Unfortunate

03: A Whole Bunch of Passing Out

BAILEY POV (12 yrs)

Is this death? I felt the cold that spread and encased my entire body. I stood, my feet standing yet there was no ground beneath me. I stared at the darkness surrounding me. I had no idea how far I was looking into the darkness, kilometers? Millimeters? I saw nothing but darkness. I thought death would be different. A bright light? My life flashing before my eyes? A bearded man telling me if I've made it to heaven? No, this was nothing like they say. It's cold. Lonely. Was this hell?

No, something different. I looked around me, trying to find something, a feeling, an object, anything. Nothing. There was nothing. I looked down and counted my fingers. Ten. I wasn't dreaming. Then what am I doing? I started to bend down to sit, but I found no ground and fell.My hair whipped around me, the air rushing upwards and creating friction making my skin burn. 

Where am I? Panic. That's a feeling right? Before I could think about it, I reached ground. My breath escaped me on impact and I struggled to breathe. I stared up, suddenly looking into blue. By now I had given up on trying to make sense of things.

I sat up, surrounded by flowers in every direction. Beautiful. Was this heaven? Why would you fall into heaven? I stood, walking to nowhere. My fingers grazed the flower petals as a sense of peace flooded through my body. I gently picked up a flower and pressed it to my nose, closing my eyes, embracing the smell.

When I reopened my eyes I noticed that the flower I picked up was red. Not rose red, but a deep, burgundy red. I've never seen a flower this color before. Suddenly, the color was on my fingers.

What is this?

I rubbed it between my fingers.

Blood.

I dropped the flower, my eyes following it as it landed in a hand. Panic caused by breath to labour. A sensation I was becoming familiar with. Spread out as far as the eye could see, were bodies. Men, women, children, all dead. My heart jumped into my throat as tears filled my eyes. A scream caused my whole body to tense. I'd never heard a sound filled with so much pain and fear. I turned around, a woman, merely meters away, struggled against a man. His face was blocked by her wild hair.

They played a ferocious game of tug of war, but eventually the man won, the woman screamed with tears streaming down her face. "You can't take my baby, please, she's all I have!" The man's face had become clear now. Joel? What was he doing here? He had come for me! But then, the words the woman had said set in. Baby?

"Maybe you should have thought about her before you turned, you filthy demonic creature." Joel spat. My eyes widened and my mouth gaped. "Joel!" I hissed, but he payed no attention. "JOEL!" I yelled, confused, why was he taking this woman's baby?

The woman, her eyes now filled with rage seemed to turn black, as veins began to crawl from her eyes down her cheeks. I gasped, never having seen such a sight. "Well you can't say anything, dog." The scene before me was filled with so many emotions, I could hardly breathe. Anger, fear, disgust.