"So, what do you think happens when we die?"

The words broke through the silence that consumed the living room of Luca's apartment. Katrina began to sit up straighter, suddenly uncomfortable in her current position. Her smile replaced with a more somber demeanor upon hearing Luca's question. This had been the third time in the last hour that he had asked that question. No different wording, no dancing around the matter, just that question. Word for word. She was honestly becoming concerned for him, but she couldn't think of anything to say to get his mind off this sudden death kick he was on.

"Seriously, I don't know."

He turns his head towards her, rolling his eyes at her answer. She in response shrugs her shoulders at him, almost as if to ask 'what do you want me to say?'.

"I didn't ask if you knew, Kat. I asked you what you think happens."

Katrina stands up and begins walking toward the bedroom. Around halfway to the door however, Luca grabs her by the hand and turns her around to face him. At this point, she can see the tears falling down his cheeks. Stunned and visibly shaken by what she's seeing, her first instinct is pull her hand away from his. This action gets met by no resistance, much to her surprise.

"Wha-What's wrong?"

What Katrina didn't realize was that there was a lot wrong with this situation, however most of it isn't noticeable to anyone aside from Luca. What makes the scene even more interesting, is that Luca isn't even here mentally at the moment. How about we take a look into what he's seeing, shall we?

I think we shall...






Luca was never one for questioning what went on in the universe. He always believed that what happens just happens, and that there's no grand scheme of things, no universal reasoning for the occurrence at hand. His fiance Victoria on the other hand, she was obsessed with finding those answers, those reasonings.

The night was dark, and the winter wind blew on the two who were laying out on a blanket in the yard outside of their house. Neither of them minded, growing up in New York you got used to the cold. The gusts of wind covered up whatever it was that Victoria was saying, so after several failed attempts at saying it calmly, she decided to scream as loud as she could (which wasn't very loud.)

"Hey! What do you think happens when we die?"

Aw shit, Luca had been avoiding this question all day. He honestly didn't care what happened, because he didn't think he'd either be able to see it, or he wouldn't like where he ended up. A life of crime had its benefits, being able to look yourself in the mirror with a sense of self respect wasn't one of them.

"Look, I honestly don't know."

Victoria rolled her eyes at that answer, to which Luca responded with by shrugging his shoulders, kind of saying 'fuck you, I really don't care.' She definitely seemed to have a problem with that, screaming again.

"I meant what do you think happens? You don't have to know anything..."

She just wasn't going to let this die until I tell her something, Luca thought to himself as he struggled to formulate some kind of answer to her seemingly impossible question.

"Well, after we're dead, our bodies just kinda rot in six foot deep holes in the ground. Nothing too special happens after that."

Her jaw dropped to the ground as the last word left Luca's mouth. Not the answer she was expecting, considering that he was raised a Catholic (Although, you could point out the hypocrisy both his father and "adoptive" father shared as supposed members of the Catholic church as where he fell out of religion) and was supposed to believe in some kind of afterlife.

"Well, that's pretty bleak..."

"You did ask what I actually thought, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but I didn't expect, that."

Luca's eyes instinctively roll at that, but it isn't followed with the sarcastic chuckle that normally comes after such an action. Instead he seems lost in thought, contemplating the very thing that Victoria obviously keep herself up at night thinking about. Without warning, his lips move, and Victoria's presented with the very same question.

"What do you think happens when we die?"

Unlike her boyfriend, Victoria confidently responds to the question that's right in front of her.

"To start it like you did, I honestly don't know. However, I think that when we die, we're not actually gone. Like, our soul lives on and in a way we're reincarnated as someone else. We don't remember our former selves of course, but we're never gone. Not really. I mean, even if we do just die and that's it, we still live on in the hearts of our loved ones, right?

Maybe, we're never really dead."

Maybe, we're never really dead.

Back in Luca's LA apartment, the last five words of Victoria's answer played on repeat in his head. He admittedly never gave it much thought, but the more he thought it through now, the more sense it made.

He could see Katrina's mouth moving, but no sound was coming out of it. All he could think about was Victoria's death, and how he was the one who killed her. An engagement ended in vain over something so stupid as allegiance to one man. Finally, he heard something from the outside world again, Katrina's voice busting through his subconscious.

"So, what do you think happens when we die?"

"Really, I don't know either. I think, maybe we're never really dead."

With that, he walked out onto the balcony, content to stay outside and watch the night sky be blanketed by the lack of glowing from the new moon.