Stories of the World

Continuing with the Theme of Death...

        Sudden death is not pleasant.  One moment you’re alive, whistling a merry tune through life when bam! You’re dead.  Nothing else to see here, move along, just a soul leaving the world forever. No big deal, nothing new, nothing worth a passing glance.  Except the ignominy this person must have felt when they died because a baby carriage ran into them.  Of course, that’s just on the physical side, it is far worse over here.

        Hi, my name’s Bob and I just died.  Having the time of my life over here in limbo.  See, I was your average Joe, who wasn’t named Joe, who didn’t really do anything special in life good or bad.  I’m one of the “lucky ones” hovering between paradise and doom for the moment.  Frankly, it could be much more exciting over here, if there was more than just myself, the tempestuous darkness, and that irksome ball of light.

        I assume it was sent to be reassuring or help me find focus to be sent to a more permanent position.  In actuality, that light must transgress all of the boundaries set for its job just for the pure amount of annoyance it seeks to deliver.  The light prefered to illumine my face, blinding me in the darkness as opposed to lighting a way out of this place.  It also liked to bob around me in circles until I was certain I was falling through a kaleidoscope.  Every time it finished its spinning, the light would start bobbing in a straight line.  It was obviously trying to trick me into following it where I would be delivered into more torture or a short reprieve. I certainly was not going to test that theory so the light kept circling me constantly.  My adamantine will would not fall to such a simplistic form of torture, I would not follow the light.

        However, that obdurate light still refused to leave me alone.  It is impossible to tell how much time has passed since my death by this point.  The guile in how this light does not do its circling in any recognizable pattern has made time indistinguishable.  Not like it would have been easy to tell time before in complete darkness.  The only time I can actually predict when the sudden whirlwind of light will descend is those moments when I feel a slight heat radiating behind my back.  I’m always tempted to turn around and see what is providing that feeling, but the spinning of the light makes me too dizzy to orient myself before the heat has faded.

        After what feels like an eternity, and very well possibly could have been an eternity with my current knowledge of time, I take a step forward after the light has finished yet another whirling dervish. It bobbed in what could be considered surprise, like it expected me to fade before I’d made a decision.  I took another step forward.  Satiate that I was finally following, it began to float forward, slowly shrinking into the distance.  

        Of course, this was just a ruse, as I would never willingly follow that light anywhere.  I was positive that light was the embodiment of evil trying to come in a stereotypical form of goodness so as to lull me into a false sense of security and lead me to my doom.  As I expected, while the light was slowly moving away, I could feel the heat behind me slowly growing in warmth.

        As I turned towards that heat, the devilish light moved with transcendent speed to blind my vision and stop me from seeing the paradise from which the warmth surely originated.  I tried to swat it away, but as it was light that didn’t work at all.  It tried to push me back towards the path it was leading me down before, but that also didn’t work because it was still just light.  What it did accomplish was me having a clear view of where the warmth was coming from.  

        A hole in the ground far darker than the darkness that already surrounded me, with what looked like claw marks trying to escape the pit.  I could hear faint howls coming from it now.  I was rooted to the spot, unable to turn away as I was slowly pulled in, closer and closer to the edge.  It was now I realized the light had only been trying to keep me away from this awful place but it was too late now.  I saw it blink out sadly as I was dragged screaming into the pit of despair, a cold voice echoing over the once silent darkness.

“He chose poorly.”