Second Chances

1215 words

Rated PG; implications of gun violence and substance abuse

Prompt: Write a story that begins in the light and ends in darkness, or the other way around.

Silence for a few seconds. Anticipation. I don’t feel any pain. There’s no blood when I touch my chest. There’s nothing. I am just a blank canvas. I’m only a blob of clay yet to be molded. I am a page, waiting for someone to finally start writing my story. 

So that’s what it feels like to die.

Brown eyes. Chocolate dripped down in sparkling pools. Eyelashes like blades of grass, delicate and thin. I see the world. The universe is now mine if I can reach for the twinkling stars that give me life. Well, If I still had one. 

“Hello.” They say between glossy lips. 

They smile, showing off pink gums and straight teeth. They laugh, and I think my inert heart skips a beat. I clutch my chest and chuckle nervously.

“Hi.” 

“You’re dead. you know that, right?”

“I guess so.”

I stare at my body. I’m dressed in a grey, a long-sleeved robe that covers my feet and rests at the base of my neck. There’s nothing else. Not that I feel any urge to lift it to see if I’m wearing socks or undergarments. That would be scandalous.

The world around me is different. I’m sitting on the ground, which is midway up a rocky hill. Boulders and pebbles with sand in the cracks. The person with the eyes is standing up, extending their hand to me. No matter where I look, I see identical hills in the distance.

In the space between the hills, there are pools of glistening water with mysterious shadows swimming around in them. The sky is light blue, without a cloud or bird to interrupt it. At random intervals, there are white beams of light shooting from pools. They look beautiful, but I don’t think I would ever dare touch one.

They are covered in a cloth that’s almost the same as mine. The only difference is there’s a rope pulled around the waist that gives the garment shape. Their skin is deep green, without a single blemish. It’s slightly unsettling.

“How did you die?” 

They get me to stop looking at their hand.

“Hmm?”

“What happened that you ended up here?”

A gun. In my hands. No, not anymore. Now it’s with them. That one. The one whose hands are wobbling. My hands are above me. I scream. A clap of thunder. At least that’s the sound that’s closest to whatever made me fall backwards.

“An accident.” 

They grin. “Interesting.”

“What about you?”

They shake their head. “It’s been so long. I can’t remember.”

They look sad. No. They shouldn’t be sad. Not my friend.

“That’s understandable. Probable, even. No need to worry!”

I take a risk and put a hand on their shoulder. They look up at me. Their expression brightens. 

“Really?”

“Yes. I’m sure I’ll forget soon too.”

Their eyes are happy again. They start levitating half a metre above the hill.

“Want to fill the time before you do?”

I finally take their hand. I’m instantly in the sky with them. My robe ruffles at the bottom. 

“I would love to.”

[]

Their name is Levie. We dance through the air and glide through the water with the strange silhouettes. We see how high we can climb with the feet that we never see but can feel touching each stone. The sand never gets stuck on our toes. I don’t think it can.

They remember almost nothing about their life, but love hearing about mine. I was a bit secretive at first, but soon the words spilled out of me before I could keep track of them.

I tell them about the people I hurt because I could. I told them about the substances I ingested and the things I carried around with me at all times. I told them about the nightmare earth is. They listen closely, sometimes asking me to speak slower or repeat my words.

Night and day do exist, but we seem to be the only people who follow the cycle and sleep. At night we can hear others screaming and partying, though we never see anyone. Whoever they are, they need to be more respectful.

The beams of light are things we never touch. I want to at times, but Levie’s terrified face is enough to convince me to stay for my friend.

Levie’s taken some stones from a hill we were racing on. They gave some to me. Now, we’re standing on the beach and tossing the pebbles into the water. The shadows are excited, splashing in the water and doing flips in the air. There seem to be more of them the more pebbles we give to them.

“Did you think this would be the afterlife?”

The question is unprompted and random. I stare at Levie.

“No, but it’s nice. I’m with you.”

Levie takes something that looks more like a rock and flings it to the shadows. They go berserk.

“No, I mean based on what you did on your planet. Do you think you deserve this?”

I contemplate that.

“I was just following orders and having some fun. I was a bit reckless, but I think this is fair.” 

Levie narrows their eyes.

“Okay. What about how you treated others? Your family?”

“I wasn’t that bad. I’m not saying I’m an angel, but there are people worse than me.”

“So, you think that you could go to heaven, once this whole waiting period’s over?”

I beam at them.

“As long as I can enjoy myself with you, heaven doesn’t matter.”

“I see.”

Levie takes the biggest rock, the one they insisted on flying down, that’s the size of their head. They drag it to the shoreline. Levie takes a deep breath and grabs the small boulder. They toss it to the pool.

The shadows are now in a frenzy. The last one flung two shadows out of the water. They don’t look scared. They open the mouths I didn’t realize they had. They hurtle towards me. They might land on me.

I try to move backwards, but I’m stuck.

“Levie!”

Levie doesn’t hear me. Or maybe they ignore me. They make no attempts to try and save me.

I’m panicking, and frantically trying to pull my feet off the sand. They aren’t cooperating.

I frantically look upwards and see the open mouth of a shadow cover my head.

[]

Once the bosses have consumed the subject, they slither over to me as black vines. They reach me and transform into their usual form. One, a three-headed leviathan, and the other a perfect replica of Leonardo DaVinci.

“I was waiting for you to throw the signal stone. You were taking your time.”

I shrug. “I was just making sure the subject was truly unredeemed.”

Leonardo apparates a clipboard into their hands. 

“Okay, so subject #4537909 of the redemption project failed, and will be dropped in the underworld as soon as possible.”

Leviathan nods in confirmation.

“Careful, Levie, that’s the second failure in a row. You might have to go back to orientation. Learn what a subject is.”

I snort. I snicker, and the bosses join in. Leonardo sounds like an earth pig, which just pushes me further. We’re laughing so hard we’ve started glowing.

“Yeah, right. Like I’m going to go through that hell again.”