I watched the freezing rain glimmer in the illumination of the street lights as it silently fell onto the damp street. The city was voiceless; there was no traffic, no people, not even the sound of the wind.
I died 2 years ago.
It was a car crash. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but nonetheless fatal. It doesn’t matter. I’m dead, but my life didn’t end that night; no, something worse. The once-vibrant world faded into a monochrome mess. There was nothing and no one; everything was hollow. Cold. Empty.
I won’t explain it; I don’t understand it myself. But there is something out there, something different. I think I may have found it, or rather, it has found me.
A darkness appeared in the distance; not the kind that is the absence of light, but the kind that is absence itself. As it approached, it began to take the fuzzy silhouette of a man. The figure stopped at about an arms-length from me.
“So, I guess we finally meet,” I said.
“I suppose so,” came the response. The voice was a lot more…normal than I expected, like it was just your regular old Steve from 7-11.
I leaned towards the figure. “What do you want from me?”
“I’ve come to offer you a choice.” It paused.
“I can give you another chance, another life.” A flash of hope crossed my face.
“Reincarnation?”
I felt a silent affirmation.
“It would not be free, however.”
I bit my fingernails. “What do you need?”
“Your memories, of course. What else would it be?”
“Well, that’s just stupid.”
“Is it?” The silhouette cocked its head. “Think about it. You’re dead. You’ve lost the only thing that matters. You have no purpose.”
I didn’t say anything, and it continued.
“I can give you a new beginning. I can take you away, let you live again. You will never be happy here, in the darkness. This world has nothing to offer you.”
“You’re not taking my soul,” I said, looking up.
“Taking your memories does not mean taking your soul.”
“These memories are the one thing that makes me….” I struggled for words as I thought of the family I left behind. “Myself. They’re all I have, and they’re not yours to take.”
Lightning silently crackled in the sky, drenching the rainy street in an eerie glow.
“Then you choose death over life.”
“If it comes to that, then I guess so.”
The silhouette laughed a little, a sound that seemed unnatural. “You’re a stubborn one, aren’t you?”
“That’s what they say.”
“That was a rhetorical question, but no matter. If you stay here, you will be gone. Permanently. And you don’t want another life. But there is the other option.”
“Enlighten me.”
“You return. To the world of the living. But you will never be one of them. You’ll watch as the world passes you by. You’ll have your memories, in exchange for having no physical form.”
I shifted my weight from on foot to another. “What do you mean, ‘watch’? I don’t understand.”
“Just because you’re back doesn’t mean they will see you. To them, you will be but a memory.”
Blood trickled down my lip as I bit it, hard. “So I’ll be a freaking ghost? You can’t be serious.”
“It is but a small price to pay for another life, no? You can watch your kids grow up, see the world change. Every first day of school, every graduation, every first job, it happens in an instant. And you’ll be there for them. Doesn’t that make it worth it?”
I thought for a moment before glancing up, my eyes growing moist.
“Will they forget me?”
“Never.”
The tears were hot on my face. “Do it.”
The silhouette looked at me with what appeared to be sorrow.
“Goodbye.”
The silhouette faded away, and the world was silent once more as everything faded to white.
