The Wonders of the Memory

Kurt missed out on saving a life because had to attend an important meeting. He soon finds out he's not only haunted by the dead person, but what happens to men like him.

The fires of the crash were visible from a mile away. Mr. Kurt was only a few meters away.

"Sir!" Someone yelled. Kurt blinked the image away, and turned his attention toward Dave. Dave was his assistant that scheduled everything Kurt did. Today was the big day of Kurt's special announcement. He was going to open up a new place for young children to go after school to play in unsafe neighborhoods. It was a huge project, one that took a year or two to get passed and underway. Now the building is going to be done in a week, and Kurt has to go up to the people of this neighborhood and talk about... something. He wasn't sure, but that's why he had Harold write his speech for him.

"Sorry there," Kurt said, rubbing his eyes and temples at the same time. It was a soothing practice he picked up from the East, but it wasn't working this time.

"I know that crash sucked, but you couldn't do anything." Dave reassured. Kurt looked at the ground, nodding his head. Then he frowned. Why was he lying to himself?

"Come on, pick yourself up sir. You go on in five minutes, and I can't have you looking like that. You have a job..." Dave's words floated off as Kurt focused in on a single blade of grass on the ground. It was the only one moving back and forth with ease. It would go one way, then slowly take its time to go the opposite direction. It was hypnotizing.

"SIR!" Dave yelled. Kurt jumped up, looking down at Dave.

"Yes! I'm terribly sorry, I'm right on it," Kurt said hurriedly, then stopped in his tracks. "What am I doing?" The assistant sighed, then pointed to the stage.

"Ah... yes." Kurt said. He walked without purpose to the stage, going up the stairs without really thinking. The podium was right there with note cards that he needed to read and say. The faces of the crowd stared at him with looks of confusion. They weren't quite really sure what this whole program was about, but they were about to learn soon what it was.

Kurt looked up at the crowd, a slight sweat coming over him. He's done this a million times, yet this time he felt self conscious of where he was. Who he was. He didn't belong in this neighborhood, he knew that. His eyes scanned the crowd until it they stopped at a girl in the back. She had a pale yellow dress, and looked at him with dead eyes. There was an orange glow to her, and Kurt gulped. He shut his eyes, then opened them again quickly to find she was gone.

"Mhm." Kurt grunted into the microphone. He put on a fake smile, and read off his cards that were written by someone else.

The fires of the crash were bright. The world around Kurt turned black and bleak despite it being a sunny day. Everywhere he looked was darkness, and the fire was his only solace. Kurt glanced at the flames, and saw that it was burning straight from the ground. Nothing was the origin, the fire just existed.

A blood curling scream came from all around Kurt, and he backed up quickly. The darkness around him faded as he hurried away from the fire, but the screaming got louder. The fire slowly diminished as the screaming intensified. Kurt finally turned around to run away from the fire properly, but was met with a girl who was on fire. Her hair was in patches on her blackened scalp. Her face bubbling almost, mostly seared to a crisp. The smoke surrounding her hid the rest of her body, but he could easily make out a pale yellow dress as her outfit. Her mouth was open, revealing her black tongue with seared holes in them. The screaming was coming from her, and it pierced Kurt's eardrums, making his ears bleed.

He fell to his knees, as so did the girl. She was no more than five feet from him, but she just stayed there, on her knees. Pointing at him, screaming at him, eyes wide with fear and hate.

"How was your sleep. sir?" Dave asked, handing Kurt a plate full of breakfast. Kurt stared at the plate, his stomach too sick to look at it.

"Not today, Dave." Kurt mumbled, pushing away the plate gingerly. Dave knocked an eyebrow, picking up the plate and placing it in front of him instead. He sat down opposite of Kurt at the dining room table, and started eating the bacon.

"You never answered my question," Dave stated as he stuffed eggs into his mouth. Kurt looked up from the table to meet Dave's eyes. Dave stopped chewing, and adopted a concern look.

"I don't want to." Kurt said. He got up suddenly from the table, and went to the stairs in the hallway connecting the kitchen to the living room. Dave was left alone in the kitchen, a fork full of eggs sitting on the plate. Dave slowly started chewing the eggs in his mouth as he pondered his boss' behavior. He played it off as something that happened in a silly dream, and continued wolfing down his breakfast.

