To the people that shared this world, Sandy was born. They were waiting for her to arrive, and she did so promptly.
The girl looked around dizzily at what appeared to be a courtroom cast from one solid lump of iron. She spotted someone and firmly stated, “U23 6UY.”
The dragon, who stood on two legs and wore a respectable dress, said: “I’m sorry?”
Sandy didn’t answer when she realised what she was talking to.
“Sounds like a number plate,” said the creature.
“Uhh, yeah. Of the car that hit me.”
The dragon nodded as a judge walked into the cold, barren courtroom.
“Ummm… In that case, it’s probably the number plate of the car that killed you.”
* * * * *
The judge was a fellow human, though the coldness in his eyes didn’t make Sandy any more glad of that. The dragon…ess, if her body shape was to be believed, sat on the girl’s right, a handsome man with a glowing, bald head and downy wings took the chair to her left.
The judge stood and walked to a little pair of gold scales.
“Sandra Julian Lowry, you are to be judged on your past life on Earth. Your fate, and whether it lies in Heaven or Hell lies in the balance of your acts.” He glanced meaningfully to either side of her.
Sandy looked at the dragon…ess. She smiled back, though showed maybe a little too much carnivore tooth. Her claws, horns and other spiked growths were neatly trimmed. She was pretty big, but there were plenty of humans Sandy knew that were a lot more muscled and threatening. However, this beast represented eternal damnation. Sandy averted her eyes quickly.
She looked desperately to the angel. He smiled as well, though it was the barest of flickers. It offered no reassurance. He wanted to show more, but this was not the place to inspire hope. The outcome of this court case would either render hope unnecessary or crush it.
The judge took a scoop and pushed it into a little bag of sand.
“Your first act… meanness to your neighbour, denied her the use of your toy doll.”
Several grains of sand dropped into one pan. Sandy fancied that the scales tilted towards the dragon’s side already.
“Your second… Eating your rusks in a timely fashion, pleasing your mother-“
Grains fell into the other pan and Sandy started to breathe again. She was too frightened even to blush with embarrassment.
Seconds ticked by. Sand tumbled through the air and alighted in one pan or the other. Sandy’s older actions were appraised, and as they became more significant and severe, the amounts the judge let fall increased. Still, no aspect of her life was too insignificant not to merit the tiniest mote falling one way or the other. So far it was a dead heat.
Seconds became hours. Maybe days. The dragon looked sideways at Sandy, then at the angel. Her yellow-green eyes narrowed to slits as tiredness wore at the occasion’s formality. The human was very much awake, in the manner very much of someone who was experiencing heaven and hell up close, not to mention the airing of all her dirty laundry. But that darn angel looked wide awake, and the dragon was not going to let the side down by flagging first.
“Actions 2003497 to 2003709, smoked marijuana in a country where its consumption outside medicinal use is illegal.”
Sandy tried to protest yet again, but her voice was a mere whisper. The judge continued to judge.
“Actions 2003693 to 2003854, generously shared own marijuana supply to others, in doing so damaging their lungs and involving them in illegal activities.”
The dragon twisted her head. “So is that good or bad?”
The grains fell.
“Ahh,” she said, reflectively.
And so it wore on. And on. Sandy’s continuing, almost unblinking stare at the process of judgement was interrupted by a throaty, frustrated growl from the entity to her right.
“Are you okay?” she asked out of the corner of her mouth.
“I’m fine,” came the rather tired sounding reply. The dragon was sure the angel was nodding forwards. All he had to do was keel over and she would win!
A few minutes later, the angel’s headglow became muted. His eyes closed and finally he nodded off, snoring gently.
“Actions 2783859 to 2784102, parked car on double yellow-“
“Ahah, we win, up yours Heaven!”
The dragoness pumped the air with one scaly fist, grinned with devilish glee and fell back, unconscious.
“If I may continue,” muttered the judge.
“Please do!” barked Sandy, fancying that the good pile was slightly smaller than the bad pile.
The angel gave his counterpart a few seconds to fully get to sleep, before opening his eyes. He took a cushion off his solid iron chair and gently placed it behind the creature’s horned head.
Sandy almost leapt forwards to help him. The angel half-smiled, grimly.
“I’m afraid any good acts you try and do now won’t count.”
“… Oh.”
By Hedonism