It all happened so fast. I can hardly believe, and remember, that I was hit by thunder while I was up on a tree. In retrospect, it was quite foolish of me to run after that dove.

But how could I not!? It was coloured strangely, though bizarrely, I can’t remember what colors it had.

Now that I look around, I must have died. I don't have a body, my mind feels fresher than ever, as if I took a good nap for once.

Then I focused on what's before me.

All around me there is… the universe… it’s so… breathtaking…

The stars move constantly, I can see it. Comets draw beautiful lines across the sea of darkness. I feel like I’ll write a poem, just for this unique occasion.

“Ouch, hey! Don’t hit me!” said a voice as I kept floating around.

Scratch that.

“Do you even feel pain? I think you exaggerate,” said a laidback voice.

For a moment I totally forgot that I am not alone. I guess that’s what happens when some people die at the exact same time. Or that’s what we agreed upon since all three of us were hit by lightning while trying to catch some animal.

Why were we all doing the same thing?

“We can’t even see each other. Stop being such a crybaby.”

“Oohh! He made you a crybaby! Whatcha gonna do?”

“Is that a way to behave around a lady?!” said the crybaby voice, slightly trembling out of anger.

“Lady? You’re a woman? But your voice doesn’t sound like… anything, really,” I said surprised.

The other two looked at me, or so I think. We are just a bunch of incorporeal voices, literally, there is nothing to look at when we speak with each other, yet we know where each one of us is at any given moment.

This is weird, it messes with my mind.

“Now that I think about it, your voice also doesn’t sound like anything, not a man nor a woman,” pointed the laidback voice.

Odd, my voice sounds as I know it does. Is it only our minds that perceive us as being ‘us’? As it stands, we have no proper identity other than our memories.

The woman seemed to be deep in thoughts but before she could say anything there was a flash of light that covered our sights. We couldn’t even close our eyes since we had none.

I wanted to think that it burns, that our eyes are overfed with light and our brains scream in pain, but there was none. All feelings that I would normally feel as a human were gone.

This is really tripping me up. It feels so… wrong.

However, with all that I awoke in a bed I didn’t recognize, with smells different from what I remembered should be normal.

Urgh, smells like shit and piss and… I won’t think about it any more.

Before I could even look around I felt something.

Ba-thump. Ba-thump.

My heart. I felt it pulsating with such clarity it felt unreal. My lungs, so full of air and strength. My every movement, so slow and dynamic.

Despite this, I could not feel any more detached from my body, mainly because it wasn’t mine. I was a young boy. I stood up on the bed.

I looked around and saw a stove made of clay, a broom made of thin sticks, bowls made of wood… I think I traveled in time.

I looked at my hands and feet and I was of a surprisingly reddish color. Did I suffer some extreme sunburn?

But once a woman entered through the main, and only, door of the house I realized that this is just the way our bodies look. A bit unusual but it’s not like there aren’t tons of different people.

She was fairly tall with a long dress that had lots of zig-zagging lines, points and diamond shapes in a pattern that maybe means something. She approached me, caressed my cheek and looked at my head, arms and legs.

I think I just suffered something and she either is my, this boy’s, mom, or a rural doctor.

She said something but I could not understand her despite my ears picking up every word correctly. This gave me a headache and I lied down as the woman became more concerned. She said something else and then went out.

My head kept hurting and I didn’t know why.

This kept going on for days, during this time a man whom I presume would be this boy’s father checked on me.

I was thinking of ending it all, death seemed so much more calm and beautiful, why should I experience this torture?!

Eventually the pain subsided and I realized that I am more dramatic than I thought. Maybe me experiencing death once took away my fear of it.

At some point I decided I wanted to go outside. This place is cramped and musty, not good for an ill kid to recover in.

As soon as I went outside I was amazed…

At the sheer poverty of these people. It was something you’d see in an eastern village.

My nose scrunched at the wave of vomit-inducing smells. Or so I thought I would, but this body lived here for years so there was no way it would puke at familiar smells.

Once I took some courage I went out of the yard, opening the small gate made of old wood. There was lots of dust, some dogs with fleas that I dared not approach and some people tending to their houses, mostly women.

The houses were old-fashioned, like you’d see in old photos of your great-grandparents.

Some women tried to talk with me but I did not understand them so I tried to smile, but that only raised some eyebrows. I guess they are not the most friendly people.

Where was I going though? I felt like there was some place I needed to go, but why?

At a crossroad I found my answer. I met with another boy, probably my age. At first I ignored him but then he spoke.

“Wait!” he shouted.

I stopped in my tracks. I can understand him?