"Look, are you free Saturday night?" Kurt said, impatient with the other person on the phone. "Of course I'm free Saturday, are you is the question!"

The door to his master jingled, and Kurt quickly hid his phone underneath his covers. Kurt's wife entered the room, arms full of bags of shoes and clothes. Kurt rolled his eyes at the shopping spree she went on, and went to help her with the bags.

"How much?" Kurt asked as he took some bags from her arms, relieving tension from her.

"A couple hundred," she said, throwing the answer around like it was nothing. Kurt nodded, realizing it wasn't that much to argue about. He placed the bags next to the closet where his wife will organize everything into their respective places. After standing up, he realized he needed to finish his phone conversation.

Going to the bed to get his phone, his wife stopped him halfway.

"Hey, what are you doing tomorrow?" The wife asked. Kurt pursed his lips curiously.

"Tomorrow is Thursday, right?" Kurt asked. She gave a curt noise from her mouth indicating "yes". "Busy."

"Busy with what?" She asked, sort of irritated. A part of her knew that was the answer.

"Work stuff," Kurt vaguely said, picking up his phone from the bed, and pocketing it. Carefully placing it in there as to not hang up the call.

"Friday?" She asked.

"Busy."

"Saturday?"

"I'm also busy."

The wife sighed, and thought asking about Sunday was pointless. She started going through her new items while Kurt left the room.

After walking awhile down the hall, he pulled his phone back out.

"Sorry, the wife walked in," He hurriedly apologized. He stood there, listening to the other person.

"No! I was lying, I am free Saturday. Same place as last week?" His face lit up after hearing the answer.

"Great." Kurt hung up the phone, placing it in his pocket. He looked around triumphantly, but then back to his usual feeling. Boredom. He looked down at the carpet, seeing how the red carpet with orange vines intertwining kind of looked like fire. It looked too much like fire.

He started sweating profoundly from heat. He looked up, and saw a young girl at the end of the hallway with a yellow dress staring at him. Her eyes were colorless, but was filled with emotion. Kurt reached up to slightly untie his tie, due to him sweating. Kurt looked to his right at the blue wall, then back to the hallway. She was gone.

Everything got considerably colder as it was, and Kurt kept walking to his study. Trying to not think about her. Trying not to think about what he was doing. Trying not to think at all.

As he turned the corner in his hallway, he almost ran into his new employee, Jack. Jack was the new guy (he's only been there for two weeks) in charge of keeping the house nice and tidy while Kurt, Dave, and the wife are out doing political events and meetings. The old guy, Tyler, got fired due to petty thievery around the house, which surprised Kurt. They were gone so much, Tyler could've easily taken more from them, but he only got caught by accidentally bragging about his possessions to Dave one drunken night.

"I'm so sorry, sir!" Jack said, wide eyed with fear of what Kurt was going to say. His reaction wasn't out of conditioning of Kurt being hard on him, he just hated to disappoint in general.

"You're fine," Kurt mumbled as he kept walking past Jack, not really paying attention to what happened. Jack looked down the hallway to see Kurt turn a left into his study where he does research and likes to just sit there. Once he was gone, Jack smiled, and kept walking down the hallway. He pulled out his phone, and started typing away.

"Where is she," Kurt asked himself, looking at his watch. It was six, and the girl she wanted to meet up hasn't even made it yet. They agreed for 5:30, but nothing yet. Kurt leaned back in the seat of his car, looking around the parking garage where he was parked. His eyes gazed over all the cars, making judgement on each on of them, until one caught his eye. The car was facing away from him, so all he saw was the back window with the stickers on it. It showed a kid stick family of two parents, two kids, and a dog. Kurt chuckled lightly, thankful for not having kids. The stick family was on the lower left of the window, and on the opposite was a small cross. Kurt rolled his eyes, and kept looking at other cars.

Something in his brain kicked at him, and he looked back at that car again. It was a red SUV that looked very familiar to him, yet it was odd. The more he stared at it, the less... hazy it seemed. He's seen it somewhere. Suddenly, the car door opened, and flames erupted from the car. Kurt jumped in his seat, gripping the door handle very tightly. The flames were coming out of the car, obviously touching the other cars, but nothing was happening to them.

