𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐈 𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮? || 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐩

𝟎𝟐

—
𝟎𝟐: 𝘮𝘰𝘮? 𝘋𝘢𝘥?
—

Sᴏᴅᴀᴘᴏᴘ Cᴜʀᴛɪs POV:

𝐈𝐓 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐀 𝐖𝐄𝐈𝐑𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘 𝐄𝐗𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄, 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐌𝐘 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐁𝐎𝐃𝐘. I never seen Steve cry but he was balling his eyes out because of me. I saw a tunnel and looked at it.

I was terrified to go in so I stayed a little bit longer just to see how everyone reacts.

——

After a bit, I finally decided to step into the tunnel. The tunnel immediately closed behind me, not letting me back into earth. I sigh and start walking through the tunnel.

It shows me memories of my life, basically showing my life all over again. My birth...childhood...getting a little brother...meeting Steve...meeting the gang...getting my drivers license...getting my first job...my parents dying...Sandy...the whole murder situation with Ponyboy and Johnny...and my death

I got to the end and walked into the bright white light. My eyes get heavy and I let them close.

I open my eyes to someone peering over me. It was a white room type thing and said room looked glowy. It was hard to explain.

"Sodapop Curtis?" The girl who was peering over me said. "That's me. Who are you?" I asked. "I'm Belle. Welcome to the afterlife." She says softly. I nod. "Thanks. That's hard to process." I say. "It is. Can you go to the first room on your left?" She asks. I nod and walk to the room.

I walked into the room and sat in the comfy chair and waited. A man and woman walked in the room and I immediately recognized them.

"Mom? Dad?" I say. They nod and I run up to them and hug them. "How did you die sweetie? Do you know that yet?" My mother, Jane, asks. I shake my head no. "It's all..." I trail off. "Foggy?" My father, Darrel, finishes. I nod.

"It's to prevent the trauma of your death. If you want to know you have the option to be told." I nod.

Another worker in the afterlife comes into my room. You still have to work in the afterlife?! Really? Ugh. "Hey Sodapop. I'm Flynn. I'm going to take a seat to talk to you." I nod and the worker sits down across from me and puts a file on the desk.

"This is a file of your life. It'll determine where you are going." He says. "What?" I say in confusion. "There is a good place, what we call Freylight; or the bad place, what we call Purehallow." I nod. He starts flipping through the file and I get real nervous. My mom was rubbing my shoulders, comforting me silently. I rest my head on her arm and she lets me.

Flynn finishes reading my file. "Welcome to Freylight, Sodapop Curtis." I smile widely.

——

I LEARNED LOTS OF THINGS AS THE DAYS FLEW BY. You can visit earth if you went to Freylight, my parents also are in Freylight, soulmates are real, no matter what language you speak everyone can understand you, there's no homophobia or transphobia here, only people who went to purehallow have to work. Here you just have to do community work to get special privileges. Like more hours to visit earth for example.

I also learned that one month here is one minute on earth. I learned a lot in just a month.

I got ready to visit earth for the first time since my death. I walked to the portal to go to earth as a ghost. I walked in it, closed my eyes, and had Tulsa as my destination in mind.

I opened my eyes to see the Curtis house in front of me. I walked in the house and everyone was there. Steve had his face in his hands. I felt the need to hide for some reason so I did. Ponyboy walked through the door to explain Johnny's death.

I watched Dally get shots by the cops as well. I secretly followed Steve home, using places to hide because for some reason I felt the need to around him.

I snuck into his house behind him and followed him to his room. I saw him sob and I felt bad so I sat down on the bed by him and he looked over. He almost screamed but he slapped a hand over his mouth.

"Sodapop?!" He whisper yelled. "How can you see me? I'm dead." I ask. "I have no idea but I don't care." He tried to hug me but he fell straight through me.

I try to hug him to see if I could but I went straight through him. My heart broke and I started silently crying.