I have an idea for a future story I want to write.
The idea is of these stray, isolated characters (notably a couple that have known each other for a long time and have a close connection). Except one of them is to die to leave the other behind to grieve. This is a rather simple plot, especially if we're following the grieving partner.
But we're not. My idea is this: What if when we die and our living family go through the grieving process, we are in a pre-afterlife of which we experience that grief ourselves. When the griever is going through one of the five stages of grief, we go through those five stages. When the griever is in the anger stage, we might experience things like rough storms or wild fires as if these things were still threatening us in life. If the griever is in the depression stage, we might go through a lot of rain or feel trapped in darkness. When the acceptance stage hits, we can finally be free in the afterlife. That's my idea.
The story would follow the dead partner on the journey to heaven, experiencing their living partner's grief in the exact way I explained it. In the acceptance stage, they would finally be comfortable in heaven.
How do you think?
