Chapter 63
Stealing Last Wishes
Floating.
The first and only real sensation to make it through to Frank’s distant consciousness was that he was floating. In his mind, he mentally wondered if he was in fact finally dying, as his body and soul felt light.
Then as if to amplify the sensations, the moment after he felt like he was rising to the very heavens themselves, his body grew heavy as he could almost feel his body coming closer to the ground. Until finally he felt his body drop into oddly warm water.
Sizzle.
Upon entry to the waters, Frank felt his whole body covered in bubbles that seemed to come from nowhere and engulf his entire body.
This was it, the judgement he always expected for himself, he was dead, and he had been given a chance to rise, only to be deemed unworthy and forced to fall into the burning pits of Hell.
Tingling.
Bubbles of all kinds instantly formed on his body and burst from all angles as his body first fully submerged into the oddly warm water. It was oddly warm in that, Frank thought it would be hotter, at least that is what he had been led to believe from all of his Sunday trainings.
Trainings that he often avoided so as not to be forced to deal with the constant ridicule of Luther Camello and his cronies who always attended the Sunday services as a way of proving himself to the community.
Frank’s parents didn’t mind his missing such services, mainly because they never knew he skipped as both were forced to often work during the typical service times.
That was his sin, he understood it now. He let bullies keep him from doing what was right, out of fear and now he was being judged.
At least that was the conclusion that Frank had come to.
Warm water covered his face, as he felt his dense body falling deep within the warm liquid.
If Frank had to be honest with himself, he would so far have to rate the entire experience as not being that bad. Instinctively he held his breath, well at least he tried to, as he knew his body would eventually have to breathe in the boiling waters.
Perhaps that was part of the punishment, take your weary body, plunge it into water that seemed to find every aching muscle and relax them all at once, only to then drown you slowly. Oddly, that would be wildly poetic Frank thought as he felt his body continuing to drop, until his feet made contact with the floor.
By now Frank’s body was so dense with Earth energy that his body just sank. The moment his feet made contact with the ground, he felt his mind relax even more as he could still have his powers in Hell. There were tricks he had learned from his time when he was fully immersed in the ground. Tricks that his mind seemed to automatically do, as he could feel his body preparing to once again meld with the ground beneath his feet.
If he was fully awake, he likely would have been able to by now.
That or he would have freaked out entirely and tried breathing through water, a task that was impossible. Or mostly impossible for someone who was not affiliated with Water.
Pulse.
At the thought of being affiliated with Water, his mind thrummed with a warning beacon, as his mind once again found his next true objective, to find the door of Earth just beyond the prison that was so far to the west.
Realizing that was still his goal, Frank felt momentarily sad, for he still had a long way to go to get to his intended destination.
While he didn’t know the exact location, he still knew that he had over hallway to go.
What made things worse was the fact that had those people, fellow soldiers, not tried to kill him, he would have already been there. At least that is what his mind told him. He should be there, but he wasn’t, and now he likely never would get the chance to go there, as he had failed.
In this moment, being in the lake of fire, for that was all this could be, or at least the only connection that his slowly awakening mind could come up with, he realized that he had failed.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I didn’t even get to kiss a girl?
Frank thought, then remembered Holsy’s sister and tried to remember if they did in fact kiss? He meant to after the dance, had even gone through the way to make that moment magical for the two of them.
Suddenly, his mind flashed back to when he and Maddie were no more than eight, when they kissed awkwardly the way only innocent children could. Backs arched forward, lips out as they tried for whatever reason to kiss from four feet away.
That might have been it, his first kiss, though that didn’t count, Maddie told him. He thought she wanted a real one, but then they never got that chance, for his childhood ended far too quickly and before he realized it, he was gone.
He made a vow that next time he would take a kiss when it presented it to himself, that he would not die with that regret. And that this time he would make it memorable so that he would remember it even in his dying breath.
By now, Frank was finally at the point where he would either have to meld with the earth under the lake of fire to try to survive or end it all with deep breaths of water.
Swoosh.
For a moment he tried to merge with the ground, to fight just a little longer, but before he could focus his mind, he got distracted.
Ripples and waves of water violently pulsed past his body. A body that he was slowly regaining consciousness in, but one that he wished he could still remain mentally blind to what was happening around him.
With the waves thrusting about wildly around him, Frank couldn’t focus long enough to merge with the ground. Also the earth here seemed different than what he was expecting. Before the earth had been solid, dry. Here the earth was of a softer consistency, which logically meant it should have been easier to merge with, as he could feel his feet firmly seeping into the ground, but that was not the case. Here the water caused an apparent imbalance within the symmetry of earth, making it hard for Frank’s still awakening mind to find the correct way to merge with the ground beneath his feet. Honestly, Frank didn’t think he would even be able to merge with the ground beneath his feet at this rate.
Then before he could get too distracted by what was causing the fierce ripples in the waves around him, he felt a pair of strong arms fiercely wrap themselves around his torso and pull.
