My eyes darted around the room and fell on Leah who had been my childhood friend, and also the one to hoodwink me into the surgery. And I was shocked when she hissed and let out, "vanity upon vanity... Despite her beauty and fame, so sad she wasn't contented and had to die during a buttocks enlargement surgery."
"Jasmine is filled with self-importance, and the fact that she won the contest as the most beautiful lady in the world made her lose her head," Jesica who is the third of our team announced, hissed and smack her wide lips, and then resumed her speech, "I wish she rots in hell for trying to change a part of her body to her taste."
'Damn you, Jesica!' I screamed out, but as we all know that the dead can't talk, my screaming remained muted inside me.
"We need her parent to give consent before putting her inside the morgue," one of the doctors who had performed the failed surgery on me mumbled with a straight face.
"Her only living family was her mother, and both had been at loggerheads for years. I doubt she will even bother about her corpse."
'Fuck you, Leah!' I tried to scream out, then smirked when I realised that I'm dead, and my words can't be heard by the living. Even though she was saying the truth, I feel uncomfortable because she was revealing my secret in the presence of total strangers.
"That's bad. To think she was making all this money without giving a penny to her mother," one of the nurses mumbled, hissed and let out, "some ladies were really wicked. I mean, the millions of dollars she spends on this surgery can change her mother's living condition."
"Tell them, Leah... Tell them that my mother is one of the richest women on earth and that she doesn't need my money," I yelled at Leah, then hissed when she shrugged and let out.
"Jasmine is frivolous and had spent all her life during the wrong thing. She is self-centred, selfish and always thinks about her enjoyment."
"Poor lady... Now she is dead and all her wealth will go to her impoverished mother," the second doctor mumbled, and then gestured to the rest of the team to leave my bedside.
A nurse pulled a white blanket over my stiff body, shakes her head and raced after the outgoing people, and the silence in the room was welcoming, until a sudden breeze abruptly emerged from nowhere, jerked my soul by its feet, whirled me in the air for a while and everything becomes dark after.
When I opened my eyes, I was falling from the sky into another realm, and the shouting and screaming all around me shows that I'm not alone. Moments later, I landed on my feet among millions of souls, and we all gawked at each other in shock.A young man looked lost and asked, "where am I?"
"Where the hell is this place?" Another young man cried out.
"Someone should please help us by telling us where the hell is this?" A lady in white, long and fluffy hair asked with a stunned look.
The noise was turning hysterical when a heavenly being appeared from the sky and cried out, "you are all welcome to the gathering of the dead. You will be sent to purgatory, based on the time of your death.""What is purgatory?" I raised my hand and asked.
The heavenly being looked more like a human, except for his weird height and size, red eyeballs and flowing white hair that remind me of the waterfall. His eyes which looked like burning embers glare at me, and I feel naked from his gaze.
"You will know when you reach there," he let out, snapped his finger and was mysteriously gone as he appeared.
"Purgatory is where you self-analysis your time on earth, this will give you the chance to plead guilty, or not guilty to all your crimes," a lady of the same age as I announced, turned towards me, frowned and said, "your face is familiar... I must have met you when we were on earth."
"Probably," I answered back. "I was famous and always appeared in celebrity newspapers."
"How did you die?"
"I died during a bootilicious surgery. I was the current Miss world before I died," I answered back.
She fixed her eyes on my soul, close one of her eyes, shakes her head sideways and muttered, " I remember your face. You are the miss world for the year 2090... I heard the news about the surgery and was making jest of your death when I mistakenly stepped on the highway and was hit by a moving truck."
"Why are you making jest of my death?"
"Because I am jealous of your success. I just wish all your good fortune is mine, and it was my jealousness that drove me into rejoicing at your death."
'Unbelievable! I exclaimed to myself, shrugged and moaned louder. "Where did you think we will be sent to? Heaven or hell? Or is there a third option?" I asked my newly found friend.
"No idea, mate. But we will know in sooner time."
'Whoosh... Whoosh!'
The wind that brought me to the gathering of the dead suddenly pulled me by my feet, whirled me in the air, and then tossed me into absolute darkness.
When I opened my eyes, we were over millions of souls in a large and white-painted hall, and a large whiteboard appeared in front of all of us."Welcome to purgatory. You have half an hour to read all your deeds on earth," a voice that sounded like the combination of thunder with earthquake roared out loud.
All mortals shivered at the hearing of the intimidating voice, and we all peeked at the board in our front.
