The Shock and the Happy Ending, or Was It? - My Afterlife Experience (Chapters 6&7)
When you think all your dreams have come true, everything is taken away from you! Final two episodes of this short fictional story are out!
Seeing the Souls Behind the Meat (Chapter 6)
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.
Flying was fun. Birds have a great view of life below. I started decelerating as I approached the market underneath. I didn’t know what to expect but figured I had nothing to lose anyway, especially if this was just a game, as everyone here tried to convince me.
I landed surprisingly softly, just outside the walls of the market. Walking toward the center, I was suddenly surrounded by dozens of these blue monsters. Only they weren’t monsters. At least they didn’t behave as such.
They were going about their days, dressed and civilized. Laughing and talking in a language I understood, but it wasn’t my Earth’s native language. I may have felt like an aberration, but I blended with the crowd. I moved across the square, passing these blue people undetected. People is a better term, even though they look like monsters.
Still, I instinctively kept my distance and made sure I didn’t bump into any of them on accident. Every look was suspicious. Every touch startled me. I felt like an alien in disguise that was about to be discovered any second now.
“Where is she? She just couldn’t wait for me,” I muted out loud when I saw someone waving near a stand with orange animal corpses dangling above. I guess blue does eat orange here. I don’t even want to know what those were.
At least she wasn’t lying about that. My foxy wife that looks like a furry blue monster but is actually a flying fucking fairy. It was all so tiring, yet strangely exciting.
In a way, and I’m ashamed to admit this, she looked kind of hot, shaking that hairy blue ass. Maybe it was my monster hormones speaking, but I felt a constant urge to rip her silly clothes off and make love to her right then and there. Monster style! Hm, how do monsters do the boggy, I wondered?
“I see you’ve made it,” she said. “You look good in blue.”
“So do you, darling, so do you.”
“Now, now. This is not the time. Trust me. I’ve been here and done this. You’re not ready. Not even close!”
“How hard can it be?” I said aloud. “Try me!”
“Calm down, big boy. I can smell you getting horny from here.”
“Good,” I replied. “So you know what comes next.” I swooped by and put my hands around her waist. Slightly stronger than I remember, but no mind. I can work with that. I was getting bold and strangely comfortable in this body. I could feel something animalistic, primal, waking up inside me. I enjoyed it. I craved to see it expressed.
“Not here!” she stopped me and whispered, “Unless you want all these blue creatures joining us.”
“What? Why? No!” That killed the mood.
“Then calm down because if I can smell you, they can smell you. And this island of yours is somewhat of an island of lust. The loving and the killing kind.”
Those words frightened me. Looking around, I suddenly felt like I had a hundred eyes on me - watching me, stalking me, wanting me. The walls started closing in. I was at the center of attention and didn’t like it!
“You need to calm down,” she said. “Lower your heartbeat and slow your breathing. This was not the surprise I had in mind for you. Maybe later, okay?” she said with her palm on my chest.
I took a few deep breaths, and it helped. “I’m okay. I think,” I lied.
“Look around. See anyone you recognize?” she asked.
“All I see is blue, and I don’t know any blue people except for you,” I replied.
“Look beyond the flesh. Look into their essence. See their soul.”
I was looking, but I saw only blue hair and white teeth. Scarry large white teeth. The kind that were made for tearing flesh from bones.
“Switch perspectives beyond this realm. Realize who you are and see beyond the illusion,” she instructed.
“I kind of like this illusion,” I replied. “I’m not done exploring it yet.” I held her against me and grabbed her behind ever so gently and then less so.
“Down, boy. Down!” she replied. “Concentrate. Look at this group over there and gaze past their flesh. Look a level higher. See these bodies as vehicles, and look for the drivers.”
I didn’t really want to, but I gave it a shot. I visualized seeing past their clothes, fur, and even skin. In my mind, I saw their essence. The ball of energy that was their soul. The process of a mind entering a body. I opened my eyes, and tears ran down my face.
My whole family was standing in front of me. My son and daughter, my brother, my parents, and even little grandkids I love so much. I fell to my knees as they came in and hugged me. I broke down from happiness. I no longer saw the furry blue creators. I saw my family! The ones I love so much and have missed beyond words in this so-called heaven. I could never be happy unless I knew they were okay.