In that moment, there was an odd fight for dominance as Frank had apparently already started the process of trying to meld with the earth below. This act caused his feet to merge deep into the ground, forming a mild suction over his feet. A suction that was quickly and violently overcome as Frank could swear he heard a popping sound once his feet became free of the ground.
Once freed, his body felt light as he could feel the strong arms grabbing him and pulling him back to the surface. Unfortunately, the strong arms grabbing around his torso caused Frank to lose the last battle of wills to maintain his breath.
Violently he felt the air in his lungs and body being expelled as arms as strong as wires squeezed out the corrupted air within his body.
For a moment, Frank was okay, even with the violent expulsion of air, his lungs had a second to fight, to resist the intense need for oxygen. Then the next moment, his mind and body conflicted, had he been fully awake, he might have been able to perform a few of the mental rituals he was taught in SERE training. Unfortunately, his mind was not awake enough, or in control enough to act fully, which ultimately caused his body to revert to its default settings, one where it would breathe naturally. Or at least where it would attempt to breathe normally.
However in this case, it meant that Frank’s oxygen deprived lungs and body desperately pulled in anything it could.
While the strong arm around his torso didn’t allow Frank to take in as deep of a breath as his body would have liked, he still found his body and lungs inadvertently sucking streams of water. Streams that quickly burned their way down his throat as he suddenly felt his mind thrash awake, only to find that he was now drowning as burning hot water entered his lungs and were fizzling and tickling his insides.
Worse, he could still feel a tight vice like arm around his waist.
Looking down, he could see it clearly, an arm or maybe a paw would be better to describe the large muscular appendage that covered his body and pulled him along like he was a meal to be eaten.
In this moment, Frank felt his mind resort to its only means of survival.
Panic.
That’s right, in this moment he panicked. His lungs burned from the liquid he was forced to inject, and worse there was a very hairy arm that held him in a vice like grip.
Mentally the word werewolf came to mind, but was quickly discarded. Right now he didn’t need to know what was trying to kill him, rather all he needed to know was that something was trying to kill him.
Violently he fought and tried to break free of the arm.
There up ahead he could both see the lingering light of day shining through the surface of the water, and he could also feel the way the dense layer of water that had been holding him down now felt lighter.
Kicking and thrashing about, Frank tried to break free of the monster’s iron like grip.
Splashing and spinning, he finally fought his way free, even going so far as to give a violent kick to the creature that had tried to take him alive.
Feeling freedom right there, just a moment away, Frank desperately fought and swam his way to the surface. Lungs still burning, but his mind was focused on the one task at hand, of getting to the surface and breathing.
Splash!
Frank felt his head violently crash through the surface of the water, and then as if on reflex he tried to take in a deep breath of air, but then fond the problem. A problem that he should have expected, but in this moment he couldn’t have done anything differently if he tried. For there at the surface, Frank emerged from the deep, and tried to take in a deep breath of air, but only felt pain for his efforts as his lungs were already expanded, and unable to take in life nourishing oxygen, as his lungs were already filled with water.
This only caused more of a burning sensation to erupt from within Frank’s chest, as he couldn’t breathe. Worse, everything he tried to do that resembled breathing felt like fire in his chest.
By now the tingling water no longer popped, causing Frank to feel like he needed to cough, instead all he could do was flail about and fight wildly as the last of his strength seemed to leave his body.
This time when the strong arms of the werewolf grabbed him around the waist and began to pull him along, he hardly mustered any resistance. His mind desperately tried to preserve itself and its vital organs, as he felt the strength leaving his extremities as he was pulled off in some unknown direction.
Darkness.
Frank felt darkness slowly overtake his mind as he was pulled somewhere, likely to be a meal for the enemy. That’s what he was taught would happen, the wolves would take him and eat him slowly. If he was lucky, they would just slit his neck and let him dry out so the wolves could make jerky from his desiccated body. If he was unlucky, then he would be alive and conscious throughout the entire process.
Amazing what your mind remembers when it is nearing death.
In the moment so many lost memories came back to Frank’s mind, his past. How far he had come, and ultimately how far he would never get to go. They all flashed before his eyes as he finally accepted his fate.
Light.
There was a solid strike to his torso, as he felt like his soul had been momentarily remerged with his body.
Am I dying again? I had my soul judged and am finally going to heaven?
Frank thought to himself, his lips muttering his thoughts, as he looked up and could only see the face of an angel before him. The face was of a woman who had long black hair, deep blue eyes and soft milky white skin. Then his eyes finally settled on her lips, they were pink, odd as he thought they should be red, but even still he thought they were the most beautiful lips he had ever seen at that very moment.
That was why, Frank with his last vestiges of strength decided to follow through with his final thought. There at the gates of heaven, staring at an angel, Frank could only smile, before using his last vestiges of consciousness to lung forward and steal a kiss from those plump pink and supple lips.
They were soft, and almost instantly Frank felt a surge of energy flow through the connection.
There, now he could die happy he thought to himself, even if this kiss caused him to lose his chance at going to heaven he thought it was worth it.
That was why Frank with a contented smile felt the last of his strength leave his body, as he collapsed to the ground and promptly let the darkness take him once more.