Disclaimer: I own this story, but I don’t own iWelcome to the Jungle/i by Guns N’ Roses

The orange ticket in my hand makes a strong contrast to the whiteness around me. How did I get here? And for that matter, where is here?

The last thing I remember was... My mind is a total blank.

"Excuse me, Sir?" I tap the older man in front of me in line on the shoulder. "What exactly are we waiting in line for?"

After a second of confusion, he laughs. How dare he laugh at me? But my indignation is smoothed away as he smiles at me. "You don't know, do you?" He asks, almost in disbelief. I nod and he chuckles again. "We're waiting to be sorted at the gates," he says matter-of-factly, as if that explains everything.

"What sort of gates?" I ask, hoping for an actual answer this time.

"Why, the Pearly Gates, of course." His jovial smile and attitude was really starting to get on my nerves.

"Pearly Gates? As in, the entrance to Heaven?" I ask, afraid of what the answer was going to be. He nods and I sink to my knees, my legs no longer able to support my weight. "But I don't even know how I got here," I moan. I would've whined more, if not for the flash of memory.

The flash ends and I shake my head, trying to clear my thoughts.

"So, you don't know why you're here? How... odd," the man comments. He shrugs and turns back around. I stick my tongue out at him, even though I know it's childish.

Sitting down, I try to make sense of my feelings and emotions. So... I was dead? And I can't remember why. Very not fun there. Another flash.

The flash ends and I jump up because the line is moving. I look down at the ticket for lack of something better to do. It was just a small, orange piece of paper with "Admit One" written in a plain black font on the front side of it. Nothing spectacular, nothing special. Just a ticket.

"You better not lose that," a pale girl behind me says. I look back at the sound of her voice and stare. She looks thin and deathly pale, which makes sense, actually, because she must be dead as well.

"Why?" I ask, puzzled by everybody and everything in this strange place.

"If you lose it, they make you get another one and go to the end of line." She smiles, then apparently notices me staring, because she says, "Oh, I died of prolonged cancer. I was in the hospital for the last year of my life." But she looks so damn cheerful! She's dead; she shouldn't be so damn cheerful. I mean, what about all the people she left behind? Suddenly, another flash.

This time it took longer to snap out of my flashback. But when I finally did, I felt groggy and dizzy. Should a dead person really be feeling dizzy? I wonder. I would've sat down to ponder this some more, but the line was once again moving.

"I do believe I've seen you before," a woman somewhere behind me says. I turn around, thinking that this unfamiliar woman was talking to me, but instead saw her hugging an old man.

"Ellen!" He cries, hugging the old woman.

"Martin!" She cries back, holding onto the embrace.

"I just make a gagging face. The line was moving so slow. You'd think Heaven would be a bit faster than this. If I stood on my tiptoes, I could almost see the end, and what looked like a turnstile before a pearly-looking set of gates.

Once again, finding myself with nothing better to do, I do the first thing that pops into my head. I start to whistle. It takes me a moment to recognize the tune. When I do, I wonder why, of all the song I could've whistled, I chose this one. "Welcome To the Jungle" wasn't exactly my idea of a great song. But it did seem to spark another flash.

"Ohmigawd!" I yell, getting a few strange looks from the people in line. "I was driving drunk and got in an accident," I say, quieter this time, more to myself. The line moves again, and I notice that there's only a few people ahead of me now. I feel wetness on my cheek, and feel myself crying. "I... I..." I can't think of a thing to say, the emotion so great.

I'm suddenly next. "Hello young one," the kindly old-looking man says to me from behind the ticket booth thing. I can't seem to speak, and he looks at me oddly. "Are you okay, young one?"

"I... I can't go in there," I stutter. My tears increase, and my breathing becomes difficult, which is funny since I'm dead. "I drove drunk. I got in a crash. I can't go in there..." The tears engulf me, and I start wiping them on my flowing white sleeve.

"Young one, if driving drunk alone stopped people from coming in, we would have quite a few less people," the man told her in a soothing voice.

"You... You mean I can go in?" I ask hopefully, and hand him my ticket.

He looks at it, and then the smile leaves his face. "I'm afraid not, young one."

"WHAT? You just said that drunk driving wouldn't stop my entrance!" I yell. I don't care what the people in line think anymore.

"That I did, young one. But that's not all you did. Do you not remember?" As he speaks, I melt into the flash; unlike before when it just suddenly happened.

"I killed somebody?" I whisper. The kindly man nods. "I actually killed someone?" I just can't believe it.

"Yes, that woman in the car died on impact. If you had been sober, you would've seen the red light and stopped. But you weren't, and you didn't. Which means you can't go in." He gives me my ticket back, and points me towards a door. I walk towards it, sobbing as if my life had been ruined, which it had. I killed somebody. I actually killed somebody. All because I had drank. It wasn't worth it. Not one single bit.