When I'm gone

Introduction
All fictional stories follow a format. The hero saves the world. The hero survives all trials. The hero isn't perfect, but is very close.

Tell me, how many books have you read where the hero dies, and stays dead? Maybe 1, maybe 2. not very many authors like to kill their heroes. It defeats the purpose of writing a story.

Here is a different story.

Chapter 1
I drifted.

Drifting, drifting drifting.

The whiteness surrounded me.

All I saw was white.

What was my purpose? What was I here for?

Where was I?

I felt something in the whiteness. As I focused on that feeling, an image popped up in front of my eyes. I saw people in black huddled in front of a stone. The stone lay on freshly turned soil. The image zoomed in on a couple; the woman crying on the man's shoulder.

I was confused. What was this?

Then, the woman whispered. I strained to hear her.

"She's gone. Gone, gone, gone. My poor baby girl, she's gone."

Somehow, I knew this was my mother.