The Gray Area

Chapter One

Everything seemed to slow down, the screeching sound of a truck was the only sound that echoed. The high octave screams and shrieks and gasps were muted, people who had witnessed the accident stood frozen to their respective spots.

The beautiful lady didn't have a millisecond to think on how to save her life as the big truck and her frail body collided, the force knocked her down to the ice cold ground. Droplets of rain kissed her motionless body and though some waited for blood to pool around her head, none came.

The blood was oozing inside her head and everyone knew it was more dangerous. Internal haemorrhage. That alone could kill her.

People started to rush toward her, panicked faces emerged from everyone who had seen the accident. Someone called an ambulance. The guy wearing a white uniform from the side street rushed to the scene, giving the beautiful girl some space, checking her vital signs. The scene alone looked hopeless.

****

Vita sat up and adjusted her vision, trying to recognize where she was. She felt feather light, her body moved with grace and fluidity, too foreign and unfamiliar. Something was off, she could tell.

The hospital lights were dimmed and the only noise she could hear came from the beeping of the monitor as the up and down line moved, a sign of a beating heart. A sign of the continuous survival of the patients. She turned and looked at her monitor and was stunned as the heavenly realization dawned on her.

Right there, just beneath to where she sat was her own body, motionless and unconscious. Cold breeze erupted into her skin, but she knew she didn't really felt that familiar goose bumps, though, for she neither had skin nor bones.

She became a ghost.

Or a soul. She quite actually quite didn't know how to categorize herself at the moment.

"Hello," an angelic voice rang out, startling her to the core.

Vita came face to face with a beautiful image, pleasant and welcoming. The young woman has a black hair, her smile reassuring. She looked like she was made up of light, radiating from within.

"Am I dead?" Vita asked abruptly, gazing at the angel, too fixated at the grace emanating from the beautiful form.

The angel pointed at the beeping monitor. "Last time I checked, you're not."

Vita looked down on her then lifted her hands to check. It was visible at the same time it wasn't, if that even made sense. She was, somewhat, in silhouette form. It was surreal.

"But- " she started to ask, but words were too hard to form and let out.

"You're in a coma, Vita," her angelic voice said.

"How did you know my name?"

"I'm your guardian."

Vita gasped. "My angel?"

The beautiful form nodded. "My name's Aya."

Just then, Vita's forehead frowned. "Why didn't you save me, then?"

"Everything that happens to you happens for a reason," her voice was light and calm, somehow soothed Vita's heart- if ever she had one considering her current form.

"If I'm a ghost, then that means... I'm dead." Vita was still trying to have a grasp on what was happening.

The angelic form pointed at the beeping monitor again. "Your heart is still beating... If I'm not mistaken, a beating heart means you're alive."

"Then why I'm in this form? A... ghost? A silhouette."

"You're a soul, dear," Aya said. "And I have a mission for you."

A mission? Vita angled her body toward the angel.

"Wait," Vita sighed as the earth-shattering emotion took place inside her. "If I'm a soul then I can just go back to my body, right?"

"Yes, you can," Aya replied. "You can go back to your human body and wait for yourself to recover. But tell me, why did you think you got hit by that truck?"

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"You do know, Vita," Aya said. "You are on the verge of giving up your life. You're on the thin line between suicide and giving life a chance once more. You knew there's a truck but you weren't paying attention, as if you're tempting death. And so death wave it's wand to grant your wish."

It all sounded absurd- about the death part. On the other hand, the angel Aya was right. She was walking on a thin line whether giving life a chance or what. But she knew deep down that she was not going to kill herself.

Vita said nothing. She didn't know what to say, anyway.

"And now, you're coming with me," Aya continued after a while. "You've got a mission. I want you to see the world in a different perspective. I want you to give life a chance because, to be honest, human beings like yourself are much more needed on this planet."

"Me?"

Aya nodded and held out her hand. She was all white, all joy and grace. A wide set of wings bloomed at her back, strong and fascinating.

"If you think this world isn't worth living, so be it. Otherwise, He will heal you."

"If I die, where I'm headed?" Vita asked, almost too scared to hear the answer.

"Only you knew the answer."

She shook her head. "But I don't."

"Come, dear," Aya said.

With a sigh, Vita reached out and took the angel's hand and with a swish, they vanished into thin air.