“Like what you see?” His voice breaks me out of my confusing stupor. “Li- what?” He sweeps his hand across the expanse of sand surrounding us. “This, the beach, the sun. I tried to make it all comfortable and somewhat recognizable to what calms you the most.” Recognizable? This is far from recognizable in any capacity. “Uh… Rather, I wanna know where I am? Why did I wake up on a beach dressed like I went on some fuckin Hawaiian vacation, and again, who are you?” He leans away from the tree he was standing under. “Well, this place goes by many names. Some call it heaven, some call it hell, a world between worlds, eternal slumber. But I think you may be most familiar with the name ‘Limbo.'” He outstretches his hands. Limbo…? No…. no, no no no , it can’t be. You mean to tell me I’m dead? There’s so much I need to do back home; why am I here? What the fuck happened? Fang is back home; she’ll be devastated when she finds out. So much I didn’t say; she NEEDS me. This CAN’T be the e-. “Hey dumbass, I said Limbo, not dead. You’re in between worlds, calm yourself.” Goddamnit, am I mumbling again? “No, not this time. Though I can hear your thoughts.” Oh great. He takes another puff before leaning back down again. “Now to answer your burning question: What you’re doing here. What was the last thing you remember before you woke up in this place?” I furrow my eyebrows and look down to the sand to try to piece together my memories…Well, I was performing an operation… in some village with Farcy and Klepp. We were driving through town when the next thing I knew, everything went dark… “Yeah that’s about the gist of it, but it’s pretty obvious what happened. Your squad went kaboom.” Huh? “Humvee you were in went hit an IED and your squad got ambushed. You got knocked out right away and you aren’t exactly in… the best condition. You barely survived.” I open my eyes in shock and look towards him. My squad… ambushed? I look to the ground in anger, gritting my teeth, my hands again curled into fists. Those MOTHERFUCKING piece of shit meteor-dodging towelheads got the jump on us, and I couldn’t fucking see this shit coming, Raptor Jesus, if I hadn’t bought that fucking CD player and paid attention, we wouldn’t have been caught in this shit. “Relax pal. Though, I’ll say, you did dick around a bit too much at your time in the military. You treated that place wayyy too much like home. Still don’t know how the hell Farcy let things slide with all the shit you’ve done on base.” Goddamn mind-reading bullshit. This dude seriously needs to do better with his manners, and I need to shut up. I put my head in my hands and closed my eyes. I can’t fucking believe this shit… My squad, fucked because of my stupid choices. If I just listened to Farcy more and just did my job, I would’ve gone through this tour easily… Met my beautiful Fang again, finally settled down and recouped our lives together… I can’t die here. But another thought comes to my mind. The figure. I look up again to the mysterious man who looks far into the distance, with the cig still in his hand. He speaks like he’s some sort of all-knowing being; is he a god? Is he Raptor Jesus himself? Nah, No way, he wouldn’t talk to me like a dick. “And to answer your other question: Who I am.” He finally leaned away from the tree and stepped on his cig, trudging his way towards me in the white sand to stop a few inches away from me. Sandals, a pair of Hawaiian shorts, and the same Hawaiian shirt I’m wearing. I look up at his face and… W-what… NO. FUCKING. WAY. “Honestly I didn’t think it would’ve taken you this long to realize you’re talking to yourself yet.”