In an Instant

"So basically what you're saying is that, when we die based on our level of peace when we go we could either just leave where our soul is at peace, or be brought to a waiting room to sit and wait for our name to be called to be given a task in the underworld. That's what you're trying to tell me." I summarize what Travis had just explained to me the best I could, trying to piece together what the afterlife truly is.

"I suppose so, if you want to put it that way." He says as I found myself wandering back to my room to check on everything happening with my shell of a body.

"What about the bright lights, the purely gates of heaven, the screams of the lost souls in hell?" I ponder having so many unanswered questions that I just can't wait to have answered.

Travis chuckles at my obscene delusion at what I thought death truly is.

"Honestly, I admire your interpretation about it all but in reality it's truly nothing special." He tells me.

I gasp in amazement as I enter my small hospital room to find my mother sitting next to me stroking my hand softly and whispering to me that she wishes I would wake up.

"Your brother was here this morning, he didn't stay long he couldn't stand to see you in this condition." I hear her saying to me as I stand next to her watching the tubes that are attached to my chest doing the breathing for me as I am not strong enough to do it on my own yet.

My heart broke knowing that Riley couldn't bear the sight of seeing me this way. All I want to do is get better and go back to my body, and back to my normal life.

"I hope you can hear me, wherever you are...the doctors say that coma patients are able to hear when people are talking to them."

"I can hear you mom." I whisper into her ear, knowing that there was no chance she is able to hear me back.

Stephan enters the room just then, holding a cup of coffee for him and my mother, he sits down next to her; not saying anything and just watches me breathe steadily with the help of the machines.

Just then my body starts to seize up and shake and I begin going into convulsions on the bed.

"NURSE!" My mother shouts running to the door to flag someone down.

Three nurses fly into the room, and started attempting to stabilize me. Finally the seizures calm down after they sedate me, and I lay there nearly motionless and back in the deep sleep I am trapped in.

**FLASHBACK**

"When will this rain ever stop?" Stephan wondered out loud as we drove down the road, the rain flying down onto the car in buckets. Making it hard to see a single thing. It had been raining nonstop for the past week or so now, not showing any signs of stopping.

"I doubt it." I wondered to myself as he turned the car down another road. Just then I spotted something sitting in a small box sitting on the side of the road. It was drenched and falling apart from the rain. "What's that?"

"Free puppies." Stephan read on the side of the box as he got closer to it. He pulled up next to the box and we both threw up our hoods and jumped out of the car in a fit of curiosity.

I saw a small black nose poke its head out from the box, and heard movement and whining coming from it as we stepped closer. Stephan carefully opened the lid of the box and we peered inside to see 6 or 7 small little puppies huddled together for warmth inside.

"Who could do such a thing!" I said taking the box of puppies back to the vehicle and stepping inside. "Let's bring them to Sierra's she'll know what to do."

I opened the box again and stroked the puppies fur and put my sweater inside the box in hopes to warm them from the coldness they where feeling. Poor creatures. They where all whining and desperately trying to escape the box that they where trapped in. I noticed one puppy sitting in the corner of the box, all alone hunched down. She was smaller than the other puppies and seemed to be missing an eye. She was beautiful none the less.

***

"So they where just on the side of the road in the pouring rain?" we just got into Sierra's when I explained the entire situation to her, letting the puppies crawl around the living room. They where all happily bounding around and exploring, except for one of the puppies which was still sitting in a corner, clearly scared of her new surroundings.

"I want to keep that one." I said picking her up, she instantly snuggled up into my chest and fell asleep. She clearly felt safe and cared for.

"Well I'll keep the other ones for now and see if any other family members or friends want any puppies. They're so cute I'm sure they won't have any trouble finding homes. What are you going to name her?"

I thought about it for a moment, and reflected back on to when I had a dog growing up and finally knew the name that I was going to call my new forever friend.

"I think I'll call her Maisie!"

**PRESENT TIME**

Travis leaves the room to go off and do whatever it is that Travis does, and I sit out in the hallway alone. Still thinking about everything going on around me. Just wanting everything to return to normal. I start sobbing as I remember I promised Maisie I would come home, I feel worried about her hoping that she will be okay as I'm not there to care for her in this present moment.

Sierra appears from the elevator at that moment and I watch her walk into my room carrying an envelop in her hand. She sits right next to my mom and Stephen, I follow her back in and stand in the doorway as I listen intently to their conversation.

"What's that?" Stephan asks pointing to the envelop with curiosity.

"A letter from the admissions office from the Art University in California she applied to last month." She tells him debating on opening it right then and there but also wonders if she should wait for me to wake up.

"She never told me she applied to University..." My mother says almost disappointingly. I had planned on telling her if I got accepted, I didn't want her to find out this way.

"She wanted to keep it a secret in case she didn't get accepted."

"OPEN IT!" I shout, and with that my voice makes the vase on the bedside table fall over and crash hard to the floor. Spilling its contents everywhere.

Everyone in the room looks at each other in shock at the events that just occurred, I am amazed that the whole thing transpired and wonder what else I am able to do.

Just then, Travis comes back and stands at the door. He had seen the whole thing happen, he looks at me in almost fear but curiosity as well.

"How...you shouldn't be able to communicate with the other side."