I woke up and found myself laying bare footed wearing a white cloth that is usually worn by the patient in the hospital. I got curious of my surrounding. It seems like I was laying on top of a floating white and round plane with nothing holding the edges. The space is wide enough to keep me from falling off. There is a straight path out of a circle and a door at the other end.

I swallowed a breath.

I remember getting stabbed in the stomach. Surprisingly there are no wounds when I lifted my shirt. I felt a pang of sadness welling up inside me. Tears fell out along with the memory of regretful decisions I have made in my life. I cried. There was no one here to console me. Only the greetings of my own echo.

If this is afterlife, it is quite different than I have imagined. There is no light guiding me or any grim reaper coming to take my soul away.

I stood at the floating plane. I mumbled to myself, “I have to move.”

Not sure what to expect, I brought myself to move toward the door. The door was plain and white. It stood a little taller than me. When I reached in front of door, I slid my hand up. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. Here goes nothing. I turned the doorknob open. The moment I open it, the first thing I noted was how bright the place is, I was greeted by rows and rows of never-ending bookshelves. There were uncountable old books with no headings written on it. The old rust of books were weaving through the air.

I lifted my head to see the end of bookshelves to no success. Before I could take a few more steps in, I was interrupted by a person, or an owl, clearing his throat.

Bewildered by the appearance of a half man with an upper body of an owl. I stood there staring at him with my jaw hanging open.

“If you are done staring, come and have a sit.”

“Ah, what? Oh…uh.”

There is a table with papers laying around it. I pulled out the chair and took a sit while the owl-man turned around to take a book out from the shelf.

I kept silent watching him as he said, “Alan, am I right?”

“Ah,” my heart leaped a beat when he turned his head 90 degree around, I almost thought his neck broke. “Y-yes, I’m Alan.”

“Your record is interesting. It may be the reason why you are brought here.” He said, “As you can tell, this place is not normal.”

I stared blankly at him. “What do you mean?”

“When you were 13 years old, you should have been abducted by a parallel world summon. But instead, you denied the summon on your own will resulting in a distortion of space. Which is the cause for the building to break.”

“Parallel world summon? I don’t understand.” My lips were shaking. I hung my head with my hands. “Why me? My father died because of it.  If he wasn’t looking for me, he would have live….” I killed him.

The owl-man shook his head, as if reading my thought, “You did not kill him, he chose to look for you out of his own will.”

I kept silent. Everyone said the same thing. It was I who chose not to believe it.

The owl-man continued, “Because of the intervention of otherworld, you are given a special pass to choose your own fate. Normally in your case, you will be reincarnated into a newly born baby, whether it is an animal or human.”

With a wave, five black cards appeared on the table. Unlike poker cards, there were no hatching or symbol on the face of the cards.

“Each card represents a different fate, look carefully into them and choose the path you desire the most.”

“What am I supposed to look into if they are all black?”

There was no reply. I looked up from the card and found myself alone. If I could choose my own birth, wouldn’t I desire to be born as a prince? Or maybe a god? I let out a dry laugh.

I looked closer at each card and stared hard at them for a long time. There was still nothing.

I sincerely doubt the owl-man would trick me. Or maybe my fate is just that empty. Given up the hope of choosing, I randomly pointed at one card.

The card shined brightly, while the other four faded away. My eyes widen, images flashed through the card. Hope arises in me as I got sucked in by the bright light.