the grassland interior of the island. But it was still a nice view.
Once I had gotten enough of a glimpse of my new sleeping quarters, I went back downstairs and out to the back porch of the house. Amanda was not there, so I sat on one of the rocking chairs and looked out at the horizon.
Now, rocking chairs are one of my favorite things, either in the mortal world or on the other side. There's something very satisfying about rocking yourself back and forth, whether calmly or rapidly, so that you don't necessarily feel like you're sitting still. I'd loved them at age three, age twelve, and now age twenty.
From this vantage point above the cliff, I could see a fishing boat carving its way through the gentle waves. The pineapple plants on the ledge overlooking the ocean were gently waving in the wind. And, far in the distance, there was what appeared to be an offshore wind farm, turbines spinning in order to power the island.
Come to think of it, it's good that they're using renewable energy. That makes me feel less guilty about continuing to exist.
After about half an hour of me sitting absentmindedly on the porch, simply basking in the natural beauty of this place, the door opened. I turned around to face it.
Amanda was carrying a tray of cookies. "I made these for us to share," she told me, setting them on the couch next to me.
This confused me a bit, which must have shown on my face, because the Braixen continued with, "It was the least I can do. Welcome to Paradise Island."
"Thanks" I replied, taking one off the tray. Much like the clothes in my dresser, these cookies were warm to the touch and smelled like absolute heaven, no pun intended.
I took a bite. While they were the much-maligned category of oatmeal raisin cookies, they were some of the most scrumptious morsels I had ever tasted. Before I knew it, I had polished off one cookie and grabbed another one from the tray.
I hadn't realized just how hungry I was, and before long we'd eaten about half the cookies. Sincerely hoping I wouldn't regret my gluttony later, I stood up from the couch and headed back to the door.
"Where are you going?" Amanda asked me right before my hand touched the doorknob.
"Just inside. Oatmeal raisin cookies are my kryptonite; I'm going to keep eating them until they're all gone if I don't stop myself. I could literally throw up and keep eating, just like they did in Ancient Rome."
"Ewww!" she replied, wrinkling her nose. I had to resist the urge to laugh, which probably wouldn't endear me to my new soulmate.
Over the next few hours, I did my best to make sure I looked presentable for Orientation.
Jesus Christ, Victor, it's Orientation, not a massive ball! You don't need to look too fancy!
Nonetheless, I decided that at a minimum I would shave. Being immortal didn't make the razor sting any less as it tugged out my long facial hairs, but it was just something that needed to be done.
I also combed my hair, but I stopped short of taking a shower. I hadn't worked up much of a sweat on the way to the house, and even if I had, the sea breeze was very effective at blowing the moisture off my skin.
By about 4 PM, I figured I looked pretty good. I had put on my red striped golf shirt, which I still had even though I'd never played a single round of golf in my entire existence. My face looked a lot neater, even if my hair was slightly unruly. And I felt that I had digested the ten or twelve cookies I'd eaten, at least enough so that I wouldn't be uncomfortable as I walked.
I bade good-bye to Amanda and left through the door facing the sea. I wanted to get one last glimpse of it before Orientation.
On the way back to Enil Edam, I noticed more than I had on my previous three-mile walk. For instance, the pineapples growing in the fields looked even more appetizing than the ones on Earth (saying something, since pineapples were one of my favorite fruits.) In addition, there was a grove of mango trees some distance from the trail.
There was also what appeared to be a garden of exotic plants next to the gravel path, something I hadn't noticed at all on the way to Amanda's house. It probably paled in comparison to the variety of flora in the jungle, but it was beyond anything I'd ever seen before, that was for sure.
I arrived at the outskirts of Enil Edam with fifteen minutes to spare, having moved as quickly as was possible without breaking a sweat. It was a good thing I was early, because, come to think of it, I'd never been told where Orientation would be held.
It would have been nice for Lauren to let me know where to find the event! If they want me to attend it, they sure aren't making it easy.
And so I wandered the streets of Paradise Island's capital for about five minutes, telling myself that this place was not that big and I'd find it eventually. I just didn't want to be late, since I might end up suffering consequences if I was.
Another five minutes passed, during which time I was fairly certain I'd walked through the same square twice without realizing it. By now I was truly panicking, afraid that I might end up missing Orientation.
