by Lara Giulia
In some of my other lives, I die at fifteen years. And I die because there is no more reason to live. I die because I want to and the pain inside has grown bigger and heavier.
I am at peace with death and welcome it in like a new friend, curious how much better it will be to no longer be at all.
But in this life, I do not die. Yet, at least. I come out the other end. I made it to the other side.
How?
Faith or maybe just luck, or solely a coincidence. Evading death you wanted flicks a switch within you. It changes everything
– all at once.
Forever.
It’s a beautiful thing. Having met death and bonding with him over so much, but ultimately knowing now that it was the wrong person, the wrong time.
In another life, we decided that the time was right. I left that life with him, and that was the beginning of that life’s end.
But here, now, it was the beginning of a new beginning, a new life.
The bonus chapter life.
The book’s done. The plot is resolved. The story was told. There is the end.
But what comes after the end?
Everything and nothing.
Everything you could never imagine and nothing that could compare. Everything goes and nothing is off limits. Everything is real but nothing was anticipated. Everything will be but nothing has to be.
Grateful, fearless, risky, peaceful, daring, reinvented, careless. The other lives didn’t get to start again. They didn’t get to feel joy and happiness again. They never felt wanted or loved. They were never held or kissed or cried with joy. They never got to scream at the top of their lungs because they felt intoxicated by all the great things. They never got to find out that there is more meaning to life.
And that life should be lived in the bonus chapter, no matter if the story was told
– or finished
– or not lived at all.
© Lara Giulia 2023-08-21