I groaned, pushing against the floor to flip myself over onto my back. Though I could now see around, it didn't really help my situation much. The floor below me - though carpeted - was flat and hard which did nothing to ease the pain I felt. Above me, I could see about five identical pairs of eyes.
"Who- Who are you?" I asked shakily, trying to stand up. My whole body felt bruised and my bones, broken.
One of the people snorted, then walked away.
"We," said another. This one looked exactly like me with long, light brown hair and bright blue eyes. The only thing that ruined the illusion of looking into a mirror was that she wore a blue hoodie and sweatpants, not high heels, skinny jeans, and a sparkly pink crop top. They reached down, grabbed me by the arm, and pulled me up so that I stood upright. "Are you."
"What?" My vision was blurred slightly, and I felt slightly dizzy as the pain in my body slowly faded away. I glanced around my surroundings to see that I was standing in the middle of a what looked to be a massive movie theater. It was filled with people. Some were young girls, and some were older women, but the majority of them looked like me, none as similar as the one who helped me up, but still. "This is insane." Was all I could say.
"I guess. You get used to it after a while. Come on, let's go sit down. I'll explain everything to you." She guided me up one of the many paths that let up through the movie theater. There was a flat, circular area where I had first ended up. It wasn't very big, and surrounding it in rings were rows of seats. There was a new level for ever row and the paths which cut through them formed stairs. The version led me up to the highest row, and sat down in one of the countless plush red seats.
I sat down next to her, and looked around. I thought that I'd be able to see the other end of the theater, but found that there was a massive black sheet in the way. I was confused. Though the lights were dim, I should've been able to see all around the room.
"Can you explain it to me?" I decided to ask the person sitting to my right after we went some time without speaking.
"Well, you see-" she abruptly stopped speaking at the sight of a little girl running up the stairs to us. This version wore a green dress, and had her hair up in little pigtails. She was holding a bag of popcorn which she gave to the one sitting next to me.
She ran off, and I watched her go, jealous. I wanted some, but at the same time I knew that popcorn always made me sick. It might be different in this place, but I didn't feel like taking any chances.
"Anyways. What's going on. You'd better not interrupt - I hate it when I interrupt it's very annoying. As I said, I am you. We all are. When some people die, they are sent to a theater, much like this one to watch their reincarnation through their own eyes. Once the new reincarnation dies, they get sent here, and the process repeats. You are the 6,969th version, I am the 6,960th." Her word sounded unrehearsed and slightly scattered as though she was having difficulty explaining the situation. The whole time she spoke, she stared ahead at the sheet.
"What's your name?" I asked, hoping that it wasn't the same and that there was something to distinguish me from this carbon copy.
"Bebe." She quickly responded.
"Red."
"I know." She said, not looking away from the sheet her eyes were transfixed upon.
"What is that?" I asked, pointing at it.
"Its a screen that shows what is happening to the next reincarnation through their eyes. The reason it is dark is because the next one is still in the womb. I'll be watching that for the next 9 months." She seemed slightly annoyed at this, but who wouldn't be if you were stuck in a room with pretty much nothing to do for nearly a year.
"That sucks." Was all I could say. We sat there for a while, her looking forward and me just thinking. I was in a room full of different versions of me! I was in the afterlife! I should be freaking out right now, right? And yet, I seemed at peace. This was where I was supposed to be. All my life I was wondering, and here it is. Although, "How did I die? How come I can't remember?"
"Oh." She licked butter from the popcorn off of her fingers before wiping them off on her hoodie. I noticed that the action left no stains on the dark blue cloth. She grabbed the armrest between us and it fell down like one would in the backseat of a car. Bebe did something to it, and the bar doubled in size and folded across my lap. The second half of the now bent bar flattened and stretched to become the size and shape of a large tablet. Bebe tapped the side that was facing up, and the shiny black surface vanished in a flurry of pixels to show a number keyboard and a search bar. "Just input your number, and go to 'highlights.' You have to watch those first before you remember anything."
I tapped on the search bar, and typed in 6-9-6-9 into the keyboard. A social media-type profile showed up with some basic information at the top. Most prominently featured was
Red (2010-2027)
Below that, there was endless little squares with dates on them. At the very top, was a similarly styled rectangle which simply said "highlights." Assuming that this was what Bebe was talking about, I tapped on it.
The whole screen went dark again before illuminating again to show me endless videos of my past. Somehow, I could hear what was happening and it was as if I was reliving my life. I was re-experiencing everything from when I first opened my eyes to birthdays to my first kiss to that time when I puked on my boyfriend at the amusement park.
The experience seemed to fly past and I had little sense of time as I watched the summary of my life, until I reached my last hours. I felt every second of the party scene. Though most of the previous memories were crystal-clear - this one was blurred.
I could see myself holding a phone in a bathroom, and I could see my friends. I saw my boyfriend, and I saw dancing. It seemed to drag on forever and I wondered how something so fun could end up in my death. Maybe it was a mistake and this wasn't really my death?
>But it was.
There was a bottle and laughing and I saw myself lean in and inhale a cloud. Soon after the blurred image fell to the floor. After a while the image faded to black and I was returned to the home screen.
I looked up and over to my right to see Bebe still sitting there looking at the screen.
Seeming to notice my movement, she briefly glanced over to me. "Finally. You've been watching that for months."
"Months?" I echoed.
"Yeah. How long did you think passed?" She asked.
I shrugged. I looked away from her and at the screen. We sat there in silence for a while before I asked, "So what are we doing?"
"Waiting for us to wake up."
I sat next to Bebe at the top of the room. I hadn't moved since I first got here. I felt a bit strange since I died. I didn't feel concerned about anything really. It was like my mind had been altered in a way that made me oddly calm. I didn't feel or acknowledge the passage of time, and just stared at the dark screen waiting for the story to happen.
When the screaming started, there was a collective jump among myselves in the audience. I glanced over at Bebe, and saw her looking forward with a bored expression.
