StillBirth

She was dead. She knew that she had died as a result of the betrayal from the organization and she realized how much regret she had in her life.

She never was able to achieve the only thing she wished she had in life, a family, and instead died alone. Maybe that was just the fate that she was given from the gods and she accepted it but at the same time she resented it.

She only prayed that in the next life she wouldn't be so miserable and be alone. She hoped that the regrets with which she lived her previous life would end there and that in the next life she could have a happy family without any of the darkness and memories of this life.

She was alway curious as to what being dead would be like. Don't misunderstand, she doesn't fear death, to her it was just a concept with which she is extremely familiar with as it had been an occupational hazard in her line of work.

But now that she is actually dead, Ahxue is surprised at how calm it is up here and yes, she does mean up here. Before she always thought that she'd become a ghost that roamed the earth or maybe be sent down to Hell to pay for her crime. Heaven would be impossible to her with all the blood on her hands but where she is now was neither.

It was similar to being in a state of Limbo except that it was extremely dark and the fact that she no longer had her body rather it was more like her current form was a ball of energy or a conscience.

This place didn't really have a sense of time and honestly she wasn't sure what was gonna happen from here. There were other forms like her here and we all just followed a path. It wasn't outlined clearly or anything nor were we told to do so but everyone went down it anyway. As Ahxue continued down the path she noticed that there was a small path coming out of the main road but none of the other souls paid attention to it and just continued down the one from before but every once in a while a soul would come out of the road and join the rest on the main road. Curious as to where these souls were coming from and if there was a way out from here she diverged from the path and went down the small pathway. Honestly, the saying curiosity killed the cat would be the perfect example of her current actions. Against any better judgement she went down and along the way she saw some sparsely separated souls returning back to the road.

Reaching further down the path she could see the outline of a very large tree and the origins of the spirits seemed to be coming from there. The tree was massive and as she looked closer she could see that the branches had these little balls of light that glowed at a steady rhythm.

Getting closer to these balls she could see one such ball on her left was starting to fade and lose its glow until it completely faded out.

When the previous bright ball went dark a wisp was released from inside and it was actually a soul that came out to her surprise!

Since the souls were coming out from this tree then maybe this tree was the gateway back to the land of the living.

But none of that concerned her as there was nothing left for her from where she came. She had just turned to leave when she heard sobbing sounds of a woman coming from inside the orb. Looking back, the darkness of the orb showed the sorrowful image of a crying woman laying weakly on an ancient looking bed with many other women surrounding her.

WHOOSH!!!

Suddenly, before Ahxue could realize what was happening her soul got pulled inside of the orb. The feeling was very strange and extremely painful not just physically but also mentally. It was almost like someone was taking apart her body and mind piece by piece. The pain seemed to last an eternity before disappearing just as quickly as it came.

Ahxue opened her eyes to darkness but this type of darkness was different from when she was in limbo after dying. This darkness was almost like she was sleeping, she could hear sounds and voices.

"Oh no, the baby is stillborn. What should we do?!!"

Clatter! The sound of rushed footsteps pacing around.

"Hurry, call the physician, Furen fainted from shock!!"

The distant yelling of a male voice and the banging of a door being opened was the last thing she heard before the sounds went away and in their place entered images in her head. It was like watching a movie from the outside perspective but she knew that this was real and related to the faded orb, the voices outside, and her current situation.

The scenes before her showed the images of a happy family. It was a normal yet large family, there was a father, mother, uncle, aunt, brothers and cousin's. The strange thing though was that everyone was wearing ancient looking garments rather than modern clothes that she had been used to. She could see the smiles and laughter in their faces as the adults chatted and the children played in a garden of flowers. The scene made her envy and wonder how wonderful it must be.

The scene changed and showed two of the adults from the previous scene and she could deduce that they were husband and wife and she could see a faintly visible baby bump on the kind and elegant looking woman. The husband and wife were speaking to each other with a look of love in their eyes, the woman slowly caressing her small baby bump, the man laying a hand over hers on the bump. Many more scenes passed by her eyes, time passed by the baby bump grew bigger, some scenes included little boys around the couple and other times the two other adults or subordinates of the man were included.

The scene changed again with the husband and many other people pacing outside the door while the woman lay weakly in bed and she could tell that the wife was in labor.