Yes.
My answer still hummed within me. Did I really agree?
He said I needed to collect three souls. What an irony—when I was alive, someone collected from me. Now that I was dead, I was the one collecting so that I could live again.
He stood and said nothing. Instinct told me to follow him.
A door suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and I wasn't sure where it would lead, but I hoped he wouldn't forget that I was behind him.
As I stood behind him, I couldn't help myself and asked:
"Do things really just pop out of nowhere here?"
He stopped midstride and bumped into me again. I almost swore, but when I saw his irritated face, I just murmured, "Why does this guy always stop without warning?"
He looked ahead again, but before I took a step he said, "Keep in line. Don't get lost."
The endless walking began.
I didn't know how far we walked or how long. All I could see were swirling black and white lines. When I tried to touch them, he simply said, "Don't."
Time didn't seem to exist in this reality, and I was growing impatient.
"Sir?"
He stopped again. This time I was ready—I stopped too. He didn't answer, so I continued:
"If a door can pop out of nowhere, can't we just open one to where we're going?"
He didn't answer immediately, as if thinking, so I peeked from behind to see his face.
And then he said, "No."
And continued walking.
Ah, the perks of being dead—you don't feel tired walking in an endless hallway.
"Where does the hallway end? Or does it not end?" I asked no one in particular, and no one answered.
I quickened my pace, walked in front of him, and asked while pretending to know where we were headed:
"Silence is not my friend. And though curiosity always kills the cat—well, I'm already dead, and I'm not a cat." Just me, rambling to fill the silence as I walked beside him.
Then I heard a sound and looked back. Did he laugh?
"Did you just laugh?"
He didn't say anything. But I thought—though I wasn't sure—that something almost shifted in his face. Maybe I just imagined it.
"Do you ever take a break?" I peeked at him, then turned ahead again.
"How long have you been doing this?"
"Do you get tired here too?"
"Sir? Do you have a name?"
When I turned to peek again, he had stopped a few meters ahead. I hurried back.
He looked at me as if I were an alien, as if he couldn't decide what I was.
He passed by me and walked ahead again, but as he did, he said his name: Cael.
So, he had a name. I looked at his back, and the shoulders that once slumped seemed a little straighter now.
I called him. I just wanted to.
"Cael." He almost stumbled and continued walking. I burst into laughter, the first time after this whole mess. I can see him shaking his head while walking and laughter turned into giggles.
Ah, now it feels lighter.
"We're here".