Kenneth Halloran's alarm went off at 6:15 a.m. just like it did every Monday-Friday. Arms stretched out, he yawned and turned off the 80s pop song that he had set as his alarm. He shuffled over to his en suite bathroom, did his business, took a warm shower, and brushed his teeth. Returning to his bedroom, he put on a comfortable gray suit and black tie. He then proceeded downstairs to his 14-year old daughter already eating cereal and watching TikToks on her phone before the bus came for school.

"Finish up that algebra assignment, Maddy?", Kenneth asked as he started the coffee maker, and slid some bread in the toaster.

"Of course, Dad. It wasn't so hard after you found that example in my textbook. Thanks again for that" Maddy replied. Ken smiled, she was a good student and he was incredibly proud of the work she did in school.

Both ate their respective breakfasts and finished getting ready. Ken gave Maddy a quick hug before she headed off to catch the bus. "See you after school, Dad. Remember, I have soccer practice so I'll be home a little late. Veronica's mom said she can drop me off though" she said as she dashed out the door.

Kenneth got in his SUV and started on his way to work. He looked at his watch and noticed he was actually a little early than usual. On his way to his firm downtown, he mentally prepared for his day ahead; he had a meeting at 10:30 with his supervisor regarding a new project he was proposing. He was pretty nervous about it, but he burned the midnight oil the past few weeks to make sure it would be within the firm's budget; he also promised his coworker, Allen, that they would have lunch together. The two of them loved a sandwich shop near the office so they'd sometimes run down together and eat a quick lunch and just chat a bit. Ken was eager to rub in the fact that Allen's favorite basketball team was now out for the season. Lastly, Ken had some reports to write up and get to the office manager by the end of day Friday. So that would take a chunk of his afternoon.

Ken came up to a red light just a few blocks down from his parking garage. He realized he was so focused on today's schedule that he didn't notice no cars were coming. He bent forward, and saw that his traffic light was still red. Confused, he checked his mirrors and saw no traffic behind him either. "What the hell? I know I'm a tad early, but it's still 8:35 and I'm in the center of downtown."

"Correct, Kenneth", said a voice in his passenger seat. Kenneth screamed and saw an elderly man, in his mid-to-late 70s perhaps, dressed in a similar suit as himself. "Who the fuck are you and how did you get in my car?!" Kenneth exclaimed.

"Well I've had many names, Charon the Ferryman, the Grim Reaper, or simply just Death. I'm sorry, Ken, but you are dead as of 8:35 a.m. this morning. You didn't see it, but a semi-truck swerved into your lane as you stopped at this light, killing you on impact. This is your last memory as a living man." The strange man said quite solemnly.

Kenneth shook his head. He bent forward again, the light was still red. No other cars. His watch still read 8:35. This stranger is telling the truth. He really is dead.

"It is my duty to answer any 3 questions before I take you to the afterlife, so please ask whatever you wish." Death said, his face softening just a little. "Take your time, let it all process."

Kenneth sat there for several minutes in complete silence as he contemplated everything. Finally, he choked up his first question, "What will happen to Maddy, my daughter?"

Death conjured a magical image onto the front windscreen of the SUV. On it, Maddy appeared in class taking notes. She is taken to the administrative office where the principal and a police officer tell her the grim news. She weeps in the office for nearly 50 minutes. Kenneth wept alongside her seeing this. Kenneth's wife, Maddy's mother, passed away from cancer 7 years ago. She was now an orphan.

Death's magical illusion fast forwarded a few years. Shes living with Kenneth's grandparents a couple states over. They are poor, but care for Maddy. After her father's death and having to move to an entirely new state, Maddy becomes increasingly depressed and falls into a bad crowd. She gets knocked up at the age of 19 by some deadbeat and has to work two jobs to support her son. "I've seen enough", Ken said with zero inflection in his voice. Death swiped the images away. "Two more questions." He said.

Kenneth thought for awhile longer, "How does the firm look after my death?" He finally asked. Once again, Death creates a magical image onto the windshield. It showed the firm working as normal. Allen was still there, his supervisor was still there. Everyone was still there, doing the exact same thing. The image went to his now former office, there a young woman in her late 20s sat typing up a report. Her diploma and family photos lined her wall. Death spoke up, "Her name is Erica Stephens. After you passed, the firm posted your job and found her pretty quickly." Kenneth sat in dismay. "They just moved on? The firm didn't care about me at all?" He asked with tears in his eyes. "Not really" Death replied, "Oh, they did send a few flowers to your funeral."

Kenneth thought to himself how he was going to word his next question. After several more minutes of diliberation, he asked his final question. "If I didn't die, would I have been happy?" Death actually had to think on this one. Instead of showing him anything on the window like the previous two times, he turned to Kenneth and said, "No. Not really. If you never died you'd still be at that crap firm, you'd get a slight promotion in 5 years, Maddy would move out and go to college on the west coast. She would meet a nice guy and get married out there. At her wedding? Sure, you would be happy I suppose. It would also fill you with sadness with memories of her mother, and that she is all grown up. She would start a family, but you really wouldn't see them that often. Only on a few holidays. As you would get older, you'd have less and less energy to do things. Your pal Allen would retire and move to Florida. After that, you would have pretty much no one in your life. When the time came, Maddy would pay to have you in a decent retirement home until you naturally passed". Kenneth stared ahead blankly. His whole world seemingly collapsing in front of him. He didn't really matter in the world. He was just a cog in the wider machine. Now, he was a dead cog being swapped out and tossed in the scrap heap.

"It's time", Death said whilst grabbing Kenneth's hand. Kenneth was blinded by a brilliant white light. "I thought you were meant to be at peace when you died?" Kenneth thought as his conscious moved on. "Why can't I be at peace?"