Before Psychopomp would start telling whatever explanation for her mentally deranged actions she had come up with, she first went to get tea. Tea. 'Can't begin a good story without some tea.' The more he saw of her, the more he was convinced that she was actually psychotic. A twisted version of the mad hatter.

  When she was gone, he realized he had not taken any time to investigate the room yet. What was he doing? Had he been distracted by her delusional story? He belonged to the elite police force for living's sake. He must not let his emotions come between him and his task. That was the reason he was here. To complete the task he was assigned. He might fulfill it in a way that was outside of police regulations, but sometimes the end justifies the means. Psychopomp was a virus, which he intended to perish. Society would once again be healthy.

  Now his thoughts had drifted again. Focus, Dante, focus. Scan the room. Find possible exits. Two doors, one window, which was probably tinted. Not much in terms of what he could use as a weapon. He sighed. Don't lose hope. On closer inspection, he could not make out what this room could be used for, other than keeping prisoners. Except for a black glass table, there was no furniture. Neon signs, a skull and a snapped rose, in Psychopomp's color scheme of pink and purple illuminated the brick walls.

  'Are you more of a green tea or black tea kind of guy?' He had not heard her come in. When he did not answer her, she said: ‘Black tea it is.’ After she popped a tea back in a purple glass tea mug, she placed the mug carefully next to him. ‘There you go.’ Incredulous, he looked at her. ‘You don’t think I’m going to consume anything you hand me, do you? I’m not stupid.’ ‘Well, that might be a problem, since this is going to be quite a long story. You might die of thirst if you refuse my provisions. But I guess that’s your call to make.’

  With a big sigh, she plopped down on the ground. ‘Where to start, where to start. Where to start the story of the inexplicable Psychopomp, the mystery, the enigma.’ ‘If you mean with mystery, the way Jack the Ripper was a mystery, then that would be an accurate description.’

  As if she had had a sudden insight, she raised her hand. ‘Ah, you might ask yourself why I am not in the system, right? Why I am not attached to the cloud like the rest of you and why you can't find any registration of me in your databases.' 'The chief thinks you have insiders in the police force who you have let delete any of your traces.' What do you think?' 'I think this kind of data deletion would be impossible, even if you had help. General documentation, sure, but disconnecting yourself from the cloud? No way in hell that someone like you would be near skilled enough to do that.' She cackled. 'I guess you're right in that. So then how am I possible? No data, no footprint. A ghost.', she whispered ominously. 'The only way you would be able to avoid the cloud is if you weren't a part of it in the first place. And that's only possible if you're not from this planet.' Slowly, she started clapping. 'Bravo, you figured it out. I am indeed not from this planet. And alien from outer space.' 'An infection that corrupted our planet. Someone with a lust for power.’

  Psychopomp snorted. 'You think I wanted this power? Oh, but then sir, you are mistaken. I didn't ask for it. For a long time I would have done anything to have them taken away.' She coughed in her hand. 'I guess this is as good of a place to start as any.’

  ‘See, I was fairly content without this power to kill people. After roaming through space for centuries, I had finally found a place that felt in a way like home. I was finally at peace, I thought. But then the visions started. One night, after I had drifted into sleep, I found myself in this dark, dark space. I don't know how to describe it exactly. The best way to explain it is as a bad case of agoraphobia, where you feel both enclosed and lost in a giant space. I seemed to walk in a thick fog. No, wade through the fog is a better way to describe it, since there did not seem to be a ground. There was no light, but still I could see clearly. There was nothing, no buildings, no flora, no fauna, nothing but these hunched over figures wading through the fog like me.

  I walked towards one of them, the air heavy and clammy. He did not seem to notice me, his eyes looking at the distance in despair. 'Are you alright?', I asked. He did not answer, he did not stop and with his gaze fixed he kept treading to a goal I could not see. I approached another one of them, a woman with red hair braided into an intricate pattern around the crown of her head. I could make out every detail, but the colors seemed to have lost their vibrancy, as if some of the life was sucked out of them. When I asked her a question, she too did not answer. I waved my hand in front of her face. Nothing. And meanwhile she kept making her way towards the distance. I tried a few more people, to no use. They all seemed to want to get somewhere, but no one seemed to be making any progress. Every time one disappeared into the fog, they would somehow reappear behind me. I watched the scene, walked between them, without getting any wiser about what was happening.

  Then suddenly, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I would have jumped five feet in the air if I could. When I looked at the person the hand was attached to, I saw a stern looking woman. 'Please, help us.', her voice sounded in my ear. I backed away, but she did not seem to want to hurt me. 'Please help, us.' More, she did not get the chance to say, because I woke up in a puddle of sweat.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I spend the day in a haze, asking myself what it had meant and then convincing myself that it must have been a strange dream. But it was not the only time I would see her.

