Prologue: The End
A hellish sensation courses through every inch of me. It’s like lying on a bed of hot coals, burning forever. Pain echoes through my entire body in continuous, relentless waves. I can’t move, not even twitch. My vision is completely pitch black, if my eyes are even open. The only sense connecting me to the living is the faded blur of wails and screams resonating in my ear.
The warmth of a hand, the whistle of the wind, falling. That is all my aching mind can remember. What happened before that, I do not know. What will happen, I am not sure. What is happening, is the only thing I can be certain of.
I am dying.
One expects panic, fear, desperation upon that thought, but I... I do not. I am accepting Death, who is welcoming me with open arms into his realm. I cannot express this feeling of... relief. As if I am awaiting this moment in my life, or maybe I was just expecting it to happen.
The voices around me fade to a dull vibration; an indistinguishable buzz in my ear. The pain lessens as my body goes numb. The weak thump of my heart is now barely audible; each interval more spaced out than before. I relax. There is no reason not to be. There’s nothing I can do now; there is nothing I want to do.
The lingering faint sounds of my surroundings singled out a soft voice: a touching tone, a reminiscent whisper, a chant... the chant amplifies into a painfully longing cry, a wail of despair.
Kyle? Who is Kyle? Is that voice calling me Kyle?
Ba-thump. My chest tightened.
Ba-thump. The pain returned.
Ba-thump. Who...?
Ba-thump. My mind becomes clouded.
Ba-thump. That familiar voice...
Ba-thump. Panic overtakes my calm composure.
I suddenly feel... Ba-thump.
Regret.
Ba-thu...
“Welcome to the afterlife.”
