I Made a Grave Mistake! - My Afterlife Experience (Bonus Chapter)
Heaven and hell are said to be close, yet light years apart. Are you sure you’ll end up in the good place? Did you read the fine print?
The deception
If you missed the previous “Afterlife” episode, please read that first. If you’re new, start at the beginning of the story in chapter one.
This chapter is an alternative ending to “My Afterlife,” a short fictional story with a dark twist.
Things are rarely what they seem. Why, oh why, did I expect it to be any different in the afterlife? Following our happy little family reunion, things take a dark turn.
The chapter follows Chapter 6 and replaces Chapter 7. Please read the previous chapters of the story for context.
This is not a chapter for the squeamish among you. You’ve been warned.
The orange planet had a similar cycle to Earth’s—a time of day and a time of night. A couple of hours into our family reunion, this planet’s sun was beginning to set in a mesmerizing sunset. It portrayed fewer colors, but they were all the more intense.
I felt something powerful happening as the sun set in the distance. It was as if the coming darkness was awakening something deep within me. We have a saying in the Earth realm that night has a mysterious hold over us. Still, nothing could have prepared me for what was coming next.
I’ve gotten used to seeing my loved ones past their meat suites, recognizing their true identities on this magical floating island. I couldn’t even see the blue fur covering their bodies anymore. All I saw were the faces of my wife, son, daughter, brother, parents, and grandkids. Their eyes. Their smiles. Their warmth. I was in heaven, emotionally, and I thought literally.
Little did I know that as the sun went down, the native inhabitants of this planet could see them, too.
Most of the day, these blue furry people, I couldn’t even call them monsters anymore, were simply minding their own business. I felt like I was visiting an exotic country whose local population just happens to be blue and have sharp, overgrown teeth hanging out of their mouths. You’d be surprised how quickly you can adapt to a new situation, even as bizarre as this one.
I was beginning to accept the new reality of my life. The flying fairies. Creating my own realities, even planets. Experiencing being a player in games spanning different realms. Games so convincing, so tangible, we mistake them for reality. I was even starting to accept time as nothing more than a mental construct, limited to simulations of the smaller realms.
I ordered another round of drinks at the bar, just steps away from where we were all sitting. We were having a good time reminiscing about our past lives. Hearing about my family’s adventures after I departed their lives was weird but also fun. I loved discovering that my grandkids had their own families as they grew up. They updated me on their history - my future. I know it was their memories, but they sounded like made-up tales from some alternate universe.
I ordered the orange juice, which was orange only in color, not made of oranges. I have no idea what was in it, but it was warm and tasted pleasant. I don’t think I want to know.
I had completely forgotten that I, too, had taken the form of the blue people. I felt perfectly natural in my new body. The artificial illumination started kicking in as the sun fell behind the horizon. The market was artificially illuminated, though it was still pretty dark. The blue people’s eyes glowed in the dark. Predator’s eyes, made for hunting.
I turned around, drinks in hand, and felt a sense of unease rush over me. Something was wrong. I couldn’t see more than a few feet ahead, and all I saw were dozens of red eyes staring back at me. I got worried, so I hurried my step. As I cleared the crowd, I was relieved to find my family still there. Only they weren’t in blue furs anymore. They had lost their disguise and were now in their human form.
Worse yet, they glowed orange under the dimmed lights. I wasn’t the only one noticing it, either. The blue monsters were forming a circle around our little group. Ever so slightly and quietly. A ring that was getting tighter and tighter.
I don’t know how, but I could feel an irresistible urge forming, gaining strength within—a form of collective hunger. I felt like I hadn’t eaten for days. Not days, weeks! I was starved. It felt like I would die unless I consumed some food and quickly. The hollow in my stomach was a black hole, dragging everything toward itself with irresistible force.
A loud growl spread across the market. A low bass that harmonized the monsters. The growl got louder and louder. Soon, it was all I could hear. All I could feel. Without realizing it, I was participating in this collective synchronization of empty stomachs. Blue monsters no longer resembled people. They were like a pack of starving wolves growling in concert, and I was part of the pack.
I stepped toward my family and recognized the panic in their eyes. Their pupils dilated as if they’d seen a ghost. Or a blue men-eating monster. They were afraid, terrified - of me.
“Dad, are you okay?” my daughter asked. “What’s wrong?”
I wanted to comfort her, tell her I’d protect her and that she had nothing to worry about, but I couldn’t utter a word. The urge was too strong. The urge to feed. The urge to kill. Mame. Mutilate. Rip apart. Consume! It felt like I wasn’t in control of my body anymore. The blue monster took over! I started drooling when I looked at my orange-glowing family. The pain in my abdomen intensified.
“Darling? What is happening?” my wife asked. “Why are you looking at us this way?”
Her flesh was irresistible. The perfect curves, the smell of her skin, the blood flowing underneath. I could almost taste it. I wanted her. I needed her. Not to make love but to consume piece by piece. She smelled like prey. I felt her fear. It called to me.
I wanted so badly to speak, warn my family, and tell them to run, but I could not utter a word. I was no longer in control. The beast was in the driver’s seat and had no intention of letting any of them go. It was hungry. Starving. Mad! It only saw orange, and orange was food.
My son tried to create an opening for the family to escape. He pushed against the two blue monsters nearest to him when one of them caught his arm with its teeth and ripped it off in its entirety! It tore it off like a raging Pitbull ripping apart a fluffy toy. Blood was gushing everywhere. My son wailed in pain! At that moment, the others joined in, and I saw my son get torn apart, alive, by these vile monsters. There was nothing I could do but watch. Shocked. Frozen. Desperate.
