Council of the Dead

The Fog

"We will start... with Nancy." stated Death, placing one skeletal hand on the elderly woman's shoulder
Nancy glanced uninterestedly at the angel of death's bony hand before looking back to the desolate ground. "The fuck is wrong with her?" Asked another man, a scrawny, black-haired man named Jeremy, his eyes full of misery, a small hole burrowed in the side of his scalp running clean through the other side
"Dry your tears, Jeremy." Death commanded soothingly "She is in pain no longer."
Jeremy blinked in surprise and wiped the stray tears running down his own cheeks. He hadn't even noticed he was crying. "Why was I...?" he started to ask before Death cut him off
"All in due time. My darling soul." he cooed "Now..."
Suddenly an old wooden scythe with an iron head appeared in Death's right hand.
"I will tell Nancy's story." Death stated flatly before lifting the scythe into the air and bringing it down, colliding the base of the shaft against a flat tombstone, sending a hollow echo throughout the Land of Deceased.
The council looked around confused before, like ripples in a pond, a white light spread over everything until there was nothing but white.
Once the light had faded the council was standing beside a hospital bed with a woman that looked like Nancy laying in it; except her skin had more life to it.
The door slammed open, a lanky man with black hair charging in.
"Mom!" the man yelled at the woman
"Mom!"
Tears ran down the man's cheeks as he grasped the woman's arms, misery and agony in his eyes
"Hello young man." the woman said "Who are you?"
"M-mom. It's me. Your son. Jeremy." said the man
The deceased Jeremy suddenly became more alert and he glanced over at the woman
"Don't tell me you can't remember me. I've known you my entire life!"
"I'm sorry. I don't recognize you." the woman said, confused and worried
"Fuck!" screamed the man, grabbing a vase of roses on the bedside table and launching them at the wall, spraying potting soil and ceramic shards onto the floor
A nurse rushed in, alerted by the elderly man in the bed next to the woman shouting. She tried to drag the young man out to no avail.
He smacked her across the face before two more nurses came and forcibly dragged him away.
"Goodbye mister!" called the woman
Death brought his scythe down, slashing through the woman as if she weren't really there and suddenly everyone was inside an empty black void. A rhythmic beeping sound echoed through the void.
Everyone turned to see the woman, now standing, turning around, attempting to navigate through knee-deep water.
Her movements were as if her feet were incased in lead; however she pressed on. As she moved, a thick, gray, opaque fog began rolling in around her. Seemingly moving with her. The Council watched as the woman trudged for hours and hours. Her skin slowly paling and her eyes fogging over. The water began to churn as if a wave was coming.
The water continuously pushed the poor elderly woman to her knees and shoved her face below the murky water that seemed to be closer to the texture of mud at this point.
The Council could hardly make out the events unfolding before them through the fog, slowly growing thicker and darker.
The woman reached out as if grabbing a guard rail and pulled herself to her feet. She then began ascending as if climbing a staircase, holding onto the invisible guard rail for dear life. The water grew more violent and vicious waves slammed against her, slamming her down but the woman would not surrender to the crashing waves. Eventually she reached what The Council assumed to be the end of her ascent as she stopped. Barely a spec from where they were. She slouched for a moment as the beeping grew more and more rapid.
The woman then dropped like an anvil as if the ground beneath her suddenly disappeared. Her rapid descent ended a centimeter above the ground. Had she landed, the gore may have splashed onto the council, but she didn't land. For just before her impact, The Council found themselves in the hospital room again, the woman's heart rate monitor flatlined. A long beep the only noise in the white room. The woman lay dead in her bed, now looking like the Nancy in The Council.