Mattias was now a soul, leaving his body. So his soul just floated in an empty black void one with no colour, no sound, no lights, neither up nor down.
As he was floating in this void, he felt a ripple. Then two chairs manifested, anchored to nothing, yet perfectly there, as if on the ground.
The black goo that had been what prevented him from dying rippled beneath him, spreading outward in rings that had no end. From them, he saw himself before his very own eyes
same face, same body, and eyes… except those eyes were a deep dark.
"You have died," the reflection said, voice carrying like it was spoken both next to and inside him. "May I ask why?"
Mattias tried to move, but his limbs refused. "What are you?"
"I am unimportant," it said bluntly. "I am just a function."
Mattias was confused; everything was confusing. "What do you mean, function?"
The goo spoke low and wet, like oil bubbling on fire. "That is unimportant."
Mattias forced a glare, even if his body wasn't fully there. "Oh, are you Death then?"
"No," it replied, "as Death is what is claiming your soul right now."
Mattias looked resigned. "Oh, so is this what happens when you die?"
The reflection didn't change its facial expression. "I don't know."
It looked at him and then added, "Why are you dying?"
Mattias looked at the reflection and didn't know what to say. "I was weak."
The reflection looked at him with the same calm expression. "Why were you weak?"
Again, Mattias didn't know what to say.
Mattias: "I don't know."
Reflection: "Why don't you know?"
Mattias: "I don't remember anything."
Reflection: "Why would you need to remember?"
Mattias was at a loss for words, as he couldn't justify why he wanted to remember.
Mattias: "Because I… I want to know who I was, what I was like, how my life was like."
Reflection: "Is that why you died?"
Mattias blinked, or at least he thought he did. His eyes, if he still had any, reflected the nothingness.
"I… don't know," he said quietly.
The reflection tilted its head, fingers tapping the armrest of the chair that shouldn't have existed.
"Then why did you fight? If you wanted to die, you could have let Manu take your body."
Mattias hesitated. "Because… I didn't want to die."
The reflection's lips curved, but it wasn't a smile. "That's a contradiction."
Mattias frowned. "What do you mean?"
"You wanted to die," it repeated, "yet you were trying to live."
The words struck him harder than claws ever had. He stared at the other him, feeling the weight of his own confusion pressing like gravity that didn't belong here.
Mattias: "Then what am I supposed to do? Just accept it? Do you know what I have been through!?"
The reflection leaned forward slightly. "No, nor do I really care."
Mattias: "Then why are you talking to me right now?"
The reflection's eyes dimmed to black voids. "Because, as the dying man you are, I wanted to know why."
The question echoed no sound followed, just the gentle ripple of the black beneath him. Mattias opened his mouth but couldn't answer. Images flickered across his mind: pain, blood, teeth, again and again, over so long.
Mattias (whispered): "I don't know anymore…"
"Then you can die and let Manu take your body," the reflection said simply, leaning back. "It would be a waste to function for something that doesn't know why it lives."
Mattias looked up sharply. "Why to live?"
Reflection: "Yes, a reason to not die."
Mattias's expression twisted. "You are right."
The reflection looked at him with a cold face. "Yet you will still die in the end, as you didn't know where you were, nor why, and you will die without knowing."
Mattias stared at it, realization dawning. "Oh, that would have been good to find out."
Reflection: "Yet how can you, if you claim to have struggled and just want to die? So tell me, why did you die? You said you were weak, yet you had all the strength you needed. You said you wanted to die, yet you fought to live. So tell me, what defines you the contradiction that is yourself, or the misery that is your life?"
Mattias could not, or did not want to, speak because he knew he couldn't answer that question.
The reflection's face smiled finally, sharp and knowing, pointing to the chairs for them to take a seat. They both sat across each other, and extending a hand to Mattias, the reflection said, "Why not make a deal?"
Mattias (looking slightly up): "What deal?"
"I want you to do three things for me," the reflection said. "You'll one: become an embryo. Two: you will be revived."
The reflection kept his hand out for a handshake to make the deal official.
"But to be clear, you will use your soul as a form of payment."
"What do you mean by my soul!?" Mattias said, shocked.
The reflection's eyes gleamed faintly.
"It's a fair deal—to get your life back. And after the embryo develops, the payment is done, and you get your soul back."