MicroHorror

Death has three passages.

One: death is the end. The body simply ceases to function and therefore ceases to exist as it was before one’s conception. The physical shell left behind is merely an object not unlike a stone sitting in a still pond.

Two: life after death. It’s little wonder that this is the most popular. After death the soul departs the body and either ascends toward heaven or descends to hell.

Three: sleep. Sleep knows no good or evil and cannot distinguish between the two. This third form of death is eternal like its brothers even though it seems unlikely that it can be. Eventually one would wake. But how would one wake if that person is dead? These questions I cannot answer nor can I explain how one is chosen for which passage. I myself was slated for the third passage.

When I was killed in action in those sweaty rat-infested forests of Vietnam I put my faith in God and Heaven. I’d led a good life; it was not my choice to kill strangers halfway across the globe. I was only following orders and trying to stay alive.

But now here I lay in my moldering casket unable to cry out or even to move. How long I have been here I do not know, although I feel it has been at least a couple of years, perhaps decades. The insomnia I’d suffered from when I was a child paled in comparison. All I can do is reflect back on a shattered and too short life.

My thoughts drift back to the day I died. My platoon had been ambushed and I was the only one who escaped; although it didn’t really matter, my legs had been blown off and the shock and loss of blood was going to do me in anyways.

I squirmed in agony in the medic’s bloody arms with mosquitoes the size of tennis balls buzzing around my head and wet leaves under what was left of my body. I looked into his eyes and saw compassion mixed with helplessness and fear. He obviously knew he would not be able to save me. The pain was excruciating but was tempered by one consolation… eternal peace.

Little did I know at the time, however, that it would be after death that I would really get insomnia!