From Hell to Heaven

When I awoke, my eyes slowly slid open to the white walls of my hospital room. My wish hadn't done anything. Why did I even get my hopes up? What was the point? Magic wasn't real, and dreams were just that, dreams. My eyes burned as tears streamed down my cheeks. No one was in my room, and the only noise was the beeping of the heart monitor. Why hadn't anyone come to see me? Did no one care? Was I just to be left here, and my Mother move on with her life, leaving her son to sit in a hospital room until he either gave out or started to walk again? I mean nothing. I am nothing.

I looked up at the TV, staring deep into the black screen. It hadn't been turned on today and my arms were still unwilling to move. I glared at my upper extremities, trying to pierce them with a hateful stare and force them to move, but no matter how long I strained to focus on them moving, they were as still as the arms of a corpse. I began to fill with more hate and self loathing. No wonder no one wanted me around, I couldn't even get my own body to obey me. I clenched my teeth and my gums began to bleed with the force. I hated this, I hated my life, I hated me.

I had counted over seven thousand dots on the ceiling as I lied there on my back. My mind was blank and I was giving up. If I got better, great, back to the shit of a life I had. If I failed, well maybe there was something after your body gave out and I'd be able to do something else.

"That's a sad way to think." A soft voice that shook me from my reverie spoke in to my ear. I couldn't feel a breeze from a mouth, but I knew it had been spoken. I opened my mouth to speak, but it had been over a month since I had been lying there without a word uttered and so the only noise that escaped my lips was a rasping, grating sound.

"You don't need to speak, I can hear you." I blinked as the voice spoke into my ear again, and I mentally tried to shake my head in a nod, and began to think what I wished to say.

How else should I think?

"Isn't there anything worth living for?"

As far as I'm concerned, no.

"Would you like there to be?"

I... I don't know what I would do... It's been so long since I've had any reason to think that there was more to each day than wanting to die, but not wanting anyone to be hurt because of it so I keep going.

"What if I told you that I could give you that?"

I would ask if you were Morpheus from The Matrix and if you had a magical blue or red pill.

"I am not, but I would be willing to give you that chance."

Are you here to kill me?

"As far as this world is concerned, you will no longer exist, but you will not be dead, no."

You'll take me away from here?

"Yes."

Where will you be taking me?

"To a place where you can have your wish. To try again and obtain a new life. I will give you time for an answer. When the sun rises again, I will speak to you and ask for your answer."

Wait, I still have questions.

I waited a few minutes, and when the voice didn't respond, I was left to my thoughts. What was that voice? Who was that? I didn't see anyone, and if someone was talking then I definitely would have seen someone. Even if I couldn't, to be that close and have no breath... I must be going insane. I'm talking to myself, and I'm trying to keep my sanity. That's it. There was no voice, no one was here, it was only me. My thoughts raced as I continued to think into the night, that if that voice was real, and it appeared again, I would give it an answer, but I would also expect answers in return. If I heard nothing, well, then I truly was going insane and I would have to do something to myself. Maybe I could twist my neck and grab one of the life cables and bite into it.

My head was filled with an uneasy sleep that night. Dreams of bodiless voices speaking to me, and then my own body being sliced apart. I awoke with a start multiple times as I waited for the sun to rise. Each dream became worse than the last, and about an hour before sunrise, I could no longer sleep and I stared at the ceiling and began to count the dots once again.

I looked out my window as the sky began to lighten and the black sky began to turn from a deep sapphire blue into it's bright blue with scattered clouds. As I saw the first rays of the suns beams, my heart began to race and I waited, my heart pounding in my ears. I tried to calm myself in case my heart was too loud for me to hear the voice, but as the sun continued to rise, I heard no voice, only the silence around me and the monitor. I knew my mind had played it's cruel tricks on me again, and I wrenched my eyes away from the window, not wanting to look at the false promise that the sun brought with it. I snarled with anger, and started to blame the voice for how I felt.

"I am here." Had I been able to move, I most likely would have jumped off the bed and through the ceiling a few floors.

"I told you I would come. Do you have an answer for me?"

I... I want to accept, but I need to know... Will this make my Mother cry?

"She will believe that you have gone to a better place to be happy."

I don't want her to be sad anymore...

"She may grieve for her lost son, but she will find solace and happiness in the fact that you will be happier."

I drew in a breath, and closed my eyes before I gave an answer. I slowly opened my eyes as I turned my head to look out at the sky and let my breath go. Yes, I will take your offer.

"Then let us go." I felt a soft flutter as something was next to me, and as I turned back away from the window, I only glimpsed a pair of large, pink eyes before a flash of light blinded me, and once again, all went dark.