Very Short Stories

Limbo

I

I'm dead. From a moment ago I was living as a construction worker, and unbeknownst to me the floor cracked and thrown me into the hard ground - it was a long fall, one could've thought of a decision with a lay back position - and there I was dead. Simply dead. I guess. It all went black and I'm not sure whether I'm dead or not. Oh well! What now? I don't see anything, like the space, all I see is black, and my body afloat.

Everything snapped, like the blackness was gone and I was standing on clouds. Everything was bright and the sky was pink, purple, blue and white. It was pretty. There I see a tall golden gate with a giant guard in front of it. He wore nothing but a thick white peplos and holding a long spear. He has a well-trimmed beard and as bald as a bowling ball.

Okay. I'm officially dead.

I went to the gate slowly, with curiosity exploding through my head, when the guard asked me what I was doing.

I said with a confused tone: 'I should be going behind these gates, right?'
The guard spoke in a low voice: 'Yes and no. You have to wait for permission from the Almighty God.'

Okay, I was a little confused. Why would I need permission from God to be in heaven? That's a little redundant and - and... Well whatever. It's God, he knows every move I do. All I have to do is wait for him to come here and grab me to his eternal party.

My life was fairly uneventful. I did bad things, as all humans do, but they weren't quite bad as I had to go to jail for my actions. No, they were stupid actions. I was learning everything. You had to go through stupid moments to genuinely learn something. I was 24 years old. I had been working as a construction worker for 4 years. The job itself was fun and extremely dangerous, I knew I could die at any given moment when doing my tasks. But not this early. Not that easily too. It was stupid. I was stupid. And now I'm waiting for God's permission for invitation to his party.

I released a deep sigh and waited.

II

It has been so long now. I don't even know what time it is, maybe time has stopped and I was stuck in time with this guard, whose immobility strikes me as creepy. He just stands there, as I observe. I can sense that he has done this for eternity, which sounds so boring. Imagine having to stand and do nothing for forever and forever! Perhaps I'm in his situation too.

For the time I've been here I've seen no one having to enter or spawn to enter. It was weird. I wanna ask the guard this particular question but he seems pretty much dead. Like an abandoned toy.

Ah! I'm getting so bored now. There's nothing to do! Why is this God not even here yet? Why do I have to wait for so damn long.

It must have been 500 years now. In some religious book they said that time moves a lot faster in heaven. I don't think it moves at all. One only assumes so. Does eternity move? I'm getting headaches from thinking all of these things. They're practically useless now. Funny I can still contemplate in heaven, or maybe this isn't heaven and when you're there, you don't have free will at all! The thought of God controlling every thought I have sounds scary honestly. Like a tyrant controlling his minions. I wonder had anyone done a bad thing during their time in heaven? I suppose so. If God gave us immorality, then why would he remove it so? To make us feel happy? God promises me to be happy for eternity but if my friends are burning in hell, how would I be happy in heaven with the thought of that? Do God removes the human in us? Our sympathy and empathy for the sorrowful? It doesn't make sense to me. And it feels scary to think about. I suppose this is a way to tell my friends that they should be more religious. Wait. Nevermind. I'm already dead. And I'm alone in heaven.

God works in mysterious ways.

III

I'm dead in heaven. It feels like so. Do God even want me to be in his perpetual home? Why do I have to be here in limbo, like a child waiting for their parents to pick them up from school. I'm a forgotten child, waiting for nothing. There's no sun but light. Is where I am part of heaven at all? Is it real at all? Or is this heaven? Heaven? Heaven? Heaven? God promised me that I'd be in heaven if I do good deeds yet I'm still not inside the gates. Do God breaks his promises as well? Or am I an unlucky fellow that - that. Maybe. God has forsaken me. Is this true? Oh God! Oh God! Where are you! I don't see you at all! All I see is a guard that seems so unbelievably dead. Wait. Wait. Maybe I can ask him where God is. Surely he'll have an answer!

I ran up to the giant guard, asking desperately: 'You! Where is this God you told me so, where is he and why isn't he coming for me?'

'God doesn't want you. The Devil doesn't want you either. When two doesn't want one, you'll be stuck here forever. You've waited for nothing. I didn't even want to tell you this because you seem so pathetic, I didn't want you to feel even more pathetic. I'll be going now.'

And the guard walks away and left without an explanation.