Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-29447668-20161018022111

The Road To Heaven (
The cough had spread in her chest until she could no longer work. At that point, she had been fired from her job. Without money, she lost her health insurance coverage, since only employers offered that precious commodity.

One day, as she was buying groceries, she coughed so hard that blood came out of her mouth. Store security detained her and reported her to the Health Department for treatment.

"At last," she thought, "I will get to see a doctor!"

After a long wait, she was ushered to a counter, where she was ordered to hand over her purse, watch, and jewelry. "Excuse me?" she asked.

"How else will you pay for your treatment if you have no job?" the officious nurse snapped.

Meekly and silently, she did as she was told.

"Go through the door at the end of the hall and your suffering will end. The Road to Heaven is short."

The quasi-religious message was odd, but she was too weak from illness and fatigue to question it. She walked down a long corridor and saw a door decorated with flowers and crosses. More religious messages. She shrugged, opened the door and stepped inside. The door automatically closed behind her.

Once inside, things were even odder. She found herself alone in a tiny chamber with nothing in it at all. Even the walls were bare of all decoration.

Thinking she somehow went into the wrong room, she tried to open the door. To her horror, she found that it was locked.

Then she looked again. There were strategically placed vents in the ceiling.

Her suspicions were confirmed when a mechanical voice said, "Welcome to the Road to Heaven. To make your journey as painless as possible, please stand in the center of the room and take several deep breaths."

A second later, the poison gas began to be pumped in through the vents. 