Afterlife

The Prompt;

Alright, let's do this:

Life was a fickle, transient experience, or state of being with no basis.

For 60% of people, it was about being born, finding a way to make a living, taking care of your children, and dying, leaving your kids to continue the pointless cycle.

For 30% it was just about doing whatever else - not having kids, being nuisances to the society, and all that.

For the last 10%, of which I am painfully among, it is dying young, having never accomplished anything in life.

It was my 19th Birthday, and I had just five minutes to live.

I was in my room, alone, with bottles of alcohol all over the ground. A cigar dangled from my loose lips,. and although it choked me to even smoke it, I still did anyway. What did I have to fear? Lung cancer|/ I wouldn't even be alive that long.

It was a cruel world order, the one which I lived in. Newborn kids are born with a random date and time tattooed on their right palm. This was going to be their date and time of death.

For me, it was 19 years, 12 hours, and 6 minutes.

Even though I'd known this time was coming since I was eight, I was not prepared. Well, I couldn't say selfish things like that. Who is ever prepared for death?

I was unlucky - I didn't have a girlfriend, I had just two friends at school, and I was a virgin. I was basically going to die here, alone as usual. My Parents and Friends waited outside because I told them I didn't want them to be in here, crying over me.

That wasn't true.

I just didn't have the heart to see them alive while died. I cursed the world and dragged on my cigarette harder, inhaling some ash and coughing wildly. To hell with this body, anyway.

Why did life have to be so unfair?

As I looked back at my watch, it was 3 minutes left. I went to delete my Facebook account, and then I took out my SIM card and threw it out the window. I told my parents that I wanted to be cremated when I died.

When I died.

Death.

I wondered what it was like. Was it unbearable pain, a gut-wrenching feeling o despair as my heart stopped beating? Would I see the Drim Ripper come, impale me with his scythe and 'reap' my soul out of my flesh? Or was it just, transient and calm? A dizzy feeling? A serene peace as my heart stopped beating?

In 30 seconds, I would know.

I tried to act like I was cool, calm, and nonchalant. Who was I putting up the front for? I didn't know. Maybe it was self-denial. Maybe I didn't want to admit I was afraid of dying so early, despite knowing that it would happen.

I looked at my watch. Six seconds. Time sure flies when you're about to die.

Five.

Four.

Three.

Two.

I shut my eyes.

One.

.....

Nothing.

Nothing?

Then it was the peaceful, serene transition I imagined it to be?

A noise made me open my eyes. It was my room door opening, and everyone bursting in.

Wait, everyone?

Hold up, my room?

I sat up frantically and looked at them while they all looked back in shock. Everyone was quiet for a while before my friend Leon spoke up.

"Are you a ghost?"

For some reason, everyone nodded as if that question was the same thing they had all wanted to ask. I was already confused, I didn't want to have to deal with this foolishness. Suddenly my phone buzzed, and I picked it up from the bedstand immediately. Anything that could distract me from the current puzzling situation was most welcome.

It was a text.

'Congratulations! You have successfully defeated Death, and you are to report at the Hall of Ascension for the induction ceremony immediately'.

Defeated? Was there ever a battle? I was just here, waiting for it to come for Christ's sake. And this whole ceremony business? I'm pretty sure there was no Hall of Ascension in Brooklyn, and how was I supposed to report there immediately when the Uber takes at least five minutes to...

My phone buzzed again and I looked. "Standby as you are being teleported to..."

"Dan?! Dan, what is happening to you?" My mom screamed.

I looked at my hand and saw I was fading slowly.

As my phone dropped on the bed, I suddenly wished I had actually died.

******

@Hanzell @Leo_kitti would you like to give it a shot?