Purgatory Chronicles - A New Life After Death

Chapter 8 - Never Wanted to Dance

Power ultimately corrupts. A fact we've known since the dawn of humanity. Purgatory brings that out tenfold. I've seen people who never wanted power in the first place go hungry with it. I've seen the most innocent turn into monsters.

Purgatory brings out the worst in humanity. What is there to aspire to when you can live forever?

Those who seek power will always climb the latter, never satisfied with themselves. I have failed you. I let you gain more and more power. How did someone so shy and timid become such a monster? By the time I stepped in to resolve the problem, you were too powerful for me to stop. You didn't care for my advice or guidance. You cast me down as if I were a mundane.

I have failed you. I am truly sorry. I will see that you are brought down and destroyed, obliterated. Your core will be absorbed. Mark my words. This is a kindness. I'll see that you find peace.

Letter of Resolve
Written by Lysander Mikel
Recipient Unknown

***

The deep dark abyss stares back. One stares deep and the abyss stares back even deeper. It can see into the soul. Liam felt the isolation of the abyss. A void of air, a sea of black. The air was stagnant near the edge. It smelled of burnt steak.

Liam witnessed the void on his first day, now he was back. Sitting on the edge of the rock despite the dangers that the book posed about the void. He was off duty today, yet he still wore his Noctari robes, it was customary. You're never truly off duty, he mused to himself, finding a disagreeable truth in the words.

He truly hadn't the time to think in the past three weeks. Processing the new life that was in front of him seemed like it had passed, but he found out it hadn't. The problem was just buried deep.

He awoke from a dream. A dream about his life, his possible future. The life he lived on earth, still alive and breathing. The dream awakened something that lay dormant. He longed to see his family again, if only for one last time. Surely, they'd die eventually and end up in Purgatory, but the book spoke of the rarity of finding ones from your previous life.

"There are countless realms with countless people. Stumbling upon one you know from earth is possible, but highly unlikely. Even if one is to make contact, it would likely happen years down the line. Years, Decades, Centuries, they change people. You aren't meeting the same person."

Liam reread the chapter twice. Soaking in the words. He felt a loss for the people he knew. As if they died instead of him. Would he be the same person in twenty, forty, or one hundred years? The question plagued him. He wondered at what his friends were doing back on earth. Were they still grieving or have they moved on?

The future he set out for was snatched away by dumb decisions. Avoidable decisions. It took dying to learn the true consequences of stupid actions. They say "you only live once" yet he was here in his second life. Which also brought up more speculation about a possible third life. The book disagrees with the third life theory. He wasn't sure whether to believe it or not.

What did I even want to do? He couldn't answer the question. His selected major was in business, but it was really just to find a job. Staying home and playing video games was his hobby. School came naturally but provided no meaning or depth to Liam. That was likely a fault of his own. Now he sat on the edge of the void contemplating what Purgatory had to offer.

Friendships weren't easy. Liam still didn't really know anyone. Viviette was someone else entirely, saving him just to abandon him like a nobody. Alaric seemed to care, but hadn't contacted Liam since the transfer. Liam himself didn't even know how to contact Alaric, but it likely would end up the same as Viviette. Abandoned and left on his own.