Theon’s death

Theon blinked out the darkness. “Wha...the...” he was in a chair. A really nice chair. It was far more comfortable than what he was used to. But that made very little sense to Theon, the last thing he remembered was pain and blood and....war. He died in battle, he knew it. There was no other explanation, unless El had somehow figured out how to heal fatal wounds. Theon’s hands instantly went to examining his body for the aforementioned holes that should be splurging blood everywhere, only to find none. “What is going on?”
“Ah. You’re awake.” Theon heard a voice com from directly in front of him. He looked up tp see a man dressed in blue seated behind a desk with papers stacked neatly, some sort of nameplate that constantly shifted the language, and a very odd shaped lamp with the tiniest flame Theon had seen trapped in glass.
“I’m sorry who are you? And where am I?” Theon asked taking the chance to look around the vicinity. As far as Theon could tell the two were in a small room, fit for paperwork and not much else. The walls decorated with portraits, some very detailed, as if they were perfect recreations of the moment, others not as detailed but still high quality. The wood floorings and walls made the space seem homely, warm and comforting. The man in front of Theon gave a long sigh.
“I take it Eliza neglected to explain things to you then?” The man asked Theon.
“Who’s Eliza?” Theon asked. The man reached over to touch an odd box.
“Matthew?” The man spoke. Theon was about tell him that Matthew was not his name.
“Yes?” A voice which seemly came from the box responded, surprising Theon.
“Could you push my other appointments back please? Eliza took an express approach with Theon.” The man said to the box again.
“Of course. Should I write Eliza up for this one?” The voice Theon assumed was named ‘Matthew’ responded.
“No, no that’s not necessary. Given Theon’s family history with Reapers, this is expected.” The man told Matthew.
“Understood. Anything else?” Matthew asked.
“That is all, thank you.” With that the man removed his finger from the box.
“Sorry about that Theon. My name is Allaster. I am a being known as a reaper. You are currently in what we refer to as “the inbetween”, specifically the earth station. Any questions so far?” The man known as Allaster asked.
“Uh yea. Allaster was it?” The man nodded in response. “So I’m dead?” Allaster nodded again. “And this is the afterlife?”
“Well to put it simply yes, this Theon, is the afterlife.” Allaster stood up and motioned for Theon to do the same. “Let’s go for a walk, most beings get it better when they can see it.” Allaster opened a door behind Theon that Theon himself was unaware of until just now. “Come, what’s the worst that could happen.” Theon got up and followed Allaster out the door.
“You know Al, this is not how I saw my day going.” Theon told Allaster, taking in all the sight around him. It was incredible, there were things Theon had never seen in his entire life all around him.
Allaster chuckled. “Not many beings ever think that this is what their day is going to be like when they come here. Let’s move to an area that’s more in line with your time period.”
“My ‘Timeperiod’?” Theon asked.
“That’s as good a place as any to start.” allaster responded. “You see this place..” allaster gestured to the sky. “It exists outside of time. That doesn’t mean time doesn’t still pass for the beings inside it. You could spend days, months, years, centuries here if you wanted to. But the simple truth is, when you leave, you return back to your spot in time.” Allaster explained leading theon down a path that progressively looked more recognizable to theon.
“Uhhh... what?” Theon asked allaster, scratching his head.
“I guess an example would be best. Let’s say you are eating a hot meal. Yes?” Allaster looked at theon to make sure he was following.
“Ooo like a nice piece of lamb?” Theon asked mouth watering. “Could we get some food? I’m hungry.”
Allaster elected to ignore theon’s food inquiry and continued. “Right, so your eating a fresh off the fire piece of lamb, its hot and steaming. Then you died before you got to bite it. That brings you here. You with me so far?”
“Yeah, Yeah, I’m eating food, its hot and I come here and I don’t get to eat any of it. This example is making me hungrier.” theon answered Allaster.
