Feeling a bit tired, I decided to close my eyes for a moment. I must have dozed off because the next thing I knew, the coffin began to shake violently for a minute before suddenly stopping, and everything was incredibly silent. I tried to open the coffin lid, as I was standing up in the upright coffin, but it wouldn't budge.

Just then, a blinding glare flashed in my eyes from just above me, seeming to be 10 feet in front of my face. Suddenly, colors and patterns surrounded the light, melding and forming into various pictures before my eyes. Eyes and faces formed and melted into each other, speaking in many languages that I couldn't make out. It all centered around the light, as if drawing me towards it. I felt a deep sense of awe, and at the same time inner peace.

"Jerry! Knock it off with that, you're blinding the guy!" someone yelled, jerking me away from my peaceful feeling.

"Sorry. Just seems like this process could benefit from even a touch of the dramatic, you know? Like those movies they always make, trying to depict this place as a paradise." The light went out, leaving me blinded and in the dark.

Looking up where the light had been, I saw two shapes, blurry and moving around. As my eyes adjusted, I saw that one looked like a human, who stood up and walked away for a moment. The other, looking more human, kneeled over where I was, which felt as though I was in a hole, and extended a hand to me.

"Easy does it," he said, pulling me up effortlessly. As I looked around, I noticed the first person looked humanoid from the neck down, but above that, was something rather strange. A shape, like someone had bent a steel rod or pipe, curved from the neck towards its back, reaching out about 2 or 3 feet. This had a swivel connection to an identical piece which curved upward, again 2 or 3 feet, and connected to a strange cube shape, which had 4 different faces on each of its sides. I noticed the bottom rod rotated in the neck in a 360 degree angle, and the top rod swiveled the same range in the bottom rod's top connector. It was a very strange sight to behold, and confused me as I watched the cube swivel to look at me with a gently smiling face.

"Welcome, to the Gateworld, what your kind refer to as 'Heaven'," he announced, gesturing in a grandiose manner to the world behind him. Everything was slate gray, with lights in the ceiling illuminating every inch, so that no shadows could be seen.

"Who are you?" I questioned, feeling a bit overwhelmed. "You may call me Geldorn. I am what you humans refer to as a "Seraph", though your ideas of my kind differ greatly with our actual roles. Here, I am known as 'Head Director.' It is my job to rule over the Hall of Knowledge, making sure all of history and the lives of humans is recorded and maintained. Unfortunately, we are on the low end of the ladder, and constant budget cuts don't keep our records as maintained as they should be."

"Wow, sounds like human bureaucracy."

"Exactly. Where do you think you got the idea from? Anyway, when you humans die, we show you your life, in its entirety, then judge you based on the Huffen/Gandir scale, which determines whether you go to Limbo, Hell, or continue on in a new life based on your chosen reincarnation."

"So then, if the records aren't properly maintained, wouldn't that mean some humans go to the wrong place?"

"Alas, it is unfortunate, but true. With as many employees as we gather and train every day, we still can't keep up. So mistakes happen, and usually are corrected with a task force sent out to retrieve the soul. We are eternally playing catch-up in trying to route souls to their correct destinations."

"So where do you get your employees?"

"Souls usually. They're the cheapest, and since they were human once, they are best at interacting with humans. Jerry, for instance, was once a base level employee, but his skills in the field allowed him to be promoted all the way up to a Soul Collector, gathering new employees and sending them to our training facilities, then on to record keeping or our numerous call centers. The call centers are how we communicate with you humans, and the employees are often referred to by some name, like 'angel' or 'spirit.'" He walked through a doorway, and as I followed, I saw the call center employees, and instantly understood where the angel concept came from. They sat on large feathery white chairs, and with the glowing lamps just above their heads, illuminating desks and computers, they looked like the typical "angel" picture.

"Anyway, you came here as a result of a glitch in our system. We have what are called 'Unravellers', whose job is to cause chaos, especially that which involves recruiting new employees."

"So they cause people to die?"

"Essentially. Ms. Creele was one such unraveller, who caused your death. But there are others. Waiting for all humans to naturally die would take too long, and with your advancing technologies, you live longer these days. So, we needed to speed up the process to bring balance."

"So when freak accidents happen..?"

"That's their fault, usually. You, of course, were involved in a glitch within our systems. Holding your breath as you did when you died, it confused the life support systems, and instead of you arriving at the gate, to be taken into the records rooms, you were transported to another dimension. Hence, you ended up here."