"Argh, where am I? Why does my... everything hurt?
From the blackness a voice spoke. "You are here because you have died." It was soft and melodic to the ear, speaking clearly and patiently despite my growing anger.
I didn't know why I was angry, I couldn't remember anything and this only proved to make my anger burn even stronger, quickly growing into a raging inferno within my body. The news I had just heard only proved to make it worse.
"Dead?!?!" I roared. I tried to strike out at where I thought the voice was coming from but quickly found my arms were not obeying me.
"Indeed" The voice replied. "You were killed, unfairly and before your time."
"Unfairly?" I asked. How can you be killed unfairly? Did I get stabbed in the back or something?
"How did I die? Tell me!!" My anger and impatience took control again and I tried to reach out for the voice.
"You were killed, shot mercilessly by a group of armed terrorists while on your knees." The voice replied, as calmly as before
That news was like a blow to the gut. It knocked me into a senseless stupor. My anger sort of blew away leaving me cold and speechless. Shot? Helplessly, kneeling before my killer? Questions whirled around in my head like a storm. Why? When? Where?
"But" The voice shook me from my thoughts. "I can give you a second chance to live, stronger, smarter, wiser than you were before."
I grew weary. "What's the catch?" Despite not having any memory of anything but academic knowledge, I would've liked to think I wasn't such a bumbling idiot in my past life as to accept deals without at least being aware of the fine print.
"There is none"
Bullshit. I knew shady when I saw it. But my collar was rising again, burning hotter and brighter that before. It was already clouding my judgement.
"So do you accept?" The voice asked, there was venom behind those words. It was planning something. But as I got more enraged the less I cared.
A glowing white hand reached out from the pitch black, offering a handshake. In a final burst of outrage I grabbed for the hand and this time my body complied, taking the hand firmly in my grip.
A flash of light consumed the space and I briefly saw my hand, my tan-white human hand. Little did I know, that was the last time I would see it for a very long time