A person stumbled out of the SUV. It was a girl in a yellow dress. Kurt quickly unbuckled his seat belt, and ran out of his car. As soon as he set foot out of his vehicle, the girl looked over at him. Her face was burnt to a crisp, and her yellow dress had black spots everywhere from the burns. Whatever hair she had left was colored blonde with soot in it. Kurt stood there, paralyzed with fear looking at her. She stared at him with blue eyes that slowly turned gray. As her eyes decolorized, her mouth opened, revealing her black teeth scattered throughout her mouth.

"I'M SORRY!" Kurt yelled, hoping it would do something. The girl's mouth was open all the way, and a scream escaped from her, filling Kurt's ears. That's all he could hear. Kurt quickly turned around with his hands covering his ears, and started running. Turning sharply and frequently throughout cars as if to loosen the girl that was potentially chasing her. He assumed she was, as the screaming in his ears remained unchanged.

After turning out of some cars into the middle driveway of the parking garage, he stopped dead in his tracks. She was five feet in front of him, staring at him, mouth closed. The screaming in his head wasn't there anymore, but his hands were still there. He never realized that the screaming stopped.

She took a step forward the same time Kurt took a step back. He stood there, staring at the girl in agony.

"I am full of regret, is that what you want to hear?" Kurt asked, breathing heavily from running. The girl stared at him with her dead eyes. Kurt was going to say something else, but a voice behind him spoke.

"Are you okay, mister?"

Kurt turned around quickly, and saw a businessman looking at him with a worried look. Kurt assumed he was a businessman due to the way he was dressed and had a briefcase. Kurt looked from the man, back to the girl, but she was gone.

"Sir?" The man asked. Kurt looked at him with pain stricken eyes. The man had a genuine look of surprise on his face, thinking this man was a little crazy.

"You wouldn't believe me," Kurt mumbled, looking around as if he was searching for something. The man looked around as well, and saw a few people looking at Kurt with curious eyes.

"How about I walk you to your car? You look like a man who needs company right now," the man offered. Kurt looked at him, and waved him off.

"I-I don't need your help. I got this." Kurt straightened himself, cleared his throat, and walked past the man.

"The name's Ryan," the man said as Kurt walked past.

"I didn't ask," Kurt retorted. Ryan pursed his lips as Kurt walked past him. Ryan took out his phone, looked at it, and then back at Kurt.

Kurt reached his car, and had his hand on the handle when he stopped what he was doing. He looked over to the spot where the SUV was, and noticed it wasn't there anymore. No burn marks anywhere. Kurt drew a shaky breath, and opened the door. At the same time, he suddenly grew a major headache then blacked out.

"How much are we being paid for this?" A voice said.

"It's more like we're doing a favor," Another voice said.

"Are you shitting me? I had to act nice, and I'm not being paid?" The first voice questioned. There was a grunt suggesting "yes".

Kurt heard the voices, but couldn't recognize anything. He couldn't even recognize what his body was feeling.

"Surely we got paid for handling with that woman next door! She wasn't even part of the hit, yet we still knocked her out."

"Because she was a witness! That's our policy to do nevertheless!"

Kurt grumbled something, and the two voices stopped talking instantly. A few moments of silence, and a bright light was flicked on. Kurt had his eyes closed, but he still squinted at the harsh red-yellow light that his closed eyelids displayed.

"Think he's awake?"

"He is now."

Kurt slowly opened his eyes, but could only squint for the time being. His body slowly started to send signals to his brain. The first signal was that he had a massive headache that originated from the back of his head. Kurt opened his mouth to speak, but only had enough energy to say one word.

"Where..."

"None of your business, Kurt." A voice said. Kurt opened his eyes some more, and barely saw two silhouettes behind the bright light.

"Now that you're awake, we're gonna ask you a question, and then leave the room so you can have time to think about your answer. You want to make sure you're telling the truth, or else we might kill you." Kurt heard the two bodies go farther, then a door opening. As soon as the door shut, the light turned off, and Kurt was left alone to himself.

Suddenly, another light turned on in the room, but it was considerably less bright. It was a TV to the left of Kurt, and the brightness was cranked down to make sure Kurt can see it easily. What he saw on the TV was a feed of a go pro attached to someone, and that person was moving towards Kurt's own house.

Charlie Angel was moving towards the house, a handheld gun in his hand with only two bullets. That's all he needed. The go pro was situated on his chest, tightened so it only moved when his body did. Coming up to the house, he knocked on the door with three taps.

