Alice woke up in a small, familiar office. She lay on a brown leather lounge and took a moment to look around. Then she sighed.
“Damnit.” She mumbled to herself then relaxed. She rested her head against the chair and closed her eyes. She heard the door open but did not bother to open her eyes. “Hey Ezey, how am I doin?” she asked.
“You’re done!” Ezey, a clean-shaven tan man in a black suit, said. He shook Alice by the shoulders to stir her up. “Congratulations!” Alice sat up and open her eyes.
“Really???” She asked. Ezey nodded. “But what about the rest of me?” she asked. Ezey nodded and smiled.
“We’ve been holding on to them as they finish. You’re the last one in.”
“That’s great!” Alice hopped out of the chair to face Ezey. “What’s next?” she asked with a big grin.
“Well there’s a few different options when you finish, but you’ve decided to spend all your points now. C’mon,” Ezey motioned for her to follow him, then headed toward the door. Alice stopped him with a hand on his arm.
“Wait. What are the options?” she gave him a confused look. “I didn’t choose anything yet.” Ezey’s brown eyes softened.
“You know how this works, Alice,” he placed a hand on her shoulder. and squeezed. “This you didn’t, but one of you did.”
“What are the options? What did I pick and what did I turn down?” Ezey lowered his hand. He glanced at the door, then back to Alice.
“Well you’re supposed to know anyway,” he shrugged. “I can take a minute to tell you.” He sat down on the edge of the desk and nodded at the lounge chair. Alice was quick to sit down. “So by now you know we score each life you live,” he said.
“Yeah but I don’t remember what metrics you keep track of,” Alice interrupted. Ezey shook his head.
“Nice try, but you don’t get to know that. Anyway, when you get enough points you can spend them or hold on to them to keep earning more.”
“Spend them on what?”
“You get to design and live your last life.”
“Wait a minute. My last life? Don’t I get to keep going around again like I’ve been doing?” Ezey shook his head.
“All souls are borrowed energy. You have to return it when you’re done; this is part of that process.”
“What? How does that work?” Ezey grinned.
“It’s actually very cool. When a new soul is born we shatter it then send all the shards out to different universes to practice living. That’s what you are now: a shard. When you’re ready for the ‘real thing’ we take all the different splinters of your soul and put them back together into one unique soul. The number of points you have can be spent on making your soul stronger in different ways. Right now you’ve only got enough points to be a Plant Soul.”
“I don’t want to be a plant!” Alice said. Her sudden temper caused her to stand up when she yelled, but Ezey remained unfazed. She sat back down when he shrugged.
“You won’t be a plant exactly. The you that decided received all the information, but I’ll give you the short version. When you’re on your last life you get a chance to become one of 54 Unique Souls. You’ll have a human body, but most Uniques have access to different abilities. The more points you spend the stronger souls you can choose.”
“What about the part where I have to return my energy?” Ezey nodded.
“Right. Uniques, for the most part, can only be killed by other Uniques. There are some, Plants for example, that can die of old age. When one Unique kills another, they get to absorb that soul and become stronger. Eventually, all that power will be concentrated into fewer and fewer bodies until there’s only one left. But there’re so many souls to go through that it won’t happen for a long time yet.”
“And then what?” Alice asked. Her eyes sparkled with interest.
“What do you mean?” Ezey tilted his head at her.
“Well, what happens when there’s only one left?” Ezey chuckled.
“For having as many lives as you’ve had, you’re still not getting it.” He bent over to face her with his face only inches away and smiled. “It starts again.”
Life After Exposition
