Them

_{this is the final part in my love like skulls 'n bones series.
For the other parts look here: part 1 | part 2}

She woke up with the sun burning on her skin... that was a feeling she hadn't felt in a long time... Did it work? Was she alive again?
Looking around she noticed that the world had more color and was more vibrant than she was used to.... She was alive! The short moment of happiness was abruptly stopped when she remembered how she was to late to save him... Sadness struck. All she could do was just stare at the wall in front of her.

What would she do now? She wanted to go back to him. She knew where he was... She knew how to get to him...
To orientate herself she went outside. Struck by the fresh air she paused a moment... This air... this sun... she missed this so much! Had she really been dead so long that she had completely forgotten all about this? What bliss was this!

She walked around a bit just amazed... She recognized where she was... this was his neighborhood. She could see all the places he went to. This made her sad and happy at the same time. She visited a couple of his favorite spots, ate some of his favorite things. JOH! His taste was awful! She laughed. It was nice to be able to taste real food again... but he clearly had quite a different taste. Being able to laugh at things like this helped her cheer up a little. She strolled around the neighborhood some more and before she knew she stood in front of his apartment building. Just being here filled her with emotions. She saw his window... she saw the grumpy old lady Tamala, who she couldn't help but give a big hug and whisper

"Thank you for all you did for him! and I am so sorry"

"Young lady... let me go this instance... or my phalanx of ninjas will feed you to the fishes" old lady Tamala crammed out.

She just laughed. "Old lady Tamala you are so incorrigible "

Before Old lady Tamala could make anymore grumpy remarks she had already walked on.
She noticed it had gotten quite late already... Maybe it would be a better idea to sleep on it one night, maybe he would appear in her dream like she did in his. She went back to what apparently was her home and fell asleep after a lot of tossing and turning.
However she woke up without having dreamed anything at all... Where was he? Did he not pass yet? He must not have gotten the gift... This was quite the punch in the guts... she had so hoped to see him...

Ah well in the end... it didn't really matter she'd be joining him soon anyhow. She got up, took one last look at the apartment and headed out. She had decided to get a last cup of coffee, there is no decent coffee in the afterlife, drink it on the ledge and than follow him. She walked into his favorite coffee shop.

She ordered her coffee and told the barista she would go to the toilet, toilets... in the afterlife this was not an issue, and come back to pick it up when it's done. As she walked to the toilet she heard someone ordering chocolate pie, but getting told it was just sold out if maybe he wanted to order something else. As she entered the toilet she heard the first person reply in a familiar voice

“sigh… one last coffee then… Black, just like everything else”

Wait what!? She turned around and saw him... he was ordering his coffee... like he did on his last day... How!? The demon must have send her back a day before he jumped...
Just when she tried to call out to him someone exited the toilet hitting her with the door. She fell to the ground still in shock... When she got up he had already left. She ran outside to see if she could still catch him

"Hey lady! Your coffee!!?"

He was nowhere to be found. Luckily she knew where he was going. She just didn't know how to get there...

She ran around the area trying to find his office building. It took her a while but she found his building! There was no crowd outside so she was not to late! She ran to the door and in the reflection of the door she saw him!

As she crashed to her knees realizing she was to late.. Slowly she crawled towards him grabbed his hand and looked him in the eyes... WHY! She was so close! WHY!? WHY WHY WHY! She cried

He woke up in what looked like a waiting room, a very grim vague waiting room. Not vague in the sense of it not making sense, vague as in the sense of it being almost blurry.
Looking around he saw that what he had mistaken for other people were empty chairs and plants. In his hand he held a small piece of paper with a number on it. It looked blurry but he vaguely could make the number out to be 78.
He started to notice a buzzing sound and when looking up he saw a huge tv.
How did he miss that one before?... was it even there before? What was this place?

On the tv some movie? was playing and at the top right corner it said "Nr. 34 - Window 1"
Nr. 34? He looked around again.... there was no one else... He looked at his ticket again... it still said 78. He sat back down and waited a while. For some reason it was incredibly hard to tell time in this place, the movie? was still playing but he wasn't really paying attention to it, even though it looked familiar, as he was still trying to make sense of things.