While he waited, he checked his phone to see a text from his sister, begging him to let her join him on his missions. Charlie sighed, and put the phone away, deciding that it was a bad idea. She was a little too immature, and would most likely ruin the mission overall with something dumb.

The door jingled, and the door opened to reveal Jack. Charlie nodded his head, saying, "Jack."

"Charlie." Jack stated as he stepped inside to let Charlie in. Stepping in, he saw someone come out of the kitchen to his left. It was Dave, and he was paying too much attention to his phone to notice Charlie with a gun in his hand.

"Jack, who is it?" Dave mumbled as he typed away some important event for the future. Jack pointed toward a vase on the table, which Charlie picked up. Dave looked up from his phone, irritated that Jack didn't respond, but quickly had a look of terror as Charlie walked up to him holding a vase above his head.

"What are you do-" Charlie knocked the vase over his head, passing him out. Charlie turned around to look at Jack, and motioned towards the body.

"Gag and tie him up," Charlie stated. Jack nodded, and went to get some rope. Charlie then went up the stairs that were nearby, and found his way to the master bedroom. He heard sobbing in the room. He waited a little bit to see if anyone else was in there, but he heard no one else. Opening the door, he found Kurt's wife on the bed, mascara running down her face. She had her eyes closed, so she didn't see Charlie come in.

"Kurt, I swear to God, if that's yo-" She opened her eyes by that point, and gasped at the gun held out in front of her. Charlie raised the gun, then brought it down on her head quickly, making her pass out as well. Looking around, he felt satisfied how easy this was.

Kurt watched with horror as he saw his wife and his assistant both tied up in chairs, back to back. Jack just finished tying up the wife when she woke up. She tried to scream, but the gag canceled most of her noise.

Jack looked at the go pro, and gave the thumbs up sign.

"Alright Kurt." A voice on the intercom spoke. It was hard to tell, but Kurt could recognize that voice as the same one from earlier. "Here's the question: What would a man of power such as yourself do in order to save his precious family? We'll give you time to think about it. Meanwhile, here's a good freeze-frame of what is at stake."

The video paused, showing Dave's eyes wide with fear, and the wife trying her hardest to scream. Kurt looked at the two, pondering what he would do.

"Anything," is what Kurt felt like saying, but something stopped him. A voice inside of him told him that's not what he wanted. Not really.

His heart was pulling opposite of his brain. He looked at the two of them being in danger, and his heart never skipped a beat. It remained unchanged.

"Nothing." Is what Kurt said. There was silence over the intercom, and Kurt wasn't sure they heard him.

"NOTHING!" Kurt yelled.

"We heard you the first time." The intercom said. There was another moment of silence. "We're just surprised."

"Yeah, well." Kurt mumbled. He looked at the TV, and wondered if they were still alive. Then he realize he truly didn't care. If he found out they died, nothing in him would change.

"We're... we're going to make a call," the voice said. The TV turned off, leaving Kurt alone in the darkness. The intercom switched off with an audible click, leaving Kurt alone in silence. Then he heard slight breathing in front of him.

"What now?" Harley said, staring at Kurt through the one-sided window. As he watched the TV, nothing changed about his person. No recognition of trouble or anything. They just heard Kurt say that he would do nothing for his family that was probably going to die. It depends though, based on what Harley and Drew wanted Charlie to do to the people tied up.

"We're... we're going to make a call," Drew said into the intercom. He then turned off the TV, leaving Kurt in the darkness. Harley turned off the intercom, and looked questionably at Drew.

"What the hell are we supposed to do? The boss never explained this situation." Drew was looking at the black room, wondering what Kurt was thinking right now.

"I know, don't worry. Look, I'm going to call Charlie to let him know what's going on, and then I'm gonna call the boss." Harley nodded his head as Drew got out his cell phone. He got up from his seat, and walked outside the room. Closing the door, he left Harley in there to babysit Kurt inside the dark room.

Harley sat there, staring in the darkness trying to find Kurt somehow. He ended up seeing a bunch of weird shapes, his eyes playing tricks on him with the absence of light. He was about to go outside with Drew before he heard a scraping noise in the room that lasted for a second. Harley stood frozen to the spot, wondering what could've happened in there to make that noise. Then it happened again, accompanied by slight mumbling.

"He must be moving in his chair," Harley thought to himself. It happened again, but this time Kurt was loud and clear.

