Here I was lying on my deathbed with nobody by my side. My family says that I’m the most stubborn person in the world. No matter how much they tried to get me to quit drinking alcohol, I just wouldn’t give up. Nobody understands that it's my way of coping. My way of coping with this miserable, pointless life. I think it's cruel that the thing that provided me the most comfort would be the thing that also killed me. Alcohol gave me liver cancer. After I lost my job, my house, and spiraled into debt it was all downhill from there so, I started drinking. I’ve made some really bad decisions but I thought it’d be best if I shut my family out because I hated them seeing me like this. I hated seeing everyone take pity among me. But a piece of my heartbreaks that I pushed them away so far that I have to die alone. I just wanted this to be over. I wanted to escape the agony. My eyelids started sagging, my breathing slowed. I blinked my eyes a few more times until I was finally put to rest. At last, peace and quiet. Just as I thought that was the end of it, my eyes popped open with a dark winged figure standing right before me. I was in white room of nothingness that was so blinding bright.

“Oh great! I’m still alive,” I said while rolling my eyes.

“Hello, please relax while I ask you a series of questions, respond with yes or no,” the figure said. “Who are you?”

“I am the angel of death, now is your name Joseph Dean?”

“Yes.”

“Are you 54 years old?”

“Yes.”

“Are you an alcoholic?”

“Yes.”

“Did you live a meaningful life?”

“Um. No?”

“Do you regret it?”

“What do you mean?”

“A life that was meaningless, do you regret it?”

“I don’t know.”

“You need to answer with yes or no.”

“Yes, I do regret it.”

“Very well then.”

“Do you know why you’re here?”

“Well because I died?”

“You’re currently stuck in limbo, it's in between Heaven and Hell. People who leave things unfinished on Earth get put in limbo.You abandoned your family, so you must make amends with them. I’m trying to save your soul here. Be a good person and apologize to them. You don’t want to be stuck here alone forever. You can’t run away from your problems because the misery continues here, you would just be living an even worse life.”

I didn’t want to live in anguish anymore. Deep down I did want a second chance. I wanted my family again. I wanted to get help.

“Okay, I’ll do it.”

“Very well then, you have to wake up.”

“What?”

“You have to wake up.”

The angel’s voice faded.

“WAKE UP! JOSEPH WAKE UP!”

I gasped for air as the doctors were pumping my chest trying to get my heart beating again. I was laying on the hospital bed fully conscious, fully awake, thankful that I was alive, and thankful that I was given a second chance. I felt reborn again.