His hand slowly grasped mine and I tried to pull away.
"Come." He said in a deep, dark voice.
"I’m not ready, dammit!" I shouted in response.
The feeling of his hand made everything in me quit. He pulled harder and slowly dragged me with him.
"Why?" I barely got the question through my lips when he had already started speaking.
"The time is right." His response echoed in a higher pitch.
"But.. Why?" I slowly slipped out.
"All in good time, mortal." He told me.
I was out of energy, no longer capable of speaking, I decided to listen. As he dragged me lifeless feeling body.
"I am the afterlife" he spoke.
"Death?" I thought to myself.
"No, not death. I am neither life or death, I am the in between." he spoke as if to respond to my question. "When people die, they don’t actually die. While their physical form appears to have ‘died’ their mental being, their soul, lives on." He continued.
"What’s the point?" I thought hoping he would respond.
"Technically no religion is wrong. However at the same time none of them are right. There is no God, no all powerful. They are right when it comes to what happens after life, though." To acknowledged my thoughts. "Some people go to ‘heaven’ through death, the final form. Some go back into the world reincarnated, through life. And some sit in a black abyss, through me." He finished.
"So I’m going to-" I started.
"No. You go where I say. I decide. I decide where, and how." He cut me off seemingly upset. "Where do you want to go?" He asked, in a testing way.
"I would like to go to heaven." I replied.
"Why?" He added emphasis.
"Because I’ve always been a devoted Christian." I replied in thought, proudly.
"I don’t care." He said.
"Than what will you do with me?" I thought
"We’re going to Life. You will be reincarnated." He finished.
I could no longer think. He stopped abruptly, it was still dark and I couldn’t see anything at all.
"Make him different." He said in the same dark, deep tone as before.
I couldn’t see the other being, but I heard him move. Without notice I had another hand grabbing me and the original hand let go. I felt the sensation of falling, then..
Nothing.
~
After what seemed like an eternity, I could see again, only nothing was the same as before, I could no longer remember who or what I used to be but now I know that I am. I quickly discover my infant limbs.
“I’m a baby?” I thought to myself in what felt like an unfamiliar voice. I heard what sounded like footsteps coming up a flight of stairs.
The door nearest the crib I found myself in, opened and in came a woman that I felt attached to instantly. In her caring, but tired voice she murmured, “you hungry, John?” to which my only potential option, since she couldn’t understand me, was to reach out. She picked me up and sat down with me in her lap and unbuttoned her shirt. I got excited for some reason. Association or muscle memory I knew what to do. “This being my first memory will be weird” I thought to myself in that same unfamiliar voice.
Things seemed to speed up and suddenly I knew more about myself and life. I was a 13 year old boy name John Smith. Most would consider me weird and only a few would have the guts to say they’re my friend, for fear of being beat. The year is currently 1988 and I am in the 7th grade. Other than that I’m a little hazy.
Early one morning my mother, woke me up for school. Dreading every moment to come i crept out of bed and got myself ready. Upon arrival I remembered exactly what I was anticipating. The daily beating I’d received since I was 8. My mother knew.. Why didn’t she stop it? The physical torrent was only half of my battle. The names they called me always seemed to hurt just as badly as the punches.
1991, the year I turned 16, I could finally drive. Get out of this shit ass town and away from the shitty people of Oakmont, Iowa. I get into the car as a red truck pulls up in front of my driveway. A group of guys all wearing sports jackets all get out and start walking towards me. I honk, to try and avoid what I know is coming. Despite my efforts to run after the honk, I was caught and dragged out of my house. Two of the guys held me down to the curb and a third grabs and holds my jaw open over the curb. Their ring leader douche bag then proceeds to drop his heavy boot on the back of my head, breaking my jaw, and most of my teeth. The act also cracked my skull open.
This was it.. I could feel my life slowly slipping away.. That’s where my life ended. 16 years old and murdered. I bled out just outside of my house. My mom being a nurse wold have helped if she wasn’t at the hospital.
I suddenly remember everything. Being a Christian, dying, coming to what seemed like the same place as before. I was prepared.
"Welcome back." The deep, dark voice said.
"You don’t have to drag me this time." I replied.
"As long as you come, we may talk." He told me as we started our way what I thought was a tunnel, I wasn’t sure. "Where do you want to go?" He added.
"The black abyss." I told him, blankly.
"Why?" He asked.
"To avoid the failures of humanity. To not endure any more pain." I told him.
"Then to the black abyss you may go." He told me as his presence seemed to fade.
There I was, I couldn’t see, or feel. The black abyss.
There I stayed.
—
Credits to: (Logan) http://rogueetbleau.tumblr.com/post/111241608630/black-abyss-a-short-story-by-me
Comments