"I'M SORRY!" He yelled. Harley immediately stood up, a little shaken by the sudden burst of emotion.

"Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me!" Kurt pleaded with his life. Harley had no idea what to do, so he decided to get Drew in here. He was going out the door before Kurt asked, "What's your name?" Harley stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the darkened room.

"My name?" Harley asked himself. He was tied between going outside to get Drew, or possibly participating in this weird fiasco.

The choice was made for him, as Drew walked up to the half-opened door, done with his phone calls.

"In or out Harley," Drew said playfully as he opened the door all the way. Harley quickly retreated into the room, causing Drew to knock an eyebrow at him. "Are you okay, man?"

"Kurt is doing some weird things in there man," Harley said, pointing to the window. Drew stared at the darkness, wondering what he could possibly mean by that.

"What are you ta-"

"No, please, don't come any close- AAAHHHHHHH" Kurt screamed.

"What the hell," Drew commented as he went to go flip on the lights in the room. Once he did, Kurt's screaming only intensified. He found himself backed up against the wall of the room, eyes closed from the sudden brightness. Drew went to the intercom, and pressed the button to speak.

"Kurt, what's the matter?" Drew asked, not really concerned on how he is, but curious to see what was making him scream like that. Kurt stopped yelling, and looked around the room he was in frantically as if he was searching for something. Seeing that there was nothing in the room, he started to freak out even more.

"COME BACK IN HERE!" Kurt yelled to the ceiling. Drew looked over at Harley staring wide eyed at Kurt. Harley returned the gaze, causing Drew to give him an eyebrow raise.

"Hell no. That guy's crazy." Harley said. Drew gave a look that said "I don't care". Harley looked from Kurt, to Drew, then back to Kurt. Biting his lip, he wasn't sure what to do.

"Okay, so like, if I was to go in there. Hypothetically. What would I even do?" Harley asked. "I totally thought this was some typical guy that was going to just be, like, easy to break through his family and s**t. But not this, no no no. We're not paid enough for this."

"Actually, I got off the phone with Charlie. We are being paid for this now as of a few minutes ago," Drew explained. Harley stood up in shock from his chair. Drew gave him a look that said that him standing up wasn't necessary.

"How? He doesn't even know this," Harley gestured towards Kurt who was still screaming for them to go in there, "was going on! Ho- Why? What did you say? Did you say anything to make them want to give us more money or something?"

"Something like that. It's not important, but what is important is finding out information from Mr. Kurt here. No go in there, and do your job that you're now being the appropriate money for." Harley gulped, grabbed his pistol from the command center, and went to walk to the door. Opening it, he gave out a little sigh, and walked into the medium room.

"GET IN HERE YOU, PLEASE!" Kurt yelled at the ceiling, hoping his voice would carry louder if he directed his voice at the ceiling. There was no logic behind it, but he didn't care anymore. He was tired, and wanted it to end.

He saw the girl again in the dark. All he saw was a pair of lightly dimmed red eyes in the blackness. Admittedly, the eyes were a little above where the girl's eyes should've been, but there was no mistaking the anger in her eyes.

As Kurt sat there, waiting for them to come in, he realized something as he remembered those haunting eyes. That the emotion in the eyes weren't necessarily anger, but something else. They gave off the notion that they wanted Kurt to suffer. That could be anger, but it felt so much more than that.

The fact that Kurt had to think about this and analyze to this extent, only made him yell louder.

"GET ME OUT OF HE-" His yelling was cut off by the opening of a door on the other side. It was one of the men from before, and he looked a little nervous. Gripping a pistol at his side, he looked alert as he stared at Kurt. Slowly moving into the room.

"What do you want?" Harley asked quickly, obviously not wanting to be in there, but out of fear. Kurt didn't recognize this, as he had his eyes focused on the gun in Harley's hand. Kurt gulped hard.

"What do you want from me?" Kurt asked. Harley stood there, wondering if this was a joke. He looked quickly to the one-way mirror as if to see Drew, but he only saw a brick wall. "You wanted me to do something in order to save my family, didn't you? You wanted me to do anything to save my poor wife and assistant." Harley looked at the fake brick wall again, asking for help with his eyes. The intercom clicked on.

"Are you familiar with H&H?" Drew asked over the intercom. Kurt showed no physical sign of recognition, except slowly nodding his head. He was still eyeing the gun.

