At the end of all things, there is a waiting room.
It's fairly typical, as these things go. Thin, scratchy carpet. Fish tank with still fish. Old gossip magazines. Incredibly uncomfortable chairs. The low buzz of a television or radio or something somewhere else, words indistinguishable. No windows, no clock, no door, and the receptionist's desk was shuttered.
This one's a bit special, though.
A man walks through a door that suddenly has always existed, calling "Juliet?" in a very bored receptionist tone.
Juliet stands, a little startled. She feels like she should be more alarmed than she currently is.
"That's me. I am the only one here though."
"In for an afterlife consultation. Hm, let's see if I remember... Ah, yes. Magical burns, sustained in the course of fighting alongside a certain Klaus against enemies of his."
"Not trivially. Our department handles over a hundred deaths a minute. You could spend karmic balance on such an answer, but your totals are rather... Low."
"How is that calculated? Was it the vampirism? That wasn't exactly my idea."
"You had a rather low total starting out, given your past lives' actions. During this life - numerous counts of murder, justified and not, self deception, using the sire-bond as an excuse for your actions, attempted murder, betrayal... We could be here all day, listing your many negative strikes, but I am quite busy."
She sighs, frustrated and a little resigned. She isn't even going to bother defending herself. It's all true.
"Past lives? How many times have I died?"
"According to my records, this is your seven hundred and eighty second time through this office."
"Remembering past lives is unusual. And that is an oddly high number - most people either accumulate enough karmic balance to remove themselves from the reincarnation cycle, or else end up enough in the negatives to be removed by us, before that point."
"Seems to be a habit towards taking on the morals of those around you - usually to poor ends, but not always, enough to balance things some."
"It's kinda reassuring, actually. That I'm still me in whatever life I live. What happens now?"
"We sit down, look over your options, and you make your decision on your next afterlife."
This post has the following content warnings:
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
