Revenant

Chapter 1

You'd been laying on this bench for what was probably three days. At least. It's a good thing you weren't alive, otherwise you'd be really hungry and you'd probably smell bad. It was so humid even you could feel it...and you were dead so that was saying something. You watched as a rather rotund middle-aged man with a sweaty upper lip hobbled passed you.

"I feel you, bro!" You called out to him, sitting up to solute him, but of course he didn't hear you. They never did. How long had you been dead? You weren't really sure; you weren't even sure exactly when you'd died or how. Your memories were pretty foggy, honestly. You remembered your first name, some of your interests, and you were pretty sure that you had a few family members that you'd beat to the grave, but that was about it.

Now, here you sat on a park bench in the middle of June watching the living amble by as you wondered where on earth you actually were and why you were still here. You'd heard the stories like everyone else, death was supposed to bring a "light" that you were meant to walk through...only you don't remember ever seeing a light and now you were just trapped, wandering around hoping to run into someone that could not only see you, but tell you what was going on.

Maybe you had unfinished business? The problem with that is that you weren't really sure what that unfinished business would be or how to go about finding out.

Sighing, you stood, stretching, and began wandering down the street. You couldn't really find out what that business would be if you just kept sitting on that bench.
You were on a side of town that you were pretty sure you'd never been on before, it didn't feel familiar, at least. The streets were clean and lined with cute cafes, book stores, and other little shops brimming with clothing and small knickknacks.

You meandered aimlessly through the streets, walking through some shops that happened to have open doors. An unfortunate part of this whole afterlife thing was the inability to grab onto things. It was really inconvenient to not be able to open a door.

A building with a rotating door greeted you and you paused, watching as a woman in a pantsuit walked towards the doors and you grinned, walking as close behind her as possible, perhaps if you got enough momentum going you could take the door for a spin.

But that dream quickly died, along with your once beating heart, as you were left in the door beside a bustling lobby as the rotating door stopped moving and wouldn't budge, even when you shoved against it.

Huffing in irritation, you glanced around the lobby in curiosity. The building wasn't anything special, in fact it was a little worn down, but not without its charms. You figured you'd have to wait here until someone came back to the door to let you out so you began to wander around the lobby.

The carpet was faded and chaffing in spots against the wall, but that sort of added to the appeal. It looked like the type of place that you would have lived in back when you were alive. You watched the woman as she tapped her foot impatiently by the elevator and went to stand next to her.

She was pretty, mid-thirties with a tight bun and a sharp expression. She seemed like she was in a bad mood, but it didn't lessen her appearance. As the elevator door slid open, you stepped in with her and watched as she pressed the button for floor 10. You had nothing better to do anyway; being trapped on floor 10 of this random apartment building for a little while wouldn't be the worst scenario. Maybe this woman would do something interesting to keep you entertained for a while.

You zoned out on the numbers as they ticked by and when the elevator stopped, you almost didn't notice before the doors started shutting again. You jumped, springing through the doors just before they closed on you and sighed in relief, glancing back at them before turning forward just in time to watch pantsuit woman enter an apartment and slam the door.