The Dreamer's Fall

Chapter 2 - Siren's Song

After Ethan took the final breath, marking the end of his human experience, his world went dark, and he experienced the sensation of weightlessness.

He couldn't see, but it felt as though the concept of sight didn't exist for him at all. It was peculiar, as if his mind had told him that it was perfectly natural that he couldn't see. In fact, it felt perfectly natural that he didn't have any of his five senses.

Ethan tried to make sense of his new circumstances but found his mind sluggish, as if it was exhausted and struggling to stay awake. The drowsy sensation grew in intensity, and he began to panic.

Ethan knew he had likely died, so he tried to recall religious stories about the afterlife from around the world—anything to help explain what was happening to him and what he should do next, but he struggled to remember a single detail.

It felt as though the memories were right before him, but they disappeared like a mirage when he reached out for them. He tried to recall the events that led him to this place but found himself struggling to do so as if he were in a dream. It was as if he had always existed in this place where senses and memories do not exist.

Suddenly, it dawned on him. Like the souls of the damned drinking from the river Lethe, he was forgetting everything that made him, him—forgetting everything he had experienced throughout his short life.

Worst of all was the comforting sensation that came with forgetting. It felt as if a gentle voice was whispering into his ear, lulling him to leave everything behind and rest eternally. Like a siren song wooing sailors to their doom, the sensation of losing himself was wooing Ethan toward his own. All he had to do was give in, and the bliss of nihility would be his...

However, as the last of Ethan's faculties succumbed to the siren's song, a jolt of searing pain assailed his consciousness. It started as a feeling of warmth, but as the moments passed, it increased in intensity until it felt like his consciousness had been doused in gasoline and lit ablaze.

Ethan wasn't sure how much time had passed as he experienced the agony of this new hell he found himself in. Each time he felt he was getting used to the pain, it would increase once more and keep him from having a moment's respite. As he struggled to endure, he suddenly heard a woman's shout, and the pain vanished as quickly as it had arrived.

The woman's voice began as quiet as a whisper, but it rapidly increased in volume as if she had instantly closed the distance between them. It made him feel unsettled, as if the shout had come from some sort of horror movie or a nightmare.

As his mind acclimated, more noises could be heard. He thought it sounded like an emergency room of some kind. He could hear the sounds of people shuffling about as other voices appeared to join in on the shouting.

He was sure that he had died. He was no doctor, but the car was going far too fast for it to not have ended up as a mangled scrap of steel and carbon fiber on the side of the road.

If by some miracle he had survived, he wasn't sure he'd want to wake up. He'd be beyond lucky if his body wasn't paralyzed or worse. The thought of being a prisoner in his own body horrified him beyond words.

However, that horror paled in comparison to the sheer terror he had experienced when he felt his ego and memories slipping away earlier. If that was what the afterlife had in store, he'd gladly take a broken body over death any day. At least he'd still be himself.

A few moments after Ethan began to hear noises, his vision grew brighter. He began to feel his body, too, but he felt restricted as if wrapped tightly in blankets.

Opening his eyes, Ethan only saw a blob of gray before a bright white background. The gray blob moved closer to him, and his vision became clearer as it did. It was a woman's face, one that he didn't recognize.