“Too often we are to busy looking either in the past or in the future that we are blinded to what is happening around us.”

As I lay there, blood slowly draining out of me I couldn’t help but feel amused. Not the proper emotion you might say as one lay dying from multiple gunshot wounds. I would normally agree with you. Then again whose is to say what my final moments on this world should be? Should I be angry that the gunman took his wrath out on me instead of the girl I was so desperately shielding. Perhaps I should be sad that the police officer came through the door just a second too late to save me but no I was amused. Why you ask, because from the day I could learn to read I have read stories of great heroes who died great deaths. I told myself that instead of letting nature drag me down of its own right I would endeavor to sacrifice myself for someone else.

Perhaps a little history would help. Both my parents died in a plane crash at the age of twelve, I lived a relatively normal life at least as normal as one can until at the ripe age of 17 I was diagnosed with stage 3 pancreatic cancer. I would love to say that I was beating the cancer when the gun man shot me down but it was not so. I had battle for my life for nearly a year and a half before that fateful day. The man irate at the crying girl was going to silence her the only way his pathetically small drug scarred brain knew how to do. Some might have tried for the man holding the gun, but that would not have saved the girl nor in my condition could I have wrestled the gun from the man’s hands. Truthfully I had no idea if my actions would save the young girls life or not. If the policeman had not chosen that moment to break down the door then I know that it wouldn’t have but even then the bullet could have easily passed through my body and pieced hers.

Luck or perhaps some divine guidance of some kind (I really should start thinking about that seeing as I’ll be meeting whoever it is here soon) ruled that it would not. That did little to save me of course but I was happy going out in the way I did, rather than lying in a hospital bed until my body shut down. The EMT’s worked quickly trying to save my life but they knew as well as I did that my weakened body would not be able to handle the shock and so it was that I died there on a stretcher with little left to me in this world but hospital bills.

As the darkness filled my vision and the cold swept in I couldn’t say that I was particularly ready to die but then again neither would I say that I was willing to fight kicking and screaming to hold onto a life I would lose in the near future anyway. I was totally unprepared for what I saw however. A long hallway perhaps ten or so meters wide and nearly twice that in height with marble columns and pristine tiled floor, I could not see the end as it seemed to stretch on forever. Along the walls around every five meters or so there was a metal office door with a single name adorned on its otherwise featureless surface.

I am a curious person by nature dear reader in fact much of my time back on earth (as it was clear to me if not but from the unnatural cleanliness of the place that I was no longer in the mortal realm) was spend reading. A great deal of my time in fact to the point my parents before their death once grounded me by taking away my books. History and warfare fascinated me dear reader and I have read all that I had access to. Back to my current predicament then shall we, this hallway with its unfathomable length. How was I to locate what I assume is my door? Or per chance did the door simple refer to the world I occupied? I had many questions none of which unfortunately had immediate answers so I discarded them in favor of applying my mental prowess to finding a door which looked suitable. It is somewhat predictable but the language on the doors was not comprehensible to me.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Now I am no great student of language (I barely know English) so that was not overly surprising to me. It did leave me in a bit of a predicament however as I could not fathom what would happen upon opening a random door. However I could see no reason in which I would want to reside in the hall way for an extended period of time, this battled with my need for information until in a bout of impatience I latched on to the nearest door handle and opened it. (Far above or perhaps beyond the hallway) “Oh he chose that one did he, well I did just finish with that world. This should be entertaining; Mikey you won the bet by the way”.

What I saw dear reader on the other side of the door was a plain office like one might find in any corporate building. A picture of some natural scenery hung on the wall over two dark colored chairs that sat in front of a large mahogany desk with a small vase and several stacks of paper scattered around the desk. What sat behind the desk however was where the similarities ended. A small girl maybe five or six in a frilly purple dress looked up in interest at my entrance. “Oh hey my first transfer yaaay”! The girl had jumped from her seat and was dancing around the room twirling her pigtails wildly. I am afraid dear reader that I was not very dignified in my response, “Umm…” In my defense however of all the things I expected to find behind the featureless door the girl was not one of them.

Bouncing back to her seat the child reached down as one might to raise or lower the seat, pulling the lever however caused the seat to drop until not even her head was visible beyond the edge of the large desk. “Dang it why do these chairs even go this low”. With some apparent effort the girl raised her chair as high as it appeared she could. “Um hello…” She said while searching through the papers on her desk. “I’ve got the right forms right here just a second. I know there in here somewhere where are you. Ah here they are, now please take a seat”. Being somewhat confused by her antics I had yet to sit or even move from the door as I watched in bemused silence. As I did so however I did notice that to door shut with a resounding thud not unlike that of a vault.

Suppressing the wave of panic at that comparison I sat somewhat stiffly in one of the chairs offered to me. “So you name please”? “Um, Jonathon Lowery”. “Hello Jonathon, hmm where to start”. With a toss the girl threw the papers she was holding behind her head. “All that nonsense and you get nowhere”. Projecting herself forward onto her elbows the girl smiled at me “Let’s skip the boooring questions and paperwork now what do want to do with your new life”. I was understandably stumped upon how I should answer and after several moments it appeared the girl’s patience was growing thin. In a way dear reader the reason for my existence on this world is merely a product of impatience. For if I myself had been more patient I might have chosen a different door and if the girl whom I now know as Gaia had been more patient I would not have rushed in my decision. Such a thing to bring change the world over these little things have defined the course of history. “I want to create things make things no one else can”. My dream in my old life had been to be a smith a dream I knew was not possible but perhaps in this one. “I see” the girl said suddenly turning serious. “That is a nice request so I’ll grant that” Suddenly the girl jumped up from seat lunging across the desk, her palm smacked into my forehead with far more force that should be possessed in a scrawny six year old girl. The force was such that it caused my chair to tumble backwards and when I should have hit the floor instead I fell in to nothingness.