I felt the strength fading from my body. Even breathing was an effort now. The cancer was everywhere, and there was no treatment that could reverse the damage. They diagnosed me as stage four just six weeks ago, and the creeping death had spread into my brain. They gave me a month or a couple of months left to live at the best estimate. Now that I was lying here in the hospital bed strapped up to all the different machines watching my life signs dwindle minute by minute, I knew it couldn’t be far away.

Thoughts of squandered potential and how unfair this whole situation was piled on top of me as I lay dying. I was only eighteen years old, and there was nothing I could have done to stop the cancer from taking root and cutting my years desperately short. Once it was in your bones, there was no chance of recovery. No chance for me, anyway.

You can’t choose your genetics, and my parents didn’t know they both carried a particular gene that had a less-than-one-percent chance to pass on to their children, that was pretty much a death sentence. I’m just lucky, I guess.

My family and I were poor, and my even though they both worked, neither of them had the savings necessary to pay for the experimental treatments which might have a chance of saving my life. Neither of their jobs had health coverage, and they couldn’t afford the skyrocketing premiums.

So even though I’d done everything I could, this was the end. It had been a pleasant enough life, but it was impossible, now that I was nearing the end, not to wish that I’d at least had the opportunity to try to live the life I wanted.

The nurse came into my room, which halted the progression of my downward spiral for a moment. Her name was Diane, and she was exactly the kind of person you want by your side as you slipped off this mortal coil. She was beautiful in a way that only nurses in their pinstripes could be, but more than that, she was kind. She was caring, compassionate, and she didn’t offer me pity. That’s the last thing you want when you know you’re sick and nearing the end. That look that people give you like they’re pitying you.

“How are you feeling, Jack?” Diane asked.

I smiled and tried to prop myself up on my pillow a little, but the pain was too much. Diane must have sensed this because she immediately reached for my painkiller drip and asked me if I needed more. I nodded, and Diane pressed the button. Soon the blissful numbness washed over me.

“Oh that feels better, thank you.” I swallowed, but it was painful. My mouth was dry and I couldn’t quite seem to finish the swallow all the way.

“I’m coming to see you because the doctor is worried about your vitals, Jack. Your blood oxygen level is dropping at an exponential rate, and it's time we started talking about what you want to happen from here.”

“Well I’ve asked you, when it happens, don’t try to resuscitate me. I’ve signed the DNR waiver, and once it’s done it’s done. How long are we talking?”

I felt myself gasping for breath then, as though her talking about my blood oxygen level made me hyper aware of just how bad things had become.

“It could be hours, Jack, but probably no more than a day. We have options to make you more comfortable though. We can make it so that you don’t feel it when it happens you can just slide away. But it’s up to you.”

When faced with the news of my imminent demise, all of the things I’d wanted to do in my life came flooding into my mind in a rush.

My parents had always been amazing. My father had this great sense of humor and was always pursuing little projects in his shed. He loved woodworking, and our house was always filled with the smells of freshly oiled wood. He’d always come back inside covered in sawdust, which my mother would complain about, but in a good-natured way. She knew that dad would always clean up after himself.

My mother was the light of my life. She always comforted me when I was down, and she pretty much never left my side since the diagnosis. She’d taken a sabbatical from her job until things came to their grisly conclusion, determined to spend as much time with her son before the end.

Both Mum and Dad were out grabbing some lunch, and I was kind of happy that they weren’t here to hear this.

Because of how awesome my own parents were, I’d always wanted a family of my own. I wanted to meet someone, fall in love, had a couple of kids myself, and build a life that was half as wonderful as the one my parents had. They didn’t have much, but they had each other, and that was all they needed.

I’d been in the midst of deciding which college I wanted to apply to, and what I wanted to study when the diagnosis happened. That put a dampener on the whole thinking-about-my-future thing.

Whatever career lay ahead of me, I wanted to be successful enough that I could buy my own land. That was a pipe dream, because nobody could afford to buy land these days unless they had intergenerational wealth, but it didn’t stop me from dreaming about it.

I never really had any clear idea of what I wanted to do with land, but I always knew that I wanted it. A place that was purely my own, where I could do what I wanted, when I wanted to do it.

I always figured that depending on where the land was, and what I could do with it, I could turn it into whatever I wanted. I had ideas of turning it into a summer camp, or maybe even a fancy forest retreat, or maybe if I met the right woman we could build the farmstead and raise a family. I’d spent way too many hours watching YouTube videos made by people who had gone and made the own off-the-grid cabin in the woods over the years.

“What are you thinking about, Jack?” Diane’s voice was soothing, and I wanted to tell her about everything. But I just couldn’t gather the strength.

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“I was just thinking about the dreams I had that will never be fulfilled. I always wanted to build something, hopefully something that would make the world a better place, you know?”

“You can still do that Jack. If you want me to make the last few hours more comfortable, you can spend them in whatever dream you want to. We have a special cocktail that will inspire pleasant dreams.”

“I have to admit, that does sound very nice.”

“The doctor has already signed off on us providing you whatever level of comfort we can. We could just take the edge off, or we can put you into a dream state until things come to their conclusion. You’re an a adult, so you don’t need to wait for your parents to make this decision.”

Between facing the pain that was to come and being able to go into oblivion numb and in the grips of pleasant dreams, dreams would be the best choice.

I told Diane as much, and that I wanted to see my parents before it happened, and she started making arrangements.

She left the room for a few moments, and while I’ve never been an overly religious man, in those last few minutes I made a prayer with a fervor that I’d never experienced before.

