Winged Warriors

One

A pickup truck hits my car in the dead of a dark, rainy night.
Pain races through my body on impact.
It starts in my stomach, then my head and my shoulder, burning my insides like a wildfire.
My blood has turned into molasses,
my bones into stone.
Is this it? I ask myself. Is this the end?
I feel the burning and boiling of pain all at once.
I feel it all so much that it's all I can think about.
And instantly, it's gone.
All the pain dissipates in a snap, and I sit motionless in my car after it has finished tumbling down the highway.
I'm dying... aren't I? I question the air, knowing I won't get an answer. This is what death is like.
In the numbness that followed the pain, I look at my body.
My stomach and shoulder are both bleeding around shards of glass that impaled me in the collision, and when I look in my rearview mirror, my head is cut and stained red with blood.
Tears I don't remember shedding trail down my cheeks.
I regain a sort of feeling in my arms and legs, and I absentmindedly open the car door and step out.
The highway, the collision, the debris; something unsettling starts to settle in as I stand in the grass in the median.
And then the realization comes.
Silence.
I hear nothing.
There are objects from the collision floating in midair, slowly letting gravity take ahold of them.
The cars slowly going by don't make sounds, the man coming out of the pickup truck is silent and soon I realize I can't even hear my heartbeat or my own breathing.
I mumble the slightest noise and I still hear nothing.
Not even a ringing in my ears.
I reach up to my chest and feel just between my breasts.
I... don't have a heartbeat.
A wave of shock pulsates through me.
What could this possibly mean?
In the silence I watch the man from the pickup truck walk over to my car and struggle to open my car door before he picks up something metal from the ground and hits my window.
I'm out of the car... why is he doing that?
He breaks the window and gets the door open, and I feel fear settle in next to confusion.
I'm still in the car.
I'm standing outside of it, but my body... is still in the car.
It's like I've become a spectator of my own show, watching a movie as if I were the lead actress.
The man checks for my pulse on my neck, and he gets blood on his hand in doing so.
No pulse.
I'm dead.
I'm... dead.
What about my friend's? My dad?
Why tonight? I didn't get to say goodbye...
So many thoughts, so many questions, all interrupted when the first sound I hear comes up behind me as a gust of wind.
I turn around - tears on my cheeks and thoughts swarming in my mind - to see a door present itself behind me.
It has nothing behind it, no destination or purpose.
It's just a door, sitting in the grass on the median.
But something tells me to move forward anyway.
I walk towards it and reach my hand out to the door knob, grasping it faintly.
I don't want to turn it.
What will be behind the door?
What's going to happen next?
Will my dad and my friends be okay?
I don't want to turn the doorknob, but I do.
My body goes on autopilot and I find myself in a dark room, the collision just outside the door.
And when it closes, I'm left in the darkness and the silence.
I step forward.
What other choice do I have?
I walk through an abyss of absolutely nothing, waiting on something to happen.
I almost don't want anything to happen.
Maybe I'll wake up soon.
Could this all just be a nightmare?
Then, another door creaks open before me and blinds me with a blazing light.
I feel weights on my back; but they aren't heavy. It's almost as if... they are supposed to be there.
I continue to walk forward, covering my eyes from the light. As soon as I walk through the door though, the light ceases, and my balance fails.
I fall forward, not knowing what to expect, and when I've regained a sense of normality I slowly start to get up.
Suddenly, I hear a voice.
"Hey, hey... take it easy. It's okay." It murmurs, sounding almost like I'm underwater.
I look up, and I see the blur of a male bending over to help me.
He has a natural beige complexion, and his hair is a light umber color. His deep blue eyes meet my gaze.
I groan as all my senses start to come back, and the man tries to help me up.
But I'm caught off guard by what's behind him.
Wings.
Large, elegantly feathered wings come into view, as do the man before me.
With only the slightest hesitation, I scream.