*The night of the Hurricane*
You couldn't help Billie.
You weren't a medical doctor - just a juris doctor.
You had no medical training at all except for some basic first aide training you learned in boy scouts.
Your wife was bleeding to death on the bathroom floor as you desperately tried to keep pressure on her wound but it was just too long and too deep of a cut.
Nora was a hysterical screaming mess - especially when the flood from the hurricane broke through your front windows.
The strong - 248 mile per hour winds - ripped the front door and the roof right off!
You were getting battered with debris and rain as your home toppled down around you.
The first floor ceiling caving in, as the stairs got washed away.
The rushing water was chest deep in less than 30 seconds!
There was nothing you could do to save your family.
You should have left for Louisiana when you had the chance!
The strong flow of rushing water took Billie's body away.
You put Nora up on your shoulders, but she was so squirmy that she fell right off into the water....
You dove down to rescue her - but the flood took her little body away too.....
You didn't want to live without your wife and daughter so you gave up...... you didn't even try to fight the current.... you just let yourself get washed out of your home and down the street where you became trapped under a fallen tree and drowned.
The life you, Billie and Nora never got to live washing out, with the thousands of other souls who drowned in the catastrophic hurricane.
You were not reunited with your dead wife and daughter in heaven.
You went straight to hell.
It had to be hell.
A never ending structure full of twisting halls, cannibalistic teens, demonic entities, malfunctioning robots.... and the children.
So many dead children.
Billie was there too.
Her and little Nora.
You knew why Billie was in hell - she had never been a submissive wife who obeyed her husband like the holy bible commanded.
Nora's soul had been stolen from heaven, thanks to you...
Billie didnt see the same nightmarish hell that you did.
Where you saw hallways on fire, she saw golden walls.
Where you saw cannibal savages watching you, she saw "loyal protectors"
Her heaven - her "green place" - was your hell.
You spent so long tormented by the ungodly souls of hell that you started to feel a pain deeper than regret for the unholy life you had once lived.
A sharp pain in your lungs and throat.
One that made it feel like you couldn't breathe.
You begged a far away god for another chance....just one more chance.
That you would live the most holiest of lives and spread the word about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ.
That you would take your family to church every Monday Wednesday Friday and Sunday.
That you would even get little Nora baptised....
If only you were given another chance.
Billie didn't like you calling out to God.
She knew what you were doing and said she didn't want to go back to the 50s.
That she liked it here.
She said your God has no place here....but your God heard your anguished cries and listened to your change of heart.
He took your breath away - then gave it all back in an oxygen tank....
You were revived on a blood stained church floor beneath a mounted six feet tall crucifix of Jesus Christ.
It was the dead of night and there must not have been an adequate power supply in the church because candles were lit.
You could hear the hurricane wrecking havoc outside - the wind, rain and flood waves slamming against the side of the brick church that was standing strong against the pressure from mother nature.
You weren't alone in the church.
You were surrounded by dead bodies.
Drowned victims.
The stiff body to your left was missing a leg and half his head was caved in....it was his blood staining the floor.
There was a soaking wet nun kneeling over you fixing your oxygen mask.
"- WE GOT A LIVE ONE!" She cried out into the room, seeing you open your eyes.
"Thank heavens!" You heard an old lady's voice call.
"Praise the Lord!" Came another.
Their words echoing off the stained glass roof ceiling.
"- SISTER ROSA THERE'S ANOTHER BODY FLOATING DOWN THES SOUTH SIDE OF THE HILL!"
"- I'M COMING! GRAB PASTOR ANGELO AND GRAB THE PADDLES FOR THE BOAT!" The nun yelled before getting up from her knees.
She glanced down at you as you slowly sat up.
Your head felt dizzy, your muscles felt sore, and you were freezing cold from your soaked hair and clothes.
You began to violently shiver - so the nun grabbed a white sheet from off a dead body to your right and covered your shoulders with it.
It was damp from the drowned woman, but it was better than nothing.
"Welcome back - I'm sister Rosa Magnolia! This is my church in Rolling Hills! There's been a category four hurricane in Los Angeles. We're trying to rescue as many people as we can! You came floating in from the west wrapped around a tree log. The other survivors are upstairs getting warm by the fireplace."
Then she was hurrying away to be a hero - leaving you to navigate your way toward the church stairs.
You could breathe better now and didn't need the oxygen tank anymore so you gave it to some old man laying by the stairs struggling to breathe.
Then you gave him the sheet to stay warm before you grabbed a hold of the wooden bannister and made your way up the stairs...
Hoping....praying that by some miracle your wife and daughter had survived as well and were upstairs getting warm by the fire as they waited for you...
Of course it was just wishful thinking...but it didn't hurt any less when you only saw two other survivors - and neither one of them were your wife or daughter.
