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Afterlife

BANG! The bullet drew straight through me. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe. All I could do was lay there and bleed. The room around me became digital and started to twitch like a hologram. No one else was in the room with me; then I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked up to see Jo and suddenly I had the strength to stand up and hug him.

“Welcome to the Afterlife.” he presented a new world to me. A new world that I wouldn’t be able to enjoy for very long.

EARLIER THAT DAY

“Your brother is dead.” Those were the exact words that I was dreading to hear. I hugged my mom and cried in her arms. Jo was my idol, my mentor, and my best friend. He was coming over the day he got into the accident and when I heard that crash outside my apartment, I prayed to God that it wasn’t him. I guess I didn’t pray hard enough. A head-on collision cost him his life. The doctors and investigators assumed it was a drunk driver, although they didn’t know for sure since it was a hit and run and no one saw the car again. I opened the door to my apartment, turned on the lights, tossed my keys on the table and walked to the kitchen. I rummaged through the liquor cabinet to find the whiskey. Once I did, I grabbed a glass and slumped on the couch.

How could this be? I thought and took a swing of the whiskey. I heard a light crash and peered to my left to see a frame face down on the ground. I put the bottle and glass on the coffee table and lifted my body to go clean up the mess. When I picked up the frame, I turned it over to see the picture of Jo and me at the beach a couple of years ago.

“Oh, Jo. I’m so sorry this happened to you.” Tears streamed down my face. I gently put the picture back on the shelf taking a good look at the beauty that was our friendship. I walked back over to the couch and took another shot of the whiskey. I laid down and slowly closed my eyes to hopefully dream of something better than this reality I was living in now.

“Come on, Jo!” My brunette pigtails sprung with joy as I signaled for Jo to follow me.

“Let’s go!” I climbed up the old rickety tree house like we did every day and once I stepped to the top, I pointed at Jo and started to laugh.

“Haha, I beat you!” Jo started to climb up.

“I’m going to get you, Claire Bear! Don’t you move!” Jo said playfully. I screamed and laughed while Jo threw his arms around me and tickled me, making me laugh even harder.

“Claire.” An older and quite familiar voice entered my head. I still saw the small scene play out as I heard this voice appear in my dreams.

“Claire!” It screamed and the dream of my childhood memory stopped. Everything around me turned black and I heard it again.

“Claire, you’re in danger. Please, listen to me. It’s Jo.” I sat up breathing heavily. My sweat poured down my face. My eyes quickly jumped around my living room analyzing everything they came across. Everything was normal.

It couldn’t have been Jo. I thought. I grabbed the phone to call my mom.

Surely if Jo was around he would come back to talk to mom too, right? The phone rang and rang.

“Hello?”

“Mom! Where are you?”

“At home. Why?” My mom sounded concerned.

“Did you have any dreams or nightmares last night?” I quickly asked.

“Well, no not particularly. How come?”

It took me a moment to ask. How was she going to respond? I didn’t know whether to tell her or to just say goodbye.

“It was Jo, Mom. He came to my dream last night.”

“Honey, were you drinking last night?”

“Yes, but that’s beside the point. He was here, and a picture fell last night. It was the one at the beach two years ago!” I leaped up and headed for the kitchen.

“Claire, it is too soon to be telling me these things I can’t -”

“No!” I snapped.

“I’m not kidding! He came to my dream. First, it was an old memory of him and me in the woods but then it got dark and he said something to me. Like I’m in danger or something. I think he’s here with me.”

“Claire! Whether we like it or not, Jo is gone.” She said sternly.

“You need to accept it as I have. Now go and get some rest. You have class tomorrow.” She hung up and I slammed my phone on my kitchen table. I needed a way to prove it all and convince my mom that this phenomenon actually happened. I figured he could come back to me in my sleep, so I laid back on the couch and closed my eyes in hopes I could sleep again. I started to drift off into a deep slumber. My breath slowed down and I saw nothing but darkness. Then I heard it again; Jo’s voice.

“Claire!” The same voice as before called out so I decided to call back to him.

“Jo! Where are you?” Suddenly he appeared in front of me, smiling. I held back tears and smiled back at him.

