I blinked, for a moment it was darkness, nothing existed, not even I existed, who am I? In that dark void I could not perceive or remember anything. Maybe it wasn't even a moment, how would I keep track of time anyway? The darkness was replaced with a flash, color and movement filled this space around me, and I started to remember who I am. It was as if my whole life was recorded on video and I was made to watch it on times one thousand speed, yet I could comprehend every second of it. I was even able to see myself being born, something I don't think anybody remembers from the first person. It was daunting and confusing, especially since it took a little over eight full days to watch the whole thing. So much for life flashing before your eyes, sure this is quick compared to living it but damn, did it really need to take this long? Oh right! At the end I saw myself die, so I guess that does explain... Some of this? So I'm dead, on my twenty second birthday my partner killed me in my sleep, the realization hits.. pretty softly, given how distracted I am with the whole "movie" I just watched. I felt unbalanced, my legs weren't doing what I was telling them to d.. My legs! They're moving, maybe I'm not dead, how could I be if I'm moving?

I blinked again, the show was over, I could see once again. I was going up some white stairs and it looked like I was really high up in the sky. When I looked behind myself I wasn't able to tell how far the stairs went, and when I looked ahead I wasn't sure how much longer I had to go. My legs were on autopilot, as were my arms, just walking and holding the railing non stop no matter how hard I tried. Honestly, other than the lack of control, this was sort of nice. Watching my life in review so quickly was a mental bombardment, it's nice to have something to look at that's really plain and uneventful. This gave me some time to process that, yes, I probably am dead. Stairs like this don't exist in real life, and because of my life review I saw how I was killed, but this isn't nothing. In life I was pretty sure there wouldn't be an afterlife, since I wasn't raised to have religious beliefs as a kid and wasn't convinced as a young adult. Thought it'd just be nothing, you live and then you die, but stairs? Which religion said there would be stairs... 

A few hours of walking up the stairs passed and the relative shock of being alive after death was starting to wear thin. At this point I just started to cry, it's not like I'd lose progress on the staircase as my legs still aren't responding. It's not the walking that's getting to me, it's how I died. Now that I can think straight again I can't get my mind off being killed by my partner. I trusted her, I loved her, and she killed me in my sleep? On my birthday? Why? I need to see her life's movie, what would have made her do that to me? And I was ugly crying, I could feel my nose leaking and I was coughing a lot, luckily there was no one else on the stairs to see me this way.. Or maybe.. No wait that's even worse, I'm going to be alone on these stairs forever aren't I? That only made the crying worse, thanks brain. 

I wasn't even trying to keep track of time anymore, for all I care it's been a day now. I stopped crying when I saw the end of the stairs, "Finally," I said in an exasperatedly, the first word I spoke and it was an expression of annoyance, I'm in for a good time aren't I?

With all the walking I've done up to this point, the last few stairs go by in what feel like an instant, leaving me with a... cloud, I'm just standing on a cloud. I can move my arms and legs willingly again, so there's that, but otherwise I've got a cloud. I consider for a moment jumping down the stairs but when I turn around they're just gone, my only friend in this sky field and it didn't even say goodbye. I'm about to take a seat when a white desk just pops up in front of me, and behind it is a being made of golden rings. The rings are dotted with eyes, wings, and beams of golden light, all the eyes were looking at me and I at.. at least two of them, not trying to be rude I don't avoid eye contact.

"Greetings, be not afraid Tony, for you are in the kingdom of heaven!" The voice boomed, the tone confident, the source... a pile of eyeball rings. I couldn't believe this thing was talking to me, and it called me by my dead name, that's fun I guess...

I looked down over myself just to be sure, yeah I have the same body I died with, I don't look much like a boy anymore so I guess this thing just decided to not respect who I am. That can be a problem later, right now I'd just like some answers. I find it in me to walk up to the desk.

"So this is.. Heaven, like with the Christian god?" I'm afraid of the answer, because if it's yes I feel as though they're going to realize I'm in the wrong place very soon.

"Yes, you are about to join with your brothers and sisters in eternal worship of the lord in heaven, hollowed be thy name, god," the eyes didn't ever blink, they just kept staring at me, but it didn't sound like I was going to be kicked out yet so that's good.

"Where do I.." Was about all I could say before it vanished, it left the desk, but the rings and eyes were gone, instead replaced with what I could only at this point assume was god.

He looked like he did in the paintings, old white guy with grey hair, fuzzy beard, robes, really the only thing that stood out about him was how boring he looked. That's it? His face turned a little red the longer I looked at him.

"What? I can't just look like a guy?" god stated incredulously, he sounded a lot like a dad, not my dad per say but he had a fatherly voice to him. I guess that makes sense since he's the father, the son, and the holy ghost, I think at least.

"N.. no it's not that, I just never thought I'd meet you.. or that anyone would meet you," my voice was still soft and weaker than normal, the gravity of the situation still setting in.

God let out a sigh, clearly he had expected me to say something like that, "of course, atheism is becoming troublingly popular downstairs. Maybe I need to inspire some people to write a second bible, that first one ended up being rubbish anyway," this was too surreal, here god was in front of me grumbling about how the bible was trash in such a way I could see us speaking about it over lunch.

