Chapter 1: Prologue: A Good Death

Miami, Florida November 1st, 2092

Near the heart of downtown Miami, a city that in the early 21st century feared it'd be largely devastated by climate change, stood a solitary estate. This estate was staffed by a small number of professionals, all of whom were well-paid and treated more than humanely by their boss, the world-famous mediator Dr. Lorenzo Arias. 

Dr. Lorenzo Arias was a skilled, multilingual mediator who had lived the sort of life that would make saints green with envy. He was a world-traveling mediator who settled conflicts between religions, nations, and even played a pivotal role in ending conflicts that plunged continents into war. And in the hours after his death, during the brief period in which no one knew he had died, those he employed thought about how he was just two days from turning ninety-nine. He was kind, intelligent, and a deeply humble boss who worked hard to ensure that his employees had little to do.

He himself passed away in his sleep, and in the aftermath of his demise, his soul left his body and went not to Heaven or Hell but somewhere else. Instead of going straight to one of the two dimensions where most deceased humans ended up, Dr. Arias's soul was bound for a unique meeting place between Heaven and Hell outside of Limbo. That said, the world would learn of his demise early in the morning, relative to Florida anyway, and mourn his passing. 

All over the reformed United States communities, politicians, celebrities, and activists of all stripes mourned his passing. Beyond the United States, tributes to his life were even more impressive. The Grand Republic of Latin America, a coalition of Latin American states that formed one single superstate in 2065, unanimously voted to declare his birthday a holiday, and nations that he personally visited, such as Indonesia and Croatia would name schools after him in the days and weeks to come. Even nations he hadn't visited but that felt the impact of his activism, such as Iran and Japan mourned his passing and declared temporary ceasefires with their enemies in an effort to act as they believed he'd have advised. 

That said, death was not the end for a human being. Death was merely one step in a long journey, and for many people, one's death on Earth was only the first real step they'd ever take towards their destiny. Dr. Arias was one such person, which was precisely why when he first opened his eyes after dying, he'd not find himself greeting Saint Michael on his way to Heaven or standing in line in the first circle of Hell, but inside of an incredibly nondescript room.

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The Entryway

After the latest in a long line of peaceful, but boring nights I awoke abruptly and immediately began to experience something I hadn't been expecting; the sensation of a chair supporting me instead of my bed. Even before I opened my eyes, I was so intimately familiar with the sensation of my bed that the fact that the first thing I was feeling was the back of an admittedly comfortable chair rather than the softness of my bed was enough to send a bit of a jolt to my mind, and shock me into full wakefulness. 

For a long moment, I allowed myself to sit in silence and kept my eyes closed. During this time, I allowed my mind to wander. I mused on the nature of my work, and the history of human-on-human conflict. 

I thought about mankind's amazing ability to invent weapons. I thought about our tendencies towards violence. For a few minutes, I even allowed my mind to muse about how humanity's fictional stories often needed violence or conflicts of some sort.

To me, one of the more fascinating aspects of my field, the field of Peace and Conflict Studies, was how it allowed me to study violence in oftentimes fairly gruesome detail. During my life, I had seen horrors, from the conditions some North Korean families had had to endure while attempting to escape the authoritarian state to the conditions some families of undocumented immigrants in the United States endured while waiting for their cases to be heard by immigration judges and all of this I had had to see while doing my job as a mediator and peacekeeper. 

Curiously, the thing that eventually made me first want to open my eyes was not recalling the horrors of the past but the fact that I could recall such horrors at all. Over the past few decades, my memory had not been fading, not so completely that I was losing memories at any rate, but my earliest memories had indeed been losing clarity due to the natural rigors of age. That said, for some reason, in this odd seat, my memory felt sharper than it had in decades. Upon mentally exerting myself I found that I could effortlessly recall every memory of mine with the natural ease of someone with a perfected memory. 

I could recall the faces, names, and even entire conversations I had had in the past with long-dead relatives. Even relatives who perished when I was but a young child. All of my memories came flooding back to me, ones I had forgotten when I was young and ones I had made yesterday. And I wanted to know why that was, even though I was quietly, grimly, aware of at least a few possible reasons why I could suddenly remember things so clearly, so I opened my eyes. 

Upon opening my eyes, I found myself inside of a room with an impossibly white floor. I was staring straight down, able to see my pants and my shirt, and parts of the chair that I was sitting in. The chair itself was a simple wooden thing, not even remarkable in craftsmanship. It was honestly just a chair, and as soon as I realized that I got up and in doing so noticed that I was dressed in a pair of khakis and a matching button-up shirt. I was also facing downward, my head positioned so that it was staring at my pants. I correct this, and upon sitting up straight I found myself looking at two differently shaded silhouettes. 