“Good and hold on for a bit longer we can eat when we get to the stables.” Allaster saw theons eyes widen at the mention of eating, then watched them sharpen. Allaster had theons undivided attention, Allaster briefly wondered if this was how Elezar had gotten theon to pay attention to anything. “So, now you stay here” Allaster gestured to the ground this time. “For I dunno a hundred years. Then you return to earth after spending a hundred years doing whatever it is that you want here. When you get back to earth, that same piece of lamb is there waiting for you still hot and steamy.”
Allaster watched the gears turn in theon’s head as he processed this information. Theon’s mouth formed words, but no sounds came out. Theon scratched at his head. “Sooooo...for me...no matter how long I stay here....when I leave...it’ll be at the same time that I died?” Theon asked, looking for clarification.
“Exactly.” Allaster answered theon smiling, glad he was able to understand one of the harder concepts to grasp.
The two continued down the path, observing the population around them increase the closer they got to the stables. There were people of all shapes, sizes, and races, elves, dwarfs, fairies, gnomes, orgres, you name it it was here. Finally theon asked another question.
“So... who are all these people?”
“Some of them are reapers, here to help assist the denizens. The rest are your death mates.” Allaster responded.
“Deathmates?” Theon asked.
“Those across the cosmos that died at the same time as you. While you’re here feel free to mingle with them, maybe they’ll help you make the decision to move on.” Allaster clarified for Theon.
“And what’s the point of moving on if everything anyone could ever want is here?”
“Because if you did that, eventually it would just be you...here...alone for all eternity...a fate worse than any torture...it would be endless...because it could never end.” Allaster said, voice cold, void of emotion. Theon just stared at Allaster for a while, before his stomach growled.
“Sounds horrible, now about that lamb?” Theon rubbed his hands together, mouth watering at the thought.
“HAHAH!” Allaster belted out. “You’ll be interesting.”

Two weeks later...
Theon was bored. He thought his death mates would be more interesting, but everyone just ate food, drank and talked. So far in the past two weeks theon had met, demons, angels, centaurs, elves, gnomes, dwarfs, fairies, something that referred to itself as a leviathan, and Jerry. No one really knows what Jerry is, let alone Jerry; but that didn’t stop the boredom that set in for Theon.
Theon craved something more than just living, talking, thinking, and having fun with the other denizens of this liminal space. Theon needed battle, Theon needed his life to be on the line. So Theon went to the ticket window. There was no line when Theon went there was no line, compared to the previous day.
“One ticket to the next life.” Theon asked the reaper on the other side of the window. The reaper looked up from the book she was reading, eyes behind half moon spectacles, hair in a raised bun. She gave Theon a smile.
“Sorry honey, I’m not the one who deals the tickets. I record those who have moved on from here.”
“Then where do I get a ticket?” Theon asked, face twisted in confusion. 
“Here.” The reaper tapped her finger against the wood. Theon followed the direction her finger was pointed and saw an opening fit for a hand. Theon shrugged sticking his hand in the hole. “Palm up.” The reaper told him. As Theon held his palm up, he felt a light weight suddenly appear. Theon removed his hand and saw a silvery ticket, the words “ADMIT ONE” glinted in the light. “Name please.” Theon heard the reaper as him.
“Theon.” 
“Cause of death.”
“Died on the battlefield.”
“Reason for the battle.”
“I was a mercenary, did it for money... it was the right thing to do... and avenging my mom.”
“Mmmhmmm.” The reaper wrote all this down using a very fancy looking quill to Theon. “And your reason for leaving after...” She checked what looked like the most complicated array of hour glasses and what he had come to know as clocks during his time here. “Two weeks?”
“Honest answer?”
“That would be the idea. You don’t have to tell me the truth, I can leave it blank.” She looked at Theon with a calm expecting look, she gave Theon the impression that she had heard every persons true reason and never judged them for it.
“I’m bored, I need something more than just eating and drinking and talking... I want to battle, feel the thrill and the pain.”
