What Comes After

by Raijinshuu.jpg

Lucy wished for a better life, maybe she'd be a pirate? Free to do as she pleases on the open ocean, a place she loves more than land. That thought quickly changes as her life is ripped to pieces in mere minutes. All she can do now is use this given chance to take revenge on the pirates that ruined her life. That changes though, when she meets a unique crew of pirates.

1. Teaser

Death is always described as being soft, warm and welcoming; a comfort that eases away all the fears you have about leaving life behind. You hear stories of people dying, but then living and telling of their encounter with death. For some reason I'd never believed them, I never believed that death was something that could be comforting. No amount of science could convince me. My logic being: how could one let the feeling of life ebb away without feeling scared of what was to come, if there was anything after. Maybe people claimed it's calming because they believed they knew what was coming for them. To someone who doesn't believe, someone who can't find a grip in the mountain that is religion…death is terrifying.

All I could think of as I sunk further into the ocean that night was "What if there is something after death? What if religion is right, and there's a God in the cosmos waiting to judge my soul and grant me access to Heaven or send me into the fiery depths described as Hell?" Never mind the wonder of if there's nothing, I would have been fine if I just stopped existing but I was more scared of there being something. To have to face judgement, and then exist forever – even if it's just my conscience – is terrifying.

I don't remember when I stopped thinking; I don't remember when the fight to survive left me and my body went slack. I don't remember when the light of the fire glimmering off the surface of the ocean disappeared from my line of sight. I do remember though, the short moment of peace I felt before my vision started to blur and I breathed in the salty water; the way the ocean seemed so still around me, the darkness. It was the darkness that made me realize I was going to die, the panic set in and my first instinct was to inhale air but all I got was water. I will never forget the amount of fear I felt as I couldn't move my broken body to save myself, it was traumatizing. I dream about it nearly every night. They all say it will one day stop, and I'll be able to sleep normal again. They all say they went through it, they all experienced the same fear as I did but they are fine now. I won't believe them until I experience it for myself.