Dead and Divine [Part 3]

Do I get any other options? You’ve only given me one and the implications with that one decision are huge.

“You have one other option”

Well?!?! Out with it!

“You can stay in the afterlife and live to see the end of forever.”

That sounds too good to be true.

“You were always pessimistic”

I like to call it being realistic.

“Well, in a way there is a catch; but it doesn’t affect you.”

What do you mean? Does it involve my friends? My family?

“It’s no one you know. As a matter of fact, they haven’t been born yet.”

I don’t understand. How will this impact someone that hasn’t been born yet? What are you going to do?

“We will go back in time to the moment of your death, and as you die; a new child will be born in your place and they will experience everything you have.”

What does that mean?

“They will live through your life, same destiny, with different names.”

What’s the point?

“I want you to see your life from another side. To show you that you’re death could have been avoided. You’ve always lived looking on the negative side of things. That needs to change.”

Okay… I’ll go with this ‘reenactment’ idea, but I highly doubt this will do anything seeing as I already know what will happen to him.

“Or maybe it’ll be the fact that you already know everything, that will make you want to change everything.”

I doubt it.

“Hear me out. I’ll give you one day out of their entire life to go down on earth to do anything you want.”

Why would I ever want to go back down if I chose to stay up here?

Memories or not, I would never want to go back down to Earth. I’d just experience the same hell with a different name. I mean, that is part of the reason I went with suicide in the first place. There was nothing for me, and the world didn’t need nor want me anymore. Staring at the deep cuts on my wrists, I had almost forgotten the slice against my throat; ironically the blood that seemingly poured out was the sign that my fate was sealed. I closed my eyes and for the first time in seemingly forever, I thought back to my own death.

June 16, 2010. The clock read 7:00PM. I wanted to make sure I was officially 18 when I left. I remembered that I entered the world around 6:30PM 18 years ago, but I wanted to be sure. My family had gone out for the night. They’ve always left me alone, and this time I would show them what I am capable of doing when left alone. They would come back with blood on their hands, and a blank white paper. I would show them the meaning of ‘no news is good news’. As I felt the life from my body drained, as the steel cleansed my veins of blood, I wondered if my brother wouldn’t have died if they had ignored him the way they ignore me. I guess he was the lucky one, and as the blades continued to slice through my seemingly butter- like veins I bite my lip to avoid alerting the neighbors and slowly lost all thought …

“… and so we will see what your life looks like from another point of view.”

I highly doubt anything will change.

“We’ll see”

Whatever …

I blinked twice before realizing I had been crying. I guess that’s what happens when the world desensitizes you. You don’t even realize your own tears. When I saw my “twin” on earth, I realized that this deal would be followed down to the letter. As he grew up, I could see every aspect of myself in his childhood. The sleepless nights my parents left me and every backstabbing rumor my so called friends told. I wasn’t convinced that I would ever intervene.