Colours

'Thunk'.

Queue my 'Ouch!'. Queue my confusion. Queue the bruises that should be forming all along my back by now.

I sit up, and I look around myself. It seemed like sheets had been hung from every wall, and that somebody glued stretched-out cotton balls along them randomly. The ground I was laying on was hard, and upon closer inspection, it looked like completely colourless hardwood, with nails placed here and there to keep it down. The ceiling was exactly like the walls, and there was some sort of giant, new-technology fluorescent bulb hanging from it, extremely off-center, and so bright that it hurt to look at. I blinked a few times, and then looked right in front of me. There was somebody sitting at a desk, and this somebody was wearing an overly fluffy robe.

I stood up cautiously, making sure I hadn't broken anything, and found that I basically floated. My feet barely touched the ground, and all of my limbs felt absolutely weightless. I hovered - no, I drifted - over to the desk, and rapped lightly on the surface with my knuckles. The person turned to face me, and their beard whipped out as they spun, indicating that it was a man. To describe this man, you only needed a picture of Santa Claus. He stroked his beard back into place, and then he spoke.

"Oh, my apologies, I didn't notice you. Your fall was quite quiet - and I can see why! Look at your arms, dear, you're simply skin and bones! No wonder your feet don't touch the ground! Most newcomers weigh enough at least to be able to slide their feet along the ground. But oh well, we'll have you fattened up soon enough." The man smiled at me once he was done, his voice finally having stopped talking. I held my arm out in front of me and then quirked an eyebrow at him.

"Where the fuck am I? Is this some strange, out of body experience I'm having? Or did somebody check me in to some other-worldly rehabilitation centre?" I snapped at him. He flinched a bit when I swore, but other than that found my situation quite amusing from what I could tell.

"Oh, you're a feisty one, aren't you? Although, I'd appreciate it if you didn't use that language in my company, you never know if the boss might hear." He stabbed his thumb at the air behind him, indicating that there was a door that I hadn't noticed. It was plain, with a round knob, and stood completely on its own.

"What's your boss, the handle?" I said sarcastically. The smile remained plastered on his face.

"Oh, goodie, another non-believer! That means I win! You owe me turquoise!" The man shouted the last bit to the door behind him. I tapped my fingers impatiently on the desk. I just needed to ride this one out, and then never try whatever had been handed to me again. Where I was just seemed too real, and real was not what I wanted at that point in my life.

"No, I don't think you'll be able to ride this one out, dear." I looked back at the man to see that he was studying a packet of papers, not reading my mind. But of course, he wasn't reading my mind. My mind made all of this up, anyways.

"Alexa Turman. Age... twenty." He mumbled to himself, reading things off of the paper. "Drug-user, alcoholic, disappointment to her parents and extended relatives, unemployed... My, my, Alexa, it seems as if you shouldn't be here. So why were you sent... Oh, I see."

"Well, maybe if I knew where I was, I could tell you whether or not I deserved to be here!" I shouted at the man, but he remained un-phased.

"No, no, it's perfectly clear. You definitely deserve to be here. You're said to be 'In love'."

"What? I'm in love? No, no, no. I'm not in love. Whatever that paper is, and whatever it's for, it's completely wrong. You might want to check your sources." I shook my head at the man and he looked up at me sadly.

"Sweetie, this here is a resume of your life. It's never wrong. What was the last thing you remember?"

"I remember shooting something, something that Morgan handed me. He didn't tell me what it was, though."

"Yes, and right here it says you died of an overdose. All this information has been collected since the day you were born until around ten minutes ago. And now, all that has ever gone on in your life is here in my hand, in a much more organized form."

"I'm dead?" I felt my eyes widen.

"Yes,"

"So... am I in Heaven?"

"No,"

"Am I in Hell?"

"Definitely not! In Hell, there is not this much reviewing of your stats. They just put you in a jumpsuit and send you to work, whether you deserve it or not." His face looked disgusted.

"Well then where the fuck am I?" I yelled exasperatedly. He sighed at my choice of language, but answered me nonetheless.

"This is just the afterlife. People who have some sort of business left unfinished come here and live forever, or until they finish what they were born to do. Your whole life was planned, Alexa, but due to unfortunate consequences, neither you nor the person whom you love got to ride out your lives' plans. And so, your little plan has been adjusted so that you can finish it in the comfort of this whole new existence." He smiled at me and brushed his beard through with his fingers.

"So what your saying is this person, or thing, that I love is here as well?" The man nodded. "Well then, tell me what I love so that I can find it. All I want for Christmas is for you to make my job a whole lot easier, Santa."

"I can't do that. Your plan here says that you have to find that for yourself." He ignored my jab at his appearance, folded up the papers. He then ran them through some machine that made noises like a paper shredder. My jaw dropped, and he continued smiling.

"So, it is my duty to explain to you how this works. We work in colours here." He paused for a minute, and my eyebrows furrowed. It was at that moment that I realized I saw no colours. Things just were. They were in black or white. There weren't even any shades of gray where I was.

"Good, you were a bit behind on the realization of that. Anyways, we work in colours here. First, you find gray, and then red, and so on. There are many sub-colours, as well, such as turquoise, which I just gained. Your nails have small turquoise dots on them." I glanced down at my nails, and saw nothing but small black splotches. No colours what so ever. "You don't find these colours all at once, though. You have to work for them, Alexa. But I don't think you'll have much trouble with that. You're a determined person."

"How do I find them, then?" I leaned forward on the desk.

"I can't tell you that."

"Alright, then... What happens when I find all the colours?"

"I can't tell you that, either. I've told you everything you're allowed to know. Actually, I've told you more than you need to know. I've given you a hint, and that's bad. I can lose my job for that. So you have to go now. Goodbye, Alexa. You won't be seeing me again. But your case interests me some, so I'll be watching you. Best of luck."