I looked around, my eyes were blurred and I was dizzy. My fingers clutched the marble countertops of my kitchen as I felt myself weaken, and lose my grip. It was something in the food, I thought. My left hand clutched the bottom of my stomach as vomit ran up my throat. My body was trying to get rid of something. I felt my fingers fall from the countertop as I tried to control them, but I felt as if I was losing myself. Vomit fell out of my mouth, and dripped off my chin. My knees locked and I felt my back hit the cold stone floor. Relief ran through me, and I calmed down as it turned dark. A thumping vibrated in my chest as it faded to a stop.
I awoke in a dark void of nothingness, with only a wide bright panel in front of me.
I floated above the endless darkness, and looked up at the screen. I wiped my chin. Nothing was there. No vomit, nothing. I looked a little longer and suddenly colors started showing up on it, quickly forming…people. A hospital room, and a woman. Her bottom half covered by a blanket, and a doctor reaching under, grabbing a baby. Who was that? I looked closer at the woman. Black hair, brown eyes, young. Mother. The screen skipped time, now showing an around two year old what I assumed to be me. My parents surrounded me, and my small hands gripped onto Mothers arm. My little legs put one foot in front of the other, until eventually I let go. At first I wobbled, and lost balance, but Father caught me before I fell. I tried again. And again. And again, eventually my legs carried me four feet, and I fell back to my knees. My parents clapped. Time skipped again, this time I was five. I was at school, sitting on the carpet with another kid. He had light brown hair, with bangs that covered his eyes. We laughed together. Peter, my first friend. A new scene, I was much older this time, high school age. I wore a graduation gown, and cap. Honor cords hung from my neck. I smiled as I walked up to the podium, about to start my speech. Peter waited behind me. The screen moved on, it showed me in college laughing with a girl I recognised. Chloe. My arm rested on her shoulders. Farther away, I had graduated college, and now I was living in a small, musty apartment. I shifted through files as I tried to pay the landlord. I couldn’t get the money. More time passed and I was standing alone in a dark, graveyard. I stood in front of a gravestone letting rain pellets attack my head. Flowers and little stones covered the gravestone. Tears ran down my cheeks, disguised as the rain. Fathers funeral. The colors blurred again then showed me standing at the altar in front of a small number of people, a woman with a veil covering her face, and a long white dress slowly walked up to me. My wedding. Then, my mother died. I was there. I saw everything. The knife stab into her back, her once full, sparkly eyes turn dark and lifeless. The knife wiggled around, and came out the other end. Blood spilled out into a puddle beneath her. Tears filled my eyes, and they ran down my cheeks. The murderer ran away before I could do anything. After, it showed something similar to the first scene, a woman in a hospital room holding a newborn up to her chest. My wife, and my daughter. It moved on, it now showed me sitting in front of my daughter, us facing each other, while she painted my face and did my hair. She was at least five, me maybe thirty-five. Time moved on again, she moved out, and I stood with my wife. We looked older now, in our late forties. We waved goodbye and the door shut. The screen decided to go on, it showed me sitting next to a grave stone, more flowers on it and more rocks. Tears streamed down my face, my wife's funeral. I was seventy-six. In the next scene, I stood next to my daughter as I met her new boyfriend. Then husband. Then son. We stood smiling, as a new, beautiful, innocent soul entered the world. At Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years and so many other holidays, me and my family would gather together, laugh together, smile together. And then, finally I died. I waited for my time to come, and it did. I experienced my death again, but it didn’t scare me as much this time. I knew that wherever I would go, I would be happy there. With Father, Mother, and eventually my own daughter. I floated, looking at the screen, and a small smile spread across my face.
By