"Oh but never mind that, you made it Tony, it's time for your eternal reward in heaven," His expression lightened up as he said that, "all I have to do is double check your records, make sure you're in the right place, it'd be embarrassing if another trannie got in."

Normally hearing that term would make me angry, but in this case it inspired more dread than anything else, was I really about to go to hell over this? I tried to think quickly but I guess it was foolish to assume I could think faster than god. Before I could say anything he was already holding a book with my dead name on the front cover, reading through it very quickly, his expression darkening the further he got through until he closed it with one hand in a huff.

"Jesus Christ! Not another one! Bah damn it!" God said almost the same as a tantrumming child would yet here I still stood, not burning for all eternity. I closed my eyes and covered my head with my hands, what else was I supposed to do, though after about ten seconds I peeked one eye open to see god still just standing there, looking angry and shaking his head.

"I'm not sending you to hell yet T.. rr.. Jessica," it looked like it caused him physical pain to call me by my new name, "I can't believe this is happening again so soon after the last one," his tone started to calm down back to the fatherly one before, but he was still clearly mad. He turned around and raised a hand, the cloud we were standing on started to extend outward towards where he was facing, doubling in size.

"I can't send you to hell unless I can beat you in a contest of your choice," the receptionist desk has also vanished, leaving us standing on the now larger cloud without any props, "go ahead, pick something."

How could I possibly beat god at anything? He's fucking god, this is just some sick cruel joke to tease me on my way to hell isn't it? God's face once gain turns red with anger, "Hey! I can read your thoughts Jessica. This is a rule that kept getting written out of the bible, I can't send someone to hell if they strongly assert that I made a mistake, unless I beat them in a contest of course. You being trans means you've rebelled against the form I picked for you so you qualify."

When I first started to transition I would have never guessed it'd have that kind of perk, that doesn't even, "Yes I know it doesn't make sense to you, humans don't have the same capacity for reason as I do, the all powerful lord in heaven," it was becoming tiring that god kept reading my thoughts, and I think he agreed as he continued, "now pick a contest, and for fairness sake I'll stop reading your thoughts until it's over." 

I smiled at that, of everything else that has been going on at least god will pretend to play fair, it'll probably be the last vaguely funny thing I'll get to experience before oblivion. Since he's not reading my thoughts I finally get a chance to speak, "well.. I guess the thing I'm best at is street fighter, if I could beat you at anything it'd be that."

The cloud we stood on started to swirl, darkening until it was black. In the center a rectangle started to raise, the sky around us also started to darken like the night sky, stars twinkled in the distance. The rectangle took shape, starting to bulge out and cave in until it was an arcade cabinet for street fighter three, 3rd strike. I didn't tell him that was my version of choice, but to be fair he is god so he probably already knew that. 

He and I walked up to the cabinet, of course he claimed the player one spot, and he put quarters in the machine until both of us had a credit to play the game. I was going to ask why he bothered to include that detail, but he seemed in the zone, quickly navigating the cursor to Dudley and locking in his choice, picking corkscrew blow as his super. I usually also played Dudley but decided not to challenge god to a mirror match, instead I picked Ken with Shinryuu Ken as my super.

We load into the match, our characters doing the normal opening animations, everything seemed normal as though god spared no expense making this arcade cabinet. It was comforting to hear the familiar sounds of my favorite fighting game for what would probably be my last time. As soon as the fight began god... Used cross counter, a move which makes Dudley stand still and counter his opponent's next attack, but it didn't work on low attacks, so I just used a sweeping kick to chip in some free damage.

"Fuck," god said bluntly, before Dudley got up and... used cross counter again, so I did a sweeping kick again, "damn it!" god once again said in frustration. I looked away from the screen for a moment to try and gauge what was going on, but all I could see on god's face was anger. It was again comforting in a way, almost like I was back at an arcade on earth playing with a particularly salty opponent. When I looked at the screen again there he was, using cross counter. I didn't even punish it this time, instead I just started to giggle.

I could hear god seethe with anger, his grumbling had nearly turned into a growl, only getting worse the more I hit him until he ran out of health, the announcer congratulating me for a perfect round. The second round went almost identically to the first, the only difference being that god started to complain about his inputs being eaten and that his super wasn't working, going down the list of scrub quotes to the bitter end as I was awarded a second perfect victory.

"You little... rrrfff.... Fine! Fine, you win fare and square, I won't send you to hell, are you happy now?!" god once again sounded like a sad child, in a strange moment of empathy I reach out to pat him on the back, but after the first pat he pulls away, "I don't need your sympathy! You only won because you used a cheap tactic, spamming low kick, what a bitch..."

I almost started to giggle again, but decided not to press my luck any further. The cloud and sky returned to their previous, heavenly colors and the arcade cabinet sunk away, then god sighed, "a deals a deal, you don't have to go to hell anymore, let's go," he said before raising both his hands, bringing forth a simple yet large gate which opened to reveal millions of people all bowing down to various figures and depictions of god. He stepped in ahead of me, "knock yourself out," he said, still obviously sore about losing the way that he did.

I stepped in through the gate a little after he did, confused as this place seemed more boring than the stairs to get here were. I walked over to an ornate bench with a golden statue of god sitting on it and I just fell asleep, letting my exhausted mind finally rest. At least it's better than burning in hell, right?