My life so far has been a tragedy.
I died.
Yes, that is right, I had died. At least, I thought I did.
I'm recalling each point, each door I had opened to reach this point. Now, I am overlooking a verdant landscape as I sit in a cabin surrounded by others going to a destination that all people desire to be at.
It was a despairingly normal day; I had arisen, Mother had asked me to run errands. Gather the wood for the fire, buy the bread for dinner later on in the day. I remember being rather disinterested, it was routine, but I was far from ecstatic doing these errands now. I had grown up, I wanted something more. Something much greater. Mother never knew, but on these errands I would always leave the village and practice swinging a stick at the tree that overlooked the entire area surrounding the village.
Swing after swing, my hands vibrated so damn much, it rattled the very bones in my arms. But, I never stopped.
My ambitions were far greater than that place. I was always ready to leave, but Mother's presence made me stop. Every. Single. Time. I couldn't bear to leave her behind, worrying about my well-being.
On my way back from the tree on the hill, Darius -- my greatest friend, ran up to me. He was screaming, panicking, filled with excitement. "Raen, you've gotta come quick! You've gotta!" His voice pierced my ears, Gods, it was annoying at the time. But I miss it now.
"D'ya remember the cabin? In the outskirts of the village? The one that we always wanted to go inside, we were certain there was nobody living there!" He rambled on, I remember being so interested, the next words he said had lit up a spark inside of me. "There's somebody in there! I saw them, I swear it!" His excitement was uncontainable, but it was contagious.
"Lead the way, Darius, come on!" We ran like we never ran before, I had dropped the wood behind me in my curiosity to see this thing.
We ran until our breaths were casting a miasma of tiredness; our hands resting on the joints of our knees as we keel over, looking towards the sight of the cabin. Dilapidated, old, run-down. All manner of words linking towards ruin would describe this building perfect. It was the lone building in a field full of tall grass, no other vegetation in sight. The village was just on the horizon at this point.
I glared at Darius, confused. "This is the same as ever Darius, did'ya lie to me?" Shrugging my shoulders, I swung the firewood over my shoulders carried by rope behind me again, turning back to depart to the village.
"Look, Raen! Look!" Darius practically screeched this imperative at me. The sound of his shrill voice made me drop the wood and immediately swing my head to his direction.
An otherworldly glow began to engulf the landscape, the grass was emanating a ghostly hue of blue, embers of something would fly into the air, as they went into the air they began to accumulate in one particular place -- the cabin.
"Darius, what's happening? What's bloody happening!?" My eyes just danced around at the sight, before this point, I had never seen anything like this. Magic just didn't exist, it was impossible.
"I told you! I told you!" Darius jumps excitedly at being right, each jump made more of those blue orbs fly into the air.
"Calm it Darius, don't you see what's happening right now?" I remember he seemed confused at my statement, like I had said something outlandish to him.
"This is everything for us, Raen. We have waited so long for something to happen in this village! This is our greatest chance to investigate. The elders always tell us to stay far away from this place, but they never said why."
With the foresight I have now, I can say that Darius was truly... idiotic. The elders had a wonderfully good reason for their words of caution.
"Fine, watch the wood, Darius. I'll go check the cabin." I slung the wood off my back and onto the floor by Darius's feet. Beginning to take steps towards the cabin. Each step had an adverse effect on the aforementioned orbs of blue that were being funnelled towards the cabin. It was like the very night sky had been painted in a hue of dawn in contrast to the black of night.
I remember the feeling of my heart, how it leapt and continued to pound against the cage of my ribs, how it wanted to leave my body and jump out of my mouth. It began increasingly harder to breathe; my hands quivered as they extended for the doorknob that led into the cabin. As my fingers traced the outline of the door and eventually turned the knob to open, I felt a pure sense of terror.
One that had been indescribable, nothing could have prepared me for what would happen. No amount of swinging a stick at a tree, no amount of lifting and lugging around wood for a fire.
In that moment the last words I heard were,
"Raen, no! NO!"
I turned back, staring at Darius's face of morbid fear, shock, despair. The tears that left his eyes were pouring.
What had happened?
It suddenly got cold, so cold.
A liquid began to pour out of my mouth, I traced my lips with my free hand.
It was blood.
Panic set in, my eyes darted down to the point of my body where it had been coldest.
It felt like being bitten by ice, engulfed in a casket of wintry verglas.
I'm bleeding everywhere, there's a hole in my stomach, I had been impaled by... something.
My hands dropped to my stomach as I collapsed to my knees.
My memory from here is foggy, I remember wanting to embrace the dirt itself. Darius running away, his plump figure disappearing from my sight has my eyes let out a solemn cry.
Dying here, right next to my home, in such an instant?
It was far too cruel.
And yet, I awoke from a slumber, in a room only described as pure darkness incarnate.