One of the odd silhouettes gently radiated an amber-colored aura, while the other radiated a sort of anti-aura that sheds darkness as easily as the other aura faintly glowed. Both silhouettes were seated on the other side of a desk, which itself was positioned in front of me. The desk was devoid of decoration, and faintly registered as more an attempt to give the room a thin veneer of normalcy rather than as an actual piece of furniture. I studied it for a moment before hearing a soft voice whisper into the back of my mind.

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"Hello Dr. Arias, can you hear me?" Asked the voice, sounding both rather gentle and concerned at the same time. I was unsure of whether or not the voice came from either of the silhouettes, but it didn't take a genius to realize that that assuming that the voice came from at least one of them was not illogical. 

"I... I can hear you." I stammered out, replying to the silhouettes while trying to smile, rather pleasantly. I wasn't sure if my smile could reach my eyes, but I was able to do the gesture at least. 

"Ah, excellent. Do you... Do you know what is going on?" The same voice asked, a second after my response. I chuckled a little and closed my eyes for the first time since I lifted my head up and initially saw the two silhouettes.

"I... I might be hallucinating. I also might be dead, or at least dying. And those things aren't really mutually exclusive. I could be dying, and this is my brain producing one final, strange hallucination to entertain me while my body ceases its functions." I remarked, almost introspectively.

The silhouettes in front of me both shifted slightly in their seats, in response to my words and while I was not sure of how I could theorize about this, something told me the two of them were uncomfortable. Perhaps they weren't prepared for me to be so... annoyingly self-aware? 

"Well... Actually, that second possibility is the right one." Muttered another voice, presumably that of the darker silhouette. This voice was quieter, lower, than the other one that spoke to me in ways I couldn't fully understand. It was obviously some sort of telepathy, but... how could the thing speak telepathically? Regardless of the origins of their supernatural abilities, the voices were not done with me just yet. 

"Dr. Arias, after a long, eventful life transforming conflicts, and pursuing justice, you have died. You died of old age, peacefully, in your home, in your sleep in fact. And now your soul is being prepared for... well, for what comes next." The "Other" voice explained, carefully. I could almost sense the gears turning in its mind as it tried to find the most tactful way to tell me I died. Fortunately for it, the second, darker voice seemed almost eager to speak and begun to do so as soon as it was done saying its piece.

"You are... a deeply unusual soul, and so Heaven and Hell have come to a rather unusual solution to the problem of where to put your soul for eternity. We are going to share you!" The second voice, which I assumed belonged to the creature with the anti-aura, revealed, quite eagerly at that. My eyes widened in alarm, and I was surprised to suddenly hear soft peals of laughter from the two beings.

"Dr., please relax. We both understand how that phrasing sounds, but we assure you it is not as unpleasant an arrangement as you might think. We need your diplomatic, peacemaking and peacekeeping skills, and so we truly want you to be comfortable." The brighter voice was cheerful, perpetually so, and skillfully defused a bit of my fear and uncertainty. 

"We don't want to overwhelm you, and we don't want to bias you unintentionally, so we are forbidden from explaining more than what we've already explained. Now, as... as sudden as this may seem, we are going to ask you whether or not you want to first visit Heaven or Hell." Explained the second voice, speaking with more gentleness than it had previously. As soon as the thing was done speaking two portals appeared where the silhouettes were once sitting. 

The portal where the bright silhouette was once sitting showed me a city atop the clouds, with tall golden towers, and city streets. Some of the streets were packed with what were clearly human beings, as well as the occasional angel floating in the air above the city, looking down on it like a strange alien observer. The second portal, positioned where the dark silhouette was seated, showed me a city positioned atop what looked like a field in a volcanic plain, with tall buildings made of some sort of artificial obsidian. Its city streets were packed with humans, and demons wore the clothing associated with white-collar professionals, even having briefcases and golden watches. 

"We understand the chaotic nature of what we are asking, and neither of us agreed with this plan, but celestial and infernal forces above and below us demanded that this be how we introduce you to Heaven and Hell. Neither choice presented before you is right or wrong, and almost everything you know about both realms is wrong. There are dangers in both realms, but there are also opportunities and tasks that only you can do. In time we'll reappear before you and allow you to visit and settle into whatever realm you didn't pick. All you have to do, for now, is make a choice; Heaven or Hell?" Asked the initial voice, all while waiting for me to get up and walk into one portal or the other. 

I quietly get up, and sigh while deciding to fully embrace the chaos and absurdity of this situation. Truthfully, I was not sure if I was actually dead, but I quietly resolved to not let that uncertainty keep me from... well, living. I don't hesitate and I march to the portal leading into Hell.

As I stepped to it, I remembered all the times I faced down dictators and talked down armed militiamen. I silently hoped that I wouldn't need to rely on the skills that allowed me to survive those encounters on Earth, and I boldly strode through the portal, which immediately closed behind me and exposed my senses to the chaotic cityscape that the portal had just deposited me in. I grit my teeth even as my senses are suddenly assaulted by strange, demonic noise, and I find myself in the middle of a dinghy alleyway in the bustling heart of some hellish metropolis. 

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