Afterglow

Ethereal

  "Don't you want to be free?"

The voice beckoned him forth, continuing on. "From all the world's problems, all the world's sufferings? Of all your mistakes, of all your pain? Don't you just want to forget it all?" As it spoke, images flashed through his eyes, showing each and every failure, regret, and mistake he'd ever made.

He faltered as he listened, feeling his reality slowly collapse as his mind began to give in to the desire. The voice seemed to grin at his weakening resolve, continuing to taunt him as it waited for the inevitable answer to come. The words were on his tongue, but before the agreement could be muttered and all be done and set, another call interjected... Its words were unintelligible, yet it was urgent as if calling him to stop and reconsider...

He turned around to see where that voice was coming from, yet the moment he did, it stopped sounding. All he could see there was a life of disappointment and tragedy, of endless toil and no rewards to reap. Where the sun never rose and the sky was always grey, where daily life was a chore that never seemed to end, where no light shone and no happiness radiated.

His life.

"Face it, Marco. You will not be happy here." The soulless voice whispered into his ear. "What is there to stay for? What is there to gain? You've already lost your chance here." It paused as if giving him a moment to consider its questions, before nudging him towards the otherworldly portal, taunting him as the answer to all his problems as everything he'd ever worked for began falling down.

"Imagine it." The voice continued. "A new reality. A place where it all goes away. Where everything's perfect and the pain finally goes away. Where you can finally be in peace, and live as you've always wanted to."

He stared at the homogenous and blank portal with a lifeless gaze, taking in everything he was hearing with growing discontent and yearning, imagining what laid beyond that portal, of the better life that existed behind it.

"It can be yours, Marco. You can be there. You can escape. You can leave this all behind you."

There was a long pause in his words.

"You can start over again, outside this wretched place that has made you so."

Another silence followed as Marco pondered its words.

"Okay..." He stuttered. "Okay... I'll go." A tinge of uncertainty laced his words.

"You made the right choice."

With that, a blinding flash of light struck his eyes as the setting around him deteriorated to a blank canvas of endless, endless white. The only thing that remained was that portal, still humming its tune, glowing as bright as ever as it called to him.