"Once in a while, someone would give up their happiness and give it away, because everyone deserves to be happy... especially those who had lost their hope of finding it."
-x
She was standing outside the store that she visited almost everyday. She looked above and stared at the dark, gray clouds as rain poured down on her beautiful wedding dress. She smiled bitterly with tears falling down from her sorrowful eyes.
God's pretty mean, isn't he? Taking away everything from me.
She slowly walked away from the store, away from her euphoria, her sanctuary, her peace. Every step she took, every tear that fell, every raindrop that poured down her only brought bitter-sweet memories of them. Their smiles and tears, giggles and laughs, those midnight calls and cute photographs.
Even death is pretty unfair, she would say. Until she stood in front of a mysterious store she had never seen before.
"Afterlife Store." She said as she read the cravings on the door of the store.
She went inside and looked around, walked past thousand of papers that were rolled and put in cabinets. Her gazed was drawn to a particular person, she stopped at the counter with a man standing in front of her, smiling.
"Welcome to the Afterlife store!" The man said cheerfully then bent down and took a paper that was like a scroll. He put the paper on the counter and opened it. It was empty, she wondered.
"Write your name here," he pointed at the top of the paper and smiled at her once more. He gave her a pen to write it on. She was thinking a lot of things, actually, it were thousands. Bombarded by questions she couldn't answer but despite that, she wrote her name just as he instructed.
After she wrote her name, the paper glowed. Then what happened next was something she could never believe with her eyes. On the paper was pictures, but it wasn't just any kind of pictures. It was her memories when she was still alive. The paper was filled with her memories that she had always treasured. It was filled with different kinds of moments of her, him and everyone she knew and loved. It was both the good things and bad.
Suddenly she saw a memory of her and him, she stared at it, and smiled bitterly at the nostalgic past that had happened. It was that day- their wedding, on how it was the best and the worst time of her life. It was bitter-sweet, she would say.
"You really do have a thing on 'Once-upon-a-time' stories, don't you?" he said as he gazed at her memories.
"I once met a guy who stopped by here also, he felt the same thing for these kind of stories, too."
Her eyes widened, shocked on what he said. Maybe, it was him- No, it was definitely him, the boy that she would always play with, the guy that she would be with forever, she thought.
She looked at the guy on the counter, stared at him- at his smile. That bright smile that they had when they were still living and dreaming in their own little world. It was the smiles and the laughter that she had always held dear, it was the struggles and tears that she had always treasured.
"It seems that you've stumbled here means that you've reached your final destination in your afterlife."
He began talking.
"I am the Reaper and this is a place where souls will make a choice. You could say this is the last stop for spirits. Some says this is called the boundary between resurrection and damnation. Heaven and hell, perhaps if you may. But because I had seen that your heart is pure, you have a choice to make. Normally, those with dark hearts would be sent directly to damnation after they have read the carving on the door that you had entered and those souls who are pure can go inside the store and have a choice."
