The Crash

"Otto," He stared at the person calling him name. He was a little bit short for his age with black hair and greyish eyes that sometimes seemed to turn slightly red at any shock, "What are you planning to do?"

Otto Kettering blinked and looked at the falling sunset. Beautiful scenery, but a still-sad disposition could be the only thing that described it.

There was nothing to enjoy in the circumstances he had to face; Prison for life, although he had done nothing wrong. Murder, the little girl in the train station – Hell, he could still see her cold dead fingers peaking out of the side door as he was arrested – and the old man on the train – He was lain on the ground, insides frozen. His eyes were downcast.

"Beth, there's no need for you to worry about me," A lost calm sigh exited him as his soul gave way to inevitable. He was convicted with two counts of murder, not that one or two matter – It was murder for heaven's sakes – but rather it was just his ghastly appearance and sudden coincidences that he knew weren't coincidences, but hidden malice.

His recent up-rise as a prominent author, the dough that rolled in heaps and piles, and now this; It was no coincidence, but it was a mess, "What will happen will happen and there's nothing you nor anyone else for the matter can do about it."

There was a small plea in her voice as she said it, "I love you; you know. As a sibling of course, but I do love you. There's so much more purpose for you, why are you not running away? I'm sure there are people willing to hide you. The success of your book is phenomenal."

Otto looked down at his sister's distraught face, light brown hair falling to shield her crying eyes. Beth and Otto stood near the edge of the water, legs hanging over the boarding area as their feet felt the cool waters.

They were enjoying, barely enjoying, the, possibly, last sunset together. Their previous careless little village siblings demeanor gone, their weariness from recent city life was visible on their faces. It was impossible to help the hole Otto Kettering found himself in.

"The world may be big enough, but I'm afraid I do not feel brave enough," Otto pulled his legs off the edge and wiped his wet feet with a loose towel within hands reach. There was a little drag as he slowly wiped the water off.

He would miss everything he had achieved; he had earned. There was a sudden overwhelming nostalgic feeling as he felt the dread fill him up slowly. It was like butterflies, but they were replaced with cold stone, "The court ruled I killed them, so I must've killed them. Besides it is the phenomenal success that led me here."

"Jail is so awful, you won't last a minute," Beth answered to no particular question, "You'll suffer for life, dying would be better. We're not even allowed to visit you."

Beth swung herself into the water for a dip before her head bobbed back up, bright brown eyes staring up with some intelligence. Otto leaned over and patted her head with long spidery writing fingers. They were thin, like him, thin and 'girlish looking' as Davis called him as a joke. Now being charged with murder, he didn't think of him as 'girlish looking' anymore.

He was now the 'big-bro-who's-bravely-facing-everything', though he didn't feel brave.

"Then should I drown?" Otto pulled his sister up and out before he leaned over the edge to look at the shimmering water, "I wonder if I should drown?"

Beth pulled him by the collar of his white shirt, she was weaker, but Otto allowed her to pull him around. She turned him around to give him a long hard look, there were very few specks of clear liquid edging her eyes with soft sniffs.

It wasn't supposed to be like this.

"Like hell, you're dying like this," Beth scolded, tears gone before Otto could take a better look, "Don't take your life as if it's worth nothing, it's worth some shit, a lot of shit too, although sometimes I doubt it myself."

Otto gave a wry grin as he nodded and picked up a coat on the ground, brushing it before he gave one last long look on the lapping waves.

"You should say goodbye to Davis as well! He'll miss you too…" Her voice trailed off as she stared at the fading figure of her brother, her hand reaching out to a person that wasn't coming back. It was getting harder not to cry.

"I'm dead either way, I'd rather leave him off with some good memories," Otto answered, "He may be like a brother, but I'd rather not deal with everything he'll throw at me for this. Please stay safe." There were guards by the edge of the parking lot, a large black van. Beth had, after all, used everything in her power to get a few minutes, just a few with him. She watched as he headed the way, before she yelled at him.

"OTTO!"

A large car, belonging to some forlorn family drove straight into the unsuspecting Otto, his eyes wide as he stared at the flashing lights that blinkered until they weren't. They stopped and he didn't know what hit him until it did. The large slam of metal against weak muscles and skin and bones and nerves and-

It was dark.

Otto's eyes barely adjusted to darkness because there was only darkness and only darkness was shown to him before a large beam of light lit up his surroundings. Blinding him with its brightness, the area lit up.

"What the hell?" He asked, to no one in particular, there was just whiteness now. Like the white punishment that he once heard about in a video he saw. He was suspended in a dark whiteness.

