Chapter 2 

After an interesting conversation with Rafiel, Bass wandered back into the main part of the train. Dark wooden walls paired with a dark green carpet and gold accents gave a sense of nature and peace, with subtle signs of luxury. Of course. This train is for the above average people on the standardised morality scale, so of course they won’t get a run of the mill boring normal train. They did just enough in life to be considered ‘good’, but not much more or less. A good balance. 

As Bass wandered around, he bumped into Vesper, the assistant conductor, and Esper’s twin brother. “Oh. You again.” Vesper said, uninterested. He was always like this after his long time partner had left the train due to medical reasons. According to Rafiel, he had been getting better recently, but he sometimes still felt distant. 
“You’re not wearing your uniform.” Bass looked down. He was, in fact, not wearing his uniform. “You know what to do.” Vesper started to walk away. 
“Hey!” Bass protested. “Not even a hello?” Vesper kept walking. Bass sighed, knowing Vesper was right. It’s good that he reminded me, otherwise Oren will never let me live this down...  

Bass quickly ran back to his room and changed, then headed to the crew room. He was supposed to report there whenever he arrived, but a few hours couldn’t make a difference, right? As he pushed open the transparent door, he saw around a quarter of the crew standing around one of the chairs. In said chair, sat Anikri, proudly displaying some sort of TV looking contraption. “...AND, it even can access channels from OTHER COUNTRIES. Isn’t that amazing?” Anikri said proudly. 
“Just hurry up and turn it on!” a voice, probably Raine, complained. She was Esper’s best friend, and they were both equally infuriating. 
Anikri sighed. “Well, I was GOING TO anyways, so here. WATCH my GENIUS in action!” 

She flipped some sort of switch, and the entire room waited with bated breath as the screen flickered... then died. The room erupted with sounds of complaints and disappointment as Anikri hurriedly shoved the contraption into a bag, her face red. “It worked... in my room...” she muttered, then she ran out of the room.  
“Anikri, wait!” Aster, the other assistant conductor, called out as they followed her out of the room. Aster, always the caring one. The warm to balance out Vesper’s cold. Always cleaning up after other’s messes. Bass felt sorry for them. It must be hard to be nice all the time...  

As the commotion cleared, people started to notice Bass. The first one to see him happened to be Beckett, the conductor. He was a kind-hearted man, easily being the oldest and most experienced of all of the crew. “Bass! Good to see you again!” Beckett slapped Bass over the shoulder, as always, and as always, Bass fell forwards onto the floor. He wasn’t exactly the most fit one on the crew. “How’s it going?” Beckett asked, as he helped Bass up.  
“Alright. I got into a selective high school I wanted. I’ll be attending next year.”  
“That’s amazing! I wish I had that many opportunities when I was your age. Probably wouldn’t have ended up here then.” He laughed, then turned away. “Sorry for leaving so suddenly; one of the engines is acting up. Remember our agreement! See ya!”  
“See you...” Bass said, Beckett already walking away.  

Already, people were surrounding him, taking his place. Many he knew from previous visits, but a few new ones who looked confused. Many asked questions about the real world, about the state of it, about politics, about what TV shows were on. After he answered all of them, Aster came back and sent him on his shift. Talking and attending to the dead for four hours was more exhausting than he remembered, so he went to bed early. 

Such as shame... I’m given the opportunity to live like this, but only for a flash. The sound of wheels on rails created a rhythmic beat that matched the feeling of the streaky sunset behind a snowcapped mountain out the window. Is it just me, or does the landscape look better here than in real life? Hah, who am I kidding, of course it does. Everything is better here. Does 106 not care about the mental difficulty of living in perfection one moment, then living in reality in another? He claims to be a messenger for pure goodness, yet he makes so many endure this fate. Anyways, why does this even matter? When I wake up, I will be back to living my ordinary life, my terrible, ordinary life. Why. Why. Why. 

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Light, then sound. Bass slowly opened his eyes, expecting a small messy bedroom. The sight of a dark wooden desk with a large window, this time displaying tranquil country grasslands, greeted him, accompanied by the steady clickety-clack of a train. 

Chapter 1

Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, clickety-clack... 

Piercing and sharp, then throbbing and aching, that was the only way Bass could describe the pain. You’d think, after a few times, it would get easier to transition from one state of being to the other, but Bass felt the sting all the same. Bass sat up, and looked down at his pristine set of pyjamas, and large bed. It never failed to amaze him that he was more well of while being basically dead, than being alive. By the desk next to the window, a platter of fruit was waiting, with a note at the top written in familiar handwriting. Bass slowly walked out of bed, read the note, and smiled. He never changes, does he? 

Bass took a slice of fruit, and wandered out of his room. Out in the hallway, he saw Esper carrying a stack of sheets. “Back again I see.” they remarked, turning to face him. “Are you actually dead this time or are you still on your free trial?” 
“If I was dead there would be signs.” Bass said jokingly. “Maybe a bit of sadness, a dash of disappointment.” 
“True that. Anyways, looking for Rafiel again?” Esper asked. 
“How could have you POSSIBLY known that?” Bass asked, feigning shock. 
“It’s not like he’s the first person you see whenever your gracious highness decides to pay us peasants a visit. You should just re-incarnate with him already.” Esper said sarcastically. “He’s in the observatory, as always.” 
“Thanks.” Bass said, already walking toward the next carriage. 
“Just remember to visit the rest of us later.” Esper called out from the end of the carriage. “Cain was quite disappointed when you left us last time before you answered all his questions about A Flower to Bloom’s plot after he died.” Bass let out a chuckle. 
“One day, one day someone will invent TV for the dead.” 
“It’s probably Anikri. Apparently, she’s close to a breakthrough. According to herself, the last time she came out of her room.” Esper yelled, their voice already fading as Bass walked into the next carriage. 

The observatory... Bass thought, amused. He had never understood Rafiel’s obsession over the stars. The observatory’s sky reflected the one in life, but looking at nearly the same sky for weeks on end made no sense to him. As he passed through the intricate carriages, he gradually saw more and more people, old and new. Most of them just assumed he was another passenger, and paid him no mind. Some recognised him, smiled and waved. He waved back. 

Eventually, he made it to the observatory. An ‘Out of Order’ sign was placed at the door, a common tactic among the crew when they just wanted some alone time away from the passengers. Well, it’s now or never... Bass thought. Then he pushed open the door.

“Where do people go when they die?”

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Prologue - 9 years ago 

Clickety-clack, clickety-clack, clickety-clack... 

Loud. All too loud. Why...is it so loud? All these sounds, all around me... Where is Treble, where is everyone... Light, then dark. Then light again. The blurry outline of trees out of a hazy window. My head... it hurts... why does it hurt? How can I stop the pain? A flash of a person, a tight embrace. “It’s alright... it will be alright...” the person said. And I believed them. I always believed them. Even till the very end.