Chapter 2: The Fly

Hold on. Wasn't I dead? So why could I still feel? The good news? The pain was gone. I blinked, confused, and stared out at… a river of stars. Seriously. Breathtaking.

It looked like I’d landed in deep space. Giant, colorful clouds of stardust everywhere. And floating around me? Tons of see-through, greenish-blue people. Ghosts, I guess. Dead, just like me.

So this was the afterlife? Not what I pictured. Then I saw the look on their faces – pure shock mixed with absolute terror.

What was going on? I looked up. And saw something I’ll never, ever forget. First, I thought it was a star. Then, maybe a bunch of planets all smashed together.

Wrong. It was an eye. A giant, freaky compound eye, like a bug’s, with a million little lenses all staring down at us. And way off in the distance, there was another one, just like it.

These eyes belonged to a fly. A fly so huge it was insane. Or maybe it just looked like a fly. It was using the stars as its wallpaper, with its feet propped up on planets like they were footstools in its own private, disgusting museum.

This thing had dozens of legs, and way too many wings, all layered on top of each other. When it stretched out, I couldn't even see where it ended. It was so massive, I hadn't even noticed it at first – just thought it was more empty, black space.

And it was gross. Its mouth, split into three parts like some kind of alien meat grinder, was packed with rows and rows of teeth. Its body was covered in rotting sores, with maggots crawling all over it, in and out. Ugh.

Just looking at it made a bunch of the other souls try to puke. Didn't work, of course. Hard to puke when you're a ghost.

Seeing all of us, the giant fly took a gentle breath in through that disgusting mouth. Suddenly, a whole bunch of souls went flying upwards, sucked right in. Everyone started screaming. We'd all seen those teeth. We knew what was happening to them.

The fly chewed for a second, like it was enjoying a tasty snack, then made this awful, screeching noise. It sounded like styrofoam rubbing together, or fingernails on a chalkboard. Horrible.

“Aaaargh!” I screamed. The sound hit my ears – ghost ears, I guess – and all that pain from before I died came rushing back. It felt like my nerves were being scraped with razors, like a thousand needles were jabbing into my brain, like bugs were eating me from the inside out.

The other souls were screaming too, their ghostly bodies twisting up. I had no idea how we could even hear anything in space, let alone this thing’s shriek and everyone else’s cries.

Why? I’d suffered so much when I was alive. Did it have to keep going even after I was dead? The pain just got worse and worse. I felt like I was about to lose it, my mind just… breaking apart.

The giant fly’s red, compound eyes kept staring at us, like we were a swarm of ants. Then, its disgusting mouth twitched. It was an insect’s head, but I swear I saw it smile. A human-like smile.

Was it laughing? At us? Was our pain funny to it? The thought flickered through my head.

And then, something weird happened. The second I thought of something, anything, happy, the pain just… stopped. Vanished. Like it was never there. It was so sudden, I almost thought I’d imagined the whole thing.

But no, the others were still screaming. Except… some of them weren't. I saw a few with this crazy, fanatic look on their faces. They were still in agony, you could see it, but they were also looking at the giant fly with this… worshipful expression.

What the hell? Did they know this thing? Were they praying to it? That was nuts. How could anyone worship something so disgusting? And seriously, who still believed in gods like that these days?

Finally, the screaming stopped. About half of us were left. The other half? They couldn’t take the pain and just… exploded. Turned into this glowing blue mist. The giant fly sucked it all up. Another snack.

Then, the fly made another noise. Longer this time. A deep buzzing, like a million mosquitoes and wasps all flapping their wings at once.

And then, my head was flooded. Memories, knowledge, stuff I didn’t understand, weird, alien images. It all came rushing in so fast I couldn’t even try to make sense of it.

It was like someone was force-feeding my brain with gibberish – like trying to read a million lines of messed-up computer code, all at once, at lightning speed. My head felt like it was going to burst. These crazy, unknowable memories were trying to wash me away, to turn me into someone else.

No way. I was me. I wasn't going to let some giant, disgusting fly reprogram my brain. I clung to every happy memory I had, every face I loved, everything that made me… me.

When it finally stopped, my mind was still reeling, full of broken pieces of whatever that was. I looked around. Out of all those souls, there were hardly any left. Maybe a few dozen.

The rest? Poof. More blue mist. More food for the fly.

What did this thing want? I had no clue. Was this just some sick game? Torture us, then eat us?

Then, I felt something grab my chin. An invisible force, yanking my head up, making me look right at that hideous fly. It wasn't just me. All the other survivors were being forced to look too.

I’m not gonna lie, staring at that rotting thing was awful. Those eyes that made your skin crawl, the maggots, that disgusting mouth… it made me want to throw up all over again.

But after all that torture, something even weirder happened. Looking at the fly… it started to seem… almost beautiful. I know, right? Ugh!

It wasn’t like I suddenly found it attractive. It was deeper than that. Like a gut feeling. I felt like it was… holy. Powerful. On a whole different level from anything human. Like you weren't even allowed to think it was ugly. Like that was a crime.

If you had to describe it in one word… it would be… [God]? That was insane. A god? A giant, disgusting fly?

As soon as I thought that, I felt like I understood something else. Or maybe I just guessed right. My eyes seemed to see through the fly, to something deeper, something… more real.

I don’t remember what happened next. It was like I saw… the Truth. The End. The rules of everything.

When I came to, I wasn't looking at the fly anymore. The huge crowd of souls was gone. Just a few of us left. And some of them were babbling like lunatics, completely broken.

The giant fly made that satisfied sound again. One of its legs tapped the empty space, and a doorway ripped open. Inside, it was just swirling chaos.

And then, all of us, the last few survivors, were thrown in.