Nostalgic Feel

Standing in front of two doors, 

‘Pick one or the other, a fifty percent chance I’d pick either’. 

Why would this be difficult, she snorts. Stepping forward to a once in a lifetime opportunity, she confidently strolled ahead, barely feeling the damp grass as her ghost-like figure wouldn’t let her do so. 

Dead, that she was. It’s actually quite boring being dead. 

But there’s one thing the dead collectively look forward to, and that is the picking of two doors, you can enter both for a short time of ten minutes; both will bring joy. 

Yet, here’s the catch, one will bring you temporary content, meanwhile the other will offer happiness for eternity, and you must rely on your intuition to know which is which, as the timing is scarce. 

It differs from one dead to the next, each of the two doors are different for each soul, as each carries a different story. Jaslin steps out, having been prepared for every single moment of her life, she held the ability of decisiveness. ‘Quick and easy, I choose one door, it shouldn't be so hard. Plus, I can check both out, I’m sure I’d know by then’. And alas she had halted, arriving at her grave; it was her time to choose. 

She attempted to suck a deep breath in only to get startled by the teenager a visible distance away from her, ‘It’s my time too, good luck’, he smiles slightly as he jumps in. 

Taking that luck and brushing it off as unnecessary, she immediately hopped in. 

Gasping awake, she finds herself in a situation she expected to be in, 

In front of two doors. A small metallic room, strong, bright light, and two large, wooden doors. 

She had decided to enter the left one first, opening the creaking wooden door that somehow felt like home. Stepping inside, her heart stopped, her eyes were on the brink of tears. There, lied ahead of her, her memories, those she carried so dearly, her first day of school, her first and favorite close friend, who she extremely missed, to her right, her graduation day, ah a clip of her and her friends throwing their hats in the air, to her left, her goodbye to her family as she went to college abroad, soaking up her tears as she latched onto her mother’s shirt and later let go to sadly, yet awkwardly wave at her siblings, her first relationship, the ever-burning passion, the intimacy and tenderness between them was like no other. 

Then came her death. She had died so young, feeling that her life was taken away too quickly; she had always tried to suppress her feelings by reassuring herself with words of comfort, yet she couldn’t keep in the sobs that choked out of her heavy throat; she had missed her life. It is believed that you die at the right time, and that’s what she believed too, but death was just as unfair as life. She wasn’t ready to die, she wasn’t ready to let those moments go. No, she isn’t ready. Having had four minutes left of this door, she frantically stepped into a memory, one with her brother when she was twelve years old, she had remembered this. Smiling as she shakily put her hand on her mouth to sob a bit more. Twelve year old her and her ten year old brother were under the covers, attempting to sleep, 

‘Hey Jas, you’re not going to leave me, right?’, 

‘Hey of course not, I’m staying here for the rest of the night, don’t worry no monster will go near you’, she giggled, 

‘But not just for the night, forever, right Jas? You won’t leave me alone in the future right?’,

‘Hey, hey, stop worrying I’m here forever, to watch you be successful and happy, to see you own an ice cream shop’,

‘Yeah! An ice cream shop’, he giggles as she starts tickling him and giggling along. 

Agony swept through her core, feeling her non-beating heart squeeze; she never got to see that ice cream shop that her brother was so close to achieving, she had died. 

Wondering whether her family was okay now or not wasn’t an option, the dead were prohibited from seeing their loved ones when still alive. It killed her, to not know where her family was. It killed her, to be dead. It killed her, to have to be forced into something she wasn’t ready for, to leave a place she didn’t want to leave. 

Her time was up. At that moment, she should’ve moved to the second door, but she didn’t. She couldn’t. Those memories, her life was so sacred and she had never felt so close to it until now. 

Sobbing as she couldn’t have the willpower to leave, she jumped into a memory with her dad; he always knew what to do, he was her guide through life, her guardian angel, and how much she wished she could be his, her family’s guardian angel. The mere thought of being close to her family brought flutters of joy in her soul. 

It was a memory of the day before she died, it was a phone call with her dad, her last phone call, 

‘Hey dad... I miss you so much, college has been hard, I wanna go back home’,

‘Kiddo I know it’s tough, but remember that you’re tougher. What have I taught you?’,

She managed to say through her sniffling, ‘To Persevere?’

He chuckled, ‘Exactly kiddo, life brings changes, so change with it, you can’t keep staying where you’re comfortable, now go crush college, show ‘em who’s boss’,

She giggled appreciatively at his words, ‘Thanks, Dad’.

Her knees gave out as she sat on the cold floor, huddled together, looking ahead at the memories of her life. This was her nostalgia, the life she had always wanted to stay in, the one she was comfortable in. 

It was then she gasped, she had taken the final words she had heard for granted , but she shouldn't have. Having been caught up this whole time in wishing to return to her old life, she had realized that that would only bring temporary happiness. This was it. Those memories hold dear to her heart, but she can’t keep living through them, or rather reliving. It was time for her to let go. She had changed with her death, and now there’s a new life, or rather door, awaiting her. 

Wiping out her final tears, she silently walked, waving an awkward goodbye to her old life, as she stepped to the new door. Having been over the time limit in the other door, she had expected this door to be locked, but alas it was open. 

She unsurely and as a matter of fact, confusingly checked the time only to realize it wasn’t there. Smiling in an ironic manner, she realized that the time was a distraction. It was never about the time. 

She finally deciphered the message of the two doors. The first door the ghostly spirits choose would entail what they have the hardest time letting go of, and the second door, well the only fact she currently knows about it is eternal happiness. 

Looking back at the old door, her old life, her old memories, she let out a huge breath and held on to that luck the teenage boy had given her a while ago, as she stepped into the bright abyss of her hopefully eternal happiness.