I prayed that there was something that came after this. I prayed that I would get another chance to live a life that I could be proud of, a chance to build something and make the world a better place. A chance to be open and love someone just like I wanted to be loved myself. I wanted adventure and challenge and something that I could do to keep my hands busy.

My breath caught in my chest, and I felt a strange warm sensation coming from somewhere outside of me. Had something heard my prayer? Was that feeling of acknowledgement that something out there was listening? I didn’t get much of a chance don't worry about that as Diane came back into the room with my parents in tow.

My father clasped my hands in his, and there were tears in his eyes. “Son, I just want you to know that I’m proud of you. You’re facing this with a dignity and grace that I never could. I’m just so proud of the man you are.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“And I’m sorry. Both me and your mother are sorry, for what we passed onto you.”

“You couldn’t have known,” I said. “You need to know that I don’t blame your or Mom for this. I will not let you live with that guilt, okay?”

Dad nodded, but there were tears in his eyes. They spilled over his cheeks and into his thick black beard.

Mom took my hand in hers and squeezed gently. “I love you so much, my darling boy. So much.” He voice cracked on the last word, and I squeezed her hand back.

“I love you too,” I said, and there was nothing else that needed to be said between us.

Dad wasn’t much of a talk-about-your-feelings kind of guy, but mom and I had pretty much done nothing but talk since I was diagnosed. In the immortal words of Douglas Adams, we talked about life, the universe, and everything. Just knowing that they were here and they would be here until the end was enough for me.

I turned towards Diane, who was holding a syringe full of blue liquid the color of the open sky. “I'm ready.”

“If I attach this to your drip then you're going to close your eyes and fade into sleep, descending into dreams until your body cannot sustain you anymore. If you still want to go ahead with this, just let me know.”

Diane’s face was kind and warm, and only a few years older than me. If I was destined to live into old age, she would be exactly the kind of person that I could see myself falling in love with.

“I'll be surrounded by the people that love me. How many people are lucky enough to say that they will be surrounded by the people they love when they pass?” I asked. It was a rhetorical question, and when you know that this is the end of the road you kind of lose any sense of what's an appropriate thing to ask and what's not. “I want this I am of sound mind, and this is the way that I want to end things.”

Dad took my hands then and squeezed them much harder than Mom did. The tears came in a river then and the hardest part of all of this for me was watching my father cry.

Diane hooked the new syringe up to my drip and injected some of the solution into the drip bag. It only took a minute or two before I started feeling the effects. The muscles in my body relaxed and a sense of euphoria washed over me. It was like there was nothing else in the universe except for me and this feeling of peace and calm. Everything became so heavy, and I felt myself begin to slip away.

I expected that the calm would be the last thing I ever felt, but it wasn’t. I was alert, the sleepiness and heaviness totally gone. I opened my eyes, and the hospital room was gone too. Instead, the scene in front of me was almost indescribable.

It reminded me of something from one of those marvel superhero movies. A vast city stretched out before me, but it was a city built on clouds. Other cloud islands dotted the sky as far as I could see, and each of these islands had a city on it as well. Strange creatures wound through the blue sky between the cities. They looked like the wingless wyrm-shaped dragons of Chinese legend.

Suddenly I realized that someone was standing in front of me. He looked youthful, but everyone around me did. There were plenty of them now that I was looking, and they all looked like young folks in the primes of their lives. I looked down and saw my own body. My hands weren’t wrinkly and covered in age spots.

“Where am I?” I asked.

The man in front of me smiled. “You’re in the Great In-Between. And yes, while you’re wondering, you are dead. This isn’t a dream. But your pleas for another chance have been heard. We’re in quite a situation at the moment, where we have the perfect life we believe you can slot into.”

“Wait, you guys heard me?”

“Yes. We angels are always listening, especially when a person speaks directly from the heart. You’ve had an unfortunate life. Choices are important, and you’ve not been given the chance to truly make your own decisions. The big guy above wants to see what you’ll do if you’re given another chance. There just isn’t enough information to send you to heaven or hell, yet. Are you interested in a second chance?”

The longer this guy talked, the more I wanted this. Like, really wanted this. A chance to live another life? I had to be dreaming.

“Yes. What kind of second chance are you talking about?”

“You wanted to build something, fall in love, live a good life, right? We’ve had someone abdicate their own life. He was thinking about doing something that can’t be undone, and we’ve arranged a trade. Another world needs a hero, so we’re sending his soul there. You’re going to take his place in the world he came from. We’re going to put your soul in his body while he goes off to become a Chosen One in another world.”

It sounded insane. Absolutely insane. But at the same time, there was no denying the reality of the situation. We were in a cloud city, the Great In-Between, and there were literal dragons corkscrewing through the sky.

“It sounds crazy, but what grounds do I have to deny what you’re saying?”

“None at all. Now if you’re ready, shall we get things started?”

“I guess, sure.”

“There’s just one thing you should know about this new world. It doesn’t run on the same rules as your old one. You’ll probably find it a little similar to video games you’ve played where you level up and grow stronger as you do things. You’ll notice other differences while you’re there, but you’ll figure it all out as you go. Your memories from your previous life will be intact, as it’s the easiest way to get your acclimated with your new reality. But you will have a learning curve, so talk to the townspeople, figure out how things work, and live the life you’ve always wanted.”

This again sounded insane, but I’d need to see it all for myself. “I’m sure I’ll figure it out just fine.”

And with a snap of the angel’s fingers the cloud city of the Great In-Between faded away.