I won’t bore you with the details of our family reunion. There were tears, laughter, and there was love. So much love. I knew I was talking with them, and at the same time, I knew that the beings in front of me were so much more. Listening to their stories, I was in paradise, besieged with joy.
Dressed in the meat suits of these blue horny devils, we talked about our time together in the Earth’s realm, and they told me how they mourned me. But they lived on, and most had lived good, fulfilling lives.
I still don’t understand how time works in this ultimate realm, but I stopped trying to understand and just enjoy our ability to be together one more time as a family. Apparently, time is also a mental construct, whatever that means. I couldn’t care less. I was complete. I was indeed in heaven.
The Shock and the Face of Benevolent Evil (Chapter 7)
All of a sudden, I felt an immense jolt shoot through me! It felt like I got struck by lightning.
I stepped away from my family. They noticed I was acting strange, and as they tried to come closer, I pushed them away. Something terrible was happening, and I didn’t want them to get hurt.
Then, another shock traveled through my body, and I felt like I was slipping away. Like someone was dragging me away from my family. I resisted, but it was like fighting the tide. I stepped forward, but the jolt of electricity slammed me back. Each impulse was stronger than the one before.
With each jolt, the lines of this orange planet were beginning to blur more and more. I could no longer see the souls behind the fur. They were slipping from my view. Something was determined to drag me away from all the people I loved. What the hell was happening?
Everything went dark for a few moments that seemed like an eternity, and then the last jolt of electricity felt like a shot through my heart. I cried in pain and opened my eyes.
I screamed, “Noo! No! No! No!” as the nurses held me down. “This can’t be happening! No!”
I was back in that hellish hospital, back on my deathbed! Back in my human body. The old one. I wanted to jump out of bed and run away but was quickly reminded of my frailty. I collapsed on the floor like a useless blob of a broken man.
“Aaa! This can’t be happening. I want to go back,” I would scream as the nurses and doctors placed me back on my bed and restrained me.
“It’s okay, Sir,” I heard one trying to comfort me.
“The fuck it is! I want to go back. Back to the real world. Back to my wife and my family. I want to go back to the orange fucking planet with the blue horny monsters. I can’t be here! I don’t want to be here.”
“Calm down. You’re going to be just fine. We thought we lost you. In truth, we did. But only for a few minutes,” they explained. “You’re okay now. Everything is going to be alright.”
Since I couldn’t move anymore, I had no choice but to settle down. Besides, the amount of painkillers and sedatives they injected into my drip would knock out a horse or a big blue monster. I fell asleep while still shouting profanities at them.
I didn’t wake up until the following day. The clock on the wall showed noon. I remembered this feeling of being useless and incapable of taking care of myself. God, I hated it! I was trapped in my own body, like a caged prisoner. And the smell. Oh, the awful smell of the hospital. The smell of disinfectant and decay!
I heard a nurse call out for the doctor, telling him I was awake. He came strolling in like he was on a bloody parade with his little stethoscope dangling around his neck, a white peacock, this one.
“Good morning, Sir! How are we feeling today?” he had the nerve to ask me.
“Like shit!” I was brief.
“It’s nice to see you back to your usual good-natured self.”
“Untie me. I can’t stay here,” I demanded.
“You have someplace to be?” he asked like I was a child.
“You’re goddam right, I do!”
“And how do you plan on getting there?” he said with a smirk on his face. I knew he was right. I haven’t been able to walk on my own for weeks. “You need rest. Almost meeting your maker can be stressful,” he added.
“You have no idea!” I muttered.
“Oh? Perhaps you’ll tell me the story when you feel less hostile.”
“Go fuck yourself, doctor.”
“Are we going to be civil, or do I have to sedate you again? I don’t mind. Really, I don’t.” I believed him. The fucker seemed to enjoy the whole thing.
“Why are you smiling?” I asked, insulted by the grin on his face.
“I performed a miracle yesterday. I saved your life. I kind of like saving lives.”
“That’s one way to look at it,” I replied through my teeth.
“Oh? Enlighten me. How would you call someone bringing a person practically from the afterlife back into this world? You were technically dead, and I saved your life with that last-minute operation. A bit of gratitude would seem appropriate. Don’t you think?”
