Widow's Woe

by agai.lazen

Her father was always the strange one. Constantly spouting out tales of a lost world at the center of the Earth, run by insects and spiders. She thought his stories would be harmless to her son, she thought they fed his imagination and helped his mind grow. That was, until her father came to pass. That was when her son became obsessed.

"Mom, what happened to gramps?" A 6-year-old boy asked his mother, holding her hand and innocently staring at her. She stared at the corpse of her father before the coffin was closed

"Your grandfather is going to a better place, he'll be much happier there than he is here." She said.

"You mean he's going to the Inner World?" The boy excitedly asked, "Can I come too?"

"No, Hunter," the boy's mother said, kneeling down to him. "Grandpa's passing on. It's when they get too old to live with the rest of us, so they pass on to a paradise."

"Am I old enough?" The woman couldn't help but smile at the boy's innocence.

"You're a century too young, Hunter."

"How long is a century?"

"One hundred years."

"That's really long..."

"Yes, and Grandpa's lived longer than that, so it's his turn to pass on."

"If he's going to a paradise, then why is everybody sad?" Hunter's mother put her hand on his head.

"Everyone's sad because they won't see him again until they pass on too, and that's a long time away."

"Are you sad, mom?"

"Yes, Hunter."