8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡY137sIFali 維尼
Okay.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡwXpbXvLIHc 維尼
I've said a lot already, but thankfully there's a lot to tell, so it's not like I'm moving too fast. However, let me take a little break from the personal narrative that characterizes this auto-biography to explain a few things you'll need to know.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡIqmMWZqJPg 維尼
Remember how I was saying that I always had the impression of being haunted in my house? Well, not to get too depressing on you too fast, but since you asked, you should know that everything about Hell was pretty haunting. That's because Hell was an exact copy of the mortal world we all used to belong to, minus 99% of its light. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡBrDyWfIKlV 維尼
Is that a rough and biased estimate that I made instead of an objectively-determined statistic?8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡA4F6hTdeF4 維尼
You bet.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡU7v54ZDz39 維尼
To understand just how time periods and different dimensions work for dead souls like myself, try this. Close your eyes and imagine a lonesome blue globe suspended in space: Planet Mars. 
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Just kidding! Earth.
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Picture the world you know, with its land masses, bodies of water, cloud patterns. Think about the infrastructure and human activities that have shaped the physical structure of the planet.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡr4lEXHKp1J 維尼
It doesn't have to be a super fancy visualization to work. Now simply imagine a watch, below the globe. Or a timeline. Or Max's hand from Life is Strange—it's all the same. And imagine you using that watch, or that timeline, or that hand to change the time period. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2SNrgNEEbv 維尼
It doesn't matter in which direction you're traveling: You could be going forward in time, or you could be going backward. But what happens to the Earth?8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡDTubvORVyb 維尼
The answer is that it changes. The world is never the same for any two separate times, even if they're only minutes apart. Do you know how much can change in a minute? 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡZQWsYWvMRe 維尼
Earth can be significantly different from moment to moment, and it can be radically different from year to year, from decade to decade, and from one century to another. To the historical layperson *cough, cough* who is changing the time in this thought experiment, Earth may often seem like a completely different and unexpected world. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡoIRQTU22NT 維尼
As time passes, regardless of its direction, you'll see different architectural structures, if any. The landscape will change. Mountains will be pushed up with time, and volcanoes will switch from an active to a dormant state and back again. Regional temperatures and even the planet's overall climate will change, affecting the traits and distribution of species as they're forced to adapt in order to survive their new conditions. Rivers will dry or fill up, glaciers will rise or disappear, and coasts may be swallowed by the waves.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡrV1wb3CkuW 維尼
Again, suppose you're looking at the planet from space, and it's—I don't know—1639. A long time ago.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡQjZOKBSu4j 維尼
Never mind the landscape of the world, or the politics of the planet, or even the people. It really doesn't matter. Just understand that, for that particular time, the world had a very distinct appearance.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡKFmGEPkXko 維尼
You've probably been picturing the Mortal World this whole time. Which is also known as the Mortal Dimension. There are two other dimensions I know of: The Heaven Dimension, and—of course—the Hell Dimension.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡDSWwqco4vS 維尼
How would I define a dimension? Good question. You probably aren't too familiar with the idea, so here's my best attempt. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡazDUwPcN2m 維尼
The same Earth is the location for all three dimensions. For a particular time—such as 1639—the Earth had a certain layout, and that layout was used by all three dimensions. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡJyaTKWTJg4 維尼
It could be likened to changing the channel. The same screen is used for the viewing of different channels or different forms of inserted media, such as music CDs or movie disks. It's not the best analogy because you can't watch two things on a single screen at the same time, but it should give you a better idea of what I'm talking about nonetheless. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7WTJnQKjzF 維尼
Speaking of which, I wished I could change the channel at my house. That is, to something other than static.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡTgy63zcIaC 維尼
The three dimensions were different versions of the world, and although they had their structural differences, they were all pretty similar to the Mortal World. It's like the Mortal World was the default, and changes in the Mortal World resulted in changes in the dimensions that depended on the Mortal World.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡcCR4fBReb5 維尼
Now that you're a bit more familiar with the whole thing, let me go back to what I was saying.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡHshrHyJZI1 維尼
Another thing that made Hell haunting was the simple reason that unless you had the money to operate your magic time-traveling, teleporting watch, you were basically stuck reliving a very important day over and over again.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡiCmmeMW6LJ 維尼
And it was not your birthday.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡcj6OoLBcxI 維尼
But I'm guessing you already knew that.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡaGO5hdkjzh 維尼
I was standing near the front door, lost in thought. I stayed this way, caught in my daydream, until something very unusual and unexpected happened, all at once and out of the blue.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡfbydk7AHCP 維尼