“You’re from… there, are you not?” he asked with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.

“Ye…yes… Yes!”

We were happy like two girls gossipping.

“Man, I tell you this is fucking me up. There is no way that this is not some weird hallucination I’m having… but it’s too realistic…”

“I get it, I feel like I don’t belong here.”

“Ah, we really don’t. I doubt any of us can understand these people at all.”

Now there was something that kept bugging me. I kept having that feeling that I should go somewhere. It took me a bit, but I then realized that maybe we are connected somehow. Then the other one, the woman, she should be somewhere here too!

“Listen, I think that woman is here somewhere.”

“How do you know?”

“Don’t you have this feeling? That you should go somewhere no matter what?”

“Now that you talk about it, yeah. Kinda odd, isn’t it?”

“Given what we’re going through, at least this one thing is helpful. Come on. We need to find her.”

“Sure thing. What is your name by the way? Mine is Luan.”

“Dustu.”

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We both went to the direction we felt was ‘right’ until we came to a house near the edge of the village. We heard nothing and the door was open so we entered. There was nothing all that unique about this house. I guess there is not much in the way of decoration in an agrarian society.

Looking around a bit I saw her sitting in her bed, crouched. I don’t think she was crying, though I doubt that her mental state was too stable.

“Hey missy!” Luan said in a cheery voice.

She looked up, almost scared. I guess she went through something in these few days which made her wary.

“Can you understand me?”

“Sure we do. We’ve met before, you know,” I said.

She stared at us almost in disbelief for a moment, after which she smiled.

“I guess that’s right, since we are from the same world.”

That made me curious.

“Same world? Do you think we are on another planet?”

“Yeah. I worked in some linguistic fields before dying. I am fairly sure that we are not in any civilization we know about. I’ve seen some writing, I guess the parents of this girl are merchants, and it is completely different. The way they speak and how they dress up…”

She then proceeded to go into greater detail. I guess she might be right as I am no linguist.

“What is your name? If we are to work together we might as well know each other,” I said, interrupting her analysis.

“Zaya.”

“I am Dustu.”

“And I am Luan. Pleasure to meet you missy!”

Now that we are all together the next best thing we could do would be to find out how and why we are in this predicament. I asked both of them for any ideas but we simply didn’t have enough information.

As we were talking a church bell rang in the distance. I would dismiss it as a local custom, however the yelling people across the road told me that there was more.

Looking at each other we sprinted outside only to be met with dreadful things.

People were killed in the distance as a huge group of armored cavalry was approaching.

I could not make out most of the details but from what I saw there was some sort of smoke going out of their helmets. That smoke looked like it had a life of its own as it moved unnaturally.

To us.

“Run…” I said. “Run!” I repeated, terrified.

I took Luan and Zaya by the arms and ran to the forest. They have horses so they might not come into the forest while riding, which means we can run further.

On our way to the forest we saw several young men running to the cavalry.

Fools. They have no chance at defeating such people. If they were people.

I know all too well what a difference armor alone can make, adding horses is just overkill.

I heard screams and clanging iron, at some point fire started and sprawled far enough to smell its smoke. These people weren’t conquering, they were destroying.

I looked at Luan and Zaya. They were scared. Whatever we saw would follow us in our nightmares.

God help us all.

We managed to escape that nightmare but we’re exhausted. We’ve been running for what felt like hours into a dark forest which seemed to have no end.

“Buddy… let’s stop… just stop…” said Luan between ragged breaths.

I did as he said and fell on my knees. I’ve been on such high alert that I didn’t notice my exhaustion.

Zaya fell on the slightly wet dirt. She seemingly gave up, at least for now. We stood like that, catching our breath for a few minutes.

Eventually Zaya was the one to break the silence.

“What the hell was that?”

“Dunno, but it isn’t human, that I can tell,” said Luan looking down.

“That armor also didn’t look like anything I’ve ever seen,” was my addition.

“What? Are you a historian?” asked Zaya curiously.

“I was, at least. I really liked armors and weapons… Their armor was impractical for fighting. It’s a wonder they could move at all.”

“Maybe their strength was in that smoke?” said Luan.

My thoughts on this theory didn’t even finish as I heard something. All three of us heard it. Something like a low thunder and then tens if not hundreds of steps in the distance. They’re here.

We ran again, ignoring all the spiky plants that scratched us, not stopping for even a moment. Despite this it never felt like we made any progress, they were always at just the same distance from us as they were in the beginning.

Eventually, we found an abandoned shack. Our reaction was to just get past it. A wooden door would do nothing to stop these things.

However, we found it again.

“Huh?” was Luan’s reaction.