In thirty minutes, all my past was shown to me, and even without being told, I subconsciously agreed that I didn't deserve a space in heaven.'Hell may not be as bad as we are made to believe,' I soliloquise alone, close my eyes, then jerked them open when I felt the strong wind moving towards me.
'Whoosh... Whoosh!'
Another heavenly being who also looked like earthlings, but taller, bigger, and mean-looking, gawked at me when I opened my eyes, pulled a file among loads of files in his front, peeked at it for a while and his face was devoid of a smile when he said, "welcome to judgment room. In order not to waste my time, I will go straight to the point," he paused, drawing a long breath and asked, "did you read your past in the purgatory room?"
"Yes, I did."
"Are you guilty or not?"
After my short time in purgatory, saying am not guilty is like adding more lies to my crime, and the best I can do is to admit my guilt and then await my judgment.
"Answer me, young lady. I have over a million people to judge today. Or did you think judging earthlings is an easy job?"
Though I disagree with his words, I'm not in a position to tell him this. And his glaring eyes made me stammer back, " I'm... I am guilty, Sir."
He smiled when I said this, peeked at the file one more time, and then let out, "your crime were enough to send you to hell, but I feel benevolent toward you and want to give you a chance to be reincarnated"
"Anything is better than going to hell," I said as I look as sorry as I can.
He smirked, shrugged and wrote something in the file in his front, he then turned towards me and said, "you will be reincarnated in the opposite of your previous life. Hope you don't have any objection to this?" He paused his speech suddenly, fixed his eyes on me, and then let out in a thunderous voice, "because if you do, I will have no choice but to send you to hell."
"No objection, Sir."
'"You can go."
'Whoosh... Whoosh!'
The wind took hold of me, whirled me in the air as usual, and then dumped me into total darkness.
My environment is warm, and the liquid around me made me believe I was inside an ocean. But during all my earthly sojourn, I have never heard of a warm ocean. I tried to open my eye, but it appeared it was glued together, and none of the parts of my body respond to the instruction from my brain.'What's is happening to me?' I asked in total resignation to my condition and was about to drift into unconsciousness when a large hand jerked me by my two legs and began to pull me out."Let me go, please," I cried out, then tried to escape the hard grip. Realising fighting against the hand is useless, I sighed and relax my body, then looked shocked when I was pulled through some warm flesh, into a blinding light."Hooray!""It's a baby boy!""But why is he very ugly?""Ahh, That's cruel. You should have congratulated the mother first.""Cut the placenta and stop gawking at a newborn baby!""I'm so happy for the safe delivery, doctor. This boy had given us a tough time since yesterday night
As the ugliest baby in the orphanage home, I was the least of the nun's favourites. They cleaned my soiled pants once a day, feed me last, and never sing me a lullaby as they usually do with other babies. And this made me the saddest baby inside the Calvary orphanage home.Since I hardly smile and never laugh, other babies avoid me like plague, and I learnt to be my companion in a few days of my existence. "Who will bathe Ugly-face? He had been making that horrible sound since morning!" Alice who seemed to be the only nun who is indifferent towards me asked when I didn't stop crying because of my soiled pant. Alicia who hated me and never hide the fact answered back, "I have chills whenever I stepped near him, please attend to him yourself.""Come and attend to ugly-face, Betty."Alice called another open enemy of mine to attend to me, but she shakes her head and mumbled, "I can't, Alice. I always have nightmares whenever I touch him."Alice seemed to be angry when the other two nu
All my efforts to kiss the three nuns failed and the fear of death and being thrown back to hell made me keep trying.Yet, it seemed my best is not enough to accomplish my targets. Since I have been told that smiling is my greatest strength, I always make sure it's planted on my ugly face daily. A few months before I clock a year old, one of the babies in the orphanage home was celebrating its second birthday anniversary, and a party was arranged to mark the day. As expected, our large hall was thoroughly cleaned and decorated with balloons, purple linen and ribbons, and impeccably white chairs were arranged in a line. "We need to make all the babies look good because of the dignitaries that will be visiting us today," Mother Maggie who is the head of all the nuns announced as she stepped into the midst of several babies, peeked at each of us, and halted at my cot, and then mumbled, "Ugly-face seemed not to be changing despite various creams and medication given to him."All nuns
"Betty, wait!" Alicia cried out, stepped closer, placed the baby in her hand inside a bathing bowl and stood with arms akimbo and then let out, "I just want to be sure you are kissing him... And also note that I will have your weekly allowances if you failed to kiss him."Betty smiled, shrugged and mumbled, "it's a deal. Now watch me as I kissed his pink lips.""That's my babe," I mumbled and smiled broader. "He is not bad when he smiles... Have your first kiss, Ugly-face," Betty announced, giggled, close her eyes, and brought me close to her lips, and then, the most horrible thing happend.It was for an instance, the nastiest you could ever imagine. It started a cough, followed by loud sneezing, and mucus flew out of my nose and mouth, and then splashed on Betty's face."Holy Madonna! What the hell is this?" Betty opened her eyes when something liquid splashed on her face. And when her fingers touch something sticky, all hell broke loss.'Gush! What a dirty and ugly baby.""Hahaha.
