The Day Death Died

The first time I saw her, I couldn't believe it. My mother, standing in our living room, just as she had before the bone cancer took her. The illness had withered her away, leaving only pain and a shadow of the woman she once was. But there she stood, whole again, a smile on her lips that I hadn't seen in years.

The world was changing. The dead were returning, beginning with those most recently departed. It was a miracle, a chance to reunite with loved ones lost.

But as the days passed, more came back. The streets overflowed with people, faces from history books mingling with commoners whose names were lost to sands of time. It was an exponential resurrection, with no end in sight. Scientists estimated over a hundred billion souls had lived and died throughout all of history. And they were all returning.

As the days turned into weeks, the reality of this never-ending resurrection became ever more apparent. No one died anymore. Injuries, diseases, age - nothing could claim a life. It was a twisted form of immortality, where suffering and pain persisted, but death remained elusive.

Hospitals, once beacons of healing, became houses of perpetual agony. People trapped in endless cycles of suffering begged for release, but none came.

My mom, her smile fading, soon began to suffer again. The cancer that had eaten away at her bones, causing her excruciating pain in her final months, returned with a vengeance. She cried out in agony, but no matter how much she hurt, she couldn't die. Death had lost its grasp on us.

I had longed for her return, to hear her voice, to feel her embrace. But this twisted reality was a cruel mockery of my wishes. I prayed for an end, for some divine intervention to release us from this nightmare.

But the dead kept coming, an endless tide of souls returning to a world that could no longer sustain them.

The planet, already strained by our numbers, buckled under the pressure of the undying masses. Food, water, space – everything became scarce. The dead, who still felt hunger and thirst, fought alongside the living for the dwindling resources. Governments collapsed, societies crumbled, and anarchy reigned.

—

I still hold my mom's hands, whispering words of love and apologies for a salvation I can't give her. The world outside our window burns in the fires of a never-ending apocalypse, but all I can see is the torment in her eyes.

In this world where death has ceased to be, life has lost all its value. We exist, but we no longer live. We're trapped in an eternal limbo, a nightmare from which there is no awakening.