It all happened so quickly that I was surprised that I could still recall the memories. One moment I was driving past the corniche, listening to music. Next moment, a lightening had blinded me despite there being no clouds in the sky, and my car had pushed through the barricade and into the Arabian Sea.

I was not supposed to remember what happened afterwards – it was not normal to – but I did. I remembered the car filling up with water, I remember struggling to breathe as I tried to remain afloat, I remember darkness wrapping its tendrils around my brain, sneering, ecstatic. And I remember another blinding flash of light, in the sea.

After that, things get a bit confusing – I was in the car and then I was not. I was floating in the sea, supported by some invisible force and I could see the sun rays break through the water. Then, I saw the bottom of a boat, a fishing net, and my body being pulled upwards.

The sun rays made me squint as I was pulled inside the boat. I didn't help the men who removed the fish net from me. I just lay lifeless on the small boat.

"Another entry?" a squeaky voice said to no one in particular.

"I suppose so." Another one replied.

One small hand pulled my hand towards them and stamped my wrist with something.

A pair of golden eyes peered at me, face like that of a child, grinning at me with a teeth less smile. I would have shuddered if I could at the ugly creature. "Do you know your name, miss?"

I could not reply.

"She'll need to be revived." The same ugly creature said.

"DOA?" the squeaky voice asked.

"I suppose so."

"Should I inform?" the squeaky voice asked.

"Why else are you attached to this goddamn boat?"

Something clicked and the boat shuddered. A groan was heard from a distance and my thought flew to whales. If I could have laughed, I would have laughed. Whales?

What did I think I was part of? Moby Dick? No, no – this was a strange after-death scenario with my conscious and subconscious intact, but no control over my body. This man, dwarf, creature – whoever he was – was in charge of transporting me to wherever corpses go. I was a corpse who could see? Formulate thoughts?

But he had clearly said 'DOA' – dead on arrival? But I need to revived?

I lay on the boat for what seemed like hours, the creature or thing that had groaned didn't particularly seem interested in our boat. The sun was scorching hot and I realized that I hadn't blinked since being pulled to the boat. But I was not tearing up either; I could just feel the heat.

And then the boat stopped.

I heard a robotic voice, "Who is this?"

"It is Mel-O. I got another one. She is a woman, thirty-two, drowned, needs to be revived."

"Accident?" the robotic voice asked.

"Yes." Mel-O, the creature said, "Car-crash."

"There are not enough people dying of freak accidents, mate, we need to talk to Death." The robot said in the same monotonous tone. I had to be sure that I had heard it right. They needed to talk to Death? What could that possibly mean?

"Anyway," the robotic voice said in its bored way, "Come through."

The boat moved and I continued to stare at the open sky, until the sky was covered by a gate made up of shadows. The squeaky voice said, "Welcome to Atlantis."

Atlantis? As in the lost city of Atlantis? Where was I? What was happening to me? Where would I be taken? How would I be revived?

I could not look on my side but I assumed that we were in some canal and that there were activities happening around us. The boat stopped again, and shuddered, the squeaky voice from the boat said, "Off loading now."

I saw a metallic arm-like thing come in my line of sight and grab my waist. I would have squealed if I could. I was suspended mid-air and that was when I saw everything around me. There were people dressed up in white hazmet suits, talking to each other, holding a jar with some black substance. They laughed and chatted with one another and did not even care about the fact that I was suspended in air. The arm moved me sideways and then dropped me in soft rubber mattress. I was not even sure if that's what it was.

Several hazmat suits surrounded me at once. I looked at them, they looked like normal human inside the suits, holding the jar with black substance.

"She is pretty." One of them said in a robotic voice similar to what I had heard earlier.

"Another woman? I need more men, I have flirted with almost every man here." Another robotic voice said. I could not even differentiate between the two.

"Poor girl will need to revived." Another said.

"Ooooh," they chanted sadly.

"She will remember that."

A siren suddenly blared and the crowd of hazmet suits dispersed from around me. Suddenly, the thing that I was lying on, moved. It whizzed past the many people holding their jars, it moved so fast, that everything around me as a blur. I would have closed my eyes, but I couldn't.

