Avenue from Afterlife

Hellu my dear, friends and fiends :P

You know, one of my biggest problems as a writer is that I often start projects, but get distracted half way and never actually finish the thing. BUT today I would like to present you with a short story that I actually finished. Most fun part: I already posted this particular story as a snippet earlier. But now it is all done :3 SOOOO Content warning for talk about death, implied self harm and dying in general. Ok, have fun:

The moon turned red an hour ago. Tracy is still explaining how this is some sort of almost impossible occurrence and blah blah blah, nobody listens anyway!
Darren just turned the radio up. Didn’t stop her.
The red light makes the canyons left and right of the street look pretty cool though. Almost like everything is covered in blood or part of a red light district. Pretty metal!
“So, are we just not gonna talk about this?”
Urgh, of course Josh is the one to break our perfect shield of pretending. I open the window on my side and let the dry wind blow between the space of my fingers. Haven’t been so far out in a couple of months.
“Why… why are we even out here?” He keeps talking.
“Because Darren couldn’t just let this fucking idea go and we, as his fucking friends, support his fucking ideas, even if they are bullshit!”
Nobody has anything to say against my perfect summary of this situation. None of us really wanted to be here. But Darren… well it’s hard to say no to him. Darren Puppy-Eye Collins. I gave him that name, when we first met. My brother from another mother. Runaway, street criminal and general asshole.
So we had a lot in common. Don't recall how we met Josh, but he was running his parents' store at the time, always kept to himself. First time I saw him, I thought he was kind of a pushover, I remember that vividly. And Tracy, she was a student at some university, we met her in town. Never told us how she ended up in this place.
“Got the beer?” First time Darren opens his mouth on our little trip to the big highway.
“Sure do.” Because of the fucking box I can’t stretch out my feet.
“I haven’t missed the taste of beer one bit.”
No one asked you, Tracy.
I didn't actually say that.
I'm trying to be nicer to Tracy, she is a good girl.
Maybe I dislike her sometimes, because she seems to have her shit so much together. Smart and well mannered.
No doubt that she is deep down just as lost as the rest of us.
We all are...
“I still think this is a bad idea!” Josh pushes his face between the seats.
The red moonlight flickers over his always slightly twitching eyes and the scars on his wrists. Usually he wears gloves. Since we set out in a hurry, he probably forgot. Wonder if this is what got him here.
I still carry my ticket all the time, the last syringe I wanted to take before getting clean. Next one was always going to be the last one, who am I kidding?
When I think about it this way, Darren still wears the old leather jacket with the bullet holes. He never wanted to show me, if under his clothes, the gun wounds were still there. Such a prude sometimes. But I guess we all hold on to the past in one way or another. I look out the window, just over the horizon the big highway appears.
It is soaked in the blood light as well. And there goes the road sign that says: “Styx-Freeway ahead, please turn around!” But we won’t turn around tonight. Fuck signs! Fuck the authoritys! What a bullshit name for a street anyway. Just call it “Highway to Hell'' or something. Hah, that would be funny. Still.
“So...you really wanna do this, Collins?”
Darren nods. Urgh, it's no fun when he stops talking like this.
“What exactly is it that you are missing? The impending doom of global warming? The injustice of a corrupt government, or maybe just shitty parents that kick you out if you no longer fit into their perfect views of society?”
He just shoots a grim look at me from the side.
I know this look all too well.
“I'm just saying that life is a fucking shitshow, man. We can be happy that we are done with it.”
Tracy begins biting her nails. She gets easily nervous when people fight, oh, and she is also not too fond of cars.
“But, hey, if you want to visit the old mortal coil, that's cool. Just don't get your hopes up. Like a very wise woman once said: Nobody dies a virgin, life fucks us all.”
In the backseat Josh starts to nervously laugh. He never was really good at reading the room...or the car in this case.
“I am pretty sure that this is not a common saying… but Charlotte has a point, life… is nothing but sorrow.”
Hate when she calls me that, it's Charlie, never Charlotte.
Well, Darren doesn’t seem too happy with Tracy’s words as well.
His grip around the wheel tightens and his knuckles turn brighter.
“You just don’t get it. Look around!” We do.
Big Canyons and behind us, just a peak of the big desert area.
Nothing much there as well.
Just “Some City”.
Kinda stupid name, but I think it’s funny.
People here call this place all kinds of names: Purgatory, Limbo, Yomi, Patala, Sijjin or whatever weird shit they used to believe.
My personal favourite is Some Place.
It just fits with Some City.
Hey, Charlie, where do you live?
Oh, just over at Some City in Some Place.
And they would say: Some Place, in that shithole?
No reason to get all bitchy, it isn’t the nicest place I’ve been to either, everything here looks so… dead. Ha, good one!
“I for one don’t want to end like this, stuck here for the rest of my... ”
“Life?” Good one as well, Tracy.
Who knew the stuck up rich girl could tell jokes?!
“Listen, you don’t need to come with me, but this is important to me.”
Something in his voice tips me off.
“Wait, this is not about Minato, is it?” His jaw tenses up.
Oh fucking god, it is!
Minato was Darren's boyfriend… well, is.
They never really got the chance to break up after all.
But why now, after almost two years?
“Forget it! We are almost there...” He isn’t wrong.
The red moon disappears behind Styx and we pass the place where most of us in Some Place got off. Made the jump from the road to heaven, hell or whatever eternity awaits at the end of the road.
That makes us Lost Souls.
Nobody ever makes it back up, some fucking crackheads have tried once or twice. Those who made the climb got picked up by the angels.
Ugly-ass, fucking angels.
At least we call those grey little monstrosities that.
Josh tried calling them Shinigamis, but he is a nerd so it didn’t stick.
Just flying around over the Styx, maybe keeping guard.
Like most of the time, the road is busy with all sorts of transportations.
I swear, once I saw one dude pass by on a unicycle.
A lot walk as well, those that were too poor in live to own a car and can’t even afford the fucking bus or whatever they have up there.
The world is so broken that even in death you get screwed for not having money. And that's where Darren wants to go back.
“What the...” Language, Josh!
But yeah, what the fuck?!
Before us lies some sort of ramp, carved into the stone of one of the pillar cannons.
“Did you do that?”
Finally Darren Puppy-Eye lost the grim look and smirked at us.
“Had some explosive help! Took only the better part of three month, but it will be worth it!”
So his plan is actually to drive all the way back up? Damn, I know he is a big dum dum but this… this is the work of a genius!
“Ladies, Gents… Charlie, please put on your seatbelts and keep your hands at all times inside the vehicle.” And we do.
“This is going to be a bumpy ride!”
And he turned the music even louder.
Hell yeah!
Behind me Tracy is muttering: “This is so stupid.”
The car jerks and up we go.
I will never admit it, but I'm holding my breath.
Wait, do I even want this to work?
Yes! But not for me, I want Darren to have this, I really do.
“Hit it, Collins!”
I can hear the sounds of the passing souls now, but also the flapping of the winged creatures above.
If we would get picked up and dropped by them… would we die? Would that make us double dead? Funny what your brain comes up with when you are driving towards certain doom.
“I can see the cars!” Josh presses his face against the window, he’s still clinging to his seat.
The moon reapers and for a moment all we see is red.
And then, with a bump, we are on the street.
We are fucking on the freeway!
Left and right are cars and people, all covered in red light. They all are moving in one direction.
“Hold on!” Darren shouts over the music and we do.
He jerks the wheel around and we crash into some walker.
They are fine…
Probably.
A new song starts.
Living easy, loving free. Season ticket on a one way ride. Fucking perfect. And we ride. Hey, does this make us to fucking Ghostriders? Through all those people that just died, away from the big light or gate or whatever shit they are aiming for. Don’t need a reason, don’t need a right. There is nothing I would rather do. A loud screech drowns out the lines. “Shit, shit, shit. One is diving down!” Cries Josh, his eye is twitching even harder now and I can tell he is about as close to one of his breakdowns as we are to the world of the living. Crash! Something hit the car. Claws scratch off the old, red paint on the ceiling. Going down, party time. My friends are gonna be there too. “THIS WAS SUCH A DUMB IDEA!” I don’t think. I just grab one of the beers out of the box, crank down the window and through. Just like the old times. Crash again. And another screech. “FASTER!” Squeals Tracy. In her panic she grabs my hand. Girl, I need that to fight the monster… but, I won’t be the one who is going to let go. “I AM FASTER!” Oh, yeah, deadly situation. “It is flying again, but it is still behind us!” Josh is scratching his arms now, that is like a 8.5 on the Josh-panic-scale. No stop signs, speed limit. Nobody’s gonna slow us down! We knock over another group of walkers. Faster. Faster. In the back mirror I see the angel. It slowly disappears in the mist. Wait, what mist? My fingers are numb. Tracy has one hell of a grip. “I think we made it...” Darren is panting. There is white all around us, I can’t even see the street in front anymore. Suddenly I feel this pressure in my ears and head. It’s like diving. And then there are the stars. Ain’t no stars in Some Place. The car stops and above us are stars in the sky. And a white moon. Everything tingles. Is this what it feels to be alive? The world is so blurry and still so… Much. Don’t know why but we all get out of the car. Fuck, why are my hands shaking? I look around. Josh is curled up on the floor. Clutching his head. What is that red stuff on his arms? Did he spill ketchup? What a clumsy idiot. Tracy is still holding my hand somehow. She is as white as the moon and blue and purple and red and she is crying. And her hair is all messed up. Maybe I should ask her on a date. Or maybe I shouldn’t, since she is so smart and I am such a piece of shit. I shouldn’t. I don’t even know if she likes people like me who don’t even know if they want to be a girl or a boy. Darren is still there too. He is limping a few steps away from us. Why? “Hey, Collins.” I can barely get the words out. I feel sick. But he turns around. His shirt is all red as well, wasn’t it white a moment ago? I think I need to lie down. But I am already on the floor. This sucks. I can’t feel my legs anymore. Life really is a fucking shitshow.

