“Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became
From Reddit writers prompt
http://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/2r48xm/wp_someone_once_told_me_the_definition_of_hell/
“Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.” -Anonymous
I smiled as he walked in the room. It was a great smile, my winner smile. I'd practiced it at home one weekend, it had been a smile that brokered some fantastic deals and made me a hell of a lot of money.
I was the fifth wealthiest human being on the planet when I died. Oh I knew where I was alright, I knew the drill; the thing at the door had told me all about it. I was gonna see the man I could have been, the path I could have taken. Even for me the thought was a little daunting. Is it possible I could have been higher than fifth? Maybe I shouldn't have backed out of that deal with the soft drinks people? Business was a fine art.
It was kind of weird when he came in the room, I was looking at myself, but he couldn't have been more different. He didn't so much as stride, as sort of shuffle. He gave me a brief hello, the smile of someone used to looking at their feet and a handshake I wouldn't have hired. What the hell was this? Maybe I'm the one being used to show this nobody how his life should have been?
'Hi' he said again, 'so being dead kind of sucks huh?'
What the... this piss-ant was supposed to show me where my life went wrong. Pfft whatever. He was grinning that weird smile at me again.
'Yeah it's gonna be an adventure for sure. So, you're the guy that's gonna make me feel bad about my life eh?'
'Yup, that's me'
'Listen, no offense pal, but how do you reckon you're gonna do that? You're gonna make me feel bad for not being a loser?'
That smile again.
'Let's start with some truth. Your wife was cheating on you, she's hated you for a few years now, when she's fucking her gym instructor they just refer to you as the checkbook. Your two sons have become massive drug addicts in the last few years, a bad score is going to kill them both in a few years. They've both done some deplorable things in their life due to a lack of a moral compass and for that reason they both end up down here. Don't worry, you wont have to see them, I mean why break the habit of your lifetime right?'
This guy was going for the jugular. Whatever, he was dealing with the king of the jungle (Dave and Jim do drugs? Fuck!) here, did he really think he could bludgeon me to death.
' Yeah whatever buddy. So maybe I wasn't a great family man, doesn't mean I was a failure. I helped people, I left behind a legacy!'
'Oh your company? They get bought out by Simon Whikson in a hostile takeover, you know your ex-partner? He sells off all the assets to remove it as competition. Your legacy doesn't last the year.'
The board always were fucking stupid without someone with (Really Miranda, that guy, the fucking gym instructor?!) balls telling them what to do.
'Yeah so, I still helped people, I hired people and gave to charity. My money will have saved lives, that's gotta count for something?!'
'You gave to your charity, which you set up as a subset of your business. Less than 4% of any donations actually went to needy people. The majority of the donations were put back into your business, which in effect stole money from charities that could have used the donations. To clarify, your charity basically leached money away from needy causes, whilst only doing the bare minimum to qualify as a charity. And you okay'd that setup.'
'What about people I hired, the staff, I gave people jobs, I gave them a purpose!'
'You gave them minimum wage and zero job security, you didn't even pay for the Christmas meal. Face it, your life was an endless assault on the beauty of humanity, you fucked people over all the way to the top and pissed on them when you got there. I don't need to make you feel bad about your life, you can't even name one thing that you should feel good about. That chemical you released early to get better market share by cutting back on trials to the bare minimum? It ends up killing seven and a half million people worldwide, most of them children. All for a little extra market share.'
Ok, this deal was going south fast. Seven and a half million? Shit.
'Well what about you, you saying I should have been some lowlife bum? Fuck that!'
'By your definition I'm poor compared to you, but I have two healthy sons who're doing well in school and go on to become a doctor and a mechanic. Very different professions it's true, but it's honest work. They'll help people more often than not. My wife loves me, she even has the decency to cry at my funeral rather than using it for networking. I had a loving family who I connected with, and I was a benefit to society, to humankind, however small.'
'I was the fifth richest person in the world, how can you say I wasn't benefiting society?!'
'Ah well, that's the rub you see. With the possible exception of your wife's gym instructor, you were a massive drain on the only reasonable measure of humanities progress; happiness. You made massively more people unhappy with your existence than the other way around. That's what makes you a failure, the massive black hole of misery you've left behind you. Oh, and one more thing. You're down here, whereas if you'd lived this life, the life you see, or quite frankly many more besides, you'd be going up there. So tell me again how you are such a success.'
'I... I...'
In my head a slow hand clap seemed to drive the tears from my face. I was the fifth richest person in the world, and I was a waste of life.
Note: I am really loving Writers Prompt. There are so many talented people out there.
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