I entered a building, I knew because the open blue sky had changed into the brick ceilings with LED lights that would have hurt my eyes otherwise. My stretcher, I was assuming that was what it was, moved without stopping. It took an abrupt left, and despite nothing holding me, I did not fall off.

"Another one?" I heard a small child's voice, around six or seven. It was welcome relief but I was surprised to see a child in this absurd place.

My stretcher clicked in a pattern that I think the child could understand because he let out a soft sigh. I heard him move some equipments, and then come near me. He had to climb something and when I saw his face, something in my brain clicked, he reminded me of someone. This child with beautiful black curls, big black eyes, a small black mole on right corner of his lips – he was someone from my past, he was someone from my time before I had died.

"Who do I look like?" the child I asked, and knowing that he would get a response, he said, "I have been a cat, an infant, a man, a woman, a car, a building . . . I hope I am something sensible to you. You see, I am Death, and when I come to take your soul, I come to you in the form of a person or thing that you love the most. I do not know what I look like to you, but you do."

This child, my child, had come to me to take my soul.

"But in your case . . . I'm not here to take your soul. I am here to revive you. You have been selected, you see, you have been selected to help me." He sighed looking at me sadly, "This will hurt, love, and trust me I have no control over this."

He gave me a glance and then his small body sideways. I heard him rub something metallic against each other, and then heard him say "Charge!"

He turned towards me and he was holding two metallic paddles, he blinked, and the clothes that I wearing disappeared.

"Clear!" he yelled and placed the paddles on my chest, my body shuddered when the paddles touched, but I felt nothing. He yelled "Charge!" again and made the paddle touch my chest. He continued to repeat this process, and on the twelfth attempt, I felt something, something hot on my chest, I gasped.

Surprised of the fact that I could gasp, I gasped again, and again, and again . . .

Until I realized that I was actually breathing!

"You are not alive." My child said, "You are actually dead but we need your body to function. You wont be of any use to me without your body."

He electrocuted me again, and again, and again, despite the fact that I had started breathing. I had started tearing too and had started begging him to stop because it hurt. My entire body was hurting and it was hurting too damn much. On the thirty-sixth attempt, I was yelling at my child to stop, but he didn't as he continued to do it, and say, "Almost there."

On the ninety-sixth attempt, he stopped, smiled sadly at me with his beautiful face and placed at paddle on the equipment beside him. "Welcome back, love."

I blinked back the tears that had been free flowing on my face, I looked at him and moved my hand, my long slender finger wanted to touch my child's face one last time.

"No," my child jerked back, "I am not whoever you think I am. I am Death, remember me as that."

I nodded, "But . . ."

He disregarded that, "You will need to wear that hazmat suits at all times. You wont have all the bodily function, you cannot excrete, procreate, digest. If you are not in your hazmat suits, you will start decomposing, it happens all the time when one of your lot decides to rebel. They think I'm lying but why should I? Your job is same as mine because I am growing old and I've been told to delegate. You are extractors – you are to extract souls, put them in the jar and bring them here. Some souls are tough, so you need to remember that I am always on-call. Understood?"

I nodded.

"You can only leave Atlantis when you are extracting. Atlantis is a powerful city that keeps tab on everyone that resides here, if it catches you doing something that you are not supposed to do, it will fly you back."

I nodded again.

"Now wear the suit."

Suddenly, I was lifted and this time I stood mid-air as another metallic arm put a hazmat suit on me.

"Why couldn't these arms revive me back?" I asked.

He looked at me, slightly surprised, "Because my power revives you back. It is not electricity but my concentrated power. No one has asked me that before."

The helmet clicked in place and I was dropped to the floor. I moved my arms and legs, glad to see that I had control on them.

"Am I allowed to learn about my past?" I asked in the same robotic voice as everyone before.

"Do you know your name?" my child asked me in a tone that said that he had been asked this question many time before.

"No." I said.

"Well . . ." my child said, "You cannot learn about your past without knowing who you are. You'll be curious at first, it is your residual subconscious urging you, once everything leaves you, you will learn that you are better of not knowing."

I nod again. I know I was supposed to feel sad, but I didn't feel anything. His words were harsh, but again, I didn't feel like reacting.

"Go on," he said, "I have a dozen bodies waiting for me. The supply has been so less these days." He looked upwards as if communicating something to the sky. I nodded and left the room.

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