9AM. Wake up.
10AM. Eat.
11AM. Curse lungs for not being good lungs.
12NN. Eat.
1PM. Read a book.
3PM. Enviously look out of the window to see the usual group of friends hang out.
4PM. Decrease life further by shitting on lungs through cigarettes...
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After the light, now all she could see were trees.
Hazel inhaled the sweet scent of the woods, the dead leaves on the grass, the pines of the trees that surrounded her. She took in the sight of green, brown, blue—all the colors that she had been deprived of when she was stuck in oblivion. Her transparent hands touched the bark of the tree nearby, taking each specific texture, each pattern and crack.
Her eyes watered and her knees gave up, leading her to collapse on the ground. She cried, tears of sadness or joy, she didn't know. She had been away from this sight for so long. The realization that she took advantage of her time alive—took advantage of this beautiful scene, one of the many—she immediately felt her heart throb. She had been so ungrateful, and she was euphoric to be given another chance to see this.
She laid down on the ground. Oh, how she could stay this way forever. Clouds of different forms passed by, and the sky was brilliant blue, it's beauty was incomparable.
"As far as returns go, yours might have been the most emotional one yet." a voice interrupted her thoughts.
Hazel immediately stood up to face the person who spoke. The man in front of her was wearing a white polyester suit with slicked back blonde hair and pale skin.
"Wait for another few days and you'll stop feeling so grateful about being granted a chance to be back on Earth and start demanding your life back." He sighed. "Humans. Always craving for something more when they already have everything."
Hazel opened her mouth to speak, but not a single noise managed to come out. She furrowed her eyebrows and tried again, this time clutching her neck, desperate for release of words.
"Ah, your voice. Wait it out for a few hours and you'll talk like you did before." The man studied his nails. "But I can read your thoughts, until then, any questions you have, you are welcome to ask."
Who are you?, Hazel spoke out in her mind.
He stepped forward, and that's when Hazel noticed that he didn't have a shadow. She checked hers if it was there, but it wasn't, they weren't part of the living, of course.
"Let's just say that I'm a tour guide, but you can call me Natos, which should be easy to remember, rhymes with nachos, and all." He examined her. "Let me guess, early 40's? You didn't make it through World War II, which is good, they're usually moodier than the rest."
Tour?
Natos held his arm our for her to take, which Hazel indeed took.
"You'll see."
And off they went, with the shadows enveloping them in a cocoon before they disappeared from the forest.
