I woke up coughing in a chair and heard the sound of people laughing and crying around me. Though my eyes were closed I could feel a bright light shining in front of me.

It felt and smelled like a hospital room.

I sat up and opened my eyes slowly, blinking away the fogginess, looking around at the scene in front of me. There were rows of chairs in the room and people occupying each one.

Am I in a waiting room? Everything was completely white. White walls, white chairs, and a white floor. I hadn't even looked at the ceiling but I was sure I knew what it looked like. I felt an eerie feeling in the pit of my stomach as I scanned the room again.

There was a tall man a few seats down standing and wearing a black cloak. He carried a notepad and traveled person to person, asking them questions. I tried to listen in but I couldn't hear what he was asking.

The man stood in front of a young lady and looked at her but didn't say anything.

"My name is Jen," she said softly as she twiddled her thumbs. She looked back to meet his eyes as if he had said something to her.
"I had stage four cancer," she said to him.

He wrote it down in his notepad and looked back at her again. "I am at peace," the lady replied as a small tear rolled down her cheek. How was she able to hear him if he didn't speak?

The man then laid his hand on her head and she disappeared into thin air.

I held in the scream that almost escaped my lips and covered my mouth with my hand. I looked around frantically to see if anyone had just seen what I saw and they did. A middle-aged lady with blonde hair started screaming and sobbing into her hands. "I'm too young to die!" She screamed.

I don't know where I am but I need to get out of here. I stood up to leave but I felt a hand grab mine and pull me back down onto my seat. I turned to my side and met the eye of an old man with grey hair. He looked small and frail but his eyes held a certain vitality that was comforting.

"Where are you going dear?" he asked softly, still holding my hand.

I slowly pulled my hand away from his and replied, "I shouldn't be here. I don't know where this is," I said in a shaky voice as I looked around the odd place.

"Although the circumstances brought you here may be unfortunate, you are here," he said and gave me a small smile that was meant to relax me. All it did was make me sick.

He squeezed my shoulder and returned to reading a small book in his hand. I slouched into my chair and pulled my knees to my chest. I felt completely alone even though I was in a room with hundreds of people. Why wasn't I here with my-...my...?

My family.

I thought long and hard about them but I couldn't remember anything. I could feel my memories of them trying to surface but as soon as I tried to grasp onto them they'd fade away.

I felt a sharp pain in my frontal lobe as I tried to push myself to piece together my fractured mind.

The old man turned to face me when he heard me wince. "The name's Eddie. What's yours, dear?"

My mouth opened to give him an answer but nothing came out. I searched my mind for my name but I couldn't think of it. I closed my eyes and tried again but my mind was blank, the only thing I got in response was an unbearable pain in my head. How do I not know my name?

"I don't know," I replied in a whisper. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I didn't know anything about myself. I couldn't recall my family, or where I was from, or even my name.

The furthest my memory traced back to was a few minutes ago when I woke up in...this place.

Before the old man could reply to what I said the man in the black cloak was in front of me.

I looked up at him and saw nothing but blackness. The area where his face was supposed to be was a dark void, covered by the hood of his cloak. If I put my hand into it, I was sure there would be nothing. I was staring into an empty, dark pit.

"Your name?" I heard a deep voice in my head. It was him. It was no wonder that I couldn't hear him when he was talking to the other girl.

"I don't know," I replied.

"How do you not know your name?" The voice asked.

"I don't remember it. I don't remember anything," I said as I shuddered.

The man reached his hand up to my forehead and I closed my eyes, mentally preparing myself to disappear as the other girl had. But he pulled his hand away and wrote on his notepad.

"Your name is Aaliyah Monroe. There is a block in your mind and I cannot see anything else,"He replied while writing vigorously in his notepad. "This has never happened before."

"Where am I?" I asked. "And how did you do that? And what are you?" I bombarded him with a bunch of questions but I couldn't help myself. This entire situation was baffling.

"You are in purgatory," he said as he continued writing. I wanted to peek over and look at what he was writing, but he didn't have eyes or a face for that matter so I wouldn't know if he'd catch me looking.

"Where?" I asked.

"Do you truly not know?" He asked, ignoring my question.

"Know what?"

"You are dead, Aaliyah."