Hearts and The Heartless

She looked so peaceful in her sleep, I couldn’t just leave her like that. It’ll hurt her. I glanced at my wristwatch, the clockhands and numbers were different from any other regular watch. There were no numbers on it, just a plain black circle that fitted the whole screen and had a little white piece of pie-shaped on the end, which meant that I was running late. After spending for somewhat an hour with her, I couldn’t seem to get enough of her. Now I had only three chances to see her again. I must really pick the right moment some other time. Not some stupid morning breakfast or a stupid swing conversation. I heaved out a sigh as I saw the light in front of me. It might seem a little cliché, but white light tunnel was really the only bridge for dead people to come back to earth. I was walking through it that I saw Mitch, my only friend at The Tri-Atrium. He had been friends with me since I found out that I was dead three years ago.
“Hi Mitch, gone back to check up on your kids?”
He smiled when he saw me too.
“Yeah, they were all grown up. Little Susie couldn’t see me anymore.”
“Well, what do you expect? It’s been 15 years.”
He’s been dead for fifteen years, and since then he lives at The Tri-Atrium. Oh, I didn’t say what The Tri-Atrium is, did I? It’s a place where dead people who don’t want to cross over lives. It’s either they didn’t want to, or they have some unfinished business on earth. That’s where you get to meet The Judger, whom was the only person that can speak to The One. So, whoever (I mean dead ones) wants to settle their business on earth will have to confront The Judger first. If they want earthbound people to see them, they get to negotiate with Him. Just like me. And He was only giving me 7 chances, which you are already know, and I wasted three of them already, just like that. Today was not a waste though, I love being with her, I wish He would give me much longer time than just one hour.
“How was your wife, River?”
I glanced at him while we were still marching through the tunnel.
“She’s great.” I remembered her, “Amazing…” I mumbled to myself.
“Getting laid huh?”
I chuckled and nodded.
“You’re lucky you died young, still got the energy.”
This time I laughed harder.
“Tunnel seems quiet today, isn’t it?” he asked again.
I agreed; it was not as crowded as always, or as when the holiday season came.
“Wait till thanksgiving. There’ll be full of pale teenagers in here.”
He laughed hard, and then we realized that we’ve arrived at the end of the tunnel. At the end of it, there was an enormous door, with a huge doorknock on it. We had to knock three times and mentioned our names.
“Reille, River.” I said, and then Mitch followed.
“Gregory, Mitchell.”
Then, pursued by other dead ones who wanted to get in there too. The door opened, and the first thing I saw was the Fountain of Gem, which placed exactly right in the middle of the hall. The fountain was my favorite thing in here, it had a sculpture of a winged mermaid holding an urn, and jewels were coming out of it, uncontrollably.
Let me tell you something about The Tri-Atrium, the name speaks for itself. I didn’t really know whether the place was sky high, or down below. All I knew was the Light Tunnel was really the only way for us to come back down to earth. Some dead people might come back to complete their deeds, some are just missing their family, some are just been assigned by Him to come back. The Light Tunnel opened everytime, every second, but not every soul can get pass through it. There are three types of souls, first, the good souls; we call them the ‘Heaveners’. These souls will go straight to Heaven when they are crossing over unless they don’t want to cross over, then they’ll stay in The Tri-Atrium. Second, the bad souls or the ‘Sinners’. I wonder why they didn’t call them the ‘Hellers’ though. Anyway, you may already know that these souls will go straight to Hell when they are crossing over, yeah…blah…blah…. Third, the ‘Unsure’. This type of soul is a bit more complicated than the others. Their sins seemed to be balanced with their good deeds. The Unsure will definitely stays in The Tri-Atrium, because there are only Heaven and Hell. In The Tri-Atrium, they get to discuss again with The Judger about where they are going to be when they have crossed over. The Tri-Atrium had three kinds of different place to stay, which have been divided to three types of souls I mentioned. I don’t know much about it, because I’ve only been here for three freaking years. Mitch was the only source for me to know anything about this place. What I really knew was; I could not view a thing on earth from here.
“Hey, look, new souls.” Mitch nudged me in the elbow and pointed.
I studied his direction; there was a line of people, queuing in front of The Judger’s desk. By the way, his desk was made of pure gold, and you couldn’t really reach the top of it no matter how tall you are. The line completed with all kinds of human race from all over the world. Not one of them dressed in military suits, as I heard the war is raging right now.
“Mitch, how come there’s no dead soldier here?”
“Why, do you want to meet one? I’ll introduce you to Captain Dawson. He’s my neighbor.”
“No, I mean there’s a war going on right now, right?”
“Oh, the soldiers who died in wars crossed over immediately and go straight to Heaven.”
I nodded. We continued to walk until we arrived to our place of living. Actually, living without breathing.