Love thicker than blood

Chapter 1: Alex

"So, what should we do with him?"

"Isn't it obvious? I say you have him come with me, no questions asked!"

"No, he died young, clearl-"

"Enough already from both of you! Look, I've got a compromise, he'll stay in my domain for two years, and then we'll judge him, got it?"

"Y-yes sir!"

"Tch, it still won't change a thing."

As I heard those words, I tried to open my eyes to see who, or what, was talking, but they wouldn't, no, they refused to, comply. The voices began to grow closer and closer, and before I knew it, I felt a cold, skeletal hand grab my wrist and drag me across what I could only assume was bedrock, or some kind of hard, grainy surface, to only God knows where. But, the feeling came to a screeching halt as I felt my everything around me fall. I clenched my eyes shut, waiting for some kind of painful end. But, that never came. Instead, I felt myself land onto a mattress, of all things.

I hesitantly opened my eyes, finding myself in a room eerily similar to my own. Everything from the ink stain above my desk from when my pen broke a few days earlier to the order of the books on my shelf were mimicked perfectly. "Maybe I'm still alive," I thought to myself as I tried to pull myself off of the bed, But, that idea was soon drowned out, replaced with memories of broken glass and headlights. No. No one could ever survive such a deadly experience... right? Besides, how else could you explain the previous voices. "It's all a dream..." was the only explanation I could rationalize. But, it was starting to feel more like a nightmare.

I began to walk towards the window to see if I was still in the same town, only to find a strange array of houses instead of the almost identical ones I had gotten used to. Most notably, a rather disheveled mansion with stained glass in what appeared to be the attic. I decided to venture my new abode in hopes of finding answers, and the similarities continued, except for one small detail, As I walked down the halls, staring at the row of pictures, my eyes feel upon a rather peculiar photo of a tombstone. I stopped in my tracks to observe the picture, only to see that it was my own, with a bouquet of flowers atop it and a portrait beside it. But, I tried to get the thoughts of my own brutal death out of my head, as I rushed towards the kitchen.

"Maybe if this is a replica of my old house, there has to be some food left." I frantically opened the refrigerator door as I scavenged for something edible, yet, when I scanned the shelves, all I found was a note.

To Alex D. Jackson,

For the next two years of your afterlife, you will be required to live in this home while you are attending Chaos High School (CHS for short). By the time you shall receive this, the new "semester" has just began. You are to arrive at no later than 9 a.m

-G. Reaper

At that moment, it occurred to me that this definitely was NOT dream, and I was infact deceased. I looked at my watch, only to see it was 8:30. Rushing towards the living room, I found a navy blue book bag filled with at least four textbooks and just about as many pencils. "Apparently even the underworld is struggling with their money." I ran to the door, opened it haphazardly, and continued at that pace as I tried (and failed) to find this new "school" I was supposed to attend, only to realize around ten minutes later that there were huge signs pointing to it. "Idiot, idiot, idiot!" I looked back at my watch, trying to see how much time I had left. "Good, I've got a solid 10 minutes left to get there."

After trial and error, I finally found the entrance to CHS only to find the door being practically jammed shut. "Just great," I began to think to myself "I'm almost late and and the door's stuck!" So, yet again I tried to open, and this time succeeded... for the most part. I had fallen over trying to open it, and as my back hit the pavement, I half expected the door to slam shut, but all I heard were muttered profanities.