"Wake up... Wake up... Wake up, hero..."

I rubbed my eyes as I sat up. I must've slept for a while since I felt pretty refreshed.

As my senses returned, I couldn't help but wonder what had happened. I groaned and rubbed at my eyes before sitting up, then I realized I had awoken in a room that wasn't mine.

"Wha...?" I said as I looked carefully around.

It appeared that I was in some kind of void. It was nothing but darkness. It reminded me of a Stephen King novel somewhat and I felt slightly nervous as I stood up and walked forward in no particular direction.

Oh. Before I continue, I should introduce myself. My name is Casey. I have brown hair and blue eyes and I'm sixteen. Anyway, I regarded my current situation calmly, which is more than what most anyone else would do. Anyone else would have gone nuts with fear already. I, however, decided to check my person.

I was wearing my favorite pair of blue jeans with a black leather belt, a black jacket with a furlined inside and red and white vertical and horizontal lines, underneath which was one of my favorite Bendy and the Ink Machine t-shirts. I was also wearing a pair of white socks and special shoes designed for people who spend extended periods of time on said feet, which I tend to do quite often, and decided that my hair was still a rich brown color. Once I decided that I was more-or-less the same guy I was when I'd fallen asleep, I checked my pants pockets and pulled out my basic travel gear.

I was about halfway to somewhere when I heard a soft voice whisper in my ear.

"Greetings hero," it spoke. "I have been waiting for you for a very long time. I'm glad that I can finally speak to you."

"Uh..."

I won't deny, that creeped the hell out of me. The voice sounded like it came from a young girl but it was pretty soothing. On one hand, I've read all kinds of horror stories and knew that sometimes such voices were actually traps designed to try and kill the hero. So, I had two choices: Ask who she is, or walk away and figure out where I am. I decided to go with option one.

"Who are you, may I ask?" I sat down but kept my eyes peeled and ears sharp. I may be in complete darkness, but that didn't mean something could come up from behind. "Also, where am I? I wanna guess purgatory, but I not sure if I'm dead."

"To answer your first question, you may call me Aura, it's a pleasure to meet you," she spoke with a pleasant tone.

"It's a pleasure to meet you too," I replied with a smile. "You can call me Casey."

"Alright, Casey. For your second question, this isn't purgatory, but it's something similar. This place is called the void."

I perked up. "You mean like that place from Undertale?"

"You've heard of it?" Aura asked with genuine surprise. "I never knew a human had returned to their life after coming here."

"I've never been here before," I clarified. "I just played the game."

"Game?" She sounded confused.

"Yeah, Undertale. The video game?" I tried to explain it to her.

"What's a video game?"

...

"You've never been to earth have you?" I asked. Of course, she hasn't, she's a voice in my head.

"I have been to earth," she answered like a pouty kid, "but all I ever really do is observe people."

"Okay then," I responded, chuckling at her response. "If we could get serious, what are you and why am I here?"

"Look up," she answered.

Doing what she said, I was stunned to see a small floating ball of light a few feet above me. It floated down hovered in front me.

"Hi, there!" It spoke in Aura's voice. The ball blinked in correspondence to whatever she spoke. "This is what I look like!"

"Huh, that's something you don't see every day," I said as I stood up and looked her over. "Well now I know what you look like, but it still doesn't my question of what you are."

"I'm a Guide," she said, spinning around in the air like she was jumping for joy. "Guide's are astral beings thought are assigned to a person when they're sent to the void. I was assigned to you once you arrived here. I've been waiting to be assigned to someone for years and I'm glad all my waiting has paid off!"

I was starting to like this Guide; she acted and sounded like she wasn't much older than maybe twelve or thirteen and for her to be waiting to be assigned to someone for years was nothing short of a crime against nature. Plus, having a companion was better than wandering around complete blackness for all eternity.

"Well, I'm glad to have you as my companion," I said, holding out my hand for her to hover over.

"So, shall we get started?" She asked.

"Get started on what?"

"Oh, that's right, I didn't explain everything. The reason people end up in the void is due to them wanting something more with their life," Aura explained, circling in the air. "Guides then help them start anew. If a person ends up choosing a new life their Guide will make it happen and accompany them. It's kind of like the Ghosts from the Destiny video game series."

I blinked. "I thought you didn't know what video games are."

Aura flickered. "I- uh-"

I crossed my arms.

"Okay, maybe I know a few..."

"Yeah. Right." I rolled my eyes. "So why did I end up in the void?"

"Oh, that's because you died."

...

"What?"

"Uh..." Aura was at a loss for words. I fell to my knees with the revelation still fresh in my mind.

How could I be dead? I had no memory of dying. All I could remember was falling asleep.

