Am I Dead Alternate Ending

Prologue

“Am I dead?” I ask. I could feel my teeth chattering, my bones smacking and grinding against each other with the frigid cold—no breath came out of my mouth. Goose bumps rose across my alabaster colored skin, sending chills up my spine and I shiver into a shake. All around me swept drizzling clouds the color of grey leather that surrounded me, swirling up and down my body, keeping me afloat where I stood. I gazed around, but there were never-ending gray clouds all around us. Below us, again, were more clouds, endless clouds to the point of oblivion as far as the eye could see.
I glanced at the Beauty in front of me. It was neither male nor female, with golden curls that fell loosely onto its human-like shoulders. The curls shined

“I don’t want to die…” I shiver again as the human figure seemed to swoop down towards me in a quick motion, landing on a thick, dark cloud. “I’m not ready. I have a family and friends who care about me!” I was pleading for my life. I couldn’t think, though I tried to think. I couldn’t remember my family—their faces, their laughs, their eye color or hair color. I had no recollection of anything, though I knew I must have a family and friends. Everyone does.
“Everyone seems to say that nowadays…” It trailed off, gazing to the right. I look over in the direction it was looking, but I could not see anything passed the grayish clouds. “Your family have long since passed me and gone to where they were chosen to go to. That is all you need to know. They are no longer your responsibility.” Even if I wanted to ask, I could not move my lips, or my tongue. They seemed to be stuck inside my dry mouth. “You, on the other hand, do not seem to want to go. You are clinging onto the strings that hold your soul together. If you let go of the strings, your soul would be free to choose whether it wants to go to Heaven or stay on Earth. You can always choose Hell, but I have never come across a mortal being that would choose that as their fate

I pictured them in my mind, the picture perfect family with ghostly elongated faces of despair and fear, roaming in the river, lost and forgotten, moaning for someone to help them. I couldn’t imagine my life being as theirs would be for the rest of eternity. It didn’t seem possible.
“You, on the other hand, did not go to the River of Lethe because you did not die as your family had. I watch your fragile human body cling on to life. You are now in between life and death. You can either hold my hand and pass on to Heaven, or choose your own path. I cannot say which path is the chosen path, for even I do not know what path you wish to take.”
It held its pale hand out for me to take, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t go to Heaven. “I’m not ready to die. Why was I not sent to Lethe if my family was?” I ponder out loud. I was not sure if it was to this beautiful creature or to me. I knew I was not ready to die. I could feel it deep in my chilled bones and in my heart.
“You did not die instantly. You are dying currently; this is why you are here. If you do not wish to die now, than you must choose a path you must