Death's Game

"Gandalf said, 'End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it.'" (J.R.R Tolkein) When it happened it felt like a release. Freedom has never felt so good on my tired body and battered soul. Logically, I know I'm dead, but... I looked around me as my body and soul was tugged through space itself. I passively noticed the stars and planets getting smaller as I descended towards the void. Is this the afterlife? [Welcome Ms. Mia Petrova to The Afterlife] I heard a females voice say and I turned my head looking for the person. I noticed many other people spread out also descending fast like me into the void. The man closest to me held his hands up screaming in excitement and I couldn't help but giggle in amusement. I noticed a ripple in the space beside him and watched curiously as something slithered through. I choked on my shock as a snake-like creature appeared from the ripple and swallowed the oblivious man whole. Before a noise left my mouth the creature already disappeared into another ripple of space. I couldn't help my body's reaction as my soul and body were already exhausted. My eyes rolled into my head as I fell unconscious. ... "My name is Death and I would like to welcome you all to your afterlife. As you already know, it's not what you thought it would be. To be fair we have been running out of space for about 2000 years when the population was only 170million on earth. Now the population of the living is 7.8 billion well...you can understand why the afterlife took a huge shift in perspective which has only been refined in today's age. " there was a pause and then the voice chuckled and continued. "I'm about to impart some knowledge that is a little earth-shaking but hopefully exciting. You see the painful truth about life is that life is a vacation. It's the real paradise away from reality. In Death, you all will face the reality. The reality is this... " AN: Bear with me, this is my first official story. I will be writing ✍ at my own pace. I'm open to constructive criticism and stupidly obvious errors. Any similarities with other stories are either coincidence or subconscious projections. I have read countless stories and I have a ton of ideas in my head. However, it's all a jumble so I will take my time with this and get it right. I hope you enjoy my take on the Afterlife and a system made by Death himself. P.S if you want to visualize Death he looks like a badass Daniel Craig as shown in the Book Cover. lol