You Are Here (Part Two)

Large brown eyes stared deep into their counterpart. Ashley Davies had been so very busy with the waiting in line, the forms, and of course, the whole dying thing, that she had never thought to look at herself. But really, who goes to check daily if they are still the same age?

Like a small child, young Ashley reached out a hand to touch the mirror. It was cold. That was it. She was half expecting the mirror to shimmer, or maybe she would be able to walk through it. My expectations for this place are way too high, Ashley thought as she put her hand back in her pocket.

Her eyes were bright with caramel specks in them. Her face wrinkle free and looked as smooth as a baby's behind. Her figure was flawless; toned stomach and lovely curves. If Ashley had to pick an age, she thought she looked exactly how she appeared when she was twenty one years old. She felt that way as well. She might be able to go run a mile and possibly jump some rope.

Ashley continued to stare at herself in the mirror. She was not vain, no. But it was nice to look like this. She had absolutely no complaints. It had been quite a long time since she had looked like this, felt like this.

Fifty years, to be exact.

After a few long moments of gazing into the mirror at her young, twenty one year old self, Ashley Davies moved on.

She walked easy steps over to the elevator and when she stepped inside, Ashley looked around for buttons. Any normal buttons you would push to go to whatever floor you wanted. But there was nothing. The walls were bare, the wallpaper inside was crackling, if that is the correct word.

This place fucking sucks, Ashley thought to herself as the doors closed by themselves. The box she was standing in began to move by itself, and Ashley couldn't tell whether it was going up or down. She wondered whether it would be stopping on any floors. It didn't, it just kept going for three whole minutes. Three minutes exactly, and the young brunette knew this because she counted the seconds. Three whole minutes is a long time to count in seconds. Especially alone in a weird elevator.

Finally, the box came to an abrupt stop and the doors opened. Stepping out, Ashley looked around. It appeared that she was in an office building. Again, disappointment took over her body. I'm dead and now I'm bored.

The only sound that could be heard was light talking that seemed to be coming from a room down the hall. Ashley followed the voices and let herself inside a room, a room that ended up being a large conference room. There were people sitting around a long, round table, talking amongst themselves. Ashley's brown eyes met with the blue eyes of the woman standing in the front. The woman with the clipboard.

"Ashley. Good to see you made it. Take a seat." The woman gave young Ashley a soft smile while motioning for her to take a seat. Ashley sat in the most comfortable leather chair she had ever sat in.

"Is this some Powerpoint presentation or something?" Ashley asked quietly, and no one in particular.

A girl who seemed to be the same age as her, turned her head in Ashley's direction. She was a little scary looking, like she could snap at you any second. "It's the introduction. Didn't you read your packet?"

"Packet?" Ashley tilted her head to the side.

"Yeah, the one they give you in the very beginning."

Ashley just shook her head and the girl shrugged and turned around again.

Suddenly, the door to the conference room burst open and the same young blonde from earlier came bustling in.

"Spencer, nice for you to finally join us." The older woman said sarcastically and threw in an eye roll for good measure.

The girl, Spencer, plopped down into a chair at the front of the room. "Sorry mom."

The woman ignored her daughter's apology. She'd heard it a million and one times.

"Alright, let's get started then, shall we?" The older blonde said, getting everyone's attention. "My name is Paula, I'm just going to run off the list of names I have here." She waved her clear, plastic clipboard in front of her face. "Bryan Decker. Drowned." A guy with short black hair in probably his mid-thirties raised his hand and nodded. "Robin Redford. Brain tumor." A girl with red hair and freckles smiled at Paula. She looked about seventeen years old. "Madison Duarte. Drugs." The girl that had been talking to Ashley about the introduction packets shot her hand up into the air. "Aiden Dennison. Motorcycle incident." A tall young guy nodded his head towards Paula. "Ashley Davies. Sleep." Ashley frowned and slowly raised her hand half way up.

Ashley remembered coming home from dinner with her sister and being extremely tired. She remembered getting into her bed and feeling so much more relaxed after the long day she had. Then, she just never woke up. She didn't feel a thing. One moment she was having a dream about high school, and the next moment she was standing in that line in this place. Wherever this place was.

After Paula listed the rest of the names of the people around the table, she began to explain what was going on.

"Okay. Well, first of all welcome." She said cheerily. Ashley thought this was strange. "This is my daughter, Spencer."

The young blonde girl sitting down next to her mother waved with a cute little smile on her face. Then she began to hum quietly.

"Anyway." Paula continued. "You are all in the older age group. You might have noticed your appearance, which is noticeably younger then when you passed. You are now whatever age you feel you are. I hope it's satisfactory."

Ashley looked down at her flat stomach and felt her defined jaw line with her hand. She was satisfied.

"The older age group usually appears much younger, unless you were one hundred percent happy with yourself when you passed. The middle age group usually appears around the same age you are. And any younger children stay the same."

Ashley wondered if anyone else thought this was the weirdest thing they had ever encountered.

Paula kept talking, but mostly about the jobs that everyone was assigned. And if they had any comments, complaints, or suggestions, to fill out a small sheet and drop it in the box by the door on the way out.

"Ashley Davies." Ashley heard her name said from beside but didn't answer. She knew it was that Spencer girl and she wanted to see if she would say anything else besides her name. "You look kind of familiar."

Ashley shrugged. "Sorry." The brunette finally brought her eyes to the form of the girl. She was dressed in nicely pressed khakis and a dark blue collared shirt. She thought that the girl looked like she belonged in a Toys R Us. Although she did look very cute.

"I bet you're happy about your appearance." Spencer said adsentmindedly as she popped her gum.

"Why's that?"

Spencer looked at Ashley like it was obvious. "'Cause you're hot."

"Keep it in you pants, Spencer." Paula scolded as she walked by briefly with the clipboard in her hand. Paula gave Ashley an apology smile for her daughter.

Spencer ignored her mother and kept her eyes on Ashley. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Ashley responded as they walked out of the Cautionary Complex and onto the sidewalk.

"Well, some people need to talk about it, you know, after dying and everything."

Ashley shook her head. "Nope. I'm dead, right. So there's not much I can do about it. It's not like I'm in one of those movies where I have to figure out that I'm dead, right?"

Spencer giggled. "You're cute. And no."

"Good." Is all Ashley said. Although her brown eyes met Spencer's blue ones for a minute. They were very pretty. So pretty it was like she'd seen them one thousand times before. But Ashley knew that was impossible.

Right?

To Be Continued...