Other World

Found

I lay silent with my eyes still closed in fear of opening them. I couldn't tell if my body had been split in two, or a million pieces - I was numb.

My nose squashed against the grit of soil and shards of thick grass. . . Grass?

"It gets easier!" I voice called from the distance.

Confused, I immediately opened my eyes and rolled my head toward the sound of the voice.

The sun shone brightly on my face forcing my eyes to squint as they tried to focus on the scene before them. A luscious field of deep green grass that met with a perfect bright blue sky came into view. A shadowed figure moved toward me causing me to quickly roll the rest of my body over, remaining sprawled out, flat on my back.

Mousey blonde hair fell over his brow, curtaining his deep hazel eyes. His jaw was softly chiseled but not enough to lose the baby faced look he held onto. His skin was luminescent, without flaw which made the two small freckles under his lower lip stand out from his face, almost mockingly pointing toward his pink, plump lips.

"Are you okay?!" His tone expressing worry as his brow furrowed.

Still numb, I returned his worried expression.

"I think something bad has happened in the fall, I feel numb like I've broken a vertebrae or something" worry moved to panic as I let the words I had just spoken settle into realization.

His face quickly turned to shock at the revelation.

"We need to get you help quickly!" He panicked, moving to stand up straight and brush his hands over his clothing searching for a phone.

"I don't have my phone on me, can I use yours? We need an ambulance quickly!"

Together we were now in a frazzle of panic. My heart beat hard in my throat as I imagined my life with quadriplegia.

I quickly felt for my phone in my jeans pocket, heavily panting whilst beads of sweat formed on my brow.

"I can't find it!!" I yelled "Oh God, of all the times I could lose my phone!!"

"Okay, okay, I'm going to try something I read online once. If performed properly within the first 30 minutes of a vertebrae injury, it's able to completely reverse the effects" he moved to crouch down next to me and softly cupped his hands around my neck.

"This is crazy!" I exclaimed

"Have you got a better idea?! Look around, do you see any hospitals around? Better yet, do you see any civilization at all?"

I let my eyes move around the picturesque landscape, unable to move my neck from his grip. Not a soul was in sight. The large field of grass ended at the foot of a deep forest of trees, I couldn't see so much as a butterfly near us.

I let out a deep breath of anxiety. "You're right. We've got no real other options"

"Okay, stay still, I'm going to try to push your neck to the side and align it to the healing position"

"Wait, healing position? That's not a thing.."

"Pppp shhh" he interrupted. Focusing his eyes dramatically on my neck.

"No wait!"

"Shhhhhhh" he insisted before moving his hands up from my neck to squeeze my cheeks together, forcing my lips into a pout.

"Done!" He announced as he let go and let my cheeks settle back in their place. He stood with his arms stretched out in the air, sweeping his body into a full 360 degree turn.

"SHE'S ALIVE!!!" He yelled proudly into the air.

"What the...?! ... what was that?" I asked, confused and feeling mocked at the same moment.

"You're going to liiiiiiive!" He shouted before kneeling back down to my face level.

"But what did you do?" My expression still hard in confusion.

He moved his face closer, his nose the thickness of a hair in distance from mine and whispered "absolutely nothing"

Anger boiled within my stomach as it became clear that I was in fact being mocked.

"If you did nothing, why can I feel my body all of a sudden?"

"Because my dear, you were never hurt" he let a mischievous grin grow on his face, baring his long, straight teeth.

"What are you taking about? Clearly I was hurt! I fell from thin air and crashed into the earth like a plane falling from the sky! I couldn't feel my body!"

He scratched his chin with his fingers and pressed his lips into a pinch. "Hmm" he let out dramatically "Perhaps you make a good point"

"Yes, see! You did something to heal me!" I exclaimed in an effort to have someone collaborate my story so I knew I wasn't as crazy as I appeared.

"Well.." he continued scratching his chin before stopping and pointing his hand toward me.

"I did say 'perhaps' ... but your story doesn't add up since firstly, you were moving around just fine and, secondly, nobody can get hurt here"

As though someone had taken a baseball bat to my chest, the realization hit me.

I was dead and this... must be Heaven.