What the Hell?

This is a fantasy story that I'm trying my hand for the first time. It became a little lengthy than I expected, so it comes in 2 parts. This is the first part. Comments and Critics are welcome.

It all happened within a second. There was absolutely no time for him to take that turn – the idiot who drove behind him hit him so hard that his car’s glasses shattered and some of them even came flying and hit him on the back-head. Bewildered, he tried to take a left turn, but as I said before, it was too late. The car automatically gained speed despite his break attempts and started falling from one of the biggest bridge in the city. The recent drought added insult to the injury – the car, with its wheel still running, landed as shown in most of the ‘hero-entry-in-Tamil-cinema’ and immediately started dropping most of its parts. His head banged the steering hard and immediately, the happy blood rushed out having found the freedom from his body. The car ran a few more meters before the weird shaped wheel came to a halt. Smoke was coming out of almost all parts of the car and it looked like he was still alive. He thought about the good things happened in his life – his wife, his 8 year old son and 6 year old daughter. And then, everything was blacked out and he died. Or, atleast that’s what he thought.

With a sudden burst, he woke up as if he had a bad dream and saw his father in front of him. Well, his father died years before and he was absolutely shocked to see him. He now thought that he’s definitely dead and believed he was in heaven as he considered his father to be the good person and that he would’ve reached heaven for sure. When he started to talk, he couldn’t. He could clearly think, but could not speak. He saw his father and he seems to be observing him and not speaking as well. His father was surprisingly calm and showed no emotion on his face. It was then, he saw the surrounding and found that he’s still in Earth – lots of people crossing him with utter silence. The place looked to be the same – the water-less-river where he believe he was killed, but this time there were a lot of people who were walking around.

“Wow, you look much older than I thought you would be. By the way, you’re dead, son” – said the father his lips not moving.

“I am what? What did he just say?” he thought.

“I said you’re dead. You can’t talk – you can only think. I can read your thoughts, and so can you” he said, lips still not moving.

“What the… you can read my thoughts?”

“I can, and you are reading my thoughts now”.

“How is this possible?”

“In our world, it is the only way we communicate?”

“Our world?”

“Yes, the world you’re in now”

“But it looks like I’m on Earth. Where the hell am I?”

“You’re right, you’re in hell!”

That last word really hit him in the head. “I’m in hell? Why the hell am I in hell?”

“Well, to start off, you say hell-a-lot-of-hell!” his father smiled, pleased by the sentence he formed. He thought about the life he lived so far – the moments before his death – his wife and children – all the good deeds that he did – why am I still be placed in hell?

“To know the answer to that, you need to meet God” said his father.

“I can meet God?”

“Yes, every dead leaf meets the God”

“Leaf? But I’m a man – err… atleast I used to be a human”

“Let’s just say you’ll understand when you meet him”

“That’s weird! So, where is he? Is he here in hell?”

“Well, the answer is somewhat difficult – he lives in hell as well as in heaven”

“What? OK, he’s a God, so he’s everywhere eh?”

“Nah, he’s not everywhere. I think he used to be, not now!”

“Oh, that’s even maddeningly unhelpful!”

“Still quoting Jack Sparrow?”

“Whoa, how the hell did you know that?”

“I was dead before you, remember? Let’s go meet God, shall we?” said his father.

“Ok. Do we have a transport system in this world of yours or just God appears out of nowhere?”

His father smiled, amused by his rookie son’s question. “Remember, this is your world too, so you might wanna consider saying ‘ours’ instead of yours”

“Oh yes, I keep forgetting that I’m dead! So, how do we go?”

“Think ‘Fly’”

“Fly?”

And then it happened. As if he was in the outer space, he started floating. “Whoa, what the hell?” he said and started seeing his hands and legs – the usual response we do when something amazing has started happening. “We can fly?”

“Oh yes, how do you think we’re gonna reach over 3000 miles from here?”

“3000 miles? Is he in Africa or what?”

“Close, but now he’s in Argentina”

“Ok, do you know the route?”

“I do, follow me” he said and started flying. Knowing nothing to do, he just thought, ‘follow him’ and he automatically started following him – at his pace.

“This is cool – how come we fly?”

“Because, you don’t have a body now – all you have is soul. We have about an hour time before we reach Argentina – I know you’ll have a lot of questions – use this one precious hour.”

“How-”

“Don’t ask me how I know the duration – just ask some important questions. Questions that you want to know the answer for, desperately” said his father, cutting him off.

“Ok, what happens after I meet God? Will he decide if I am to be sent to heaven or hell?”

“Oh, you are in hell as I said before and you will be for the rest of your soul-time”

“Why is that and how long is that ‘soul-time’?”

“God will tell you why – I guess you’ll know why when you see him. To answer the other question, you spent about 40 years alive, is that correct?”

“Right”

“So, your soul-time is about 20 years”

“20 years? OMG! Why am I spending half of the lifetime in hell?”

“It’s for the sins you committed during your life time”

“What sin?”

“You’ll know when you meet God”

“Err… ok, why half of the life time?”

“Why do you think there’s day and night and why God lets us sleep? Just because we can relax? No. That’s the time you don’t commit sins.”

“What?”

“You lived about 40 years and slept about 20 years. It is during the other 20 years – all the other activities you did when you were not sleeping – those are the time for which you’ll be accounted for.”

“Wow, every dead people spend half of their lifetime here?”

“Not dead people, leafs. And no, not everyone spends half of their lifetime here. Some gets lesser.”

“Ok, you’ve been here for sometime now – do you think staying longer here helps or get out as quickly as you can help?”

“The latter part”

“Hmmm. I like flying, so I might consider staying longer! What happens after our lifetime here ends?”

“God will decide that after your soul-time here. He has two choices. He may let you born again with no memory of you being here or in your other life. The other choice is what everyone here wants – send you to heaven”

“Wow. Heaven sounds promising! What will I do during these 20 years?”

“You’ll spend your 20 years or so here by watching your beloved ones back in the earth”

“Cool. Would they feel my presence? Can I talk to them?”

“Have you ever felt my presence when you were alive?”

“I thought I was the one asking questions. Hmmm. No, I never felt your presence”

“They’ll not feel your presence or hear your thoughts. It’ll just be like watching a movie – except that you can hear them thinking as well”

“Well, that sounds like a boon!”

“Believe me, that’s curse. Watching them do sins and hearing them thinking dirty is one of the worst time that you’ll spend here. Worst of all is the moment you see when they die. Like the way I watched you. Painful.”

---To Be Continued.

2nd & Final part is here.