Author: Victoria Botički, Centar Primary School, Rijeka
There is no white light at the end of the tunnel. There is no Angel waiting for you. There is no Great river to cross. And there is no new body to inhabit. At least not for me. You see, there are a lot of variations of what happens after death. None of those apply to me. I, for example, know for a fact that my eyes will open in exactly 3 seconds. Shall we count? One, two, three…
As soon as I finished saying that, my eyes flew open. Just as I thought. I found myself in a familiar white room with no furniture. “So, how was it,” a monotone voice asked. “Better. This time I lived for 58 years”, I grinned proudly. A tall young woman threw her head back, laughing. ”You sure did. Come on, God wants to see you”. I huffed out a displeased sigh and followed her. “How long have you been here exactly? And what is your name now?” ”I still haven’t left and my name is still Michel”. I am sure that this is all confusing to you and that you must have a lot of questions. How did I know that I was going to wake up if I was dead? Who is Michel? And, most importantly, why does God want to see me? Well, I’m going to answer them all. I knew that I was going to wake up because I always do after I die and when I do Michel is here. She is the one in charge of making sure that I don’t stay dead. I am going to pay God a visit because I do that every time that I wake up here. You see, every time I die, I come here to tell God what he could do to make life on Earth better. As we went round the corner I saw the door to God’s office. We reached it in only four long strides. Michel moved aside to let me pass and I pushed the door open. “Was it better,” his voice was as even and steady as ice itself, but I swear that I could hear a hint of hope in it. “It was,” I answered, “I lived for 58 years this time and that means that technology has improved”. God noddes, obviously pleased with himself. “I see, you broke your record, but I’m afraid that I will have to stop it all here”. I felt as if my jaw hit the floor upon hearing those words. “But, why?”, I almost screamed. ”You have improved humans so much that it would all go to waste if you stopped here”. He looked pale and disappointed, I hadn’t seen him like this in over a millennium. “I am most certainly aware, but humans know that they don’t cease to exist when Death comes for them and they have stopped caring”. I knew that humans believed in life after death, but not that they took it so lightly. “They have lost all fear and, unfortunately, that was the only thing that was pushing them forward”. We were both thinking hard for a solution. I had a few ideas, but they weren’t nearly scary enough to make people fear death once again. “I’ve got it”, God exclaimed happily. “You,” he pointed a finger at me, “will rule a new dimension that I will create and you will make all living creatures fear you”. “Me?”, I was utterly shocked. I never wanted to scare anyone, not on purpose, anyway. “Yes, you. Do you see anybody else here?”, he asked, gesturing with his hands. “You and I both know that you never liked or followed the rules. Accept this offer and never restrain yourself again”. I sighed, “Fine, I’ll do it”. As soon as I let the words roll off of my lips, God got to work. He was working restlessly and was never satisfied. He worked for seven days and seven nights and when he was finally done he showed it to me. I loved the new place, but for some reason, everybody else stayed away from it, even fearless Michel.
I started to rule over the newly made dimension as soon as I named it. I was proud, but while doing so, I was brutally cast out of Heaven. That dimension is well known in this time, but even more feared. Neither me nor God have ever imagined that people would get chills sent down there spines at a single mention of it or me. It all escalated quickly and God regrets his decision now, but it is too late. I ‘ve had many, as you call them, identities over my life time. Some were merely human names that I bore form my past lives. One was a proud name of an Angel. And now? Now I am Lucifer, although Satan is much more popular and I like the sound of it better.
Now, you can take this story in a few ways. One, as a great message of how your identity can change because of only one, seemingly unimportant decision that has been cast upon you and blah, blah, blah. Two, you can take that what was once the purest of good can rot to an unrecognizable corpse of its former self. That second one is true, but boring and not quite spot on. Three, there is no specific usage of this story other than me, Satan, wanting you to fear me and keep doing what you’re doing, knowing that I’m watching you.
