Path Of Shadows: The Awakening

Chapter 1

As I walk towards the light I have a feeling of being at peace and I'm drawn to this brightness in a way I can't explain. Memories play over in my mind like an old film slide of the happy times, the good times. A last goodbye of the life I had. I get stuck on one memory in particular though. It wasn't a memory that I wanted to remember but I did. I think it was a memory that must have been buried deep in my mind somewhere and maybe my young brain was trying to protect me from it.

I was about seven, maybe eight years old, I was riding my bike around the house where Lizzie, Richard and I lived. I very faintly remember that I could see the neighbor kids riding around, in and out of the road. I don't remember seeing it happen but I remember loud screeching tires and a loud crash, suddenly Richard and Lizzy both were at my side making sure I was okay. In the chaos of everything Richard whisked me away quickly. I looked back to see a woman, a bit older than Lizzy at the time, laying in the road, not moving and in a puddle of blood. So much blood, but the one thing I can remember clearly is her eyes, staring back into mine as Richard carried me away. I remember the coldness, the void in them. The emptiness in them haunted me for days. One of her kids was in the road when a car came barreling up the road, she ran to her children to see one was out of the way but the other was right in the path of the car. She ran out and threw the child out of the way but there wasn't time for her to move. The car hit her, it killed her but her children were fine. Over this memory, I can hear Richard's words in my head, explaining death to me for the first time. "Death is inevitable but it's nothing you need fear, Pumpkin. It's scary to see, I know. But she doesn't feel pain anymore. She saved her child even if she couldn't save herself.

When you die, your soul leaves behind your body and you go to a better place than here, a better place than this world. A place without pain or hurt or horrors. The memories of who you were stay with the ones who loved you most. Death is only mostly scary for the ones left behind. It hurts them the most because they can feel it, but you don't. It's okay to be scared, SkyeSkye. Just don't let that fear stop you from living." His words echo over and over again. I remember the ones I love. My friends, the family I have, Izzy. I can't leave, not like this. I'm not ready to go. I refuse. I stop walking towards the light and it slightly fades as if it's moving away. The trance I was in fades and I look around.

"Where am I?" I ask myself out loud as I look around. I'm in a dark densely wooded area, it's breathtakingly beautiful but it has this ominous feel about it that turns my stomach.

"The in-between." I hear a voice answer.

"In-Between?" I ask.

"The place between the living and the dead. Purgatory, Limbo." The voice says.

"It can't be. I- can't be." I say confused.

"I'm sorry, but unfortunately you are." The voice says. I say nothing as I try to process.

"You need to go into the light before it fades completely, you can't stay here." The voice says.

"Where does it go?" I ask.

"Where ever you want it to. Your own personal paradise." The voice says.

"If my friends or family are not there, it isn't paradise to me." I say.

"They could be there, all you have to do is think it. It will be. That is how your paradise works." The voice says.

"But it won't be real." I say.

"It will be as real as you want it to be until they cross over too that's how it works." The voice says.

"I'm not buying it. Who are you?" I ask. The person steps out of the shadows.

"Dad?" I ask as I stand there unsure.

"Hey Pumpkin." He says. It's him. I waste no time to run up and hug him. He looks worn down, exhausted just as Jàime said when we did the séance.