“Perfect, a warriors answer. You are the type of person that wants to have a purpose.” She told Theon. “You would have gone stir crazy if you stayed here any longer.” She finished writing Theon’s answer down. “Now let me see your ticket.” She held her hand out, Theon gave it to her. 
“Can I ask why you need it?” Theon asked watching her place it under another machine.
“This is making a copy for our records.” She placed the parchment over the ticket and closed the machine. “Every ticket is unique to each soul, some come here multiple times, others only once and some never. We like keeping a record, makes following certain souls easier to find.” She opened the machine and handed Theon back his ticket. “But you shouldn’t worry about that. Ok your all set, just go pick a mode of transport you’re comfortable with and you’ll be on your way to what come next.” She told Theon with a smile.
“What does come next?” Theon asked. This hadn’t seemed important two weeks ago, but now that the time had come... “I’m a little nervous.”
“Well Theon, that is up to you. Once you get in, you go where your soul chooses to go. There is very little to worry about.”
“Then... I’ll be on my way.” Theon left the ticket booth. Around the other side of the booth was the platform, every type of transportation that Theon had ever seen in his lifetime was there, as well as every other he had not. Theon walked the endless platform, milling about with his other death mates that had yet to choose a transport to the next life. He found the others really looking at some of the advanced models, sitting in them, playing around with the moving bits. 
Theon tapped one of them on the shoulder. “Hey, do you know how to get these to go?”
The person jumped at Theon’s touch. “Ahh!...” the person turned to theon, handover heart revealing the elven features. “Oh, ah, yes there is a slot for the ticket in each..” they gestured vaguely to the many different modes of transport. “Thing.”
“Thanks, uh...”
“Tristram.”
“Thanks Tristram, I’m Theon. Any idea which one you want to take?” Theon asked the now identified stranger.
“No, but I think I’m going to stay away from the more complicated ones. Too much that I don’t fully understand. Probably will just take the fairy train down the platform a little.” Tristram told Theon. 
“Train?” Theon questioned.
“It’s that big long one after the horse drawn carriages but before the horseless ones.” Tristram pointed at it. “Pretty hard to miss actually, by far the smoothest ride I every had when I was alive. Fitting to carry me to the next.”
“If you know which you’ll take why are you still here?”
“I’m just curious about all these other ones. Besides I’m in no real rush.”
“Well I think I’ll let you continue perusing. Maybe we’ll meet in the next life. So long Tristram.” Theon left Tristram.
“It was a pleasure.” Tristram replied watching Theon’s retreating form.

Theon got to the train that Tristram was talking about, he was right impossible to miss. The train had beautiful upholstery and intricately carved wood work in each of the booths that Theon passed. One depicted dragons, another a battle Theon thought was familiar, another fairies and centaurs around a fire, yet another just mountain scapes. Each booth was so different from the last, Theon had a hard time choosing one to sit in. Finally Theon found a booth which he liked best. It was a warrior stood on top the peak of a mountain, an army at the base and beast in the sky. Theon took his seat and looked around for a slot like Tristram had said there would be. Suddenly there was a loud whistle.
“ALL ABOARD!” Theon heard a familiar voice shout out. Theon stuck his head out of the booth only to see other people do the same. Everyone on the train looked shocked to see other people, including Theon. Like Theon they all where the only people on the train before that whistle sounded. The train lurched forward and began chugging along, picking up speed. 
“Please remain in your booths, the conductor will be around to collect tickets shortly. Welcome to the soul train. This train will not be making any stops along it path, you will be reincarnated as we reach the world you soul has chosen. So please sit back and relax, and enjoy your view. Thank you.” A different voice from the first rang out from a metal box in everyone’s booth.
“Well then...” Theon said to himself. He stretched out and got comfortable. He had no idea how long this ride would be for him, but he was eager to see the all the different realms out there. “Wonder which world I’ll call home next.”