My father jumped in to help him, and so did my brother, but the blue monsters overpowered them. They didn’t stand a chance. A moment later, my father looked at me with guts in his arms as if asking why am I doing this to them. His abdomen was torn apart, and the blue monsters were feeding on him as he still lived, still breathed, still watched me silently.
My brother tried putting up a fight. He jumped on one of the beasts that had attacked our father and sank his nails into the monster’s eyes. The beast howled in pain! My brother fell to the ground as the beast collapsed. In mere moments, the other monsters overpowered him. He disappeared in a flood of blue fur, with the sounds of screams echoing from the walls.
There was no trace of civility about these monsters anymore. The beasts took over as the night came out. A group of monsters dragged them away, and all I could hear were desperate screams and then silence. Deafening silence. They were no more.
My girls were crying, begging me to help them, but I couldn’t move a muscle. I was paralyzed in place. I fought with everything I had! To no avail. The group slowly approached them, and I joined in. Step by step, my body was inching closer and closer. I tried to fight it, but the urge was too strong. Trapped as if watching helplessly through a window, I was silenced by a more powerful mind. I managed to hold back a step or two, but the beast I possessed had a mind of its own. It wanted to feed. It wanted to kill. It wanted to taste their blood. I felt that urge. I knew the power it had over the beast. Over me. All it saw was orange, and orange was food.
I will never forget the scene that followed. The blue monster pack ate my whole family alive in one violent attack. They hunted like wolves, cutting off any escape paths. They were working together as if connected on some deeper level. As if they were reading each other’s minds. Puddles of blood tainted the floor. Orange blood, but blood nonetheless. Body parts were spread around and picked to the bone. Some even swallowed the bones. Screams of pure terror tore into my soul!
I tried stopping myself from participating in the hunt. The more I resisted, the more the best pushed. I growled and squealed, crying on the inside and gasping outwardly. I was merely a passenger now. Trapped behind the eyes of a murderer! The beast crept closer to my wife, lying on the ground, torn apart but still alive.
Our eyes met. She called my name. She begged for help, but there was nothing I could do. I, the monster, reached closer and bit off a chunk of her face! Our eyes never broke contact. The beast worked slowly as if intentionally torturing me inside. I felt a mix of pure terror and satiation at the same time. Pain and pleasure composing an irresistible high. I wanted to haul in ecstasy and cover in shame.
The monster was feeding. The beast was doing what starving monsters do in the night. They hunt. They stalk. They feed. They tear the flesh from bones. I was a helpless observer. Forced to watch. Compelled to participate in the most heinous acts of violence and evil imaginable. My heart was broken. Any semblance of soul burned to ash.
I wish I could say it was over quickly, but it wasn’t. It felt like an eternity. I felt a high overcome my body as the monster acted out on its instincts and consumed the flesh of its kills. The pain I felt was indescribable. My family was here because of me. I did this to them. It wasn’t the monsters. They died the most gruesome death possible because they loved me. Because they tried to help me. I never meant for any of this!
I had no more strength to fight the monster. It had won. The night had its way. I tried closing my eyes, averting them to no avail. I couldn’t even do that. Their bloodied faces with blank stares will forever be entranced in my memories. At some point, after seeing my family slaughtered before my eyes, I lost consciousness.
I could take no more. The pain and sorrow were too much. I had extinguished into nothingness. Death, annihilation of all that I was, is the only thing that could ever set me free. The only thing to make me forget the horrors of this wretched night! Or so I thought.
The following morning, I woke up in the same empty bed in the palace above the clouds. I followed the alluring smell of the coffee to the terrace with the most amazing view possible, where my luscious wife was waiting for me.
She greeted me with, “Now that’s the husband I married all those years ago. How did you sleep, darling?”
“Like a baby,” I replied and kissed her. “Hm, no morning breath?”
“None of those here, no. That an Earth thing.”
“Ah, Earth thing. Still can’t get used to that.”
“You will. Now finish your coffee, and let’s go down to meet the locals. Maybe that will jog your memory.”
“Or, we could just go back into the bedroom, and you can try to fuck me out of my delusions!” I suggested.
She bursted out laughing and spilled coffee all over me. “I’m sorry, let me get that,” she replied and wiped the warm, but not hot, coffee from my lap. “As fun, as that sounds, my love, I’m afraid that if we keep playing husband and wife, you’re never waking up.”
I had remembered nothing of the previous night, and this would be my experience for all of eternity. The same day replayed over and over again. Every day. Forever. Until the end of time. Time that was just a mental construct, on an orange world that was an illusion, with blue fuffy monsters murdering and devouring my family in front of my eyes. Eyes I couldn’t close while possessing a monster’s body. A beast I could not control, feeling its hunger until I had devoured them all. Until the beast had its fill. Until we both felt satiated on the flesh of my loved ones. Until I could take no more. Until I was no more.
Then, the day would repeat itself again and again and again. The smell of hot coffee. The sight of a beautiful woman. The happiness of naive beliefs that will get utterly destroyed by the time this day is over.
I was wrong. I made a mistake. A terrible mistake. This wasn’t heaven. I was, in fact, in hell!
THE END
Thank you so much for reading!
I hope you had fun with this serialized short story. I know I did. With my creative writing process wholly unhinged, I was probably more surprised by both endings than you, dear reader. Did you see this coming? Let me know in the comments below.
If you’ve just come across this story at the end, don’t worry, but start at the beginning:
Flying on the Orange Planet - My Afterlife Experience (Chapter 3)
Reunion in the Sky City - My Afterlife Experience (Chapter 4)
I Can Be Whoever I Want? - My Afterlife Experience (Chapter 5)
The Shock and the Happy Ending, or Was It? - My Afterlife Experience (Chapters 6&7)
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