IM DEAD.
Not my-parents-told-me-to-be-home-by-twelve-and-it's-two-o'clck-now dead. Just dead. Literally.
I think.
I can't feel a body anymore. No hunger- not even a stoamch. No fingers to wiggle, to feet to tap.
So I pretty much have to assume that im... gone?
No. I cant be gone. Because im here.
I wont say that i've "passed on" or "passed away." I dont remember passing anything on the way here. For that metter, i dont remember dying either. There's some saying about people "dying of curiousity." But im just curious about how i died.
Curious and... firghtened. This place- wherever it is- surround me with vibrations. It just... is.
Lonliness and mystery hum through me. I feel like i just woke up in a dark room that has no clock. And even worse: no people. Where is everyone i knew when i was alive? Who are they, and do they miss me? What if im in hell? Maybe instead of fire and brimstone, hell is just the feeling of lonliness. I dont remember much about being alive. I dont even remember my name. But lonliness being hell? That much i remember.
Ahead i see a bright pinprick of light. It seems my only chance for company. The prospect of reaching that light has replaced the throbbing ache of lonliness with a quivering hope.
I attempt to move toward he light, but the space is.... is....... cloaks me with thick, clinging darkness. It sticks to me like a disgustingly damp pair of jeans two sizes two small. I fight it out with is, pushing against its boundaries, discovering i can get the bubble arounf me to expand if i try hard enough. But just as my space begins to grow, a cloud of lonliness surrounds me. I discover there's a reason the dead are stuffed into cozy coffins and small urns. this large empty space i've created make me feel even more isolated.
I stop pushing against boundaries of is, and it shrinks into a small bubble again. All the energy that is me beats comfortably against the boundaries. Now that i am dead, i guess i have a soulbeat instead of a heartbeat.
Maybe some time passes. Maybe it doesnt. Hard to tell in this place. But onw way or the other, i discover the problem with small, safe places.
They're boring.
I cant decide if my curiosity or my fear is the stronger emotion. And i dont quite understand how i can be feeling both if im dead. They chase each other around, circulating and percolating in me. Haunting me.
How is that possible? I mean, if im the one who's dead, how can something be haunting me? Im supposed to be the one doing the haunting.
Finally, curiosity chases fear to the perimeter. It's time to explore.
Not that there's much to investigate. Just the bright pinprick of light.
I push against is and expand the bubble of my space again. This time i discover i can intensify my soulbear until it fills the bubble's space with energy. I ride the pulse of my soulbeat into the ever-expanding bubble as i approach the light.
It is a ring glowing in the dark. It shines against the mifnight black of space like an X-ray. An image of bracelet. What is it doing here?
As i get closer to the bracelet, i find myself floating right through the glowing circle of light. Photons scatter everywhere. I feel less lonely somehow with all this light swirling around me.
And because i can see now that there are more pinpricks of light.
There are little stars amid my dark existence, scattered across space at great distances. A spoon. A pair of socks, hair clips, pieces of paper, peas, a cell phone, keys, flowers, a handbag, a doll's shoe. More and more. They are artifacts of a life.
Mine?
I dont know why, but they seem to link me to all the people i sense i should be with.
I find still more: beads, photographs, a ring, a baby's rattle, and- how odd- a pair of underwear.
All these images are company at last.
But i need them to be clower together so i can spend time with all of them at once. Is there a way to click and drag them into a desktop-sized space?
No. Apparently is hasnt picked up on the whole wireles concept yet, and i will have to go to the ends of the Universe to find all my companions. I'd better start now if-
My trip has already come to an abrupt halt. I've hit the next object. It's a sweatshirt, and i cant bear the idea of moving on and leaving it behind.
I know it should make me feel warm, but its stark white glow fills me with longing. A sense of missing something- more intense than any feeling i've yet had- and pounds through me. And suddenly i know i wasnt meant to be here alone. I know i expected to find Gabriel waiting for me.
But who is Gabriel?
