6

Somehow, it's easy to know when you're dead. You feel weightless, like you're everywhere all at once and at the same time— Nowhere, like you don't exist or matter. And that's exactly what I feel right now.

I'm floating, falling, and looking up, there's a tiny tunnel in front of me filled with light that grows smaller the longer I stay there. Soon enough, it's gone and everywhere around me is completely dark and I'm alone.

I can't talk, breathe or see anything. I'm scared— More scared than I've ever been in my life, but at the same time, I'm not. There's silence for the first time in my brain. I'm not worried about my parents, or Ethan. Not terrified that I'm wortheless—

"Would you believe it? Even in death, she still pities herself!"

"Mortals are entertaining, truthfully,"

I can instantly tell there's more than one voice surrounding me in the void I'm in, almost like they're leering at my face. I can hear them laughing and I want to speak, ask what they are but I can't.

Suddenly, I can feel something grab the back of my head, forcing me in a prone position as it hisses, "Watch,"

As soon as it says that, images flash through my head. Me staring at my parents from a corner as they took family portraits with Sophia, making sure I was never in any of them. Me trying to impress them with my grades but they still never cared so I stopped trying altogether. And Ethan—

I can see now that all the times Ethan came over, it was never for me but Sophia. It's so clear now. Everytime I tried to talk to him, he was never listening. He wasn't there because of me, not even once.

My emotions are pooling inside me as I realize everything that I forced myself not to notice. Ethan making small comments about everything I did. His repulsion towards my existence. Sophia's quiet stares at us no matter where we were. Me becoming smaller, more quiet. Losing myself little by little because everyone around me claimed I was too loud.

"See? Even in death, she weeps,"

I don't know that I'm crying till I hear the voices say that, my cheeks feeling wet now. I feel more present now, less an apparition than before as my lips move, my voice coming out soulless but there nonetheless, "Where am I?"

"Limbo," The voices are swirling around me now. Watching. Glaring. "You are dead, mortal. Do you remember this?"

I can now. The pain of the glasses stabbing every inch of my skin. It flashes through my head but it feels numbing now, like I am far too dead to feel anything. Still, I do not hate it. If anything, I welcome all of it.

I nod.

"You are to move to the afterlife, but we cannot seem to arrange that mode of transportation for you. Your soul… It is far too tethered to your world… And far too miserable to find peace anywhere else."

What?

They're moving faster now, hundreds of voices speaking. Hushed. It's like I'm in the middle of an extremely busy road, the cars rushing past me bustling so loudly that my head begins to spin and I can't make sense of anything else.

"Do you understand, mortal? We cannot let you pass."

The words sink into my skin and the slower they go under each layer, the more I realize what is going on. I can't move on? I can't rest? Panic is flowing through me now, my eyes darting around the void like I hope for something to grasp unto— To make sense of what is happening.

But there is nothing.

Just them.

"Why?"

My voice is small, lost in the cacophony surrounding me. I hear them laugh, completely amused by my question. One speaks, it's voice laced with pity, "Because even with your wretched existence, you still cling to life. Is that not why you bore the pointless life you've held? Many times, you tried believing there was more for you even when Fate said otherwise,"

An image of me trying to slit my wrists plays in my head. I had been too weak then. Too scared. I was always too scared. Yet… Yet, I was more terrified of never being happy, of never being loved. I knew there had to be more. I was born. I existed. Someone had to… Love me. Right. "Is there?"

They laugh again. "What do we know? We only watch you mortals for your entertainment," One of them appear behind me now, their voice as cold as ice as they whisper, "And you, are going to entertain us,"

Before I can ask what is happening, everything that has happened for the last three years of my marriage plays in my head. All of it from the moment of the accident moves backwards like a countdown, each one rewinding as all of it flashes through my thoughts like a kaleidoscope of lights.

"You must prove your life has not been a waste and go back to fix it. You must focus all of your despair, your anger and hate in taking your revenge from the people who have wronged you. Each and every one of them. In a year, if you fail to punish them and take out justice for what they have done to you, we will make sure you spend the rest of your eternal life in even worse misery than you have ever felt in your despicable life,"

Hate? Despair? I want to say I do not feel any of that but those words never leave my lips. I feel it burning at the tip of my fingers, spreading like wild fire through my body as I hear myself whisper, "And what if that's not what I want?"

The fire grows, the heat intense and all consuming. I can feel life rushing through my veins, my chest filling with all of it as I hear them laugh even louder, then collectively whisper harshly, "Oh, Liana Cox, you will."

White explodes now, violently, like hundreds of stars erupting as it sears through my vision, burning everything in my wake; The Void. The Voices. The Darkness.

And I gasp.