The first thing I heard after I died was my favorite song.
I wasn't quite sure where it was coming from, and I don't think I had it in me to care for the first few minutes. It took me a while, I thought, to finally open my eyes.
I was not in the hospital. Hospitals don't have voids for ceilings.
"Hello." Someone said. "You were fast."
I sat up, a bit too sore to move quickly, and turned to face them.
I could not make out their face, and it didn't matter anyways. They wore a tshirt, jeans, and a long black robe. Casual wear. In their pocket was a phone, presumably the cause of the music. They turned it off as I stirred.
"What's your name?" They asked
I gulped for my voice, then said "Don't have one."
They hummed, then wrote something down in their notebook. When did they get a notebook?
"Age?"
I gulped again "14. Why're you-"
"Cause of death?"
I sat in silence for a little while. "Um..." gesturing to my wrist I said "Y'know"
They nodded, then sat next to me.
We stayed sitting for a while, long enough that I started to get restless.
They seemed to notice. "Ready to go?"
"Uh-" I shifted "-To where?"
"Town's just over the hill. I can explain while we walk- c'mon" they were standing now, and holding out a hand. I took it and we started to slowly amble over to the bluff to our right.
The hill did not seem too far away, but it wasn't getting any closer- least not as close as it should have been.
"You humans have a lot of ideas about death. I've heard everything from nothing to grand heavens made of gold, and this is only my third week working. And really, none of those are false. Death is what you make of it, but first you have to go here. This void, with town in the middle, and a train track going east." As they talked, I stopped looking ahead to concentrate on them.
They looked around, a bit wistful. "You can stay in town as long as you'd like, hell, some people even stay forever, and some only stay for a cup of coffee and a ticket on the train. But after you leave is when all the heaven stuff happens. Really, after you get on the train, you become this sorta..uh...soul goop that gets added to the collective soul goop that is 'heaven'."
We walked in sync, and they explained more and more about the town. Then, at long last we came to the top of the cliff.
The town was beautiful. It was in stark contrast to the deep black void around it, glistening with color and texture and patterns on every wall. It seemed to be nighttime, as all the lights were on, dotting the town with flickering stars. On the left, a long line left it, cutting through the emptiness of the void toward some unknown destination. To call it a town was an insult, from where we stood it looked bigger than Los Angeles. It was a bit different than Los Angeles though, in that some of its occupants were floating like ghosts, a couple of them nearly above us.
I spent a minute in wonder, then turned to the person next to me. "Crowded huh?"
They laughed. It sounded nice. "People have been choosin' to stay as long as people have been dyin'!"
____
After I had gotten over my soreness (they called it dead-sickness. I didn't mention the irony.) we went to get me a house. It seemed very very simple to me to simply walk in and ask for one, but that was how they did it. It took us a bit to walk there, but we didn't speak as much. I got the impression we hadn't much to talk about.
The house was quaint. Lodged in between some other people's crazy contraptions and a lava lamp store, its calm pastels felt just a little bit out of place. It was soothing and I knew that I would love it.
They handed me the keys at the door. "Just call me if you need anything, alright?"
I nodded, deciding not to tell them I didn't have any way to do that.
As I turned away from them, it felt like they dissapeared entirely, but I had gotten semi-used to strange things.
After all, I was dead. Nothing could get weirder than that.
Taking a deep breath, I put the key into the lock and twisted it.
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Story courtesy of @a-local-pieceof-lettuce
There ya go!