I got a grip.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4EkiyOpJ1f 維尼
Finally able to move on, I started to move. My bare feet sank into the furry carpet—its warmth a nice contrast to the fiery pain of the unforgiving ice outside—and passed gracefully over the tracks my father had laid down.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZoiPFEygm 維尼
Which means I almost tripped on them again. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡlbSdEWTLEz 維尼
I ignored the dining room, making a direct move for the stairs. These were also carpeted. With each step, I felt my memories pressing down on me with increasing heaviness. They were suffocating me, and then seemed more intense than ever because that day was the last day. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡbToCv252DU 維尼
The memories had been around me the entire time, and everywhere. Even for a person such as myself—who by nature was self-absorbed and lost in her own world—my external environment had been inescapable, and that external environment in which I'd been dwelling for so long was, quite frankly, the past.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡvw4YqU7dC0 維尼
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The memories had only become more maddening with time. As a result of Satan's brilliant idea, my mind was constantly reliving the past. It had been caught, tangled, and lost in the past as though I'd fallen into the river of memories, not that such a river existed. (The closest thing I knew to such a river was the underworld's River Lethe: The river of oblivion.) 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡUxhm3gb9Y5 維尼
It was impossible to be sane in such an environment. Anchored to the past and weighed down by its baggage, it was impossible to move forward.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡD1kcBWnJw3 維尼
Until God's Reinvention Program.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡEs2dI4tt4Q 維尼
But maybe I lied back there, when I suggested there was no true river of memories, or at least not in the underworld. Because for me, that's what my sister's room was.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡxyFo46LMCk 維尼
In the middle of the steps, there was a break, where I had to turn 180 degrees to continue upward. Which meant now I was facing the front of the house. As I neared the second floor, sunlight hit my eyes and made me squint. The light was coming from Victoria's room. At the top of the stairs, I took a right, and the moment I stepped through her open doorway, the memories came back to me. My eyes started to water.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡmdHhDcofXj 維尼
Because of the brightness, obviously.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡEoxKkVtfyJ 維尼
Before I go on with my extremely objective, rational, and unemotional account, let me make something clear. I visited that room often, and I usually didn't get so nostalgic. The only reason that day was any different was that I knew it would be my last day there. I couldn't see any reason for ever returning—major emphasis on ever—unless I failed to redeem myself in time, but I was going to do everything to ensure that didn't happen. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡt67mIFrlBQ 維尼
Missing the window wasn't an option.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡIp9uOLifOV 維尼
Let me start off describing Victoria's room with telling you that it was something of a mess.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡo0MdALCQkO 維尼
That's a total understatement.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡc4Q7TE5mVW 維尼
She liked the color red. And the color yellow. And all things neon, and bands, and books, and music. And that was—no, I am not exaggerating—clearer than crystal when you peered through her door. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡnqGu0Z9QEt 維尼
Her walls had had their own color, once. It had been a nice white which went with the rest of the house. Then Victoria decided to buy a bunch of posters and print a bunch of pictures and plaster them over her entire room. Over practically every open area of wall space.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡqBd5p5B9yF 維尼
But it was cool. It looked fun, and it looked exciting. And whenever I was in a mood—whenever I was apathetic or downright sad—all I had to do was come in, because her door was literally always open.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡk0LYvvYTuL 維尼
She had a TV in her room, which I thought was really cool. I wasn't old enough to have a TV in my room, Mom and Dad said. She had several bookshelves stuffed with a diverse and, dare I say, eccentric collection of narratives, and whenever I wanted to read something new she would lend me hers.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡB7akJdhDCr 維尼
"Mi cuarto es tu cuarto," she would say. Which means, you know: "Your room is my room." Kind of like "Your house is my house," which is basically meant as a welcoming expression. She liked to say things in Spanish, showing off what she had learned in high school. She had to take two years of a foreign language in order to graduate. It was one of the requirements. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡUOZ1ist5Zh 維尼
Her accent was actually really bad, but I never told her that. I thought it was cool.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5aTCbjz4lU 維尼
If you weren't blinded by the sunlight when you walked into her room—she always pulled her curtains back and left her windows wide open—then you were blinded by her choice of colors. As you probably guessed, her artistic nature didn't stop there: It was reflected in things such as her personality and fashion style. She was easily the kind of person who could wear heels, sunglasses, large, gold-colored hoop earrings, a sunhat, red pants, and a yellow shirt at one time—with a certain combination of necklaces and bracelets—and manage to look good in it. She was confident, loud, opinionated, and positive.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9nmTCx11Jg 維尼
And everybody loved her.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ95XM5pBUBU 維尼
