"Hhuuuhh!!!"
I jolted awake, a scream caught in my throat, my body drenched in cold sweat
My chest heaved as if I had been underwater for too long, my lungs desperate for air while my heart pounded furiously out of my chest.
Images of the collapsing ceiling and crushing debris flashed through my mind. I should be buried under rubble…
…Dead.
How was I still breathing… still conscious?
I blinked, trying to clear my vision, but my surroundings blurred while my head felt like it was in the clouds, even producing thoughts was a slow process.
Slowly, the haze lifted, revealing an unfamiliar sight that left me more bewildered than before.
I wasn't in a hospital, nor was I in my office surrounded by the chaos that had nearly killed me… or killed me.
This is…
A bedroom?
As my vision sharpened, I tried to look around the room, but my attention shifted to the bed I was lying on.
The soft bed fabric beneath me, the comforting weight of a blue blanket covering my lower body.
I moved cautiously, half expecting to feel the sharp sting of my injury, but there was absolutely nothing.
The pain of the boulder crushing me was nowhere, but not only that…
No pain in my back, no skull-splitting headache, no burning pain in my fingertips… all the pain has been lifted.
I didn't feel any of the pain that became a part of my life… but how?
I don't even remember the last time that I was pain-free.
I scanned the room, my eyes wide with disbelief. Then, a grin spread across my face, followed by a chuckle that quickly turned into laughter, this wasn't any bedroom.
This was my childhood room, the same one that I inhabited for the first 17 years of my life.
Could this be... heaven?
Then…
Eve...
She must be here somewhere.
The thought of seeing her again brought a serene smile to my lips. The crushing weight of grief and exhaustion that had plagued me for years seemed to have vanished. I felt light…
…free.
I fell back on my bed, I had a light green pajama on me, it was soft to the touch and entirely comfortable to wear.
As I lay in my bed, I felt like I was sitting on top of a cloud… I could just fall back to sleep right away.
"Liam!"
The voice jolted me awake, erasing the last traces of drowsiness. I sat up in bed, with my heart racing. That voice—it was unmistakable.
I don't need another confirmation, this place has to be the afterlife.
"Liam! I made breakfast. Wake up your brother for me, then come down for breakfast!" The voice called again.
Wait… my twin brother?
Aiden should still be alive... how the hell did he end up in the afterlife?
"Liam, are you still asleep?" The voice called out again.
I wanted to respond, but my words got stuck, caught in a lump in my throat.
"… just one more minute!"
"Okay, just make sure you hurry up before the food gets cold."
I needed time to think. What was my brother doing in the afterlife? Or could this all be a dream, a coma-like state after the boulder?
But I couldn't have survived that…
Rubbing my temple in frustration, I got up from my comfortable bed while I looked around the room I was currently in… just like how I remember, simple and almost empty, I liked it that way.
There were no posters on the walls, just a bookshelf with a couple of books and a wooden cabinet.
A full-length window beside the cabinet let in the warm rays of sunshine, but a glance outside revealed the crisp, end-of-autumn chill, with winter fast approaching. In one corner, two dumbbells sat under the window.
Opening the cabinet, I found three neatly folded shirts, a pair of pants, and some jeans. Not caring much about my outfit in the afterlife, I pulled out a white shirt and blue jeans.
Before getting dressed, I walked over to the mirror mounted on the cabinet. The reflection staring back at me was one I hadn't seen in years.
This is… I look like I did at the end of high school...
But damn...
I had almost forgotten how good I looked.
A chiseled jawline framed by lean, muscular shoulders, gemstone-green eyes, and lush raven black hair that fell to medium length.
The afterlife had me looking like a Greek god.
Okay, maybe a bit closer to above average, but still.
I couldn't help but grin as I put on my clothes, nearly tripping over my own feet as I hopped around the room, struggling to get my jeans on.
Even my movements felt lighter then they ever did in years.
With my clothes finally on, I took a deep breath before heading to the door, before that, I reflexively picked up my phone.
It was time to meet the old-timer… and Aiden.
I opened the door to find another door directly across from me. To my left was a window, and to my right was a staircase leading down to the house's first floor.
This place—this was the house I used to live in with my family before we had to move out. Everything was still the same.
But why did the afterlife send me here? Is this based on my happiest moments?
No, it couldn't be. This was almost the exact opposite.
