BEYOND

CHAPTER TWO

I am awake and suddenly it feels  like death had become me; and I, death. It felt like a strange feeling of helplessness , i could not  hear the thrum of my heart.
Looking down ,I felt a small pull in my chest and shot my head up. The air had become mystified. It was as if an ice capsule had erupted inside this ...... I suddenly felt like i was floating, wandering in this ...should I call it ... Darkness?
Where am I exactly? Why does it seem like I am lost ?

A memory  suddenly flashed in my mind  of all that had occurred while I had been supposedly
 living. It suddenly felt like i was falling into a void I couldn't get out from...Wait ! this doesn't seem right. Why can't i breathe?,  i can't feel anything?Why does all this feel so unreal? I thought to myself.Suddenly, the sea of darkness subsided to reveal a stretch of land before me. My eyes beheld the images before me, my mind unable to process the sight that kept me locked in on it.What I was seeing  had no known definition. It didn't seem real but yet I felt  otherwise. It didn't look like anything in relation to what I perceived of an afterlife. It looked like something out of a nightmare. A plane of desolation ! The landscape at least was what I could fathom,  it looked like a rocky black plains, punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms. To my left, the ground was giving way to a series of cliffs leading deeper into the abyss. A river of glittering black liquid snaked close by.

Water ! huh?

I wondered what could water be doing in such a place as scary as hell. i was terrified of what more mysteries could be awaiting me, I slowly moved away from the river.I wanted to lay down and sleep.I was too worn out. I wanted to shut my eyes and hope all this was a bad dream and wake up to find myself back in the hospital bed.

As if that was possible, I scoffed.

But no, this was real and it seemed like there is no way out. I looked at my arms, they were covered with an angry rash. I gasped in pain!!!. This place was designed to cause pain even to my soul, giving my soul an almost physical body. I had to keep going and to keep figuring out all I could about this place. Struggling to my foot, scanning my surroundings, I soon realized that searching for an existence of life in such a place was
useless....so useless.The only existence of life that I could at least see was a river of dark waters stretching about 50 yards and dropping off the edge of a cliff. When I reached the edge of the cliff, peering down, I was sure it dropped more than eighty feet.

Wow! What is this place?, I was so confused.
At the bottom stretched a nightmarish version of my home when i was ..... alive?. I
Resided on the 21st floor of the industrial high-rise building. I never truly liked that building , most of all , my apartment. It always scared the wits out of me. I never really had a choice because that was the only floor available for rent and it was
in the industrial district of the city, very close to work. The Windows were always closed and I never went close to the balcony. How it found its way to this barren place was a mystery to me.My mind must be playing tricks on me.

I found myself on top of the apartment building near the ledge of its top floor. Too stunned to think, wondering how I had got to the very top of the building without moving an inch suddenly i  summed it all up.I was sure I had just signed my death warrant . A force out of nowhere knocked me off my foot , i fell into absolute darkness.I lost track of time..... It felt like hours.My body made impact with what seemed like a water body. The force didn't knock me out but the cold nearly did.Freezing water shocked the air right of my lungs.

I really hated water as much as heights. This place really had a taste for creating my worst nightmares out of the darkest part of my mind. I wondered what other horror laid ahead of me. As i thought out loud my limbs turned to rigid columns and i began to sink.

Strange sounds filled my ears, voices that sounded like that of my loved ones all packed together to create a sea of voices , as if the water was made of sadness. I could pick out the voice of my mother, brother, sister and my..... Hmmmm what is her name? I couldn't even remember her name ,her name! .What is this place doing to my mind .I am not sure of anything anymore. Nothing seemed real anymore.

The woman I loved and always wanted to share my life with was gone. On this day, she was going to finally say yes to my proposal.....Wait! Had all this happened just today? This place is so terrible. It  seemed like a long time ago. I didn't know what time it was now. I was in pain. I knew I wasn't going to see them again and it hurt me badly because I missed them all.I suddenly stopped struggling because there was no point. I was dead anyway. I will never leave this place. Just as I sank to the bottom, the water carried my body away.

This chapter is based on peter greys thoughts