It was time to visit his mother's grave again. In the weeks that had followed her death they had gone out to her grave every weekend, but practicality had made that impossible once the sharpest pangs of grief had dulled. Now visiting her grave was a ritual they completed once a month, though the weekend they did it varied based on whatever their schedules that month dictated.
In the past, Kuwabara had thought the graveyard was a peaceful place. It had seemed serene to him, almost comforting in its quiet. It didn't feel that way anymore.
The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he followed his father and Shizuru through the graveyard. He couldn't shake the feeling of eyes watching him, and he remembered the dream of the old woman after her death. Were there restless ghosts in this graveyard? Kuwabara didn't know, but he definitely felt like there was something.
They stopped in front of his mother's grave, and Kuwabara still thought about the old woman's ghost and how she had been so upset about dying. Suddenly he wondered what happened to people after they died. "Dad?" he asked.
"Yes?" Mr. Kuwabara responded.
"Is there really a heaven and a hell?" he asked.
"You really like to ask the hard questions don't you?" Mr. Kuwabara said. "I suppose we can't know for sure as long as we're alive, but yes, I believe there is."
"Who decides who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?" Kuwabara asked.
"God, I suppose, or something like him," Mr. Kuwabara said. "Why do you ask?"
Kuwabara noticed Shizuru staring at him. He hadn't told her about the old woman yet, but he supposed that after this he'd have to. "We're in a graveyard," he said. "It made me wonder."
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Okay, so the poll is officially tied right now. I'll leave it up for one more week; it will officially close Sunday, June 15. If you haven't voted on it yet, please do so. If you don't have an account, you can leave your vote in an anonymous review and I'll count it. As a reminder, the options are either I post chapters as a write them, or I write all the chapter and don't post until this story is complete.
Come Sunday, if votes are still tied, I will make a decision based on flipping a coin. If you don't want this left totally up to chance, then please, vote!