“You don’t know how glad I am to see you,” I said, choking down my tears.

“I’m glad you’re here. I’m not surprised you figured it out.”

“Figured what out?”

“Claire, this is real. This is not a dream. But deep down you knew that otherwise, you wouldn’t have called Mom. Claire,” he moved closer to me.

“I’m not dead,” he stated. I was shocked. Surely I was dreaming and he wasn’t really here. I saw his body and the doctor literally said the words, ‘your brother is dead’ to both me and my mom. This dream was messing with me and I had to wake up.

“Jo, I’ve gotta go this is really getting to my head and-”

“Claire, wait! I’m not kidding. The afterlife, when you ‘die,’ you don’t die. You travel to another dimension.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense. Dimensions aren’t real.”

“That’s what you think and what you’ve been told. You really don’t know what’s on the other side of the hill until you get there. Trust me, all of this is real. But I’m not here to tell you what’s completely on the other side, that’s for you to find out when you get here. I’m here to tell you that you’re in danger.” This was too much information. I am going to school to be a Private Investigator and nothing has ever stumped me like this, literally ever.

“What do you mean danger?”

“You’re smart, Claire. You can find who it is.”

“Jo, what do you mean? Why are you being so vague?”

“Just go and figure it out, but be cautious. The person who killed me in the accident wasn’t a drunk driver. It was a setup.”

“Seriously, Jo I don’t know-” I sat up, again sweat pouring and breathing heavier. I thought about what Jo said. I decided I needed to do some research. The only other person I thought of getting help from was my best friend, Kelly, who also was a PI. I traveled to her apartment and knocked on her door. When she opened it she smiled.

“Claire, I’m so glad you’re here. How are you?”

“I need your help.” I snapped. I walked past her into her apartment. She looked very confused.

“Is this about Jo and your dreams?”

“How did you know that?” I was stunned. Was she having them too?

“Your mom called. She’s worried about you. I am as well.”

“The dreams are real! Jo appeared to me! I can promise you, he told me that I am in danger and that his death was a setup!” I blew up in Kelly’s face.

“Please, you have to believe me. You’re the only other person I trust.” I pleaded. Kelly smiled.

“Claire, I do believe you. I’m sorry about everything that has happened to you. Jo must be back otherwise you wouldn’t know the truth.” She slowly walked to her desk.

“What are you talking about? The truth about what?” Kelly opened her drawer and pulled out a gun and aimed it on me.

“About me.”

“Welcome to the Afterlife.” The room disappeared and a whole new digital world drew before us. I stood in awe at the beauty around us. It was like one big video game but real. Flying cars sped past us, big cyber buildings grew with every step we took, and there were people everywhere. They were just like humans but moved even more swiftly.

“This is it? This is what happens when you die?” I held his hand tighter.

“Not death entirely, but a trip to another world.”

“Then how were you able to contact me in the human world?”

“Dreams are like phone calls. A day there is like a year here so I had a ton of time to look around and find you. I also knew this would happen before it did, which is why I had to tell you that you were in danger.” The cars around me looked like gold and silver eggs just flying past our heads. Jo looked at me in sorrow.

“Claire, I’m so sorry you had to move on from Earth. Mom must be frantic. Losing both her children within 36 hours I just-”

“Jo,” I stopped him. “We can visit her. Everything will be okay with mom. Leaving Earth wasn’t such a bad thing either. I mean look at this place. This is crazy. I honestly love it here.” As I said that, a bright light shone through a crack in Afterlife’s sky.

“What is that?” I pointed and we both stared at it.

“I think someone is trying to bring you back.”

“But Jo, I don’t want to leave you!” I sat up again breathing heavily. This time in a hospital bed with doctors all around me and wires suffocating me.

“She’s back!” a doctor holding a defibrillator yelled to the other doctors.

“Hey sweetie calm down. Everything is going to be okay.” another doctor tried to calm me down.

“I can’t stay here!” I said through my breathing tubes.

“Please. Jo can’t do this without me. I need to go back!” I pleaded.

“Back where honey?” the nurse asked.

“Afterlife.”