“Gratitude? You have no idea what you’re talking about. I was happy. I was so happy. And young, and strong, and … they were all there. You wouldn’t understand!”
“Did you experience something while you were out?”
“I wasn’t out, doctor. I was dead! It’s not the same thing,” I corrected the man.
“Technically, yes, you were. For exactly two minutes and forty-seven seconds. It’s a miracle you’re still alive.”
“Fuck you!”
“Okay. Anyway, I think you’ll fully recover in a few weeks. The operation was a resounding success. Perhaps you’ll show a little more gratitude once this denial phase runs its course. Or not, I don’t care. I did my job.”
“Don’t count on it.”
“If I take the restraints off, are you going to hurt yourself?”
“You’re damn right I will! I want to go back, doctor. Send me back,” I pleaded with the man, whose life is about saving lives, not sending them to the afterlife.
“You know what? I will leave these on for now, and you’re going back to sleep. I’m sure you’ll feel better in a few days. We’ll talk then,” he said and intended to walk out of the room as I caught his arm.
“Please, doctor. I need to go back before something changes. I can’t stay here. You don’t understand what it was like.”
He held my hand with both arms and said, “I suppose I don’t. I would love to hear all about it, though, the next time we see each other. Okay?”
“Send me back! Undue what you did. Don’t leave me like this, to rott in this hellhole.”
“Okay, I see there’s no changing your mind. I was going to let your family see you, but I don’t think that’s a good idea at the moment.”
“You don’t understand. I was with my family. All of them! Before you dragged me back into this life. This reality.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow. Get some rest,” he said and left the room. Not long after, the nurse came back, and back to sleep, I went, dreaming of my beautiful young wife, the orange planet, and the blue horny beasts.
That was almost ten years ago. The good doctor did a bang-up job. I have to give him credit for that. I fully recovered but remained an old man, dreaming of the life I hoped awaited me after I departed this realm. The game, the simulation, the persistence illusion, whatever the hell it is.
I connected with other people with near-death experiences in the following years and compared notes. While none of them had the same experience as I did, they all seemed pleasant in their way.
While I might have craved to meet my friends on the other side, something good still came from all of this. I had completely lost the fear of death. In fact, I lived my life as if any day could be my last. Perhaps, somewhere deep, I even hoped it would be.
That enabled me to live a surprisingly good and fun life, even in my old age. I enjoyed every minute, free from worrying about the future. I was able to enjoy the present moment with the people I loved the most.
I may have lost the exhilarating experience of being an ethereal flying fairy, able to transform, be, and do whatever I want, but I created a life worth living while I was down here, in the Earth’s realm. If one is playing a game, one might go all out and explore it fully, every nook and cranny, without worrying about it ending too soon. For me, it can never be too soon.
I’m not trying to end my life or anything. I just don’t fear death, for I know it isn’t real. We don’t die. We never die. We just wake up in another place as someone else, but still ourselves. We keep the memories but not the problems.
I don’t expect you to believe me, but you can still take my advice and live your life like any day could be your last. Live it fully, free from the fear of death. It is said that the best way to live is to die before you die. Ain’t that the goddam truth!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have places to be, women to bed, and life to live. If it is all just a stupid game, I might as well enjoy it.
See you on the other side, suckers!
Let’s meet on that orange planet with blue furry monsters. You’ll find me at the highest tower, blissfully enjoying my coffee on the terrace. I’ll pour you a cup, and if you have problems acclimating to the new reality, I’ll even throw you down the cliff myself.
Congratulations, dear reader, you’ve made it to the end of this seven-part story. I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you for reading.
“So, that’s it? There’s no more?” you ask.
Not exactly.
I have a surprise for you!
You can expect a bonus chapter with an alternate ending in a couple of days. But be warned - this one is not for the faint-hearted!
The whole series thus far:
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)
I Made a Grave Mistake! - My Afterlife Experience (Bonus Chapter)
You don’t want to miss what comes next. I like you. Subscribe, and I’ll deliver all new stories right into your mailbox so you’ll be the first to read them. Free of charge.
Don’t forget to like, comment, and share if you had fun reading this post.