After an uncertain long amount of time a beep sounded and the top right of the tv changed to "Nr. 35 - Window 1". Jeez.... al that time for just 1 number?... This was going to take a while. He patiently waited and frustratingly slowly he saw the numbers creep up. 36... 37... 38... 39.... When the number hit 53 after an eternity he had had it, he got up and started to search for Window 1 as after following the numbers window 1 was all the windows there were...

He wandered around a while until he noticed a sign pointing him in the right direction. He started to follow the signs and eventually ended up at what seemed to be the famous Window 1 it seemed vacant... He walked up to it, it really seemed vacant... Yet again he waited a while, no one showed up...
He called out

"HEY! Anyone out there? I have been out here for a while? I am not sure where I am. Could someone assist please?"

"Please step back sir"

WHAT THE!? out of nowhere a familiar demon appeared.

"Sir please step back and wait for your turn, we'll get to you in a bit"

The demon disappeared again just as quickly. What was that? he looked so confused, he called the demon back a couple of times but without an answer.... He decided to sit back down and have a nap until his number was up.

A decent amount of beeps later finally the 78 popped up. The movie was still on... Why was the movie so familiar?
He proceeded to window 1 where the familiar demon was waiting for him.

"Good day sir my name is Dreem and I'll be your transition professional, I can imagine you having a lot of questions. But before we start we've to verify your id. Could you please state your name?"

A bit bewildered he obliged.

"That checks out, thank you sir. Let me start by answering the most asked questions just to get them out of the way. Yes you are dead. You are in processing before entering the afterlife. The reason you had to wait so long before your turn is because even though it might have looked like you were alone in the waiting room, there actually were more people waiting to enter for privacy reasons they are just slightly out of sync making them invisible to others. As a side effect the whole room turns slightly vague."

He just stood there trying to take it all in.

"What we do here is evaluate a person's life to assess where best to place him/her. For this we use a movie about their life as you might have seen in the waiting area. The movies starts at birth and ends a while after death"

That's why the movie seemed so familiar! It was just too blurry to see.

"As for most the movie is to blurry to see, we'll go over it together again"

The movie showed his life in a view he never saw himself before.
It showed how he would go out of his way to help others, how he was the kind of guy that would stop his car to help the elderly cross the street. The one that supported every charity he could find. and would stop and take a detour in the blazing rain, just to help out a drifter stuck on the road.

Was this really a movie about him? He didn't recognize himself at all...

"That concludes the movie of your life. What follows are the moments after your dead, events that are currently happening. This usually helps people to process what happened and helps them to give it all a place."

The movie continued. Showing him lying on the floor. With a figure bend over him crying... A very familiar figure... He could see the pain in her eyes... HER eyes! IT WAS HER! How did she get there!? NO! She was supposed to be here waiting...
All of a sudden she looked up, she looked him in the eyes not his body him, but him him... No... not him... she looked past him. She was staring at the ledge he jumped off.
Her face changed... It became determined... It was not hard to see what she was thinking... She was going to jump...

Fuck! NO! NO ! NO!

"Please! I need to get back. I can't let her do this. Please!" he begged the demon.

"I'm sorry sir... You are dead..."

"I NEED TO GO BACK NOW!!!"

"sir...."

"please..." he pleaded while helplessly looking at her. She had made up her mind....

Filled with grief she looked up to the ledge where he was a minute ago. She was still in shock... If she only wouldn't have spend a day just wandering around... If she would just have knocked on his door... She felt so stupid.
She was broken... and more determined than ever to join him. She let go of his hand, look at his face on last time and then back at the ledge. She knew what she had to do.

When she tried to get up a hand grabbed her wrist... and a struggling voice whispered

"No"

She froze... that voice....

"No, I'm here now. Don't"

Her eyes filled with tears, she turned around... He was still here! She wasn't to late! His blue eyes stared at hers... in pain. But he was here!

"Finnaly!!! But how!?"

With a twinkle in his eye told her.

"A demon offered me the same deal that was offered to you"

Her eyes widened...

"You gave half your soul for me...! Why!?"

He just looked at her and smiled.

"I gave no more than you would give for me. Now we are no longer two separate souls, instead together we are one"

For progress pictures see here: part 1 | part 2

As always! Let me know what you think!

🐺 @wolv