You don’t need to open your eyes to recognize where you are this time.

It’s the room.

You don't know how you know it, you just do, even without opening your eyes.

You’re getting tired of this, who’s playing games with you and dragging you from one place to another?

If this is a dream, it’s the weirdest you’ve ever had. And if this is reality, well… well you hate the fact that it was today that you died, because you had to tell Liz something important.

God, Liz.

You better be alive, because you need to see her one last time.

You don’t move from the floor and you cover your face, sighing deeply. You're at loss of what to do right now.

For the first time it starts to dawn you, that (maybe) you did die.

Your stomach sinks, your confusion turning into hopelessness, you feel like crying, but the tears won't come out. The energy has drained from your body and now you fell exhausted to try and figure it out what's going on.

There’s noise coming from outside and you turn to look at the door, you wait a few seconds and the kid makes his appearance again.

The sounds from outside fill the room for a second and then it's gone. You keep your eyes closed.

“Well, how did it go?” He asks cheerfully and you don’t reply, hating every second of this.

Where’s your light at the end of the tunnel? Why can’t you just leave? If you're dead then you don’t want to keep regretting what you didn’t tell Liz.

Oh, God, your mom’s going to be pissed. You weren’t supposed to die first.

This is fucking awful.

“Are you even listening to me?” He walks towards you and kneels, “Come on, up. We have to leave."

“Leave where? I died, didn’t I?” You ask, words slurring, as if you're falling asleep, “Where am I supposed to go?”

You open your eyes and manage to catch his childish smile fading.

“You need to talk to someone first,” he says instead.

You focus back on his face, mildly interested. Before you ask what he means, he has already stood up and is preparing to leave.

“You’ll find out when you two talk." The kid says simply and you frown, sitting up, curiosity winning over your indifference.

You don't know if it's a good idea, but it's the only one so far, so you'll follow him.

Outside, everything’s black and white corridors and faint whispers. Such a cliché, but whatever. Although you hear them closely, you don’t see any other person.

As you watch the kid walking in front of you, you want to ask a lot of things, why did only one person could see you? Who is he? Why did they send you back to the world and then back to the room? What did they want you to see?

Are you a ghost now?

How the hell did you die? At the age of twenty three for fuck's sake.

It sounds stupid even to think about it, so you don’t dare to say it out loud even though everything points to the fact that you are, in fact, a ghost.

You follow him, walking around corridors and doors until you finally find the right one. The kid looks at it and nods to himself as he stops in front of it.

“Off you go,” he says, suddenly serious. You look back at him, not knowing what to feel, should you be scared?

Is there anything worse than dying though? Nothing else can happen to you.

You hadn’t thought about it, but how about you didn’t die yet and maybe this is the limbo.

(And you're in a comma or something).

You take a moment to look between the door and the kid, unable to ask him about all the things you're curious about, because if he didn't reply before, he certainly won't do it now.

So you reach out for the door handle, noticing how this is the only room with an ancient door, made of wood, it stands out in a way that makes you think that whoever is inside is more important than the rest. Or maybe the most important of them all. You don’t want to go in, but a little feeling in your chest tells you to.

And when you open the door there’s only blinding light for a moment.

You don’t actually remember closing the door behind you, but then there’s nothing but another room, white walls and floor and no windows or door.

You feel overwhelmed, as if everything started making sense now that you’re here. You can’t explain it, can’t put it into words, just quiet and peace and light.

Until you hear a voice.

The first words come like a shock and you get teary eyed.

only souls with strong feelings can remain in the world of the living

You look around, trying to pick up the source of the sound. The implications of the sentence.

Soul. Remain. Living.

If you didn’t think you died before, you do now. There’s not waking up from this, you’re dead. Dead, dead, dead.

You close your eyes and don’t dare to say a word, to argue.

Images from your friends and family come to your mind like a flash. Only one person remains though.

Oh, Liz. You had to tell Liz something.

(You had to confess to Liz, no biggie).

You can’t believe you won’t be able to.

what do you feel the most?

The voice asks, and you feel surrounded by a feeling of urgency.

There’s Liz’ laugh in your ears, and the feeling of Carmen’s fingers carding through your hair, and Mary’s doodles in your notes, and your mom’s text telling you to have a nice day.

What do you feel the most now?

love?

Liz’ telling you good morning, a bright smile on her face.

or regret?

The voice adds, and something about it makes it sound final.

Isn't it obvious what you feel towards Liz?

You close your fist, refusing to let her go.

***

When you open your eyes again, you’re back in the street, the same person looking back at you.

It seems not a second has passed, even though you feel it’s been more than a day.

“You’ve got one month,” you hear behind you, a small whisper only for you to listen. You turn just in case, but there’s no one there, you’re sure that it was the kid’s voice.

This so creepy.

Besides, one month for what? You’re already dead.

“Are you okay?” He asks tentatively.

You’re not.

You need to find Liz. You don’t know if you’ve got one month or not, maybe they were lying to you, but if you are a ghost and you’re back even for a few moments, you want to spend them with Liz.

Not only that, just tell her that you've loved her since you started to know her, since you became friends, since...

Doesn't matter.

You died. Don’t know how, when or why. But everything points out to the fact that you did. So you’ll play along. You don’t know why he sees you, but you’ll tag along, because he’ll tell everything to Liz.

Maybe that's the point, they made you come back because you had some unfinished business here.

That makes sense in most movies.

This might work if you make it.

“I need your help.” You say instead.

He doesn’t look surprised, his expression… is a bit sad. You don’t know how to explain it, but he’s so calm.

There’s no explanation for this. There shouldn’t be.

Yet reality has overcome fiction.

He doesn’t ask what kind of help you need and you’re afraid he might say no. You’re afraid he might leave and no one listens to you and you can’t tell her how you feel and-

“Okay,” he says quietly, you didn’t even hear his thoughts like last time.

You have no idea what’s going on through his head.

“What’s your name?” You ask, since you’ve got no idea how to thank him.

He looks back at you. You still can’t make any sense of him, he’s just been tied to a ghost and looks as if he’s not surprised or scared?

He must know you're a ghost. You're looking quite transparent.

“Matthew.”