I must have been looking pretty lost, because a gruff male voice directed at me asked, "Hey, man, you lost?"
Once I turned in the direction of the voice, I saw that its bearer was a Pokemon with pointy blue ears, two black blobs on the back of his head, and beige chest fur with a white spike made of a material reminiscent of enamel.
"You're a Lucario!" I exclaimed, still not over the fact that Pokemon were real.
Lucario squinted at me as if trying to make out some intricate physical feature of mine. Clearly, he thought I must be crazy.
"Uh, yeah, I am a Lucario" the blue-furred Pokemon replied, looking rather annoyed with me still. "And I asked you if you were lost."
I nodded; while I didn't necessarily trust this Lucario, I had no other choice if I wanted to make it to Orientation on time. "Yes, I am."
Lucario smiled suddenly, his earlier beef with me seemingly forgotten in an instant. "Don't worry, you're close. It's just down the street there and to the left, you'll come across a green space known as Forza Park. That's where Orientation is held."
My eyes opened widely. "How did you know that's where I need to go?"
Lucario chuckled. "Isn't it obvious? This isn't a hard city to navigate, but you seem confused enough to be a new recruit. Anyway, the name's Cyrus Damasen." Cyrus Damasen. That's a rather elaborate name; won't be an easy one to remember.
"Thanks, Cyrus. I'd love to get to know you better, but I must be going."
"It's fine, man," Cyrus replied, waving his spiked left paw at me. "Enjoy your stay here at Paradise Island!"
Cyrus the Lucario had been true to his word. As soon as I rounded another street corner, I came across a small public park on which fifteen folding chairs, three rows of five apiece, had been set up in front of a podium that had a microphone attached.
The sign said FORZA PARK, so I knew I had come to the right place. In addition, eight of the chairs already had people in them.
Well, at least I'm not the last one here.
The people sitting in the chairs seemed to come from all walks of life. Some were older than others, with gray or even white hair. They had different skin colors. Some were built differently than others.
They did, however, have one thing in common: All of them had been moral enough in their original lives to end up here. And now they'd all be living together in this community, along with me.
In my first life, it had often felt as though I didn't belong with the group, like I was so drastically different from everyone else that I just didn't fit in. To have a sense of community was a good feeling.
As the nearby clock tower, which had been painted an outrageous orange color, struck five, none other than Professor Samuel Oak walked up to the podium. I took this as my cue to sit down in one of the chairs in the furthest row.
Why did I choose the last row, you might ask? Well, I disliked being called on in class, and that dislike extended into the afterlife. I simply didn't want to get too much attention.
"Good afternoon, new citizens of Paradise Island" the professor told us, smiling widely and showing perfectly white teeth. "Each of you has been deemed virtuous enough to end up here; you might wonder how we decided on that, so I'll cut to the chase."
Professor Oak snapped his fingers, and what appeared to be a holographic screen showed up in front of us. A dizzying array of numbers and words, some in green and some in red, were on the screen. The values and colors were ever-changing, and so were the words.
"You see, every action you take on Earth will affect your score. Those actions deemed morally correct will add points to your score, whereas those deemed immoral will deduct points from your total. In order to make it to the good side of the afterlife, all of you need to have a positive value at the end of your life."
I found myself holding my breath; judging by the way Professor Oak was talking about this, it sounded as though we still hadn't done all we could to make it to heaven. Fortunately, if what he said next was any indication, it was simply a matter of him having said need rather than needed. Tense changes everything!
"If you are here in Forza Park, in the city of Enil Edam, Paradise Island, you finished your life with scores above zero. I would like to once more congratulate all of you for your moral lives."
I felt a sense of pride to have succeeded where others had failed. Perhaps it was wrong to think this way about people who wouldn't be experiencing paradise, but it was still viscerally satisfying to know that you were superior to some people.
"Professor Oak, I have a question," announced a man in front of me. He was perhaps a few years older than me, with darker hair than me, but I couldn't see any more of him.
"Fire away, Mr. McNair" the professor said. "You may ask whatever you like, so long as it's not personal or weird."
"This question is nothing of the sort" the young man addressed as Mr. McNair told the professor. "I was just wondering what happens to those with a negative score."
