“Yes, you are in fact, dead. I know this can be hard to hear.” Death said with a compassionate smile “I can’t “help” you, but I like to offer one thing. Your last. I will show you your last. What would you like to see? Your last kiss? Your last talk with your mom? The last hug from your son?”

I looked into Death’s cold unmoving eyes with tears in mine. His eyes reflected what was in his heart, absolutely nothing. I suppose he wasn’t always this way, for his brain still knew what compassion means, which was evident by his offer, but millennia doing this job means a heart of stone.

My children had died many years prior, the first passed while fighting Chekhov’s war, the second dying from the nuclear fallout that soon followed.

Me and my wife of 96 years quickly fled to the other side of the world, but the green uranium smoke was beginning to thin at the original site, which only meant it was coming for our new abode.

I passed before my wife. She was in good health. I could only imagine that she’d request to see her children again, but my memory had been fading for decades. The only love I could remember was that that my wife showed me everyday.

After a few moments I asked for a simple request, to see my last kiss.

Suddenly I was transported to a place foreign to me. It was filled with tall cedar trees. Above this was a bright blue sky, one completely conflicting with the gray and green skies described by nuclear fallout.

My memory was falling apart, but I wasn’t stupid. This certainly wasn’t where I had my last kiss, I don’t think I ever lived in an area this beautiful.

The tall clouds stretched out over the horizon, and soon the sun reflected onto one half of each of the clouds, displaying a gorgeous alternating pattern of orange then white, as one cloud passed over the other.

Death looked over at me, his cold eyes quickly becoming one of curiosity. I shrugged my shoulders, being completely unsure of what was happening in this odd little scene, it was conjured by his power after all.

We both turned as we heard a rustling of leaves in the distance. A man dressed identically to what you might call an archaeologist approached in the distance, being led by a large German shepherd who seemed to have ripped his leash out of the man’s hands as he sprinted with his nose to the earth.

“Don’t touch it!” Cried the archaeologist as he finally discovered what his partner had been looking for.

Beneath the carpet of brown needles that covered the earth, the sheddings of the cedar trees, was the outline of a man.

Finally, the man made his way to his furry companion, tossing him a treat, but not before the pup managed to give a big lick across the strange man’s face.

– Nathaniel Botros