I took a deep breath and knocked on my brother's door, my knuckles lightly knocking against the wood twice only for me to feel a sharp sting from it.
Huh?
I didn't feel the pain from the ceiling collapsing on me, but my knuckles were hurting?
It was confusing, but I decided to ignore it and wait for Aiden to respond.
Which never came.
I knocked again, the same as before, the sting still present, but I still heard nothing from within the room.
"I'm letting myself in."
I opened the door, my stomach felt like it was filled with lead. A part of me hoped he wouldn't be in the room, as that would mean he wasn't dead like I apparently was.
Even though I hadn't talked to my brother in a long, long time, I wanted the best for him. Despite our significant differences, I genuinely wanted him to be happy.
Seeing him here couldn't be a good thing…
And my worst fears came true once I saw Aiden. There he was, sprawled in one of the most ridiculous positions I'd ever seen—half his body on the floor, his head resting on the ground, drool leaking from the corner of his mouth as he slept without a care in the world.
As I saw him, he looked just like me. I remembered how most people mistook us for twins. The only difference was his expression, usually rougher and more rebellious than mine.
He was what others would call a delinquent and because of our nearly identical look, I even took a beating that was meant for him.
Even then… I loved my brother.
But now to wake him up…
I walked up to him while he was still asleep, and looked down at him... he looked just like me, the same emerald eyes, the same raven black hair with the only difference being its length with mine being longer, reaching the bottom of my neck.
Then kicked him in the head.
"W— what, where, who?" He jolted awake, disoriented, clutching his head where I'd kicked him.
But the moment his eyes met mine, he seemed to come to his senses instantly.
"Fuck you!" he spat out, glaring at me.
"Good morning. Get ready for breakfast."
I said, turning on my heel and walking out of the room. His curses followed me, but I let them go in one ear and out the other.
I didn't know what to feel with Aiden here, but he was young again just like me.
I descended the large wooden staircase, each step creaking under my weight. The stairs opened up to the right into the living room, seamlessly flowing into the kitchen.
And there, standing at the stove, was the man I never thought I'd see again...
My father.
He was moving left and right, setting up the table, his ragged and exhausted face was littered with wrinkles, his eyes barely maintaining their focus, and a bunch of wrinkled letters behind him on the counter that he hastily tried to cover with his body… unpaid checks that he tried to hide from us.
Now that I saw him again, I could see that he was sleep-deprived, just as I remembered him.
But why would anyone be sleep-deprived in the afterlife?
Something is up. I'm no longer sure if this is the afterlife. No, this is something else entirely. My brother can't be dead while my father looks exactly like he did during my high school days.
What the hell is going on?
"Oh, you startled me! Is your brother awake now?" my father asked, noticing my presence.
"Yeah, I woke him up..." I replied, my voice strained and cracking. Tears welled up in my eyes as I spoke to him, but I held myself together.
I hadn't seen him in years… it's been so… so long.
His death had shaken both me and Aiden. But there he was, in front of me, preparing breakfast in his exhaustion.
No, this has to be something else entirely. Maybe I survived the boulder and am now in a coma. This must be some kind of dream or hallucination.
I was deep in thought, and by the look on my father's face, he could tell something was wrong. He placed his hands on my shoulders, making me jump in surprise.
"Is everything alright, Kiddo?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.
'Kiddo'—I hadn't heard that in a long time… but I did call my son that…
I just smiled, but it wasn't a confident or honest one. "yeah, I'm fine."
"Good." He smiled back and returned to the kitchen. I saw myself in him. When others said that I looked just like my dad, they weren't kidding.
As an adult, I was his mirror image: the same exhausted and sleep-deprived look, raven black hair with only my eyes being emerald instead of amber like his.
I got my eyes from my mother.
While I was deep in thought, the source of endless curses came up behind me, swearing at our entire bloodline.
Jokes on him, we share it.
"You could have woken me up normally."
"He could, but you'd still be in bed," my father answered, laughing as he finished setting the table.
As we sat down to eat, I could only stare at the food in front of me: two sunny-side-up eggs, two slices of bacon, and a loaf of bread in the middle of the table.
What the hell is going on, seriously?
The last thing I remembered was finishing my project—
As soon as I thought of my project, a blue screen lit up in the middle of the table, and my mind went blank as I stared at it.