Forget-Me-Not

I turned and ran, unable to comprehend the sight before my eyes.

I was dead?

I shook my head, desperate to escape the thoughts buzzing through it, as I tripped and stumbled over branches and leaves that littered the forests floor, I slowed down as I took in my surroundings.

I let out a nervous laugh as I whipped my head round and surveyed the area, nothing but dark sinister trees filled my path. I started to laugh even louder as a familiar feeling of fear crept into my stomach.

I was dead! I had nothing to fear, I was sure no one could see me or hear me. My laughter turned hysterical and transformed into sobs that racked my body and consumed my mind. I didn’t want to be dead, there was so much I hadn’t done, so many things I wanted to do and places I wanted to see.

I could hear sirens in the distance and decided to see the fate of my body. I chewed on my lip; it was no longer my body, just an empty shell that I used to call me. I walked briskly out of the forest, dodging low hanging branches and the fallen stumps of trees; I reached the road once again and lifted my hand to wipe the tears off with the sleeve of my cardigan.

I took two deep breaths and walked forward, where I was still lying.

*****
If you’ve ever ridden in an ambulance full of your own dead body, sleepy paramedics who have no sympathy for said dead body and a crappy driver then I have one thing to say to you...

Don’t, ever.

I rocked in my seat and didn’t bother wiping away the tears that dripped as the paramedic talked to the driver about this ‘awesome porn video he happened to find on the web’ as if riding with a dead body was something he did every day, wait? Whatever. I glared over at him from my seat in the corner and was pleased when he shivered, murmuring something about someone stepping on his grave. Yeah, more like him stepping on mine.

I grabbed onto the trolley and gripped hard to the cold metal bar, I wasn’t about to lose my own body in a hospital. I glanced up as we walked through the entrance area, the paramedic stopping to relive my last horrific moments to a nearby nurse whilst she nodded her head in sympathy and eyed the door, ready to make a dash when he stopped talking. I was shocked to see many people like myself, all sitting around and crying or staring into space or trying desperately to console the loved one’s who couldn’t see them.

I turned my attention back to the occupied trolley as the paramedic finished his conversation and started to wheel it towards one of the few double sided lifts that was empty. Once he manoeuvred us through the crowds and into the lift he reached out to press the worn button.

I decided, ‘what the hell’, and pressed the button instead, he frowned as it glowed to life centimetres below his finger. He shrugged and we stood in silence, not that I had much to say, as the lift slowly moved through the hospital. I stopped with a jolt and pinged open, I stood frozen as the nurse, paramedic, whatever, moved my body into the gloomy room.

I could smell the death clinging to the walls and see others, like me, who obviously had some sort of greater purpose in the afterlife.

I curled my hands by my sides and gulped.

“Well, here goes nothing” I murmured to myself as I stepped into the morgue.