Sam lost all sense of time in the twisted version of Heaven. The once comforting notion of eternity now felt like a curse that tightened around him with every passing moment. Each day, or perhaps night—he couldn’t tell anymore—he wandered the desolate landscape, haunted by the hollow faces of other souls, trapped in their endless, joyless routine.
There was no escape. Or so it seemed.
One day, while aimlessly wandering the darkened streets, Sam noticed something strange—a faint shimmer in the air, a distortion, like a tear in the fabric of this false reality. It flickered for just a second, but it was enough to ignite a spark of hope in his chest. He wasn’t entirely sure, but something in him told him this could be a way out.
Determined, Sam started looking for more of these anomalies, tracing the edges of the city that had once looked so perfect. For days—weeks?—he searched, until finally, in a forgotten corner of this twisted heaven, he found it: a rip in the sky itself, hidden behind the shadow of a towering, fallen angel statue.
With trembling hands, Sam reached toward the tear. As his fingers touched it, he felt something—a force, a pull, but it wasn’t like the light that had brought him to Heaven. This felt different. Darker, yes, but alive, not the dead, sterile peace of this place.
Sam hesitated for a moment. Could this lead to something worse than what he had already seen? But then he remembered the endless nothingness that awaited him if he stayed. With a deep breath, he stepped through.
The world shifted. The cold, dark landscape melted away, replaced by a dizzying swirl of shadows and light. It was as if he was falling through space itself, tumbling through time, until finally, he landed.
When Sam opened his eyes, he found himself in a place that defied logic. It wasn’t Heaven, but it wasn’t Hell, either. The sky was a swirling vortex of gray clouds, and the ground was a patchwork of jagged, floating rocks. Strange, ethereal beings drifted through the air—some whispering, others screaming, their forms constantly shifting between light and shadow.
“Where am I?” Sam whispered to himself, but his voice echoed unnaturally, as if the world itself was answering him.
“You’ve found the In-Between,” a voice called from behind him.
Sam spun around to see a figure standing on the edge of a cliff. It was a man, or at least it appeared that way. His eyes glowed with a faint, otherworldly light, and his body seemed to shimmer, fading in and out of existence like a mirage.
“The In-Between?” Sam asked, taking a cautious step toward the figure.
“Yes,” the man replied, his voice calm but filled with an ancient weariness. “It’s a place between life and death, Heaven and Hell. A realm of those who don’t belong anywhere. Souls like yours.”
“Like mine?” Sam frowned. “What do you mean? I thought I was in Heaven.”
The man shook his head. “That was never Heaven, Sam. It was a trap. A prison created to keep souls like you from finding the truth.”
“The truth?” Sam’s heart pounded. “What truth?”
The man gestured toward the swirling sky. “The truth is, Heaven isn’t what you’ve been told. Neither is Hell. Both are constructs, illusions to keep souls from realizing their true power. Here, in the In-Between, you can break free of those illusions.”
Sam stared at him, unsure of what to believe. “But… what am I supposed to do now?”
The man smiled, a sad, knowing smile. “That’s up to you. You can stay here, lost like so many others. Or you can try to find your way to the true afterlife, whatever that may be.”
Sam looked around at the strange, otherworldly landscape. He had escaped the false Heaven, but now he faced a new, terrifying unknown.
But one thing was clear—he wasn’t going back.
Taking a deep breath, Sam stepped forward into the In-Between, ready to face whatever came next.