My Civilian Goddess

Chapter 1: Goddess

Eli shot up. Before he even dared to take in his surroundings, his hands slipped to his face. The wounds and blood he expected to find weren't there. His shoulder length black hair fell in front of his face as he stood up, forcing him to brush it out of his bright blue eyes.

He was.... standing on top of a cloud? Not just that. It was as if he were floating near space. A bright purple and blue sky filled with stars and other wonderous objects Eli couldn't identify.

What was the last thing he could remember again?

"You got hit by a car," a girl's voice said. Eli looked away from the beautiful view, just for his eyes to see something else he'd describe as nice to look at.

The girl in question and long, straight white hair that flew down to the hips, and bright red eyes. Her face looked small and soft, much like her body. She was wearing some sort of white sundress.

"Like what you see," the girl said as she flipped her hair over her shoulders and fell back into the clouds, which formed into a chair right under her.

"Can we go back to the 'you got hit by a car' thing?"

Eli started to remember it. Or the sight of the headlights, at least.

The girl nodded. "Some drunk asshole got behind the wheel and drove into the park. You pushed the ginger girl and blonde guy that were with you out of the way, but it left you open."

"So my friends are safe, at least," Eli sighed.

"Thanks to you, yes. But you're being rushed to the hospital, even though there's no hope to revive you by natural means."

Eli sat down on the cloudy floor next to the girl. He let his hair blow out of his face as he angled himself against the wind.

"So who are you? Some kind of God?"

The girl giggled. "You could say that, yeah. I'm a Goddess. But just call me Lilly."

"What did I do to meet Goddess?"

"Well," as Lilly bent back, the cloudy chair bent back with her. "As I said, I saw it all happen. And believe it or not, you don't see people sacrifice themselves for others often."

Eli laughed this time. "It was hardly a sacrifice. I just pushed them out of the way."

"Are you lying to a Goddess?" Lilly leaned forward until their faces almost touched. "You're more daring than I thought," she said as she ran her finger over his chin.

"We both know you could have easily jumped out of the way. But you decided to prioritise your friends."

Eli pulled away as he felt a slight blush coming up.

"I thought it would be fine. It's a shame, though. There were still a lot of things I wanted to do," Eli mumbled.

"Like what," Lilly said, leaning forward completely as her sofa-like puff of clouds turned into a bed.

Eli sighed. "Well, we were still running a school project, and Kevin doesn't understand the code without me half of the time, so it would've been nice to finish that. Besides, it would've been cool to learn to play an instrument, maybe find someone to fall in love with, take care of my family when they stop being dickheads.... The usual. Enjoy myself more than anything, I guess. I tended to neglect that. Have lots more fun with my friends and loved ones...."

"Oh, would you like me to send you back then," Lilly asked nonchalantly.

Eli scoffed. "You said I was untreatable."

"I'm a Goddess. I can fix up your body however well I want to. Probably just enough for you to survive, though."

"Then yeah," Eli shouted. "Send me back!"

"You know," Lilly chuckled. "Most people would take this route out. Get to live happily in the afterlife, do whatever you want knowing you've done your duty on earth. You sure?"

"They still need me. And I still need them. Even if life is a pain in the ass sometimes, I need to go back."

"You're an interesting boy, Eli," Lilly said as she flicked her fingers.

"Will I remember you?"

Lilly raised an eyebrow. "I'll make sure that you don't. Wouldn't want you to recognize me when I sneak a peek at you every now and then. It will all feel like just a bad dream."

Eli opened his mouth to reply to her, but he couldn't. In fact, it felt as if black tentacles had leashed themselves onto his arms and legs as he could feel his body start to fall. For a moment, there was a complete void. No vision, no sound, not even any feeling. That was until Eli awakened to the sound of a heart monitor. He was covered with wires, some going into his arm, and others attached to the oxygen mask placed on his face. Yet even as the doctors leaned over him with panicked expressions on their faces, the only thing Eli was thinking about was Lilly, who he still clearly remembered.