A Glimpse of Paradise, A Descent into Despair

She giggled

"That was because then I didn't have this sort of gift, to connect deeply to you big brother"

Thinking back. I should have understood what she meant when she said this without me opening my eyes but I didn't and that's why I tell myself sometimes.

"So, your alive Akir…a"

It would have been better if I didn't see her that way it wouldn't hurt so much

"Nope"

She said so casually as she tilted her head to the right and smiled

"I'm dead"

I should have been in shock at that very moment, but maybe it was because so much had already happened up until then I had run out of the energy to be surprised.

"Akira…You're naked, floating, and golden… You are dead"

"Jeez big brother is that all you noticed"

" Well of course not, you're also floating and intangible. It's like you're a ghost not to mention the fact that you're glowing"

"I know right? I think the glowing part is pretty cool"

"Mom did always say you were a star never knew you would take it so literally"

"I'm a sorry big brother"

She suddenly says with a sad look on her face

"Huh? What for?"

I asked trying to avoid a sour mood

"Come on sis don't dampen the mood. Let's just get going"

I try to take her hand but she floats away from me drawing her hand behind her as she stares at the ground incapable of looking at me

"Hey? Don't be like that sis we have to go… Come on"

I start to cry again and try to reach for her hand once more but she floats further away from me

"I'm sorry brother but I can't be with you anymore"

She says to me in a sad tone still looking down

"And why is that huh? Why is that?!"

"I don't know big brother"

She says calmly

"It's just how it is now. I'm going to a place where I won't have to cry anymore, where I won't have to worry anymore with mommy and daddy"

It was then that the energy that I should have had to feel shocked, that energy I didn't have before suddenly came back to me.

"Then… Then can't I come with you"

"I'm sorry brother but you can't come with us"

When she told me this I became filled with despair my face had tightened, my eyes had widened I had become aware of everything I had done. I began to have flashbacks

"Why now?"

I grabbed my head and pulled my hair

"Groh! Why am I thinking about these now?!"

A bell starts to ring

"Huh"

"Looks like our time is up. It's time for us to go"

I look up with my teary eyes with a confused look on my face

"Us? Us?"

Then the bodies around me suddenly started to glow and just like my sister golden, naked phantoms of themselves came out from their dead bodies. Even my parents

"That's right big brother"

She says as she floats away into my parent's arms. They had smiles on all their faces and behind them were the other ghosts smiling

"All of us have to leave for paradise"

"Wait! Please, sis… Don't leave me!"

I shouted and begged, I pleaded and screamed, I stretched my hand out to her but she didn't even reach out to me. No, she didn't even try. Why couldn't I make it to paradise alongside you Akira? I find myself asking this question. The other spirits float away into the sky, up to the giant golden bell in the sky but Akira stays behind. She stares at me while I wallow in pity. I fall to my knees and look at her. She starts to float upward slowly. I put my head down and bury them in my arms

"So that's it huh? Damn"

I laugh

"It's pretty funny"

I gnash my teeth at the thought of it

"And yet…. Damn itttttt!"

"You know it isn't over yet"

I look up and see Akira standing in front of me

"Why are you still here? Don't you have a paradise to get to"

"You don't need to be so cold and mean big brother it isn't the end of the story"

"Huh?'

She sighs

"Your so hopeless. Do you think I'd just abandon you? big brother"

"What are you talking about?"

"It's not like we will never see each other again but it's going to be a while before we do"

"What do I have to do"

"You're going to have to survive"

"Survive?"

"Listen Brother, You and I can be in paradise together if you can resist and survive ok? As long as you can manage that for seven years you and I will be together again and we can be a family"

"You mean it"

I clean my tears and give a devilish grin

"7 years? that's a piece of cake"

"I knew you would feel that way big brother, I know you can do it"

She floats into the air

"If anyone can it's you. Remember resist and survive and then we can be together Big Brother"

And so Akiko began to float into the air

"Together forever in paradise"

After she said this she, the other ghosts, the book and the bell. They all disappeared. And so, I stood there all alone at the end of the road in a wasteland, Surrounded by nothing but chaos and destruction. I knew in myself I had no hope of surviving this all for seven years. I just put up a tough front but I knew. I lifted my head, turned around and faced the destruction so I could greet the chaos and when I took a good look at the world I knew it wasn't my world anymore, that was when I knew just how doomed I was. I had already given up before the journey even started

"It's only been thirty seconds into my journey and even I know how futile this all is"

I put my hands over my face and sat in a place facing the edge of the road just over the lake of fire

"I'm never going to make it"

And just then when I had given up hope a hand stretched out from the heavens, a bright hand made of not light but purity, of hope… I could feel the joy radiating off that hand and the hope and faith I had just lost returned to me. The hand was so massive and looked so far away but when I looked down it was the size of my hand and was right in front of me.

"Is this the hand of salvation? The hand that will save me from everything I have suffered?"

I wondered

"It's just one thing after another"