I turned to Aura as she hovered down to my level.

"I'm sorry," she said, her voice full of comfort. "While people end up in the void due to them wanting something more in their life, death is the only way for it to happen. I think that's how it works."

I looked up and glared. "What do you mean you 'think'?"

"I really don't know," she responded, floating away slightly. "Guides are assigned to a human immediately after they enter the void. We're never given any details."

I looked down. "What about my family? Do they know what happened to me?"

"Again, I really don't know," she repeated with the same comforting tone. "They could be aware. I mean, it's a possibility."

At this point, I didn't know what to do. My old life was gone and there appeared to be no way to get it back. Looking at Aura, I really couldn't be mad at her for all of this. She was just doing her job. Plus, it was comforting to know I had someone to talk to instead of wandering this place alone.

"Are you going to be okay?" Aura's voice broke me from my thoughts.

I nodded slowly. "Yeah, I just need a few moments."

"Sure, take your time."

It took a few minutes for me to collect my thoughts. I slowly rose to my feet and turned to face Aura. "So what do we do now?

"Well, as I said, it's up to you to choose a new life." She began to circle me. "So what are you thinking? A mystical land? Alien world? A steamy romance story?"

She came to a stop in front of me. "Also, you can switch into another life anytime you want."

Oh geez, this was a tough choice. What world did I want to go to? There were so many I really wanted to visit. Marvel, Minecraft, Pokemon, you just can't settle on one. However, the more I thought about it, one certain world came to mind.

"There is a game that recently caught my eye before I came here."

"What's it called?" Aura hovered closer, her voice full of curiosity.

"World of Warcraft."

"I've never heard of it."

"It's a massively multiplayer online role-playing game that's been out since 2004," I explained. "Although I learned about it only recently before I came here."

"Hmm." Despite being a ball of light, Aura appeared to be lost in thought. "Okay, I found it. Wow, you weren't kidding, a LOT of people play this game. Many of them seem to play it for a whole day."

She floated around in confusion. "Do any of them even have lives at all?"

I busted out laughing. For some reason that was really funny to me. I guess it's because I encountered a person like that and he was REALLY into video games. He had a personality that made him look like an idiot.

I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm a big fan of people like that. I love video games a lot, but if someone wishes to play them for an entire day, it's just not healthy.

"I hope they do," I responded after calming down. "Warcraft seemed really interesting so I'd like to go there first."

"Coming right up!" Aura responded with glee, doing a somersault in the air. "I just need to find the teleportation code."

As soon as she said that, she began to glow extremely bright, forcing to cover my eyes. She then enveloped me before I even had a chance to cry out.

When the light cleared, I fell to the ground as the ground rumbled beneath me.

"Aura what the hell is going on?!"

Around me, pieces of a barren wasteland broke off into the sky, where other planets could be seen in a swirling void of green energy.

"I have no idea!" She was buzzing frantically through the air. "But you need to start running!"

I noticed the ground beneath me was starting to crack. Getting to my feet, I ran as the ground began to rise with Aura right behind me. As I reach the end of the floating piece of earth, I jumped, falling a couple feet before hitting the ground.

Behind me, the ground shattered before sailing off.

"That was close."

"You're telling me."

We wandered around this new world as it fell apart. The whole time, I couldn't shake the feeling that we were being watched even though there was nothing for miles around.

I turned to Aura. "How long have been out here?"

"I think about thirty minutes."

"I hope we come across some water soon-"

"Turalyon!" A voice suddenly yelled.

The two of us let out a startled cry before looking around for whoever said that.

"What the?" Aura let out.

"Who is that?" I whispered to Aura.

"How should I know? I've never been here before."

"Left!"

I jumped at the sound of the same voice, but when I turned to face the direction it came from I saw an arrow sailing towards me.

"Shit!"

I jumped to the side, landing in a heap. Looking up I saw two figures rushing towards us. Without thinking, I got to my feet and ran. Aura turned invisible leaving me alone.

I didn't make it far, cause a bright light came out of nowhere, leaving me disorientated. I tripped and tumbled. Coughing up dirt, I got to my feet, rubbing my eyes.

"Don't move," a second voice warned.

I froze.

"Turn around," the first voice demanded.

Slowly, I turned and what awaited me was a huge surprise.

In front of me was a man with brown eyes and brown hair wearing white and gold armor. Beside him was a woman with blonde hair and emerald green eyes. She wore a green cloak and had a blue tattoo over her left eye.

And both of them had weapons.

I swallowed "Hi?"

This is something I came up with years ago.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading it.

You may recognize the two people Casey encounters at the end.

'til next time.

This is the EZ-GMR,

logging out.