"We wanted you to sell us your company, Kurtson Co. It would help our boss immensely to try to control the West part of America." Drew explained. Harley nodded his head, gripping his tight on his gun as Kurt made one tiny step towards him.

"Is that all?" Kurt asked. Drew was going to say something, but Kurt held a finger towards the intercom. "I want this living person in front of me to speak." Harley gulped, tightening his grip on his gun so much, the white of his knuckles were showing.

"Yes, it is," Harley forced out. Kurt nodded as he drew closer to Harley slowly.

"Make sure you're recording this," Kurt said.

"We're already are," Harley said.

"Good. Because my name is Pilo Kurt. My code is 738143379, and I officially sign my company, Kurtson Co., to the company owned by Jir Kurt, H&H." Kurt said all of this while moving closer and closer to Harley. By this point, he was only a few feet in front of the gun wielder, who was holding the gun forward.

"Thank you, Mr. Kurt." Drew said. "Now if you would, please back away from Harley." Harley nodded his head as he got the pistol ready to fire at Kurt if he did anything.

"I don't think I will," Kurt said, looking straight down the barrel of the gun being pointed at him.

"I'm sorry?" Drew asked over the intercom, confused. Kurt walked right up to the gun, and moved his body so the barrel of the gun was over his heart. Harley gulped, looking at Kurt with mixed emotions. He felt scared, but also in power as he had the gun. Yet at the same time, he felt weirded out.

"I had two other brothers. Older, both dead, but they were my brothers nevertheless. One of them died by our alcoholic father, and the other killed himself. He carried the burden of his brother's death on his shoulders unnecessarily, and this drove him insane. My other brother went insane from war. My dad resorted to alcohol to escape his insanity, but it only made it worse. My mother was the only normal one." Kurt took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, giving Harley goosebumps. It was dead silent as Harley and Drew just stared at Kurt giving this story.

"Of course, I know all of this from my mother. Never met my two brothers. I was born, and so was Jir, after they died. Jir and I grew up with an abusive, alcoholic, insane father who would beat us up if he felt like it." Kurt looked Harley in the eyes, and Harley squirmed where he stood, yet he kept the gun firmly on Kurt's slow beating heart. "I don't want to end up like my old man."

Kurt slowly took his hand, and put it on the pistol, tensing Harley up even more. Instead of taking it away, he pushed it towards his heart, that was still beating at a turtle's pace. Kurt looked over at the fake wall Harley was staring at earlier.

"You now have my company, and I don't care about anyone. I own nothing. I have nothing." Kurt turned towards Harley.

"Now let me be nothing." Harley's eyes grew wide eyed, and he tried to take the pistol away, but Kurt's grip was stronger than his. Drew was staring at this situation from the control center, not believing what he heard. He should've called someone. He should've definitely called someone, but then he remembered the phone call.

"I'm useless to you. I'm useless to everyone. Let me be discarded," Kurt spoke, almost in a trance. Harley was slowly starting to freak out, wanting Drew to say something. Anything. Drew sat there, and agreed with Kurt.

He leaned froward in his seat, and spoke into the microphone, "Do it." He saw Harley struggle with Kurt's grip, but then stop when Drew spoke.

"What?" Harley asked, not believing what he heard.

"End me." Kurt demanded. Harley looked at Kurt with a hesitant look.

"Kill me."

Harley looked at the fake brick wall, and felt no connection with his partner on the other side. He had no idea what he was going through. This would be much easier for Harley if Kurt was begging for his life. The satisfaction would be much more, but this? He almost felt guilty for even holding a gun to a man that wanted to end his life.

"What are you waiting for?" Kurt asked. Harley gulped again, not sure what to do.

"Come on Harley," Drew said over the intercom.

"Kill me, please." Kurt said calmly. Harley looked at Kurt, then decided he had to do what he had to do. Kurt saw the look of transition in his eyes, and he closed his eyes in response. It was as if Kurt was waiting for something good to come.

Harley got into position for the kickback of the weapon, and got ready to pull the trigger. He stood there for ten seconds.

"Please." Kurt quietly whispered. Harley turned his head so only one eye could see Kurt. He barely applied pressure to the trigger.

There wasn't a difference between Kurt opening or closing his eyes, it was dark nevertheless. He wasn't even sure if he had eyes, and if he did, whether or not he was opening them or closing them. He could feel his limbs, but he couldn't feel them moving. He thought they were moving, he could feel his brain telling them to move, but it didn't seem like they were moving. Or maybe they were. His body was there, he felt it. He was aware of it. He just couldn't be aware of it moving.

