Holy Jesus, I've gotten like 2 responses to chapter one, so I've decided to just make another one. Now comes the part of the story which won't come out very well;
Characters actually interacting with each other. (Dun dun dun)
Black.
That was all Nick could see, apart from his now undamaged body, it was everywhere.
Inky, depthless black.
It was like he was in space, but without all the stars he remembered. Which weren't actually many, by the way. The entire "growing up in the city" thing had, for the most part, rendered just staring into the sky at night a final step if he had ever wantedto
see more than just the brightest stars.
He remembered back to his childhood. He was about 7 years old. Life was still fairly good. His father had left them at that point, but that wouldn't stop him and his mother.
"Nicky, we're going somewhere special today!" His mother told him.
"Where, mommy?" He would ask.
"It's a surprise, honey!" She'd exclaim, like it was the most normal thing in the world. She liked surprising him at this age.
And so the two of them went to the big station, which was were most mammals would enter and exit the city. This perplexed him. No museums, or places he seemed he'd like were near the station, so why would they be going directly to it?
"Mommy, where are we going?" He'd ask again.
His mother didn't answer. Instead, she leaded him on to a train.
"Nicholas, you've seen the stars, right?" She asked him as the train began moving, a smile on her face.
"Uhh, yes?" He was confused, and, to be honest, kind of nervous.
"Have you seen them clearly, Nicholas?" She asked him. Her smile was gone, but she had happiness in her eyes.
"Uhh," he was very confused at this point. Yes, he had seen the stars, but he knew there was more to them outside of the city. Children at school who were from outside of the city had talked about it.
"What am I talking about," she said, although more to herself than him. "You know what mammals say about the stars in the country, right?"
"That you can see all of them?" He was mostly guessing at this point.
"Yes, Nicky. Can you guess what we're going to see?" She had seemed to realize that he knew what she was doing.
"The stars?"
"Yes, Nicky. You've never gotten to see them, and they won't always be around forever."
They didn't talk until they were in some small town outside of the city. Some cheesy name, like Bunny Burrow, or something like that.
"Do you know how all of these stars got here, Nick?"
Nick, of course, didn't know a single thing about stars, and his response mirrored that.
"Umm, uh, no?"
"Well Nicholas, when a mammal dies, they become one of the stars up there. I want you to know that Nicholas, that whenever you need help, everyone is in the stars." She wasn't smiling, nor did she have happiness in her eyes. She seemed completely serious.
"Does that mean I'll go up there, too?" Nick asked, curiosity twinkling in his eyes.
"If you're a good mammal in life, you will." His mother brought him in to a hug.
Eventually, he would learn that the stars weren't dead people, and that they are all the same. He would also eventually, more or less, stop believing in an afterlife.
Out of all his reminiscing about his past, one thought barged it's way into the front of his mind;
If I'm dead, and dead means your brain ceases to function, how can I still think?
And, almost if on cue, a blinding light flashed into his face.
Alias's note: Jesus, this chapter seemed a little bit longer, and I posted it before it was finished.
God I hope nobody read the chapter before I finished it, because it'd be confusing as fuck.
Well, anyways, I'm an asshole when it comes to cliffhangers, and I've got to do a little bit of character work to do.
Happy speculating!