As soon as Alice's lips touched mine, a ding-ding sound boomed beside me, and I turned and peeked at the holographic display in the air."Congratulations! The first section of the mission is accomplished. Few more days to complete the remaining two sections."I ignored the message from the system, suck on Alice's lips as if my life depended on it, and then yelled louder when she pulled me away."You see... He is not that bad when you close your eyes," Alice mumbled as she held me close to her chest, she peered at me, then at the two nuns in her front and asked," hope you both agreed that I won the bet, and your weekly wages belong to me?""Yeah, sure. Enjoy yourself," Betty answered back, hissed and announced, "I hope you won't be traumatised whenever you remember kissing him.""Damn you, Betty. You almost kissed me some moment ago," I said with a smiling face. The three ladies keeps conversing among themselves, while I still glowed from Alice's kiss. As the most beautiful among the
Having no other choice, Alicia picked me up, gawked at my face, close her two eyes and chewed on my tiny lips. And the whole hall erupted with commotion when she did."Alicia had kissed Ugly-face. Hahaha!" Betty announced. "What's special about kissing Ugly-face? Just close your eyes and chew his lips," Alice mumbled. "Wow!" Madam Maggie exclaimed as she turned towards Alice and asked, "truth or dare?"I was so happy that I didn't hear Alice answer. Among the three nuns, Alicia seemed to be the most difficult for me to kiss, because she hates me with passion, and rarely gets closer to me. 'Boom!'The holographic picture suddenly popped up, and the familiar automated voice whispered into my ear, "second task achieve, perform the last task to unlock a new power, and save yourself from death and the torment of hell.""You don't have to keep reminding me of my fate," I babble back, and the image disappeared after. After the game of truth and dare, Mother Maggie declared the floor open
Since all my babbling fell on Betty's deaf ears, I became annoyed at her, opened my mouth wide and burst into a loud cry."Shh!" Betty put her wide palm over my mouth to hush my hysterical cry. She shakes her head in anger, frowns and lets out, "you are evil for trying to wake all the babies with your stupid cries."I ignored Betty's insult, inhale deeply and cried louder as Alicia's footsteps stepped closer to my cot."Ugly face hasn't slept yet, has he?""No, Alicia. He is crying like a banshee and trying to wake everyone up... What can I do to make him sleep?""He is pulling your face towards him with your ponytail. I think he wants you to kiss him.""Yes, Betty. That's exactly what I want," I mumbled and immediately stop my insane cry."Hmm... Did you think he will sleep if I kiss him?" Betty asked with her usual angry look."Yeah, Betty. Kiss me and I will fall asleep instantly. Otherwise-.""I am not talking to you, Ugly-face," Betty cut into my babbling, sighed when Alicia shru
I was as sad as doom after hearing that I will soon be adopted, and the thought of death and everlasting hellfire made me miserable throughout the day. "What's wrong with Ugly-face? He seemed unhappy since you took him to see Madam Maggie," Betty who seemed to notice my grief asked Alice. "I have no idea. Maybe he is sick due to his golden pupils," Alice responded, shrugged and glanced at me. "Mother Maggie said he may be adopted anytime from now." "Really? That's good news. At least we will be rid of his ugly face." "That's cruel. Don't tell me you won't miss him." Betty batted her eyes, hissed and let out, "no, I won't. Why will I miss Ugly-face?" Alice glanced at me and muttered, "he is a kind-hearted baby, and just unfortunate to be born ugly. I have grown some kind of likeness for him." "Why won't you? When you don't have a boyfriend." "Ahh!" Alice exclaimed, stepped closer to Betty and asked, "have you forgotten that we are nuns, and under the oat of celibacy and chas