[Her thumb brushes against the fold of a rosen-pink envelope. Down the chute! She throws it, and listens carefully, as it tumbles down, down, down.]
[Memento Mori. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Skin to plastic, blood to sand. She'd always believed something, anything, came after the after. She turns on her heel.]
"..and, do you think theres a heaven, Sarah?"
[A ragged hand reaches for her face, tucks loose strands of poorly-dyed hair behind her ears. The hand is wrong. The hand is squishy. The hand is all-too-warm.]
"I believe in the illusion of an afterlife."
[The voice, one that commands the hand, gurgles out. Saliva and bile and rotten gums fill the voice with such a disgustingly familiar smell. Cigarettes, cheap ones.]
[She feels poetic, really. It is poetic. They met through death, did they not? And where'd that get them? Dead. Thats the thing with life, noone makes it out alive. Atleast, thats what Beetlejuice said.]
[Do you think they regret writing such blasphemes?]
"Right, my job interview starts soon. Twenty-ish minutes, uuh, I think. Wish me luck?"
[The hand reaches back. It retracts into a leathery pocket, not much different from its material. One in the same, both were probably once alive, now dead. Unless thats vegan leather. We all know they cant afford real.]
[The hand trembles and clutches around a small, cardboard box. Damp and soggy, as Ireland, ever the clumsy one, oh, she'd spilled gin all over Sarahs jacket.]
[It bares its teeth until they bend. The voice, no, the mouth. The head which belongs to the mouth, it nods, in what she'd hope is encouragement.]
[And with harsh footsteps, it leaves. Faster than it'd shown up. Its shoes are as ugly as its face, as its fake eyes and teeth and hair. As its plastic and faux fingernails, featureless.]
[She chuckles. We both know it cant feel encouragement as us humans do. It doesnt care for her. Still, let the girl hope.
[The door opens with a slow creak.]
"Hhii, s'sorry I'm late, Mister Hodge."