Kurt was never a religious man, so he wasn't sure what was happening right now. He knew he died. That's for sure. The trigger was pulled, and now here we was, stuck in some kind of void. Some sort of oblivion. He read the Bible, he sort of knew about judgement and how God judges a person based on their actions, but they always go into Heaven though. Kurt was wondering why that wasn't happening to him. Where's his judgment? Doesn't he deserve a chance at redemption in the afterlife?

Degduj need ydaerla ev'uoy.

Kurt looked around, but then realized he wasn't sure if he was actually turning his head or not. Kurt opened his mouth to speak, but again, he wasn't sure if his mouth actually opened. He couldn't feel his throat vibrating as he tried to make sound. Any sound.

Citehtap.

Kurt spoke out again, but to no avail. No sound came from his mouth. Instead of speaking, he tried to comprehend instead. Understand what the Hell was going on. His brain was thinking about everything that is and was happening after he died. Kurt then caught himself.

There was something before this void. He thought to himself. There must've been, he felt it. What was it though? Some sort of image resonated in his mind, but it was all white. It gave him no information.

That thought didn't last though, as he felt his body suddenly falling. He still saw blackness, but it somehow seen to be rushing upward as he fell downward. He wanted to scream, but then remembered he couldn't.

The fall was very short, but felt long to Kurt as he just existed there, seemingly motionless. He never saw the ground coming, as he just kind of fell against it. The crash didn't hurt that much, so it mustn't have been a really long fall, but Kurt felt like it was.

A sudden swell of noise hit his ears at once, causing him to grunt. He was then surprised to hear his vocals working again, and his sense returned. He felt cold. One hand holding his ear, the other palming the ground, he wondered where he could be. His eyesight improved, he could distinctly tell the difference between the floor below him, and the sky above him. He was pleased he was wearing the same clothes (or any clothes for that matter).

A little light illuminated the area from above, causing Kurt to look up out of instinct. It was a reddish light, and it seemed to be hazy and distant. Like it was behind darkened clouds. The smooth flooring below Kurt slowly transformed into fine sand that felt warm. Then it started getting warmer.

"Ah," Kurt gasped, standing up and waving his hand around. The sand below him was heating up considerably. He no longer felt cold, but instead had a sweat going through his body. He took off his outer shirt, and tossed it on the ground where it instantly vanished.

The light above Kurt got brighter as the clouds disappeared. Kurt noticed the sand was black, but patches of red were showing up from here to there. The patches were bright red and giving off heat waves where they appeared. Kurt wanted to run away, but he was surrounded everywhere by this sand, and no where to stand.

The place was heating up, and Kurt was starting to sweat even more. He was going to move, but realized he couldn't. He couldn't feel his legs. He tried yanking on them, but they stood rooted to the ground. Looking down, he was confused why they were frozen there in place. It's not like his feet were sinking below the sand, they were just standing there on top.

Ereh wen eb tsum uoy.

Od ot uoy tnaw I revetahw od uoy.

Kurt looked up, and found the girl with the yellow dress. She stood there, looking fresh and alive. Like she just took a shower. Her blonde hair flowed over her shoulders, and she had the nicest smile. She did have the nicest smile until Kurt saw her eyes. They were black with bright red pupils in the middle. The smile that gave him a little hope in this Hell now gave him chills. It opened It's mouth to speak, and came out a deep, raspy voice.

Hannah saw ema-

It grunted, clearing It's throat. When it opened It's mouth again, it was a girl's voice.

"Her name was Hannah." Hannah said. She then smiled, and slowly started walking toward the standstill Kurt. He tried to move his legs again, but they just stood there. Hannah stopped walking, and her dress slowly started smoking.

"But you wouldn't know that, would you?" Hannah asked. Kurt was breathing heavy, trying to control his emotions. Trying to comprehend what was happening.

"Where..." Kurt was going to say, but he felt his mouth shut.

"I was getting there, calm down sport," She commented. She then smiled again, and started walking towards him again. The dress caught on fire, causing it to immediately burn her arms and body. It didn't take long for the arms to boil and blacken by the fire, as for did the patches of skin Kurt saw through the burnt holes of the dress. "Right now? You're actually burning alive in the lake of fire."

