The cold hit my face and woke me up. Looking around, seeing the white blanket of snow cover the world around me, I try to remember how I got here. And then it hit me...literally. I was walking my dog on the snowy hills of Ireland, when a big, blue car came around the bend. I was trying to get my dog out of the way as the car was barreling toward me, spinning sideways. As if the world was moving in slow motion, I could see the driver fumbling with the steering wheel, trying to swerve out-of-the-way, but it was too late.

A loud snap stirred me out of my memory. I see my dog, who was covered in snow, wagging his tail. Once he saw me too, he came toward me. Then when he started to lick my face, I realized I wasn't in any pain, and it seemed like he wasn't either. Frantically brushing the snow off my clothes, I saw I had not one scratch, and I wasn't cold from the snow either. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that same blue car that must've hit me earlier. I grab my dog's leash, and I jogged over to the car, letting my curiosity get the best of me.

" Hey," I yelled, "is anyone there?" Not expecting a reply, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I got a response. "Over here!" a deep voice replied back. Trudging through the snow, I came upon a man who seemed a little younger than my dad, with bright red hair, green eyes, and freckles just like I have.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "Yeah um... how are you?" he responded. "I'm fine, I guess," I said sheepishly, "What do you think just happened?" "To be honest, I don't know, but I feel like this is wrong. Something just doesn't add up!" he screamed, and kicked the snow. By looking at my face he could tell I was scared. "I'm sorry," he apologized, "It's just that I'm not cold, and I guess neither are you. There are no sirens at all. No one here is hurt, and we were just in a car accident." I guess I hadn't really thought about that.

"Ok, on a different note," I said, "I'm Fiona Claark. What's your name?" "Jack, Jack O'Connor. How old are you Fiona?" He asked. "I'm fifteen. What about you?" I replied quietly back, realizing I was sharing personal information with a stranger. "Im thirty one," he replied back. "Fiona, I know this might be scary, but we need to figure out what's going on," he told me in a comforting voice, much different than before.

As we made our way out of the woods and into the streets next to the hills, I noticed there was a single path of footsteps leading in one specific direction, but nothing else, no sound, no movement, nothing. We followed the path all the way into town until we got to a desolate payphone. Jack dialed the numbers that were etched all over the walls of the booth, and a strange voice on the phone responded. " Hello, if you are listening to this you've made it to heaven safely. Now, please report to the top of the stairway and open the door." When he hung up the phone, we saw that right on top of a hill that was empty before, indeed had a staircase. We looked at each other, but with pure sadness, realizing, earth had left us behind. We were two distant strangers, not friends; so, we couldn't give each other the comfort that we both desperately needed. So with that, we began to head up the hill.

I looked back and gave a sad smile to Jack. He put his hand on my shoulder, and gestured me to walk through. Who knew two small steps through a door would be the scariest thing in my life, or in all reality, my afterlife. I tried to get my dog to walk through with me, but he wouldn't budge. Instead he placed his snow covered paws on my chest, licked my face, and ran to an adjacent hill with a staircase and a door exactly like ours, and he ran through that door with ease. If my dog could do it, so could I. Then I stepped through. A burst of color surrounded me, and memories of my life, my friends, and my family overwhelmed me. My memories started to rewind from my most recent memory, all the way back to my first one. Then, it stopped. It stopped right at my first memory. I was being held by a strange teenage girl, and a teenage boy who looked like a younger version of Jack. Both looked exactly like me, and they both had a bittersweet expression on their faces. I slowly turned around, and I saw Jack tearing up, looking in another direction. I then saw multiple other people, all who must have died too. They were all watching their own lives go by, but to me it just looked like they were staring into nothingness. Then, Jack turned to me. Walking slowly at first, we ran into each other's arms, crying, and accepting our fate, knowing it happened for a reason. There will always be a silver lining, even in the cloudiest of days, just like today. And with that, we were transported to a hill, looking over the sight of our accident. Without saying anything to each other, he put his arm around me and we sat there for hours. The worst part was watching our loved ones arrive at the scene. My adoptive parents and my little brother. Jack's wife and two young daughters; who, all three of them looked just like me. With the loud sirens pervading the air, and my dog running toward us, there we were, finally reunited, father and daughter.