Every Lifetime I Fall {COMPLETED but undergoing revisions}

Chapter 8: The Underworld - Waiting

Why is the Underworld so dark and creepy? What are all these glowing flowers? Plus, the sky is always gloomy and there seems to be rock walls everywhere.

Going down the stairs, I was eager to meet Mother and Father along with Grandma. However, there was so many people. How was I going to find them?

Venturing through the busy road, I asked a guard in black, "How do you find people down here?"

"You're looking for family?"

"Yes! My Mother, Father, and Grandma."

"Their names?"

"My Father is Chen Mu Feng. My Mother is Li Yue. My Grandma is Guo Xin. I'm Chen Mu Dan."

"Ugh, there's so many people here by those names. Let me look."

He pulled out a what looked like a small gadget from his pocket.

He said into the gadget, "Find Chen Mu Feng and Li Yue with the daughter Chen Mu Dan."

In big red lettering the gadget popped up: no results.

"They're not here."

"What? Just from that, you know they're not here?"

"Those are pretty basic names. I could literally find hundreds of Chen Mu Feng. If the Locator says no results, then they probably reincarnated already."

Reincarnated? Leaving me once again?

"Mu Dan?"

A familiar voice spoke out to me just as I was about to feel sorrow.

"Grandma!" I ran to her, hugging her small frame. Smelling her scent again. That rice smell.

"Mu Dan! Mu Dan, I'm so happy to see you." She petted my hair like she did when I was a child. I was probably going to look like a child to her forever.

"Me too, Grandma. They said Mother and Father reincarnated already, could that be true?"

"Dear, they have gone. They have stayed too long here. They wanted to go be with one another again."

"They really couldn't wait for me? I really missed them."

She tucked some hair behind my ear and said, "If it's meant to be, you will see them again."

I nodded. I was glad to see Grandma at least.

"Why are you here? What has the Wu done to you? Oh! Oh my, child!" Grandma cried as she held onto me.

"Grandma, please calm down. It was an accident. The Wu family didn't do anything to me."

"You're sure?"

"Mmm."

Sighing, she wiped away her tears.

"Grandma, don't you notice anything different about me?"

"Hmm? I don't see. You still look so beautiful, Mu Dan."

"No, Grandma. I'm not stupid anymore. I was able to regain my conscious mind."

"Oh, that's wonderful. That's just wonderful."

Grandma brought me to her house in the afterlife. It was out in the open with lots of air to flow through. It had two bedrooms with soft blankets and puffy pillows. It was a treat to live with Grandma again. The villagers routinely burn her ghost money, so she spoiled me with so many things. It was a bit too much.

I spent many days watching people cross the bridge over the River of Forgetfulness. Just what were their intentions to go back in reincarnate? Maybe right past wrongs? Do what they couldn't do in the past? Live more courageously? Live more cautiously?

Either way my ten years was coming to an end soon. What did I want for myself? If given the chance, what do I want the most?

There were many things in the past that I didn't get a chance to do, which was to love someone who loved me back. To share a life together as husband and wife. I thought perhaps I was too simple of a being to want just that. But true love stood at the center of why life was even worth living. True love as a mother watching her daughter grow up, true love as a child playing with their beloved puppy, true love as two lovers holding each other's hand.

Grandma said that she would wait here for me when I get back, that I needed to go out and find what I really wanted. I gave her a hug goodbye. No tears this time.

I stood in line waiting for my Tea of Forgetfulness. Ready to forget all that's happened. Must be hard to swallow. And it was. The tea tasted disgusting. Salty.

A bit dizzy, I went up to the platform overlooking the blue lighted portal. With hopes and dreams to be loved in this lifetime, I jumped in.