Adrian seemed to be drifting along some sort of river, seeing bizarre, gate-like structures pass by overhead. The first one was a thorny, wooden arch covered in roses, while the next one was completely gold, laced with intricate patterns that converged at the keystone from where a golden bull’s head protruded. He found himself strangely at peace, calmly observing the designs on each gate that passed by. 'Gate watching' had the nostalgic feel of cloud watching on a warm, sunny day.

Adrian wouldn't have minded just staying like this a little longer, but something at the back of his mind kept nagging at him.

It was the fact that he was dead.

Specifically, he remembered that he had died, but he couldn't recall exactly how it had happened. Maybe he got into a traffic accident or something?

Adrian felt a tinge of regret at the thought of being dead, which he honestly didn't expect. He didn't have much more to live for anyway. He had spent the last four years of his life playing video games day and night. He was a bonafide gaming addict. There was no one expecting anything from him anymore, and he had lost hope in any notions of happiness or success or whatever. He wasn't really going anywhere in life, his parents had given up on him, his siblings were too embarrassed to be associated with him, and his girlfriend of ten years had dumped him last year.

He didn't even enjoy gaming at this point, but for some reason he couldn't stop the compulsion to sit in front of the computer from the moment he woke up until he was already falling asleep at his desk. He had even moved into a 24h PC café to save on rent and play games all day. His health was in terrible shape and he felt disgusted with himself in the moments that he wasn't distracted by his games. Yet till the very end, he couldn't change himself if he wanted to. His family must be relieved to be finally rid of a parasite like him.

Adrian would've sighed if he could've sighed, but he found that he was unable to do so. Strange. He also tried moving, only to discover that he couldn’t feel his limbs. Actually, it was more accurate to say that he didn’t have any limbs. Or a body for that matter. He seemed to have entered some sort of spiritual form that still allowed him to see and blink. Although this revelation was mortifying, his curiosity got the better of him and he tried experimenting to determine if there was anything he could do. After all, he was supposedly already dead. What did he have to be afraid of?

He soon discovered that there was very little he could do. What he could do, however, was to glide along the surface of the river as long as he willed it, allowing him to explore a little bit. After a while, he came to two conclusions about his environment. First, the river wasn't bound to land; rather, it wasn't really a river at all, but a column of cloud-like mist that stretched infinitely into the distance on either end. Second, the gates that he saw previously were only a few of the countless members that were strewn in space randomly along all sides of the mist-column-river thing.

'This is some weird ass afterworld, that's for sure,' Adrian thought.

Deciding that it would be in his best interests to keep moving, Adrian picked a direction and willed himself to move. For several hours, the only things that changed in his immediate environment were the shapes, sizes, colors, and designs on the gates. That is, until he noticed a strange shadow appear in the distance. He could make out the outline of a tall figure paddling a wooden canoe with strong sweeps of its oar. It was… what the- a skeleton?

“Ahoy there! Need a ride~?” The skeleton shouted cheerfully as it increased the intensity of its paddling. As it drew closer and closer, Adrian wondered if the canoe would even be able to stop in time to avoid hitting him with that kind of speed. It was coming towards him a little too quickly, wasn't it? No, no, it was DEFINITELY WAY TOO FAST!

“Oops."

Whack!

Contact with the canoe's hull shot Adrian out of the river like a bullet, helpless and unable to stop himself from hurling through space. The speed at which he was travelling was so fast that the only thing that he could see was the object that he was heading straight towards: a dilapidated stone gate with blue branches twisting around the entire arch. He shut his eyes tightly and braced for impact.

...

...

?

Plop.

Unexpectedly, Adrian had passed through the gate without any resistance and had face-planted directly into some sort of soft, jello-like surface. It wasn't an unpleasant feeling. Cautiously, Adrian peeked through one eye to observe his surroundings.

‘Blue?’ Adrian wondered.

Indeed, all he could see in front of him was an endless blue. He asked himself whether he was staring an ocean, but immediately disregarded the thought. This thing in front of him wasn't water. Whatever it was had formed an indentation and was currently encompassing him from all sides as if it was eating hi—