Prompt Me

Apology to Me

Apology to Me (Reddit)

Song: Our Last Night - Sorry [Cover]

To get in Heaven, you have to confront the person who you hurt the most. You were expecting an ex, your parents/relatives, or a friend. You didn't expect to see yourself.

-widdleberg

    The last of the funeral attendees finally trailed out of the cemetary and I sat down on my tombstone, just watching as my casket was slowly lowered into the ground. Who knew I would die at just 26? I was so young and I had so many plans I had yet to fulfill.

    Perhaps we should back up a bit, yeah? Well, here goes. My name is Natasha Berg - yes, Berg, it's weird, I know - and I am a 26-year-old dead woman watching my own coffin being lowered into the ground.

    My death was one of the leading causes of death in young adults and teenagers - a drunk driver. I was headed home from a night out with the girls and a drunk driver hit me head on when she accidentally swerved into my lane. She walked away without a scratch while I watched the paramedics trying desperately to save my life. She couldn't have been more than seventeen and her life might as well have been over, too, considering the fact that she was going to prison for quite some time over this.

    "Natasha Berg?"

    I looked up at the woman standing before me in lavender robes. "You see any other dead women lurking around in this graveyard?" I asked sarcastically.

    She rolled her eyes. "I know you're stung over your death, but that's no reason to be a sardonic brat with me. I'm only here to escort you to Heaven's lobby."

    "Lobby?" I asked in confusion as I got up and walked over to her side.

    She snorted. "What? Did you honestly think you were going straight into Heaven? We have rules, sweet cheeks."

    "What kind of rules?"

    "Everyone must complete one last task before being accepted into Heaven."

    "And what's mine?"

    She looked at her clipboard as she held her arm out for me to take, immediately zapping us away to a sky blue room full of chairs but no people. "It says here you have to face the one person you hurt the most in your life."

    "Who? My parents or aunt? Or my best friend, Bethany? She was really upset in the hospital when she found out I had died right next to her. How about that one guy I broke up with on his birthday?" I asked in curiosity.

    "I don't know that part, hun. The way this works is you'll go through that door and meet whoever you're supposed to meet, talk with them and then walk through the next door, never speaking to anyone about your last task," she said and indicated a door that fabricated from thin air.

    I took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," I muttered under my breath as I slowly approached the door.

    "Might as well not procrastinate, they'll still be waiting when you're done," the woman advised and disappeared.

    I grunted. "Some help you were," I grumbled and threw open the door and stepped inside before I lost the nerve.

    I stopped short just inside the door at the sight that greeted me. "You?" I asked in surprise.

    The mirror image of myself leaned back in the seat she was currently occupying and smiled bitterly, moss green eyes taking in my appearance. "That outfit always looked horrible on us. Why did you insist on wearing it so often?"

    I looked down at what I had died in. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing? I think it looks cute."

    "Sweetheart, you look like a trainwreck that just got barfed on by a giant rainbow-puking unicorn."

    I took another look at myself. Rainbow splatter silk clubbing dress and pink and orange jelly heels paired with lime green feather earrings. I was still failing to see what was so wrong with my outfit.

    She rolled her eyes. "Let's just move on already. We weren't called here to talk about your hideous fashion sense."

    "You do realize you're insulting yourself, too, since we're the same person, right?"

    She shrugged. "It's the truth though."

    I sighed and sat down in the chair across from her. "So how does this work?" I questioned.

    "Well, we talk about what you did to hurt yourself the most and that is generally followed by a heartfelt apology."

    I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and asked the question. "What did I do to hurt me so much?"

    She leveled me with her unwavering green gaze. "You let yourself down repeatedly. You turned to self-harm when things got tough instead of getting help. You harshly criticized yourself all the time. You starved your body to lose weight and blamed yourself when relationships went awry - even when it wasn't your fault. You purposely sabatoshed every chance at happiness that happened to float your way. Need I go on?"

    I shook my head and dashed away the tears steadily streaming down my face. "I'm so sorry. I never realized I was hurting myself so badly. I never realized what I was doing to myself."

    The other me snorted. "Yes, you did. You just didn't care to acknowledge it. But that's okay - I still love you anyway," she murmured and stood up. "Now, give me a hug and stop blubbering like a big baby."

    We hugged for God only knows how long before finally separating.

    "There, now you can enter Heaven," she informed me as my own white robes appeared on my body.

    "And remember, Natasha, I will always love you."

    I nodded and strode confidently into Heaven to start my second life.