Twenty Four: LISA

I blink my eyes open, feeling the release and the comfort of the air around me as it envelops me in a tenderness so calm and tranquil. The air carries with it a soothing kind of peace that cradles me, rocking me like a child in a mother’s arms.

"Melissa."

The voice is as smooth as silk, and as soft as velvet. It seeps into me, its familiar warmth wrapping around me like a blanket shielding me from the cold.

I know this voice. It is the only voice that calls me by my full name. The only voice that is a bittersweet reminder of the person that loved me like I was the only treasure in the whole world.

I turn around to the direction of the voice.

And I see her.

"Mum?"

She smiles. It can’t be.

My mother is dead. She is in the afterlife.

Wait, am I already in the afterlife?

My confusion melts away when she saunters towards me, her beautiful face now glowing with the most brightest, mesmerizing smile. She stops in front of me, her deep blue eyes reflecting my carbon image of her, blue eyes sh