For an indeterminable length of time I remained in that state of near comatose, breathing slowly, weakly. Barely having the strength in my lungs for them to carry on pumping.

Occasionally the veil of darkness would rise, bringing me back to the conscious world, however it never lasted long. My eyelids would smack open alongside panicked screams and coughing as my body ejected masses of partially congealed blood that left my throat and mouth tasting like copper and rolled down my chin, leaving behind a trail of vile drool. All before my body seized and fell back into unconsciousness.

This torture carried on many times over, each time however my coughing and convulsions weakened considerably. This carried on time after time, my fear rising every time my mind was capable of conscious thought as I desperately tried doing anything to stop the slow inevitable decline of my body. Until finally as I awoke, prepared for my throat to cough itself raw again, my lungs in their attempt to compress failed. I tried everything, desperately attempting to command my body to save itself. I failed.

I layed there. In my own pool of blood, feeling time slow as my body began shutting down, one by one my organs failed. All the while I did not blissfully fall into unconsciousness like before, no matter how many times I wished. I was dying. Drowning. Drowning in my own blood.

In a sudden surge of instincts my lungs tried to draw in breath, only to suck in more horrible, horrible blood, tears began to run down my face as I felt my lungs desperately pushing against themselves, sending panic signals into my brain. It was a hellish torture, oh how I begged, how I begged for it to end, for my candle to be snuffed, it did not matter. Nothing mattered.

Slowly failing, my body finally gave up, the constant set of emotions and feelings rushing through my brain finally began dulling. The silence in my ears finally quietened. My eyes remained open and yet I could not see. I felt death’s chilly breath crawling slowly up the back of my spine, alighting my nerves in their final moments.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Closing my eyelids, useless as the gesture was, I waited. In utter peace, I waited. Seconds stretching into an infinite moment as my previous life flew through my mind, emotions and ideas seemingly meaningless, rushing past one by one in a constant stream, I was sure it had only been a second but that second could’ve possibly been the best in my entire life, watching, I smiled, all the best moments, alongside the worst. I held tightly to the flowing stream of memories, riding the waves with reckless abandon as I knew this would be the last time to do so. Unfortunately however the waves did not last forever, eventually ebbing weakly and dying. My impromptu ride had left me upon a sandy beach leading to an alone cabin, walking up to the cabin step by step, I stopped outside the window, peering curiously inside.

Through the window I watched visions of my mother, of her holding me before bed, hearing her voice as a warm hand pressed against my forehead laying her lips upon it lightly. Once again I cried, this time to her loss, I cried unceasingly as I felt her soft, warm breath on my ear whisper “Not quite yet.” Before I could even begin to decipher what I had heard her say.

I was gone.

The infinite moment had finally met its end. Feeling the warmth in my chest flutter before dying, I cursed the strange creature that had stolen my everything, my soul cursed as loudly as a soul could, I cried out into the unceasing abyss, of how unfair it was, of what little I could do. My shouts into the abyss however, were meaningless, for the abyss had no ears.

Then I fell. Spinning uncontrollably. I began to fall faster and faster, picking up speed at a rate I had never seen before and at the climax of that speed I.

Gasping deeply my chest shuddered with a thundering, broken cough, alongside a violent expulsion of blood as I threw up all over the floor.