  When I went to sleep again, I was back in that place, that dreadful place. I roamed around for a while, before the same hand touched my shoulder again. 'Please, help us.', she repeated her earlier words. 'With what?' This place confused me in the worst way. 'What's going on. Where are we?' 'We are in a place between the living and the dead.' I waited for her to say more, but she did not. 'Do you mean like Limbo?', I asked. 'No.', she answered. She was not a woman of many words. 'How is it different?' 'Limbo implies that the physical form has already died. Our bodies still function as do our minds. It is our souls that have already moved on.' With a sudden movement, she stared me into the eyes, her gaze like iron. 'Please, help us.'

  I woke up, gasping for air. Even though I believed the dream to be a figment of my own imagination, I could not shake a feeling of eeriness.

  The next night, my nightmare continued. This time, the woman immediately approached me. 'Please help us.' 'If you want me to answer, then tell me what to do!', I screamed into the void. She did not answer. I sighed and asked her: 'How is it that your souls have died, but your bodies are still alive?' 'We live in a world where bodies never die.' A lightbulb went off in my head. 'You're immortals.' The insight did not answer many of my questions however. 'But if you're immortal, you can still die, right? Or are you invincible as well?' 'Our bodies are disposable, but our minds are forever.' Her gaze burned through me. 'Forever.'

  I found myself on the floor of my bedroom, covered in sweat yet again, and heaving loudly. The shower did not seem like enough to feel clean today.

  The fourth night I wasted no time. ‘Where are you? What are your coordinates.’, I asked the woman. She said nothing and instead touched my forehead. In a flash, I got a vision of a place, a place that seemed to be filled with white and grey geometric shapes. When I looked closer, they turned out to be buildings. Hovering, aerodynamic cars were moving in between them. I only saw the image for what must have been seconds. Still, I somehow knew that the planet was light years away from me. ‘You have to save us.’, the woman said again.

  When I woke up my body hurt all over. Between sharp breaths, I cried: ‘I can’t!’ I couldn’t. I could not leave the first home I had known in centuries to chase to an unknown place that for all I knew could be leaking danger. I had been selfless before, I thought. Now was the time for me to think only about myself, to live in this place in comfortable bliss. The universe would not call on me this time. I tuned out every thought I had about my nightmares, locked them in the back of my closet and threw the key away. I went to work, had dinner with friends, went for a walk, never once letting my mind rest on the subject of visions for more than a second.

  But alas, as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was back in that place. I could feel the breath of that woman touch my neck hairs, ready to continue her pleas. I ran, I ran as hard as I can through the mist. I knew I would get nowhere, but at least while I was running I would not hear her words. Somehow, however, her words seemed to reverberate through me, no matter how far I distanced myself from her. ‘Save us. Save us. Save us.’

  Nights and days I spend in a days, mentally and physically exhausted. I could not get away from it as much as I wanted to deny its existence. It did not take too long for other people to notice that I was not doing alright. One day one of my oldest friends took me apart for a moment to talk to me. Like we commonly did when one of us was breaking their head over a problem, we sat together at the edge of a quiet lakeside. As the wind rummaged through my hair, he asked: ‘What’s up?’ I looked at my hand and sighed.

  After I collected my thoughts I told him about what I had seen in my dreams. ‘...Fate sure is a bitch.’, I ended my story and put my head in my hands. ‘I don’t know about that.’, he answered with a faint smile. Then he looked at me. ‘I mean we got to meet.’ I smiled back before I sighed again. He continued: ‘And the chaos that has stirred up in your life again does not necessarily have to be bad. Who knows what this new path will bring you?’ ‘So you’re saying I should go?’ ‘I am saying that you and I both know that the choice has already been made.’

  We spend a long time by the lake that day, needing not to say anything to each other. We already knew. Before we left, I told him: ‘I’m going to be gone for quite some time. I’d better see you again after I finish my task.’ He chuckled. ‘Like I could ever get away from you.’

  The day I stepped into my spaceship and flew away from my home, it felt like I’d cut of my own leg with a rusty spoon. That place and more importantly those people were a part of me. And I had to trust that even though I would be lightyears away from them, I would be able to be reunited with them one day. I started this massive journey and somehow, through the endless emptiness of space, I arrived safely on your planet. I must say it was quite the trouble to get through your defense system, but I managed to land in mostly unharmed condition. And there I was, on a planet where I knew nobody, about to embark on what seemed like an impossible mission. A mission I would never be able to fulfill on my own.’

  With a sigh Psychopomp stretched out her arms and let out a sigh. ‘I think that will do for the first part of this story. Man, my throat is parched.’ She pointed at his untouched teacup. ‘I guess you’re not going to drink that.’ With a swift kick, Dante rocketed the cup into the wall. With a shrill sound it shattered into a thousand pieces. She sighed. ‘A bit dramatic, but I guess I deserve that.’ After swiping the shards into a little pile in the corner, she walked towards the door. ‘It’s getting a bit late, so we’ll postpone the rest of the story to later.’

  When she opened the door, he tried to get a peek at what was on the other side, but it was too dark. After she had moved through, he thought she had left for the night, but she came back a while later with a pillow and blankets. She put the stack at his feet. ‘It’s your choice, but I’m going to be quite upset if you destroy my new blankets as well. Have a good rest.’ He did not answer.