The Lost Civilization

𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷𝟷: 𝙶𝚘𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝙷𝚘𝚖𝚎

Hours had passed and the feeling of weakness got more intense with every passing minute it felt. I lied in the grass with my arms spread wide out beside of me. Serenity lied only a couple of feet away, lifeless and without a soul. I was distraught from the deaths of my friends with my own injuries and fatigue adding to the feeling of hopelessness and desperation. My right leg had now went from an incredibly immense pain from the involuntary removal of my foot from my leg to a numbness and lack thereof. My leg no longer had pain in it, as I couldn't feel it at all. Whether that relief came from a loss of blood or the cloth tied extremely tightly around it, maybe even a combination of both, I was almost happy about it. It was relief and truly you just had to be in the situation to understand. Death itself, unfortunately, even seemed like an okay thing instead of a terrifying thing. Peace was now found in the idea of being in the arms of death.

I found comfort in something. Although, it was very little comfort, it was still comfort. Comfort in knowing that now my friends aren't suffering. My friends are now back with Mother Nature and the galaxy, their souls peering down through the clouds waiting to welcome me. They were happy without suffering now. I could tell by the way the sky had changed from the dull clouds and bright sun, to a more subtle sunlight with orange, pink, and purple hues painted across the large and fluffy cumulus clouds.

Whilst in the middle of my moment of.. daydreaming, if you could call it that, I heard a voice in the distance. It was a familiar voice though and it was not Maxwell. Serenity? Victoria? No, it's not them. They're gone from this hell of an earth. I placed my arms firmly in the grass by my sides and lifted myself up, sitting in a slouched position on my butt. I looked around while still hearing the voices with occasional laughing. I froze in my position while glaring down the stream that flowed downhill beside of me. Is that Serenity? "No! No! Stop! It's not Serenity. It's not Serenity," I yelled to myself as I rubbed my eyes with the palms of my hands and blinking them a couple of times. I looked back down the stream once again, now seeing Serenity and Victoria both walking up the stream towards me. They looked the exact same as they did before the trip. They didn't have a scratch or flaw on them and they were glowing radiantly. I'm going crazy and losing my mind. Serenity and Victoria are dead!

I closed my eyes and rubbed them vigorously with my hands again, but this time rubbing longer than before. I listened intently with my eyes still closed and no longer head the voices are laughing. I felt drained and fatigued, really as if there was truly not much life left in me to fight for. I opened my eyes to see Victoria and Serenity sitting on their butts on the ground with their legs crossed in front of me. "Serenity? Vic- Victoria? How're you guys here?" At this point in time, I had completely lost consciousness of the fact that I was seeing a vivid hallucination of my deceased best friends spirits.

"We're here, Aldin," they both spoke simultaneously with comforting voices.
"How did you guys come back? You guys were dead? Am I losing my mind? Has this whole thing been a bad dream?" I would have continued to ask more questions, but was cut off by the calming voice of Serenity, "Don't ask too many questions. Let's just sit here and talk like we used to do." Serenity glanced over at Victoria, giving a small grin like they both knew something that I didn't. It couldn't have been anything bad though. They wouldn't be happy if it was bad and they're here in front of me! How could that possibly be bad?

"We're here to help you, Aldin," Victoria said while lying one of her hands atop of mine. Her hand felt completely weightless and like it wasn't even there. Reality and sanity had completely faded from my reach as this had continued.

"Help me with what? Are we going to get out of here guys?!" I looked at both of them back and forth with a more excited tone in my voice than I had expressed in the past grieving hours. Serenity looked at me with a nod and smile. It was a sad but comforting smile that she showed on her face, but I'm not sure if it was one more than the other, "Yes. We are going to get out of her pretty soon."

"That's great! Shouldn't we start moving though?" I exclaimed as I tried pushing myself up off the ground and standing up, completely being unaware anymore of the foot I was missing. In my attempt to stand, I gently slipped backwards and slowly went back down to the ground. The looks that we're spread across both Victoria and Serenity's faces put me into reality. I'm not sure how or why, but I had realized it and it didn't seem scary.

"I'm..." I paused for a just a brief moment while looking down at the grass, noticing and acknowledging my missing foot once again before looking back at up at them both, "I'm dying, aren't I?"

They were both so incredibly calm for the question I had just asked, but to be completely honest, so was I. "Yes, Aldin. We're here to help you whenever you are ready," Victoria said calmly and quietly.

I let myself fall back onto my back. I lied my arms out to my side and ran my fingers through the grass. I hadn't noticed until laying back that things had gotten blurrier, but not with an extraordinary difference. Just slightly blurrier. I lied on my back, staring at the sky as things began to feel more relaxed with every passing minute. The pain was completely gone and it felt like so much relief. I had hope that I was going to make it out of here. Serenity and Victoria are here, no way we aren't leaving these woods!

The confusion and lack of consciousness of reality was back again. I was disoriented, but not realizing it in the moment of time. I was ecstatic at the decrease in pain and stared up at the beautiful sky smiling. My eyes had began to feel heavier, but not in a bad way. I felt tired and exhausted, without physically feeling drained. I could feel myself falling asleep and I have a glance up at Serenity and Victoria. They were both giving the same comforting smile that they had previously been giving. I smiled back at them as my head leaned back and my eyes closed, unknowingly taking my last breath before going home to my best friends in the afterlife.

(To be continued.. There will only be one more chapter after this one. Thank you guys so much for the reads and for sharing this experience/journey with me!)