Professor Oak looked rather surprised at being asked such a question. He was probably thinking something like: This guy's lucky enough to have made it to heaven. Why should he care what's happening to those who didn't?
The professor cleared his throat and wiped his brow, even though the late afternoon wasn't terribly hot. When he finally continued speaking, he looked rather pained to be answering Mr. McNair's query, but he fielded that question nonetheless.
"It's very simple," the professor replied. "If you have a negative score, if you are in the red, so to speak, you will be sent to the bad side of the afterlife. It is there that you will experience an unpleasant post-mortem existence."
"But why?" Mr. McNair replied. "Infinite punishment for a finite amount of missteps? Whether they be simple mistakes or outright crimes, surely that cannot be just."
Professor Oak raised an eyebrow in Mr. McNair's direction. If he could do this by winking, Oak looked as though he might cause a lightning bolt to strike the other man down.
This didn't happen, and eventually the professor seemed to calm down. He took a sip of water from the bottle on the podium before he continued.
"I don't make the rules, Neal McNair. I just enforce them. Besides, why do you care? You're on Paradise Island."
Neal McNair probably wanted to press Oak further, but the professor stared him right between the eyes, with an expression that read: Stop asking hard questions.
"As I was saying, the professor continued, "each of you passed away in the green, with scores high enough to find yourself here. That does not mean that you were perfect; everybody makes mistakes. It's about owning up and learning from those mistakes; that's how you become a better person.
"Whenever you need something at your home, just press the button to summon Lauren. That button is located somewhere in every dwelling on Paradise Island. She will come immediately. Lauren, where are you?"
The skinny lady who'd given me the map of the island suddenly materialized next to the professor, smiling widely. "Hi, I'm Lauren!"
"Thank you for coming, Lauren. Now, as I was saying...although you all earned the right to be here, you will still have responsibilities in the great beyond. Lists of chores will be posted on the island's social network, Pillowtalk."
Why the hell is it called Pillowtalk?
Professor Oak narrowed his eyes. "If you do not complete your tasks as assigned, there will be consequences. Besides, you should want to help out the community any way you can. You guys are good people."
"I can't believe they're calling the social network Pillowtalk" the guy next to me whispered into my ear. "Sounds like a shitty pop song."
The professor lifted a finger into the air. "No side conversations!" he exclaimed, causing my heart to nearly stop beating. "It is of the utmost importance that you pay attention!"
After a few moments of silence, Professor Oak continued his speech. "There are a variety of restaurants here in Enil Edam, and each of you will receive a stipend every week to spend as you wish. Basic needs will be covered under your stipend, not that you'll need health care when you're already dead.
"Your checks will appear in the mail once you have arrived back at your dwellings. The size of each check will vary according to your morality scores on Earth, as well as the chores you take part in here on Paradise Island."
While I hadn't believed in heaven prior to coming here, I had considered one prerequisite of paradise to be not having to do any work. Now that I was actually in paradise, on the other hand, I saw a literally endless number of days spread out before me. It would help to have something to fill them with.
"As I have already told you, everything you need to know will be posted on Pillowtalk as soon as you return to your dwellings. Any questions?"
After a few people raised their hands, and Professor Oak answered their questions (which had invariably already been answered previously), the professor said he was about to dismiss us. However, before he did that, he raised his index finger in the air and narrowed his eyes.
He was making clear that he meant what he said and said what he meant. He was true to his word, one hundred percent.
"One last thing: I am a professor, yes, but I am also a judge. I sit on the High Court of the afterlife, also referred to as the Heaven Renders. If you cross me too many times, or commit too severe an infraction, you won't just have me to answer to."
Professor Oak gritted his teeth as he stood up to his full height and said his final remarks of the meeting.
"You'll have to answer to the other members of the High Court. And trust me, you will be very, very sorry."
The reason I call the island's social network Pillowtalk is actually a reference to political events here in the US. Just look up "FrankSpeech Mike Lindell", or something to that effect, and let it come to you. I don't necessarily support his politics, but I still thought the reference was clever.
If you want to chat with me about anything related or unrelated to the story, feel free to add me on Discord: Lucas Whitefur#7822. Funny story about that, I was writing in a park the other day, and every time this little boy's name was called, I turned towards the voice, since both of us were named Lucas. Funny how that is sometimes.
Anyway, I'll see you all next time!