Kurt spit some sweat from his mouth that gathered there from his forehead and nose. He looked at his body, but everything seemed normal. As normal as you could get. Kurt wanted to ask what she meant by that, but he couldn't speak.

"Your mind, however, is mine. Well that, and something else, but it's not like you're going to need it. The essence of your living? The little glowing light in every disgusting human? Your soul." Kurt went wide-eyed, and realized where he was. He started crying instantly, but Hannah snapped her fingers and he stopped.

"No no no, none of that here. You're supposed to be cold-hearted, YOU BELONG HERE!" Hannah yelled the last part out with a huge smile. By this point, the left half of her face melted off revealing some of her bone structure. The eyeballs stayed unquivering while her body yelled out in pain. Her hands at her side showed some bone as they clenched in white hot searing pain. Kurt's face was disgusted at this, making Hannah chuckle a little.

"You don't like this, do you?" Hannah asked, gesturing to her burned face with her burnt hand. Her hair was catching fire, and quickly making its way to the roots. "You do realize you could've save her. Right?" Kurt stared at Hannah with a distraught face, shaking violently from fear. He wished he was alive.

"Oh yeah, you did realize it. You knew you could, actually." Hannah laughed, realizing something. "I could've chosen so many moments from your life to torture you with. You cheating on your wife, lying to your business partners. You even KILLED A MAN! Those are some heavy sins you know." Hannah pointed a finger at him playfully. Her smile was no longer a smile, but just bare teeth. "But this tops the cake, because it's most personal to you."

Kurt wanted to run away. His heart was pounding in and out of his chest, and he didn't want to be there. Fear was pumping through his veins, along with anger at himself. He thought killing himself was going to bring peace to everything. Going to bring an end. Instead, it created a new beginning. A beginning he couldn't dream of.

Hannah looked at Kurt thoughtfully. When she opened her mouth to speak, her voice was back to a deep raspy one.

Kcul doog.

The look of the black eyes were replaced with regular brown eyes instead. She looked around frighteningly, then saw Kurt. Her eyes took a second, but then recognition crossed her face. She smiled.

"Please," Kurt pleaded, surprised he could talk. He wasn't sure what he was pleading for, but he felt something coming that he didn't want.

Kurt was knocked down to knees, then got pushed head down into the seat that appeared. In the beating, Kurt closed his eyes to focus his attention on not trying to feel the pain and heat. It didn't work.

Opening his eyes, he found himself crunched in an almost folded car. It was a red SUV that was crushed on the side of the road. Kurt's head hurt from hitting it against the wheel. His foot was pinned against the seat and the middle console. He tried to yank it out, but nothing happened. Breathing in from the workout of trying to get his foot free, he smelled gas. He then heard a flicker of fire somewhere, and he put the two together. That's when he started screaming.

Banging the window above him, trying to get some attention from the outside world somehow. The thought of him blowing up crossed his mind, and he started banging on the window harder.

His heart swelled when he saw a person on the outside, looking down on him. It was a girl with blonde hair.

"HELP ME! PLEASE, HELP ME!" Kurt yelled, hoping the girl would hear him. The girl stood there looking down on Kurt, she then smiled. The window was fogging from the fire that just started behind Kurt in the car. It hasn't reached him yet, but it will soon.

"I-I'm sorry," the girl said with an opposite reflection of emotion on her face. "I have a meeting that I'm running late for, I'm so sorry." She then slowly backed up, but kept watching as Kurt yelled and banged on the window mercilessly.

"HELP ME! PLEASE! I NEED HELP!" Kurt screamed. The fire got to the seat Kurt was stuck in, engulfing it. Kurt screamed from the hot white pain he was feeling from the fire. His hair burned up in patches, and his skin started to boil. The space made the air hotter, causing him to sweat profoundly. He could already smell his flesh cooking.

The girl kept backing up, but couldn't stop watching the events unfold. She finally disappeared from Kurt's view, which only made him scream louder.

He yelled and yelled until the fire and smoke reached his lungs and filled them. He started coughing intensely, bringing up blood on the window. The world around him started fading as the heat was reaching its peak. The sweet bliss of fading into oblivion for Kurt was suddenly halted.

Kurt opened his eyes. He found himself crunched in an almost folded car. It was a red SUV that was crushed on the side of the road.