Afterlife

Chapter Two

What comes after death? I have thought about it for half my life long. They usually say you'd see a white light before the angel of death takes you away. You'd feel a moment of peace before you fade away forever, or you will walk through the gates of heaven and die a simple death. But what if after death, there are none of those things at all? What if you wake up in the afterlife standing over your body? Staring down at your lifeless body all cold and numb on the road. While your soul is in the afterlife. The one place souls seek for peace.

I try to process what just happened. One moment ago, I could hear my heart beating. Now I have no heartbeat at all.

One moment ago, I felt so much pain, but now I feel no pain at all.

All sounds around me are muffed, I hear the river slowly flowing underneath me on the bridge. I hear in the distance an ambulance on its way to save a life that's already long gone.

I look at my surroundings. It's all so dark the moon shines but not that bright anymore. The trees in the distance seem darker than usual. Time seems slower.

This world... it all feels familiar. It does not scare me.

I look down at my hands, and Im shining like the moon, like a beautiful bright light in the darkness.

I must be a ghost. I am dead.

But what shall I do now?

Most souls would use this moment to look over their loved once or find a way to say their last goodbyes. That's what I should do.

But I have no desire to say goodbye. Who is there to say goodbye to?

But I want peace, I want to be gone; I just want peace. Even in the afterlife, I still feel tired.

I don't feel at peace.

"Is this it?" I whisper to myself. My voice echoes into the distance.

I close my eyes.

"You're her." Speaks a voice. A male voice.

I look up and on the other side of the road a man slowly walks towards me. He's not shining like I do. He seems almost alive. He stops three feet away from me. He gives me a gentle smile.

"What?" I asked, confused by his words.

"The solution."

"The solution? To what could I possibly be the solution to?"

He looks at me for a moment as if I am his only hope he has been searching for his entire life.

"It's not my story to tell." He says. "But you must go back. Now is not the right time, Adylan."

I wanted to ask him how he knew my name, but he was gone as if he was never there only a few feet away from me. He just disappeared completely.

I stand in the middle of the road, clueless and lost.

I dont know what is happening to me. I don't know what to do. I want to go home where my grandmother is waiting for me on her porch just like this morning when everything was still normal. And fine. Where this was all just a bad dream. And she is alive and well. I want this empty feeling to disappear. I want to scream for help, but who would listen? Who and what would be able to fix what is already done?

I fell to my knees in the middle of the dark road. I hear the ambulances muffed sound behind me, but I dont bother turning around.

I close my eyes.

And then I felt it. Something. As if someone was holding me in their arms and they were so warm, and I never felt more at peace than right here. I am too scared to open my eyes, I dont want to lose this feeling. I have never felt anything like this. The warmth consumes me.