Awake

Prologue

The cold. That is the only thing that I remember from that day. The stinging yet pleasurable feeling that gave me chills as it slowly crawled over my pale skin and up my arms and legs. The feeling that made me feel extraordinary.

I remember opening my eyes after what felt like an eternal sleep to find myself lying in the middle of an empty forest. As my blurred vision slowly becomes clearer, my body begins to feel like a real body again. Yet I felt lighter. Freer. I begin moving my limbs, as though I haven't used them in a long time. My weak arms begin to push my small figure up off of the snowy ground and I move into a crouched position, managing to balance myself before taking the big step. I slowly rise from ground and start stretching my legs out. Bones begin to shift back into place as I stand. Once my legs are fully stretched out, I pick up my right foot and take a step. The second I place my foot back onto the snow, I fall all the way back down and a pain shoots throughout my entire body. That moment is when memories began flowing through my head, reminding me of what happened just a few days before:

"Mother!" I yell over my brothers who are annoyingly chanting the "Dumb Way's to Die" theme song. "Please make them stop!"

"Joseph and James, how many times have I told you boys to stop annoying your sister?" she asks, huffing in frustration. She leans over close to Dad's ear. "I swear, I don't know if I am going to make it out alive this weekend with those three."

Dad lets out a small laugh before turning his concentration to the radio. He turns on a classic rock station and turns it up so loud that the car begins to vibrate. The boys instantly stop singing and groan loudly.

"Why do we have to listen to this?" James questions.

"I will turn it off if you promise to shut your mouths for a while and just enjoy the ride," Dad yells over the music. The both yell a 'fine' and dad reaches for the volume knob. The car suddenly swerves and my dad loses control of the vehicle. He tries to regain control as our car starts to spin in circles. Mom is yelling at the top of her lungs and I too am screaming. My brothers grab onto my arms and I try to steady our thrashing to a minimum, not succeeding. The car suddenly rams into one of the rails on the side of the road and plows through it, rolling down a steep hill. I hold onto my brothers for dear life and my parents hold onto their seats, my mother crying and my father yelling curse words.

The last thing that I remember is our car running into a large tree. I was thrown from my seat and my head made a large cracking noise before everything went black.

I open my eyes, startled from that memory. I'm... dead? Then why am I still on earth? Or is this not earth? Am I in Heaven? That has to be it, but why do I have a feeling that it is not?

I shake my head and attempt standing up again. When I succeed in getting back up onto my feet, I suddenly feel unusual. My shoulder blades ache and I reach my hand to where that pain is. My had grabs onto to something that has never been there before: something soft, stiff, and sticking out of my back, which was not the slightest bit normal. I avert my eyes to the thing that is sticking out of my back and I am greeted with something very unexpected. Something whiter than the snow that I wouldn't have imagined myself having for plenty more years: a pair of wings.