Welcome to the October Frights Blog Hop!
A little break from the
ghosts today, although we do stay with the recently dead. Today’s terrifying
treat is a two for one. A double tale take on the afterlife…
Waiting for You...
Darkness.
It breeds fear in the
mind. Most tuck it away or dismiss it as an overactive imagination. I know
better. I know what lurks in that darkness, the things that hunger.
I know because I’m one of
them.
One of the leftover dead.
One of the Forgotten.
That’s what we call
ourselves, we revenants of once living things. Most of us are simply echoes of
who we used to be. Mist and miasma held together by damaged emotions and need.
The reality of what the living refer to as ghosts.
There are others here as
well, in this afterlife netherworld, things a bit more tangible, a bit more
bloodthirsty. I don’t like to think of them. They are best avoided by the
living and the dead.
Yet, we all live in the
darkness.
That surreal place
in-between the shadows. We are the cold touch on your spine, the whispered
breath on the nape of your neck.
We are death.
We are waiting.
We are waiting to feed…
On
you
~*~
Welcome To Your Afterlife
“Welcome to the Afterlife
check-in. Name please.”
Dave stared at the tall,
blond… man, standing behind the
podium.
“You have wings.”
“Yes, yes I do. It is a
common feature among angels. Name please.”
“Why do you have wings,
and—wait did you say angel?” Dave gaped at his hushed, mist-covered
surroundings. “Where am I? The last thing I remember is a bright light…”
“That would have been the
headlights of the semi-truck that hit you. You died sir, and this is the
Afterlife check-in. Now, can I please have your name?” A hint of exasperation
crept into the angel’s voice.
“Um, it’s Dave Tillman.”
Dave watched the other man—no, angel—rifle through a very large book. “I’m
dead? For real? This isn’t just a wacky dream?”
“You are quite dead, sir. Here
you are.” The angel stopped flipping pages in his book. “Oh my. This is
unusual. A rarity indeed.” The angel closed his book with flourish. “It
appears, sir, you have been granted the singular privilege of choosing your
afterlife. Congratulations.”
The angel moved from
behind the podium and held out his hand.
“If you would come with me please.”
The angel led Dave to what
appeared to be a TV screen hanging in mid air. A remote materialized in the
angel’s hand.
“You’ve been given three
options to choose from. Please watch the screen as I run them.”
He clicked the remote and
Dave looked at the images on the screen. The first scene showed a sunny beach
resort.
“I’m not too crazy about sun
and sand. Next.”
A click of the remote and
Dave viewed a busy casino. “That looks okay. Maybe. What’s next.”
“This one is our Happy
Home Package, sir.”
An image of a luxury home
popped on screen, shifting to an interior shot of a living room boasting a big
screen TV and a plush recliner. Several beers were visible on a side table.
“Now that looks good. What
else comes with it?”
“The package come complete
with a red Ferrari, a blond, well-endowed homemaker wife, no tedious chores or
job, 1000 TV channels—500 of which are sports networks—and a billionaire’s bank
account.”
“Now that does sound good.
I’ll take that one.”
“As you wish.” The angel
snapped his fingers.
The world around Dave
vanished, and he found himself inside a opulent home, just like the one on
screen.
Dave grinned. “Now what?”
“Now you live out your
afterlife, sir. Right here. Forever.” The angel smiled.
For some reason Dave
shivered.
“Why don’t you look out
the window, sir, at your new neighbourhood.”
“Okay.” Dave moved and
peered out the picture window. “It’s kind of quiet. Nobody around. Is that part
of the package? No noisy neighbours? If so, I like that—wait, I think there is
someone. Hey! Someone is out there. Someone’s
running toward—”
Bang! The window thumped
and cracked as a body threw itself against the glass. Dave yelped and scrambled
backward. Rotting hands fumbled against the pane, trying to get inside.
Dave screeched. “That’s a
zombie! A zombie! What-what is this? What’s going on?”
“This is the deluxe Happy Home
package, sir. Here comes your lovely wife now, with a plate of cookies fresh from
the oven.”
A tall, blond, buxom
woman, with a rotting smile, and a pus infected face shuffled into the room.
She did indeed carry a plate of warm cookies, wonderfully decorated with
maggots.
Upon seeing her “husband”
she hissed, “Brainnnsss!” and dropped
the plate. She made a beeline toward Dave, who snatched up a nearby chair.
Fending off his “wife”
with the chair, Dave shrieked, “Help me! Get me out of here!”
“I can’t, sir. The rules
you know.”
“Rules? What rules?” He
ducked his head as his “wife” swiped at his ear trying to get around the chair.
More and more zombies were banging at windows and smashing at the front door.
Slowly the glass and wood were starting to give way. “You have to help! This
isn’t what I ordered!”
“Oh, but it is. Did I
forget to mention? I’m a fallen
angel, and this is Hell’s Afterlife
check-in. Happy eternity!”
The angel disappeared in a
haze of laughter, as the wood splintered on the front door and several windows
shattered. Zombies poured into the house.
Dave's shrieks were drowned in the ear-splitting, chanting chorus of "Brainnnsss!"
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