Soooo this is all nice and well, but since you are still sticking around, I might as well tell you a bit more. I really liked those characters and I know a lot more about them that I couldn’t fit into the story, but I still want to put it out there. So let us start:

Tracy, I never got to describe any of the characters in detail, I imagine Tracy is a white girl with bright brown hair and thin square glasses. She is a bit of a know it all from a wealthy family who always had to be perfect. Oh and she died because she was hit by a car after drinking to forget a bad mark she got.
Darren, yes, he is pretty cool in my mind, I imagine him to be fairly dark skinned with either long, curly hair or dreadlocks and he also has big brown eyes. He is also very gay and had a boyfriend named Minato and they are very cute together :3
Next up to Josh, he might be my favorite in the bunch. He is definitely latino, with light brown skin, dark short tousled hair and dark green eyes. Because he had to grow up very fast and take care of his parents' store, he became very nervous. At some point he tried to join a gang, but that didn’t go too well. The scars on his neck are indead how he died and sadly I must say that it was self-inflicted.
And lastly we have Charlie, she was a lot of fun to write (and she goes by her at this point but might have changed to they in the future) She has a big undercut and only a puff of blond hair that is partly coloured purple. Also she is pretty small and has a lot of piercings.

I don't want to say too much about the world and all that stuff, because I really would like to make a little collection of short stories in this universe. That would be fun, don't you think? I hope you liked it, write you later ;P

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