After Death

• Tahnie Hale-Reeve, Grade 10, Bundamba State Secondary College
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'Write As Rain 2014' competition

Sage stared blankly at the great iron gates before her. She had no idea how long she had been standing there, or even how she had reached this place to begin with. Gazing dazedly around, she began to vaguely wonder about exactly where she was.
Before her were rusted but still ornate iron gates, many times her own height, and aligned with the gates a vast wall of uncut stone and earth stretching as far as the eye could see. All behind her was empty, save for a bleak, rugged plain reaching quite a ways out to a range of mountains in the distance, skirting the area like some great arena. The sky was an eerie red-purple, and despite ample visibility, no sunlight kissed her skin and no breath of wind danced about her.
Frowning in confusion, Sage strode slowly toward the gates, her curiosity growing with each step. Her face now only inches from the iron bars, she hesitated for a moment, then reached out a hand so as to lay it upon the mighty barricade. Before she could touch them, the heavy gates creaked and grated loudly, and began to swing slowly outwards, away from the now quite startled Sage.
Drawing a quick breath, she braced herself for the sight of the mighty figure that would surely present itself from behind the wall. The being that now faced her, however, was far from that which she had expected. As the gates ground to a halt, a small humanoid creature no more than two feet in height tottered out before her, then stopped for a second to look at the girl.
Juxtaposed against the colossal wall and what could be seen of the gate, this tiny being made quite the spectacle in its little black sleeveless hooded coat and holding what Sage could now see was a miniature scythe. The creature tilted its head to the side, a rather cute-looking gesture from Sage’s viewpoint, and the young girl felt a sudden, unseen force urge her to move forward, toward the strange being.
Now that she was closer, Sage was able to catch a glimpse of the creature’s strangely coloured, light beige hide, seemingly held together by rough stitches running down its arms and what was visible of its legs. When the two were little more than a foot away from each other the being lifted its head, its eyes still veiled by the hood of its jacket, to look directly at Sage, who immediately halted at this next movement to stare back at the little entity.
Yet another seam was now visible, this time on the creature’s face, forming what looked to be a mouth. By this point, the young girl couldn’t help but liken the creature to a voodoo doll of some sort. Sage felt a sudden chill run up her spine as the stitches on the doll’s face began to pull and stretch the mouth into an unnaturally wide grin, exposing two perfect rows of dagger-like teeth, allowing it to softly utter in its inhuman tone four words the young girl could swear she would never forget: ‘Welcome… to the afterlife.'