Yeah, same. But there is no time to think, we need to run!

And we found it again…?

At that, Zaya stopped.

“They’re not following us anymore…”

Me and Luan stopped too and listened. There were no more clanging iron or loud steps. What is happening here?

The door of the old shack opened and an old woman came out. She was a by-the-book witch in the woods. Pointy hat, ugly face, absurdly long nose… god that nose is really long.

She looked at us and seemingly told us to enter.

Yeah, no.

Zaya and Luan had the same idea, however we would enter anyway after the hag spoke.

“[Come here already you munchkins, I don’t have time!]”

“What? How can she…? Is she an actual witch?” was Zaya’s ‘logical’ reaction.

I thought that maybe she was one like us…maybe… but that nose though…

Once inside we were greeted with a sight one would see only in a cartoon: lots and lots of potions, ingredients, plants and mushrooms. I think I saw an eye somewhere here and a pair of lips?

Disgusting.

The hag waited for us in the middle of the only room. Disappointingly there was no cauldron, though I think it was for the better.

She looked at us with a strong gaze, analyzing us from head to toe. She didn’t say much so Luan felt the need to break the silence.

“Um, excuse me ma’am but uh…”

“[Silence.]”

Luan didn’t push his luck and shut up. Quite rude this hag.

“[The demons will be here in any minute.]”

‘Demons’? As in actual demons or was she just spiteful?

From under her robe she took a globe made of crystal.

It was so pure that at first I thought she had nothing in hand.

“[I know who you truly are and I can tell you are not bound by mortal coils. I don’t know how you managed such an impossibility but this will be my only chance for redemption.]”

What? Is she really a witch? What does she mean by this?

“[Sit down. I need to talk with someone before it all ends.]” she sighed.

There was a pain in her eyes, the kind I’ve seen before. She realized she wasted her life on useless things.

We did as she instructed. Zaya and Luan were already begging me with their eyes to do something. Like hell I’d know what to do.

Besides, I was curious to find out more about this world.

She didn’t sit down but instead she started lightly tapping the globe in a rhythmic pattern. With each tap a slight breath of wind came over us.

“[This earth will soon die and all our souls will be damned. Mine will be no exception. As the ones who aren’t held back by any time or place you will see and act in ways mortals would never be able to.]”

Her voice was raspy and unpleasant, her gaze now distant.

“[I have seen a glimpse of the true nature of the world. The insanity and chaos of what lies beyond. I hope you…]”

Her monologue was interrupted by a strong knock at the door. That startled me, I was too focused on what she said.

She, however, was not fazed at all but continued to tap on the globe.

Smoke started coming through the door, slowly but steadily.

All three of us stood up and looked worryingly at her.

She made what could be called a smile, as terrifying as she looked.

“[Until we meet again, young saplings.]”

And just like that we were sent somewhere else by a sudden gust of wind. All I could hear before I passed out was her death shriek.

You old hag, I don’t even know your name or what led you on this path in life yet I feel sorrow. Was I always this emotional?

Maybe she just reminded me of someone…

And now, we died. Again. We were once again before the universe.

Zaya said all kinds of profanities, some in languages that I didn’t even know.

Well, now this wasn’t such a big shock so I could actually ruminate over what information the hag gave us. I turned to speak with Luan and Zaya only to see them as humans.

This was surprising.

“What? Did she do something to us?” asked Zaya.

Luan seemed more ecstatic. I guess he really enjoyed having something to look at other than the cosmos.

“This feels nice. Despite her looks she was kinda nice.”

Maybe. But I have the feeling that that was an exception in her life. We are here, in the space where the dead come so we either died at her hands or she ‘sent’ us here, bodies included.

I can’t fully understand it all, still, I’ll make the most of it.

“Alright let’s stay together. She gave us important information there,” I said, garnering their attention.

“She did? You understood all that ramble?” asked Luan.

“Yeah. If we are to believe her we can travel across time and space, somehow.”

“I guess it’s not so surprising when we’ve seen demons and living smoke,” added Zaya.

“I guess we are really dead right now. I wish we had mature bodies. Not much we can do with these children.”

“Do you think we will return to that world?” inquired Luan while floating in a relaxed position. He seemed to enjoy the state we’re in.

“I guess. But who knows, that world was ending as she said.”

But then, a silent question arose: what about our world? What happened to our loved ones? Or what will?

None of us managed to ask a single question as another flash of light sent us somewhere and somewhen.

This time we woke up together. All three of us were red like fire and stood out in the greenery of the forest. Somehow, our clothes also came with us.

Little did I know that this is where our differences would begin to show.