She was African American, like our parents. Her dark skin had a warm and golden glow, and she had long, straight, chocolate-colored hair. She did her make-up every day before heading out, and boldly: In her mind, make-up was just another set of brushes and paints and the skin was just another canvas. A dynamic; ever-changing canvas on which new ideas could always be tried. She lived her life creatively, and bizarrely; passionately, and fully. Not caring what others thought.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ2RyBEm131o 維尼
And she helped me do the same.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡhHo8mT7uOb 維尼
I walked across the room to kneel beside the bed. I reached underneath for a brass knocker. I pulled, and out slid one of two drawers. Reaching my hands inside, I scooped out a decorated, silver chest. It was small and light, and thus easy to carry around. I hoisted it onto the bed, and was about to push the drawer shut when something in the back of my mind made me stop. I thought for a moment, then slipped my hand inside until I felt the smooth and glossy surface of a photograph. Victoria used to have it out on full display, protected by glass, until I told her how I felt about myself. I didn't even have to tell her to put it away. I never... I don't think I ever gave any indication of how it made me feel to see it. She just knew. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡzSPxAEzaQI 維尼
She was that type of a person. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡbaZAjQ0mVm 維尼
Part of me warned against it, but curiosity got the best of me, so I stole a glance at the photograph. It was old now, though it looked quite new since it hadn't been many years old at the time of the time freeze. It was a picture of Victoria with her younger brother. She was smiling broadly, and she had one arm around his shoulder. Whereas she looked comfortable—confident, even—her younger brother looked timid, and reserved. His skin was light like mine, and he had the same dark hair. His large, emerald-green eyes—adorned with long, dark lashes—were familiar. There was depth there, intelligence, and sadness.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡleoqvOScRK 維尼
He was young in the picture, maybe eleven years old, and was slim. His hair was a little long for a boy's, covering his ears and hovering around his face, although it didn't reach past the shoulders.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡJH3mRDKvn7 維尼
That's because it wasn't up to him, I thought. I put the photograph back, and closed the dark, wooden drawer. Then I turned my attention to what lay on the bed. I reached for the silver chain I wore around my neck—specifically, its hanging pendant, which was a small key. With it, I unlocked the silver chest. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5vxZn3PZld 維尼
Unlike most of the objects in my surroundings, that chest did not exist in that house on Christmas Eve of that year. I'd bought it, whilst in the underworld, to protect my stash of drachmas. That's why whenever I put the chest somewhere, it stayed there. Unlike everything else in the house, because of the—you guessed it—time freeze.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8x5ijLMX1s 維尼
It was the same with the key, and the chain—which I'd also gotten while here in the underworld, using drachmas as currency, of course—and that's why I could transport those things, too. It wasn't like the photograph, which actually did belong to that fateful day. I wanted to take the photograph with me, but I couldn't: I could try to, but the reality was that the moment I'd take my eyes off it, it would vanish and return to the drawer under the bed.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡAEyDbHxc7T 維尼
I'd also bought a beanbag chair. And pens and sheets of paper to write. And I'd grown a small collection of books. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡHjLGll1cqz 維尼
But I couldn't take any of those things with me, or at least not yet. When reading the details of the program, I'd learned that all of those underworld-bought items would be brought up to Heaven if I made it there, and if I so wanted. So I wasn't too worried about leaving them behind, though I did make sure to find them good hiding spots. 8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡJV1fEPEJDe 維尼
You know, so that nobody would break in and steal my hard-earned riches while I was gone.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7NXAXdJY6G 維尼
The only purchased goods I hadn't hidden away lay across the bed, not too far from the chest, and they were mostly warm winter gear. That meant things such as green snow boots, purple gloves, and a long, black winter coat.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡBDC1y5G4Am 維尼
I unlocked the chest and pulled it open to reveal shining gold drachmas. Satan had enchanted them, such that light seemed to emanate from the coins themselves. Such that in utter darkness, they were clearly visible. Then I dumped the contents onto the bed and counted my money.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡqPw2USsAsp 維尼
The results left me feeling slightly but not terribly disappointed. It wasn't much, but it was enough.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqGr0IqFv2 維尼
Five minutes later, I stood in front of the mirror, admiring myself. My jet-black hair cascaded down my shoulders, and my gold wrist bracelets peeked out from underneath the long sleeves of the black, detective-like coat. My black-and-gold backpack had been packed, and I now wore appropriate clothes considering the outside weather. I gave the room a final sweep of my emerald eyes, and then raised my watch-sporting wrist. I manipulated the device via touchscreen, choosing my destination. That is, a time and place where there should've been a fairly unoccupied Registration Center.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡaH6bYQVfh8 維尼
If all went according to plan—which, let's face it, never happened—the decision would decrease my wait time substantially.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡqY6WBJaQ5F 維尼
I gave the room a salute, then vanished into an array of neon blue pixels.8964 copyright protection278ＰＥＮＡＮＡQWoAQoxyf8 維尼
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