Breaking Ice

4.

She quickly pushed some type of pill into my mouth and forced me to swallow. I thrashed around in the trunk for a few seconds but suddenly everything was spinning and I was spiraling down a tunnel filled with television screens showing random moments of other people's lives.

"It's okay, don't panic," the girl's voice boomed from above. Or maybe it was below. Vertigo made me lose all sense of direction. Was I actually ascending rather than plummeting further into unknown territory?

"I don't know what's happening, Jane but I don't think I can stay here!" bellowed one of the television screens that was directly to my left. Strangely enough, my body still felt like it was falling but right when the name Jane left the man's mouth, my body's orientation shifted from falling to floating. I tried to adjust myself but some gravitational pull kept my body taut and flat as if I were tied to a table. I couldn't even wiggle any of my fingers.

I tried to move my big toe when all the other screens went black and a very loud thump moved my attention to the screen with the man and the woman. The other televisions faded until they were almost completely transparent against the black backdrop of the tunnel. A spotlight flicked on and directed its light onto the only screen, now thrice its original size.

"I know you can't stay here but that doesn't mean I have to stay here. We can go together," replied a tear-ridden young woman with long black hair braided to her hips. With one hand, she clung to the arm of a man who looked Polynesian based on the tribal exposed tattoo on his right arm and with the other hand, she intensely gripped something the length of a pencil.  The man's facial features- his sharp jaw, a dark crescent moon scar on his chin, stark midnight black eyes- seemed eerily familiar. 

"You can't go there. But our son can. Make sure to send him when he's ready." He removed Jane's arm with such reckless abandon it seemed borderline aggressive and walked out of the door. In slow motion, Jane fell to the floor while a positive pregnancy test fell out of her hand onto the hardwood floor. 

The screen faded away like the others before it, while another screen, this time on the right side of me, grew until it covered the entirety of the tunnel.  First, a white background flashed on the screen, followed by the clickety-clack of what sounded like tap shoes on a wooden floor. My heartbeat matched each footstep, eager and afraid to see what would appear on the screen.

Is this what hell is like? Am I dead? 

Suddenly, my body jerked unright until my entire body was facing the middle of the screen. My neck snapped forward with a crack and the pain shit down the length of my spine. The pain was a good sign, I thought. Can't feel pain if you're dead, right? I gripped my wrist and tried to feel a pulse but those damn shoes made me feel so unnerved I couldn't focus on discovering if I were alive or dead. My money's on being super dead, though.

The footsteps suddenly broke into several mismatched sounds ranging from clamoring booms to taps so faint, one would think a baby was taking its first steps. I wanted to scream at the noises but my throat produced silence. Instinctively, my hands flew to my neck and twisted my throat trying to get even the tiniest squeak freed but still, nothing. The tears came back, this time in heavy lines, paving trails down my face and falling into the nothingness below me. I jerked around trying to get a 360 view of my unwelcomed environment but the same gravitational force that pinned me before still controlled my body. The pain in my spine intensified.

They appeared on screen, one by one, in a single line. There were twelve of them, all looked different but wore the same black and white suit. On the right lapel, they all had a pin that showed a red number ranging from zero to eleven. The last in the line, a girl who could only be about ten years old, stepped forward and waved at me enthusiastically. It only occurred to me then that perhaps they could see me, just as vividly as I could see them. 

"Hi," the girl's voice rang out and I immediately recognized it as the same one I heard in the car trunk. "I'm here to give you the grand tour of your true self!" She threw her arms open as if to give me a big air hug.

No thanks.

"No, we're all here to explain to you everything you want to know," said number six, an elderly man with a bald head and one hoop earring. He rolled his eyes at the girl's outburst and was clearly done with her shenanigans.

"Please don't be alarmed, you're going to cause yourself to go into cardiac arrest if you don't calm down." cautioned number three, a young looking woman with a giant purple afro and bright green eyes that looked like a forest in summer. "Remember, breathe in, breathe out."

"He can't calm down, I wouldn't either, if I were him." retorted number six.

"Nobody asked you!" the little girl shouted across the line and stuck her tongue out at the man. "Nobody wants your cynicism, Daniel."

Wow, that's a big word for a ten-year-old, I thought to myself in disbelief.

Her head snapped in my direction with disgust and disdain. 

"I'm not ten! How dare you assume I am some kid just because of my size, " she scoffed. "I'm much older than you are Mr. Can't Get Your Life Together, and I prefer to present myself like this, okay? It's called self-identification. Read about it, boy."

I wished she would identify just how annoying she is. I was about to try and speak again when my mouth fell open and the air caught in my throat. My chest constricted and suddenly it was way too hard to breathe. I could feel the literal strain on my heart as my pulse boomed inside of my ear. 

I'm definitely alive. 

My head exploded with pain so intense, I wished I could self-perform a lobotomy. My hands began to shake uncontrollably. I tried to fix my eyes on the twelve and try to ask for help but they all just stood there, unmoved and unbothered. I shut my eyes close, unable to die painfully and watch others watch me die. 

"See! I told you he's going to have a heart attack."

"He's fine. Just let it pass."

"You sure? What if he's not the one? We can't afford to lose both of them."

"Oh, he's the one, for sure. The other one was too weak."

"Don't disrespect Jane like that. Let's just hope this is the one who could help us. If not, we're royally screwed."

The voices all blended into one until they were just wordless mumbles in a sea of excruciating agony. I managed to get out a squeal just as I passed out.

The last thing I heard was, "Quick, give him another pill before Liam comes and checks up on him."