I regained consciousness quickly. I felt adrenaline pumping through my veins as I stood all the way up quickly. My vision was completely black as if I could not see at all. Fear began to fill my heart without my sense of sight.

"Hello?!" I screamed, I was able to hear my own voice but not see anything. "Please! I can't see! I-" I stopped shouting once my own hands started to come into view with my one good eye.

I held them straight out. Realizing that I wasn't blind my fear began to dissipate. I blinked a few times, trying to concentrate. It felt like looking through a kaleidoscope. Everything was blurry and multiplied. I got to my knees, not being able to see quite yet I waited for my brain to figure everything out. I started to feel around me. It was cold, the wind trailed across my skin.

My hands grasped at grass growing from the ground. Was I barefoot? I began to feel my body. I was dressed only in my underwear. It wasn't the underwear I had on this morning, though. Thin pieces of cloth were wrapped around my chest, concealing the vulnerable parts of me. They were tied at the back. The same goes for my underwear.

My vision became clear in full force. I immediately spun around taking everything in. I saw a gray and white mess of floating islands. Fog covered the underside of them with wooden bridges connecting some of the larger ones together.

I was standing on top of a medium sized island, enough for me to run around on but still limited to where I could fall off. To my left was a sturdy brown bridge leading to another much larger island. The islands themselves were filled with bones and dead grass. Tombstones and other graves littered the area in a very unkempt way. It was as if piles of bodies were buried with a mash of tombstones throne overtop in specific locations.

In front of me was a swirling mass of energy. It was black and grey, completely blurry, but had the impression of a face covered with a mask towards the top of the energy cloud. I questioned this for a moment, wondering if I could communicate with it as it seemed to have a face. Then its eye opened, and the only flash of color I could see for miles was revealed. A dark orange glowing eye stared directly at me. I swallowed instinctively out of fear.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Hello, Blighted One." A masculine voice, low with an almost angelic undertone, rang out. It had a very serious tone, but I was unsure if I was speaking to another human. I didn't immediately back away, as the creature didn't seem to actually be here with me. It looked almost translucent and unreal.

"I'll keep this brief. Somehow, somewhere, you have died." I instantly remembered the train station and Jake. A fire ignited in my gut, giving me some confidence.

"What are you? What do you want with me? Where am I?" I spat out with an almost undermining tone, I wanted this thing to know that I was not afraid of it, even though I was. It had me practically shaking in my skin. The creature was still, almost emotionless.

"Your questions will be answered in time, young Blighted One." It spoke with a rather calming tone despite its crazed form. "I am a Guardian," it began as I shifted my posture to a more defensive pose. "Despite the way I look here in the cemetery, I am another human just like you." He spoke with such conviction, I felt like there wasn't any reason to doubt him.

"You have lost your life, and in turn ended up here, at the cemetery." His form flickered, as if he was a cell phone losing connection. I remembered dying and the train station, however I was so full of impossible questions I didn't even know what to ask first.

"I..." I began, slowly realizing that I had truly died and was now moving on. "I really died?!" I shouted. Everything hit me like a truck. I won't be able to see my mother again. I won't be able to see Jake again. I won't be able to see any of my friends from my fencing classes again. I was crushed. My entire world had turned upside down and my hope slowly withered away.

"What about my mom?!" I shouted back at the haze in front of me. "What about Jake? What about my life?! I don't want to die! I..." I trailed off. I couldn't think straight. I felt hopeless. Tears fell down my cheeks and landed in the colorless grass and dirt below me.

"Blighted One," the man began to speak again. "Your life has ended, and you have been chosen to arrive here in the cemetery." I could hardly focus on what he was saying, my mind was racing with so many terrible thoughts. I was truly terrified. He spoke a few more sentences but they didn't process in my head.

"This means that you're given a chance to return back to the world of the Blighted and reclaim your soul." I looked directly up at the weird shape. A small lingering flame lit throughout my body, a flame that I will hold onto for a very long time.

Hope.