I opened my hazel eyes intermittently, slowly blinking to clear up the blurry vision. The gears of my brain were just starting to spin again as I stared up at the sky. It didn’t take long for me to realize something wasn’t right. I sat up straight in shock. Panting, I reached over my sore shoulder, frantically trying to grasp a wing. Burned to nothing but bone. Both of my once beautiful, white wings… the flesh was as incinerated as the ashes of my urn. I finally took a look around myself to see that I was far from home.

    “Michaela,” boomed a voice from behind me.

    “Y-yes?” I managed to stutter, but the voice did not speak again. Instead, a pure white sheet of paper flew down from above.

    ‘Redeeming yourself to God requires one task, and one change,’ it read. ‘Simply retrieve your soul from Death and walk up the stairs back to your home: Heaven.’

    “But, what did I even do?” I asked myself. I pondered with the question for a moment. Suddenly, the pit of my stomach grew deeper than the fiery pit which I was submitted by. A grave wave of regret washed over and drowned me. I remembered what I did to God.

    I stood up to observe my surroundings, but I then heard an alarming noise from beneath my feet. At the exact moment I noticed the cracks, the ground crumbled beneath me, causing me to fall. Where I landed looked entirely different from where I was: a dim, green glow emitted from thin air, and all I could make out was the path in front of me. I followed the walkway and ended up in a strange tunnel. Trees started to appear, and then they began to speak:

    “Straight A’s!”, “I can pay. I’ve got loads of money.”, “Sorry, I can’t hangout. Family vacation in Cape Cod.”, “Michaela, you don’t even understand how perfect my life is. Especially compared to yours.”

    All things I could never say with truth on Earth. All things which would sweeten my dreams and bitter my reality. They were teasing me. They were mocking me! As I ran faster and faster, the path seemed to grow longer; even narrower. I started to scream- then finally, it was over. I turned back towards the path, clenching my sweaty fists. The chuckles of the trees started to fade out, and so did the tunnel all together.

    Where I was now was orange, but not entirely. It was mostly the ground itself that was orange; infact, it wasn’t normal ground. At least not any ground I’ve stood on before. What I was standing on wasn’t entirely solid, and it had almost a custard or frosting-like texture. I started along the next path and found it to be aligned with cupcakes. The growls of my stomach were pleading, so I picked up a dessert lying on the side. As I opened my mouth, I heard whispering.

    “One bite.” Its voice was almost too light to hear. “Just one bite. Maybe even two. An entire cupcake never hurt anyone.”

    I stood frozen with my mouth still open- the frosted cake just inches away from consumption. I slowly looked down at whatever was in my hand. Swallowing the shrieks in my throat, I cautiously placed the “cupcake” back on the ground.

    I wiped tears from my eyes as I came across a new path. Terror kept me from looking back at the orange nightmare, so all I could do was pray that it vanished.

    My new surroundings appeared to be yellow, but as I took a closer look at the matter, I realized it was pure gold, which was absolutely amazing! I had never seen such expensive quality all at once. Ideas started popping into my head, and I fought hard. If it weren't for the reminder that gold lacks value in Heaven, I wouldn’t have dropped it all from my hands.

    As I left my golden dream behind, I had felt relieved to have passed through it so easily. Now I was walking into a room, rather than a path. The floor was shaped like a hexagon, and the six walls formed into a dome-like ceiling above. The form of light was just like the green path’s: a dim glow; only, it was a fiery pink, this time.

    I walked to the center and looked around. There were six doors, one per a wall. I walked towards one of the doors and opened it. Inside was a stranger too handsome to perceive.

    “Michaela, you are such a beautiful girl,” he cooed. “Why don’t you come in for a little while.”

    “I… no thank you,” I hesitated, walking away. I took unstable steps to the next door and found the same face behind it.

    Suddenly, a hand grabbed me by a wing bone. I looked behind to find that the first figure I had talked to had gained a hold of me. His mirror image quickly grabbed my arms.

    “It’s not healthy to fight your feelings. I know you miss me,” they started to yell, and their yells turned to monstrous cries and screams.

    I looked around the room and noticed a rope hanging a few feet above the center. I broke free and ran to it. In the dark light, I managed to make out a door on the dome ceiling. I climbed fast and escaped into a new challenge.

    I started to notice the pattern, and I started to notice the game. At this point, I was upset, almost as much as I felt ashamed for figuring it out so late. Up ahead was a purple path, and I broke into a sprint.

    I covered my ears and averted my eyes from the many achievements of my living life. I kept all thoughts away from any proud memories and focused on the next path.

    Blue- the next path was blue. As I continued through, my stable run turned into a tiresome wobble. I yawned as I struggled to keep my eyes open, but I survived.

    The second I left the blue path, I was back to running, and I was heading straight for a blood-red glowing cave. I calmed myself down and struggled to avoid my angry thoughts, but the minute I reached the end of the rocky mouth, I was steamed.

    I searched around for a moment until I spotted a crop just a few yards away. Among the plants there was a man. He wore a long sleeve shirt, overalls, muddy boots, and dirt-covered gloves; as well as a large sunhat hid his face from my view. Using a scythe to hold his balance, he was squatting down to pick weeds.

    “Excuse me,” I interrupted abruptly. “Where can I find Dea-,” I almost fell back the moment he turned around. I didn’t have to say anything else to give him a hint, he instantly reached into a satchel and handed me an orb of sorts, which I assumed to be my collected soul. He pointed to a stairway and then returned to his crops.

    I ran towards the stairs with great excitement and started climbing them, skipping every other step. Tears fell from my eyes, crawled down my cheeks, and seeped into the corners of my growing grin.

    Just a few steps and I’ll be home, I thought.

    Suddenly, bang! I fell backwards a few steps. I carefully placed the orb at my feet. It started to fall back down the stairs, but I was too busy to care. I slowly walked up with my hands held out towards the aperture. When I got to the hole which separated worlds, my hands were stopped by a physical force hiding from my sight. My tears were no longer full of happiness, but of sorrow and the lack of integrity.   

    I wasn’t in Heaven anymore, I should’ve known better. I knew that there were consequences to certain actions, but I truly thought that what I did wasn’t so bad.
    Still behind the sealed opening, I fell to my knees. Everything was quiet until I heard my soul hit the bottom end of the stairway. I heard my soul shatter.