When you are dead, cling on to it, cherish it.
Don’t listen to any of that mealy mouthed crap about the “gift of life” that some snivelling little mother/father figure peddles, meaninglessly, to justify the damage their hormones wrought and to disguise the fact that they were either:
a) Too cretinous not to conceive/impregnate
b) Too feeble-minded to face up to the pointless vacuity of their own shambling existence and so sought to foist the same on some poxy foetus, i.e. you, as if a simple multiplication of pointless vacuities was an answer in itself that supplied meaning and comfort and grace
There was half-an-eternity of void, which you unaccountably slipped out of; then there was a brief opportunity to become fertilizer; then there was another half-an-eternity of void.
Existence was a blip, an easily erased embarrassment.
Death is your natural state, never overlook that fact.
Signed with a scythe,
Your grim and loyal servant.
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This piece of flash fiction was written in response to Prompt #81 “Instruction Manual for the Dead” at Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie, in which we were asked to write an Instruction Manual for the Dead. The instructions here are as bleakly matter-of-fact as I could imagine the Grim Reaper writing, so let’s end on a pretty tune from the Blue Oyster Cult.
Amen, Sister! Excellent writing. Great song, too.
I certainly didn’t expect that story to elicit an “amen” – perhaps the least likely response, in fact, under the circumstances 😉 I’m glad you enjoyed the writing and song. Thanks, Susan.
Well, I guess I view things differently than most. 🙂
Yowch! That silver-tongued devil 😉
“There was half-an-eternity of void, which you unaccountably slipped out of….” — was really caught by this — always unexpected, Blake 😀
To give him his due, I thought he was being as un-silver tongued as possible here – very confrontational, though courteous.
And that’s “dark fiction” out of my system for a while, I think 🙂
Oh I love this! What a different take! I also really like Blue Oyster Cult XD
Thanks, Yves. I thought I’d try for a Non-Tibetan Book of the Dead 😛
And I thought the BOC song would be a good choice since it manages to turn even the Reaper into a whistle-friendly little number.
Love it great idea!