55 :

Meanwhile, in a morturary :

Time passed. Flattened. Extended to what seemed like forever. My flesh turned. Barely aware of what was happening around me I retreated into myself. I found a place somewhere deep within here, deep within me. A place where there was no pain, no suffering, no boredom, no fear. I had seen what lay beyond, in the Great Beyond, and there was no fear. These things that made our lives seem cruel, and random, and cold, these things no longer were.

Whatever it was, even in the face of this ugliness, a body collapsed, grey, rotten and eaten, there was no more. It made sense. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. We go back to feed the earth. The love we make, the love we take, the love we break. All these things return, everything comes around. I can forgive. I can’t forget, but I can forgive, the others, for they are stupid, and not even clever enough to know it. Their mistakes become their lesson. We learn from our mistakes. We evolve. We become better people.

I become something else. A memory. But we live on, by the things we do and the things we have done. We become what we do. I was a good man. Not as good as some, better than others. I helped make the world a better place.

I heard, through the dull, blocked canals of my decomposing ears, a voice.