The Time of the Titans

Chapter 2: The Interpreter

I had lost consciousness again, but I came back, insistently, like a lotus flower that pops up and emerges from water, from the filthy water, regardless of how much water there is under the surface.

And I did once again open my eyes. It was no dream; the overly white walls were the same as last time. It was no nightmare, the horrible creature was there, ogling at me with their large, humid eyes. Their flat, bluish face was so close to me now. I gathered my courage and had a better look at them. The face was oval-shaped, somehow soft like a baby's. I was still thinking of a teletubby. The eyes were no longer so terrifying – rather, they looked soulful and even frightened of me. My watcher was like a big, fat baby.

The creature made a sigh that still somehow reminded me of the song of the whales.

I tried to reconsider my current predicament, but the short line of thought did not make the situation seem much better for me. There was nothing else left than to be brave. That was, after all, one of the nobler sides of the human nature.

"Am I dead?" I enquired – possibly in English because it was a widespread language of the academia back when I was still in my own world. I may have, on the other hand, used any of a number of other languages, which I, at the same moment, realized I knew. "Am I in heaven?"

The creature reacted to what I said. Not verbally, but I could see the impact of my words on their face, which was quite expressive to be so flat, without a visible nose, and with only a small gap for a mouth.

The creature did something with a small device that was close to its head.

"Do you think you are dead?" the creature asked in my own language. I was taken aback by this, especially since the creature's voice was perfectly human, and it seemed to sound right in my ears, rather than come from the creature's mouth.

"I died", I said. "I remember my own death." I thought of myself in the river, under the cold water. And I thought of my last encounter with Helena in the hospital. "I died twice", I added. "First in the river, then in the hospital."

I looked at the creature's face. Bluish grey, soft, swollen features. The eyes were amazingly bright, although somehow, they looked as if there was an extra layer of liquid in them. As if the creature was about to weep.

"What is death, actually?" asked the big grey teletubby. "Do you think this is what heaven looks like?"

"But this is afterlife, isn't it?" I muttered. I was not sure whether I used my own voice, or whether the creature automatically sensed my thoughts. "I died, and this isn't my world. Does that mean you are angels?"

I addressed the words both to the creature close to me and to the one of their kin that was located close to where I assumed the doorway to be.

"I am no angel", the creature said, and their childlike eyes stared at me with a mix of amazement and curiosity.

"Then who are you?" I exclaimed, trying to control my growing desperation. Was this hell? Were they demons? I had always swayed between faith and disbelief. I was a scientist, but I had a spiritual side in me. When I was weak or in despair, that side in me appealed on whoever was up there, hoping goodness would really have a powerful ally in this universe. Hoping something like God would exist.

Was this a punishment for the vagueness of my faith? Would God do such a thing – throw me into the oblivion, to the mercy of scarily baby-shaped demons? Just because while I was still alive, I could not be sure what it exactly was I believed in when I told myself I had faith.

"I am no angel and no demon", the creature said. Either I had shouted my thoughts aloud or the creature could read my thoughts.

"Then what are you?" I asked. "Where am I?"