17 Prostitute and Afterlife: Act II

(The Narrative of Rö)

A whole week offered cries from the above.

At the time, I believed in God. Well, not in God necessarily, but in the sky and its might. I often used to wonder why it would yearn and spill its tears all over us. It was too vague for me back then.

There was a possibility that the skies would cry because I was left to die, but how would I have known that? Maybe they continued on crying for the sake of my mother who had abandoned me for good.

Who knows. If that was true and they cried because of the tragedies that had found me, I thought that they would cry on forever then. Even after my invisible death.

But they didn't.

It happened on the last day of rain.

I had managed to gather enough coins for a piece of bread. In fact, I needed only a couple of more to add some milk along to that piece of bread. Dipping the crumbs into the whiteness of the milk was a big privilege to me back then. I recall it being my favorite meal since I wasn't able to taste anything else besides it.

I was covered over with a blanket that had seven holes in it. One of them was bigger than the other. The blanket didn't help much at all, not just because of the holes in it.

I was thinking about milk and bread, until a high-pitched noise disturbed my thoughts. I raised the blanket just a little bit over my burning eyes right up to my forehead that lived in a fever and saw a coin fall into my glass bottle.

Then another one followed.

Then three more filled the glass bottle.

By now, I had enough coins for bread, milk and even some sugar. I was left astonished, to say the very least.

I looked up to see who this savior was. I immediately noticed his uniform and the sign of the Lord engraved on his jacket. I looked him dead in the eye and he did the same. Then he let out his deep voice and actually started talking to me.

"Don't worry, you won't live long."

I didn't quite catch what he had said neither did I pay attention. I was simply amazed that someone would talk to me. Not even my own mother wanted to do that.

To my surprise, he wouldn't stop. I remember being very happy.

"Soon, your suffering will end."

"T-Thank you for the coins, mister."

"Live your last moments joyfully, the military will soon exterminate all people like you. From there it will become much easier, for both someone like me and someone like you.

But tell me, how does it feel? You must be a ghost to everyone, am I not right?"

"A… Ghost? W-What's that?"

"Oh, well you see… They are people that live in the afterlife. They are very happy people. Do you know why?"

I nodded my head in denial. He kept on explaining.

"The afterlife is much better than this life. Okay, imagine this.

There are children there too, but every one of them live in a big house with their parents. They can eat as much sweets as they want and do whatever they want to do. They can observe us in this life or they can play outside in theirs. There is no war there, no hate, no anger and no abandonment. In fact, in the afterlife, things like that don't exist."

"R-Really?!"

"Yes, it is true. I will take you there very soon."

There we were in the pouring rain, with him promising me a free ticket to the afterlife. I remember being so excited about it.

What absurdity.

He defined the afterlife as this promised paradise. In the end, it might be that way. I'm nowhere bloody near to tell what it exactly is and if it actually exists.

But back then, I had a polished vision of what it actually was and I truly imagined it as a better tomorrow. But then I started thinking about it since it was all that I could do.

If something like that truly existed, then what was the price for it?

If bad things didn't exist in the afterlife, it would only mean that bad people aren't welcome there. It was logic that even a child could convey.

I knew that I was a bad person. I stole from people and I made a mess everywhere I went. Sometimes I would even find myself in a fight and end up hurting someone.

What I was told, war wasn't allowed to step in the afterlife.

The next day was bright. God, was it bright.

The rain had finally stopped. I went to buy bread, milk and sugar that morning. I remember dipping the bread in the milk – it was like a grand voyage of splendid flavors. To top it all off, I ended the meal with a couple of blocks of white sugar.

I realized that I could somehow manage and that for the time being, the afterlife didn't need me. I believed that even if I went straight to it, I wouldn't have ended up there. I was too much of a bad person to be allowed in.

I decided to pursue something different. I left the blanket and the glass bottle with one coin in it at the fence. I never returned to that place again.

In fact, that was the last time I was in Einstudht district.

I wonder what that shithole looks like now.

—

Five officers formed a perfect circle and completely surrounded the boy who was on his knees. At this point, they were fighting over who gets to shoot him and who will be the one that will receive infinite gratitude from their respective leader.

As for the boy, he was fighting with his inner self.

Now that he was in a corner and had nowhere else to run, he began calming down and coming to his senses. He tried to convince himself that there is nothing more that he could do as he did everything he possibly could.

Just as he was about to sum it all up, weirdly enough one of the officers released a questionable statement. Following his statement, the other four officers stared in awe shortly after.

Awe turned into violence.

"A-Are those… Wolves?"

"Shoot them!!"

Before the boy could turn around, observe the situation and gather information, the loudness of numerous gunshots almost made his ears bleed. He quickly covered them with his shaking hands and laid down to the concrete ground, not knowing what was going on.

Shortly after, something else started blending in with the boisterous sounds of gunshots. The boy opened his eyes and put it all together. Those were the agonizing screams of officers.

He quickly rolled to the side, got up and started running, still not fully realizing what had happened and what saved his life from getting a bullet in the forehead.

He repeatedly kept falling over but rising aloft every time he would fall. All he could hear were the growls of what sounded like horrific beasts beating over the sound of gunshots.

He then finally mustered the courage and realization to turn around. What he saw behind him were three wolves attacking the officers, ripping their guts and killing them on the spot.

To his despair, confusion and utter shock, the boy kept on running where he would eventually meet the boundary of Einstudht district and the beginnings of fields and hills.