Repurposed

After the Accident

It all happened so fast.

None of us saw it coming. The deer just rammed into the side of the car without warning, smashing its antlers into the back passenger window where I was seated. I had a moment of blinding pain before everything blacked out completely, cutting me off from reality.

I felt... weightless. As if I was floating in the ocean, suspended in the darkness of... wherever I was. My thoughts were jumbled and distorted, ranging from regretting not listening to my parents when they said not to go, to how my friend Ally was doing. She and her boyfriend, Eli, were in the car with me, driving home from a party with some other friends of hers. I suppose she has found my body by now, and is probably traumatized by seeing someone die. Oh well. Eli will help her through it, I'm sure.

After what felt like hours, I experienced a sensation of falling, and I wondered: Am I alive? I hit the ground with a thud, and groaned as I returned to consciousness.

"Hi there!"

"Ah!" I shot up from the floor of what seemed to be an entrance of some kind, and stared completely baffled at the sight before me. "Wh-who-?! Wh-what-?!"

A living skeleton stood over me, eyelights changing shapes, but never colors. I was nearly frozen in shock, but the burning curiosity thawed out my voice enough for me to ask a simple question.

"Wh-who are you?"

The stranger laughed slightly and bowed. "The name's Chronicle Ink, but you can call me Chronicle. What might your name be?"

I lowered my eyes a moment, and gasped as I caught sight of myself. I raised my hand to discover there were only bones, and I glanced around Chronicle to find only skeletons walking about. I looked back at him, and answered.

"I-I'm... Dory."

"Well, nice to meetcha, Dory!" Chronicle chirped, holding out a hand for me to take. "I hope we can become good friends."

I hesitated before taking his hand, slightly wary of my new body. Evidently, this was some sort of... afterlife, for lack of a better term, and I had died and come here.

That, I thought sardonically, or I'm suffering from some weird, pre-death hallucination.

Chronicle led me to a classroom where he ushered me into a seat. He then looked down at a book he had in his hand, and announced he would be back in a moment.

"Two more students will be added to this class!" he exclaimed quite happily. I watched him go with a slight pit in my now nonexistent stomach.

'Oh boy. I hope it's not anyone I know.'

My hope was for nothing. A minute later, two more skeletons were brought to their desks, both sitting on my right. I gave them both sympathetic looks and tried to smile, but they ignored me.

Chronicle strode to the front of the class, summoning a book from thin air. I was immediately enraptured, watching with great interest as he also summoned a quill and ink. He began writing down notes, and I could only guess at what they were. At length, he looked up.

"Good day, class! I am Chronicle Ink, the founder of this school. You may have noticed that everyone here is a skeleton, but have no fear! They were once humans like yourselves, only they died unexpectedly. Such a waste of potential, if you ask me. So, I created this school to rescue human souls like yourselves to give you all a new purpose. I call it: the Repurposed Program!"

He beamed at each of us, and we all exchanged looks. I especially grew concerned for the two beside me, as they may not know who this person is. I had heard of Chronicle, but I assumed he was just a made-up character like the rest of the Undertale variants. But that got me wondering....