So I died. Sure, whatever.

I ‘woke up’ in a large cave with red lights and torches dimly lighting the area. Slowly, I sat upright, still taking in everything that was in front of me. Now, there was another boy in front of me and he was sitting in a throne. All kinglike, right? Nonetheless, he looked serious.

“Sho Funi!” He yelled. The way he spoke told me he definitely was in charge here-- wherever ‘here’ was. He continued, “It is time to pass on to your next life!”

That surprised me, just a little bit. Passing on to your next life sounded like something right out of a fantasy-- well, that possibility couldn’t exactly be ruled out. I nodded, listening for his next words.

“You shall be brought to your next life shortly,” he said, as if reading from a script. “For now, you will wait here.”

“Got it!” I responded, putting a thumb up. “So, is there, like, a chair or something?” Glancing around the cave, the best spot to sit was the rock-hard ground. Not very comfortable, if you ask me.

“No! Sit on the ground if you must.”

“That’s really bad customer service, y’know?” I threw an accusing glance at him.

“We do not need customer service here! We serve dead people.” The man was already starting to get annoyed, his expression losing it’s serious look little by little.

This is going to be fun, I thought. I was pretty well versed in jokes. But not real jokes. The terrible, unfunny, stupid ones; the ones that just make you mad. I enjoyed annoying people when I was alive, and now I’m going to enjoy annoying people while I’m dead. “Well, while we wait…” I sat down on the ground in front of the man. “What’s your name?”

“You will call me King,” He answered. Not a very good answer.

“Where’s the queen?” I asked, half of curiosity and half of being annoying.

King looked down at me, his serious expression replaced with just a confused one. “Queen?” He shook his head. “There is no queen.”

“There should be a queen,” I told him. He probably didn’t want anyone telling him what to do, though. He shook his head. Onto the next topic, then. “You wanna know my name?”

“I already know of your name, Sho,” he said. “I need not know more.”

“Really, man,” I pressed. “There’s a lot about me that you’d like!”

“There’s not.”

“Trust me. I’m ‘Sho Funi’ after all.” I smirked, trying not to crack up from my own pun.

King froze for a minute, probably processing. Like a robot! Then a few emotions crossed his face. Shock, then anger, then acceptance. Like the five stages of grief. He just seemed disappointed in me. Then I couldn’t hold it in anymore-- I burst into laughter. “You must take this seriously,” King grumbled.

“Take it seriously?” I smiled. “Sorry, I don’t do that!”

King groaned. I could tell from his expression he wanted me to leave and never come back. Sadly for him, I’m here to stay until the escorter guys come. “... Have a seat,” he muttered, suppressing his annoyance. I did so, smirking.

“Sooooooo,” I began, dragging out the ‘so’ for dramatic effect. “I like your cave house! Primitive.” King didn’t respond this time. He turned away from me-- not to do anything else, just to not look at me anymore. I’m pretty sure a single pun doesn’t have that much of an effect on someone, but I guess he just doesn’t like jokes. I decided to continue. “So, you’re King, right?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I told you that already.”

“Sorry, I didn’t want to ‘royally’ mess up.” I punned, chuckling a little. Get it? King? Royal? You get it.

King groaned again. “I want to kill you,” he admitted.

“Ppfsh, killing someone that’s already dead? That’s redi-kill-ous!”

The boy glared at me with a disapproving look. He clenched his fists, and I could tell he was on the verge of exploding. Which would be a good or bad thing, depending on what happened when he did.

“What’s with the silence?” I asked him, smirking a little.

“... I’m done with you.”

I blinked. Well, I guess he was done with me. “That sucks, I was just about to throw down some more jokes.”

“No more jokes!” He began to raise his voice. “They’re unnecessary!”

I shrugged, deciding to actually hold off for once. Crazy, right? I would never, unless it was, of course, a person guiding the other dead people to the dead lands. In this case, there was that same person, and I wanted to-- get this-- respect his emotions.

“... You didn’t make a pun,” he mumbled. Oh, looks like he was expecting one. Well.
“Oh, you want me to? I just went through a character development moment and ended up sparing you, so.”

He just stared at me, dumbfounded; so I stared back. We looked at each other’s eyes (not romantic), and thought about what the other was thinking (not romantic).

Then, the silence was broken. “King!” Came another man’s yell. “We have come to escort the dead!” Oh, that’s my ride.

King blinked himself out of his astonished state, returning to the stern, cold look he had at the beginning of the story. “Perfect,” he said, giving what I thought was a tiny sigh of relief. “Take him.”

The man nodded, power-walking towards me. He grabbed my wrist and began to drag me out of that cave. I was only a little glad.
“Sho,” King called while the guy was finding my way out. “I’m so annoyed.”

“Really?!” Oh, a perfect chance. I grinned, basically out of the door already. “I thought you were King!”

I didn’t get to see the expression on his face, but it was most likely really funny. Those were the single best words to end a conversation on. The man brought me out and away, and I moved on to-- whatever came next. I never saw him again.

So I died, so what? I got to meet King. It was cool-- and he hated my jokes, which was even cooler.