There was a slight boom, and suddenly next to him there was another person, but he wasn't clear enough to see, he wasn't clear enough to make much of rather than somewhat pale skin and brownish-black hair, like him. But he had greyish hair and pitch black eyes, ones that looked so hollow they gave him more trouble than good, "Who are you?"

No response, the other person only stared at the void, Otto shrugged and continued to look around. There was a sudden collective amount of bumps, more and more people dropped down, each less visible than the other as they plopped like fowls from the sky on a grey day of hunting. A ping in front of him.

[Welcome Player #1001, please head over to the podium to register yourself before we send you off to your new home!]

Otto Kettering stared at the message before swiping his hands across it, trying to see if it was fake. It didn't go away and he swiped it again with a harsher movement that forced his body to lurch foreword. He glared at the message. He lifted his eyes to see a new podium. "Fuck you."

There was another ping.

[If Player #1001 does not go to the podium, Player #1001 will be exterminated and sent to 'Hellish Plains of God Knows Where']

"... Seriously?" Otto stood up and walked over to the podium, arms swinging as would be normal and proper for someone who is supposed to be at home, drinking coffee and writing his newest novel. The podium was a podium with a book and what looked like a white feather pen, "Do I sign it?"

There was a soft glow as if to say yes.

He could've imagined it.

[Player #1001 will sign the registration book using his full name. Then, Player #1001 will wait for approximately between 0 minutes and eternity for his registration to be processed]

Otto glared at the message before rushing to write his name down, hands moving quickly in their illegible manner to spell 'Otto Kettering'. The book glowed and disappeared, leaving feather-light particles in the air. He walked off the podium and sat down on nothingness. He noticed that he was still wearing the same clothes as he was before, light and easy comfortable shirts and pants.

He stood and walked around in a roundabout manner before he stopped and tapped his foot. It felt like an hour had passed, but he knew one hour was unfeasible. He nibbled at his thumb in worry. He didn't want to spend eternity in a jail-like situation, at least jail had other people. These blurry people couldn't even hear him and some of them were disappearing, "Please process my registration, Registration Book."

[Otto Bettering will be admitted to area #1 with training sessions number #1, 2, and 3]

Otto stared at the message, as he did with the ones before him, "Really?"

He suddenly felt his stomach squeeze and there was a slight discomfort before he realized that he was being transported. He looked up at the screen before reading it once more with some further accuracy, "Wait, you spelled my name wrong!"

He felt himself drop in an area, the cold stone ground meeting him as he glared above him. There was a moment where he sat for just a couple of minutes staring at the new place he was at. It was dark, but not pitch dark, a dimly lit area. There was nothing around him, but it looked like an old castle of sorts. There was a set of doors near the edge of the long room, that was more of a hallway. Everything was stone and some torchlights.

[Otto Bettering, please complete the following tasks:

1. Head over to the door

2. Take a familiar with you]

"And what if I don't do them?" There was another ping, a ping he was getting used to hearing.

[Failure to complete tasks will result in immediate expulsion via death]

"Of course," Otto looked around and stood up before he slowly, carefully walked to the door. The path was stupidly long and there didn't seem to be any threat as he continued. The walls were some variant of some old castle-like structure, the stuff he wrote for fun sometimes. Eventually, he reached the door without any problems.

"Take a familiar?"

Suddenly, the right side wall started to shake as it slowly turned around to reveal a wall full of encased animals, frozen animals in what looked more like rigour Mortis than real alive animals. A cat here, a dog there, there even seemed to be an owl near the back. All of them were small and cute looking but there didn't seem to be a method to take one, "Can I just?"

He reached out to touch something, closing his eyes before opening them as his hand went through and felt the fluffy coat of a small black cat. It reared its head and stared up at Otto with bright yellow eyes, alarmed as it slowly shook its head, as if to wake itself up.

It walked, jumping with fluid movement, out of the case and around Otto before nudging his leg with the back of his head, rubbing. Scenting him probably, it was something cats did, something he read. He didn't know if he should believe the book.

[Otto Battering has chosen 'Ater' as his familiar. May the player please go out the door to head to the next area?]

"Wait but I didn't choose?" Otto tried to put his hand through the glass case again, but he only managed to bump his hands with coldness. The glass shined and disappeared leaving the stone wall again. The cat stared up at him, tail moving around in glowing amusement at Otto's rather stupid act.

"Don't look at me like that, Ater."

The cat sashayed its way over to the door, nudging it before Otto made his way to go open it. He smelled the fresh air immediately and gave a couple of tentative sniffs, "You're not the fucking cat here so stop sniffing like one, you bastard."

Otto looked down at Ater, "It can speak?"

Ater gave his leg a flick with his tail, angered eyes glared at him. Bright yellows eyes turning brighter as it waved its tail around in a threatening manner, although it was just a tail.

"Fuck you."