Beyond Death

I haven't been doing a good job keeping up with my writing and posting here.  I have been writing.  Not every day like I want to.  I came down with a rather bad cold a few weeks ago and I'm still recovering from it.  I know, you think, writing would be easier then, but its not.  i just can't focus no matter how hard I try.

So many times I've just sat and stared at the blank screen.  You can't force yourself to write.  You can just try to write.  If you can't, its okay, but you shouldn't give up.  I've been beating myself up a bit for not writing everyday.  But I'm trying not to do that.  I'm writing and I just need to keep at it.

Today, I woke up with ideas assaulting me, but of course some of those slipped away once I was awake enough to write, but this one stuck to me.  It's different than how it first came to me, but it's still good.  I admit that this one was inspired by an amazing woman who I am proud to call my guild leader.  She has a character with a similar story as this one, but quite different.

Time to get back to writing more on it!  Enjoy!

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It’s surprising how many times you can get so close to death.  I had never really given death any thought at all.  I never wondered what happened to people after they died.  It didn’t matter really.  I was here and they were not.  They’d had their time and now this was mine.

And then I woke up.

So many times in my life I have taken color for granted.  Here there was no color, only shadows of gray.  There were trees here.  They were tall with branches full of grey leaves softly tinted by green.   And they swayed as a cold breeze rushed past.

I shivered.  I guess when they say death is like an icy hand grasping your heart, they really do mean it.  I wrapped my arms around me and swept my gaze across the unfamiliar, grey clearing.  There weren’t just trees.  There were bushes and fragments of grass peaking up from under a haze of icy cold water.

Water?  I lifted one of my bare feet, suddenly aware of the icy water.  I looked for a dray patch of grass.  There weren’t many, but there were a few large grey rocks, so I hopped to one of them.  My feet were blue with cold, making my steps clumsy and I teetered as I hopped onto the rock as I would have done in life to keep my balance.

My eyes began their sweep across the clearing once more.  I wondered what I was supposed to do.  In the stories about Death, they always said there would be someone here to guide you.  Some said there would be some hallway of light.  You weren’t supposed to go toward the light, but everyone always did.  But there was none of that here.  There was only a dank, grey swamp.

I spotted what looked like a pathway not too far away.  It was hidden just behind a large bush.  It was as if the trees had parted, but refused to let go of one another.  Knotted branches twisted over the top of the passage entry and followed into the passage.  Each one was connected to another and none of them seemed inclined to let go.

Was I meant to follow the path?  Is this what they mean by seeing what’s beyond the other side of the veil?  If I passed through there would that mean I was truly dead?

I pursed my lips.  There were stones jutting out of the swampy, cold water.  They made a perfect path to the passageway as I hopped from one to the other.  I could feel their rough texture under my cold, blue skin that had begun to slowly return to its normal, pale color.  It made it easier to hop from the stones.

Finally, I hopped onto the last stone by the bush that hid the path.  I gazed down the branchy hallway, gazed up at the canopy of never-ending branches.  I turned back to the clearing and looked around it again.  It was really quite beautiful if you thought about it.  Everything was gray, almost see-through and tinted in various colors.  I could make out small gray-pink tinted flowers peeking up through a small bush.  If you stood still, you could even hear the soft calls of a raven.

And then I turned and stepped into the passage, not knowing where it would leave or what would happen to me.  Maybe that bright white light would come to guide me or maybe I would get to see Death firsthand.