The only numbers there were the bank, the police, and the hospital. What was even worse is that there was a notification on it that read, “One year anniversary today. Visit Mom & Dad after school.” I felt sick, and my vision went blurry. I collapsed, and the world went black as my head hit the floor too hard. I could feel blood soaking the floor, and as a knock came to the door, I felt nothing. The light came for a third time, and I awoke in a new life. I was in a hospital bed. I was old and decrepit. I could see Maria lying in a hospital bed next to me. She was holding my hand, a ring on her finger. The tubes were too much, poking into our bodies and giving us life support. I looked at her, but when I saw she wasn’t breathing, I felt the cold grip of her hand all too soon. I started to cry. I was hurting in so many places, and the last time I saw Maria she was alive and was my sister. But before that, she had been my close friend and the girl I had secretly loved for years in my first life. And now I was in a timeline where we grew old together only to die in hospital beds, forgotten by the world. I looked over at the bedside table and saw a syringe laying upon it. I was about to reach for it when my heart gave out, the sudden pain in my chest seized me, and I howled with pain. Within a few long moments that felt like an eternity, I was dead. And this time, I didn’t wake up. There was nothing. I felt like I was in water. This is what the afterlife is like. I realized I was dead, but I couldn’t care. This was what it was, and I accepted the fact. There were no more timelines. There was only darkness. I drifted deeper in the waters, seeing familiar faces pass by in streaks of light. I slowly grew sleepy. I soon drifted into the darkness of eternal sleep. There was nothing. And if there was anything, I wouldn’t have seen it.
Cade Henke.10 Wasted Time
