After hearin' what the old man said, a few seconds passed, and I cried. I shed tears. Damn it, I was weak. Who could blame me? I'm just a regular guy, a commoner with no money in my pockets—cleaner than my face. And here I was, dead. Still a virgin, never tasted the world's finest foods, never lived in a mansion. Oh, I was really pissed off.
I hated my cousin. That son of a gun was always mixin' in shady business. This time, he really did me in! When I get back, I'm gonna... Wait, can I even get back?
The old man saw how down I was and patted my shoulder with his shit-covered hand to comfort me. "Death ain't nothin' to be scared of. Everybody's gotta face it. You should focus on doin' somethin' important with everyone else."
I didn't care about bein' proper or not. I was dead anyway. Clean or dirty didn't matter much. "What kinda important thing?" I asked.
The old man pointed up. "Get outta here. You wanna spend your whole life in this hellhole? We've been lookin' for years, some of us for over a century, and we're still stuck here."
"What are we lookin' for?"
"The key, of course! What else could it be? Diggin' potatoes?"
"What key?"
The old man was gettin' frustrated with me. "Are you still sleepin'? Isn't the smell enough to wake you up? It's the key that'll get us outta here."
"How do you know about this key?"
The old man pointed up again. "The Apostles said so. Find the key, and we can get outta here."
I looked up, never feelin' more unreal in my life. It was hard to imagine that the afterlife was like this. I always thought it'd be at least like in video games—scary, but not suffocatin' and despairin'. But where I was, it was like the ultimate shit show—literally!
"Lookin' for a key? I might as well be dead," I thought. In a place like this, I had no desires left.
The old man chuckled. "Die? Go ahead and try."
I looked at him and didn't say nothin'.
"People in here have died countless times. Every day... no, every moment, someone thinks about killin' themselves. But what good does that do? Let me tell you, you'll end up right back here. Why? 'Cause that's the rule of this place."
"I'm really fed up!" I cursed.
"Young man, keep your cool. In here, you're the only one who can help yourself. You gotta understand why we're all here. What bad things did we do when we were alive? If there really is a punishment system in this world, then this is fair game."
I thought hard about what bad things I did in my life. Stealin' a bike? Feedin' a squirrel a fruity eraser? Watchin' adult films? I was thinkin' that if even watchin' adult films counted, then God was bein' way too unfair.
Forget it, no use thinkin' about it.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Jack. Jack Lotson," the old man replied.
"I'm Hart Lee. They usually call me... never mind. So, what's the deal with these Apostles you mentioned?"
"No clue. Like I said, they're the administrators of this level."
"This level?" I was surprised. "Are there more levels? All like this?"
"No idea. I've only seen it once, and it was the one who told us about the key."
"It? Is this guy an animal?!"
The old man quickly shushed me. "That's very disrespectful. Be careful or it'll hear you and that'll be the end of you. The last person who got cocky with it was taken to another place and never came back. I think it was around the time of the Apollo moon landing..."
"What? There are other places? What the hell kind of place is this?!" My head was about to explode.
"Didn't I tell you? Hell. This is hell. And other places are probably even worse. You think the Apostles would take that guy out for coffee or something?"
"Forget this hell!"
"You... alright, suit yourself. If you wanna be stubborn, I won't stop you. If you also wanna get out, then hurry up and look. Anyway, I'm numb. I guess it won't be long before you get numb too. Damn it, long live numbness."
I thought for a while and eventually decided to stick with them. What other choice did I have? I glanced at the shit below, sighed, and stuck both my hands in. The warm sensation came through, and it didn't feel like much resistance inside. I was kinda comfortable. Damn, I was really messed up.
"What does this shit taste like? You ever tried it, Jack?" I asked the old man.
Jack looked at me in amazement. "Do you think I'd eat it? What a surprising question."
"No... aren't you guys ever hungry?"
"Hungry enough to eat shit? Does that sound appetizing? You're really somethin'!"
"Alright, I was just askin'. I was curious how you all survive here."
"Haha." Jack let out a couple of miserable laughs. "Survive? Who's talkin' about survivin'?"
I looked at him, waitin' for an answer.
Jack continued, "This place is meant to make souls suffer. Don't you get it? If you don't experience suffering, how can you understand where it comes from? Believe in the power of reincarnation. Here, if you're hungry, just be hungry. When you starve to death, you start over. That's it. Of course, you can choose to eat it. It's endless, so go ahead and eat."
For some reason, hearin' him say that made me feel a bit sick again. This old man was even more hardcore than I thought. Time really was a great torturer. It could corrode the toughest steel into dust.