A True Hero

43 - The Aftermath

Nicolette

My eyes adjusted to the bright white space, and I suddenly found that all of my injuries were gone. There was no katana impaled through my abdomen or cuts in my arms. I was completely healed and standing on a solid white floor, whiter than an empty piece of paper.

Fear and peace both washed over me, making me break out in a cold sweat but giggle with joy all at once.

I had just died. I knew it. 

"Hello?" I called out into the white void. Very quiet whispers echoed around me in response. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

What is this place? I thought to myself.

At ease, soldier, said a voice in my head, and I gasped and looked around. Far away behind me was a silhouette, and it seemed to be walking toward me. You aren't alone.

"Who are you, and what is this place?" I yelled, cupping my hands around my mouth. The sound seemed to carry plenty far without me shouting. 

The silhouette turned into a shadowy figure of a tall man with broad shoulders and wavy hair.

"This is the space between life and death," he said. Hearing the voice aloud, I immediately recognized it. But could it be?

"Dad?" I called to the figure. He walked a little ways further to me, and then lifted his head. I saw his brown and blue hazel eyes, his wide smile, and his gentle hands, and tears sprang from my eyes as I cried out, "Dad! Dad, it's me!!"

"Nicolette!" he said lovingly and opened his arms. I ran into them, smelling the familiar woody smell of his hair and clothes and falling into his soft royal robes. I heard him sniff as we embraced and knew he was crying, too.

"Oh daddy, I've missed you," I cried, and his strong arms tightened around me. "What is this place? Am I dead?"

He let go me enough to look me in the eyes, reaching up with one of his gentle hands and wiping the tears away that streamed down my face.

"No, Nicolette, you are not dead yet," he said softly. "The place we are in is your mind."

"What?!" I exclaimed, backing away from him. "So what is this, then? A figment of my imagination? Are you even real?!"

"Nicolette, breathe," my father ordered. It was the command he always used to give me when I freaked out or lost control. Instinctively, I did as he said and sucked in a deep breath of air. "We are real. This is what your mind looks like when you are suspended between life and death. Physically, yes, you are dead. Your Warp Star is gray and your heart has stopped beating. But your soul is floating in between the two states of dead and alive."

As he spoke, the white void began to change into the canyon I had been in moments before. The walls of the edge appeared, the fallen castle blurred into focus, smoke rose into a dark sky, and glass shards surrounded me. But I wasn't laying down. I was standing up.

"Look down," ordered my father, watching the scenery change around me. I obeyed, and I saw myself lying there.

"Holy Nova!" I cried out in surprise, jumping away from the body. But I just laid there, staring blankly up at the sky. Fresh blood poured out from around the katana in my chest and oozed out of the corners of my mouth.

"This is your body," my father said, stepping up behind me, "but the state you are experiencing now is your soul."

I blinked several times. "So...I'm mostly dead."

My father laughed. "Yes."

Suddenly, I saw five more figures walking towards me from the castle. The closer they got, I realized they were my mother and brothers.