LAST MAN STANDING [COMPLETED]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

My hands tightened on the coffin that all four of us carried while the rain poured heavily on us. Hinto was also amongst us, opposite me and two other men at the back who came for boxing at the Monet gym. I had known of them like they knew of me.

My eye hurt from the tears I had shared. The people who had attended the funeral stood on both sides, carrying umbrellas humming while some cried loudly. This was the final goodbye, sending him to the Ridge Mortuary which was opposite the church. Glim City had less land due to the industrial evolution therefore bodies were cremated to avoid wasting land. Jason's body too was to be cremated.

My grip tightened on the coffin wishing I would wake up from this nightmare. Even from the sheet of rain on my face, I could see Zoe walk away. She was leaving. I sniffed looking away. The hums of the many people fading as we crossed the empty street.

A skinny man with spectacles in a plastic apron waited for us patiently. He led us inside the cold building. No life could be sensed inside the cold building. He led us up the endless dim passage. Steel doors resting on our left and right side. The idea of being in the mortuary unsettling me.

He finally led us inside the huge room in his right. A few bodies laid in trays, blue clothes covering them. I felt my body tensioning. Unsettling memories of my parents being murdered filling my head.

Both their eyes had stared at me blankly, their faces both torn apart by the bullets. "Hyphen," Hinto's voice pulled me out my dark memory.

I turned to face him, guilt in my eye. "The coffin, we need to place it on the slate," he said sounding concerned.

I placed the coffin on the metal slate, wiping away the sheet of rain from my face. "We will be going," said one of the two men who had helped us carry the coffin. He had his hair styled into a side shaved ponytail.

"Thank you," Hinto said as they shook hands and patted each other's shoulders. "The both of you."

They both shook his hands, patting each other's shoulders. They then moved toward me. I shock their hands as they patted my shoulder. "Heal brother and be strong," said the second man with red short hair.

"I will try," my voice came out hoarse.

They then walked out leaving just me and Hinto. We were the one to carry his ashes back home since we were Jason's only family. "This will take a minute," the skinny man said, pulling a handle from the huge machine that opened, the pit of fire engulfing in it.

Like hell, I could see screaming souls in those flames. He moved toward Jason's coffin pushing it toward the flames. My eyes widened, seeing it engulf inside as he shut the mouth of hell, my ears hearing the loud popping sounds. "You burnt him," I said without even realizing it.

The smell of burnt flesh filling my nose.

"Cremated," the skinny man corrected me without facing me, pushing up his spectacles that reflexed hell up his long nose.

Hinto's phone suddenly thrilled. He quickly pulled it out his pant's pocket. "Hyphen,"

I turned to face him. "I need to take this, you good on your own?"

Hinto, he was making me a child. "I'm good," I replied.

He nodded before walking out answering the phone. "Yeah it me..."

I then shifted my eyes back to hell that Jason had been sent to. Such a cruel way to get rid of a person. It was if we were sending them to hell. My eyes looked at the few coffins that were piled neatly near the huge machine. They too were going to be set ablaze. "It's like hell," I said softly.

A scoff left the skinny man's lips. He seemed to have heard me. "Or Heaven," he said moving toward the handle.

Heaven? Setting people ablaze didn't sound like heaven to me. "Don't worry they don't feel a thing," he said turning to face me. "They are dead."

He pulled the handle the hell opening. Ashes moving out in the metal tray. All that remained of Jason was now just Ashes.