When the bells toll, what will you do?
When the bells toll, what choice do we make?
Some would smile, accepting the finality of the situation and floating into the infinite. Others would refuse, denying the truth and fleeing the implications of what was happening.
All I remember is the empty road. A full, silent stretch of grey and white that expanded as far as the eye could see. An intersection that spanned four directions. Car lights.
Darkness.
When I awoke, I wasn’t sure what to feel. I was caught between two different experiences, standing in the middle of a precarious equilibrium. I was sad, of course, I was. Sad I wouldn’t get to feel the sun. Sad I’d never get to pet my dog. All those tiny Earthly pleasures we so easily take for granted.
But beneath all that, was curiosity. What happened next? What opportunities would my current state allow?
Death was final. I accepted that. Time to move on. Who knew? Death might be even better than life.
There wasn’t any light. No pearly gates or endless rows of ice cream sandwiches. But my body, or soul, I suppose, seemed to understand what to do. I must have been walking for ages, but I felt just as energetic as when I first arrived. Time is strange here. At least, it was in my experience.
The darkness finally took on a new form. Shadows converged and divided around me, parting to reveal…a city? A line of threatening black buildings formed at the edge of the red sky, which glared down on me with a blood-filled scowl.
I felt uneasy. What now?
Something about this place made me hesitate. I’m not sure why. Maybe the smell, which hung heavy in the air. I’m not sure what it was, but it was suffocating.
Of course, maybe it was the sound, or lack of it. Silence reigned supreme, and only the screams as gravel cracked underfoot could be heard.
Perhaps it was the feeling of cold fingers brushing against my dead flesh.
I can’t be sure. The city was freezing, and my fingers felt numb. I rubbed them for warmth, breathing shakily as I did so. My steps were slow and unsteady, the exhaustion time brought with it finally catching up to me. The city seemed to stretch out forever. Maybe it did. In this strange, new world, anything was possible.
It was a feeling of danger that forced me to stop.
That feeling proved correct.
As thirteen peals of a distant bell rang out in triumph, my flesh burned. Rain the color of blood pelted my exposed skin. I needed to find shelter, now.
The house I ended up choosing, the closest one, was a huge, sprawling mansion. It was dark, but not dark enough to ignore the red eyes the shadows held.
They had thin bodies like bone, and as small as children. Half-wooden monstrosities stared at me with blood-filled eyes, radiating malice. They opened their mouths, their jaws moving in a way not humanely possible. Staring at me with those eerie, crimson eyes, they screamed.
Black lightning didn’t do much to light my path as I sprinted through the darkness, knocking furniture out of place and scraping my knee in the process. Tiny footsteps echoed behind me, and once or twice I felt rough wood cut into my ankle. The house was so much smaller than it looked from the outside. I hit a dead end in minutes.
Contorting my limbs in what must have been one of the most uncomfortable positions I’d ever found myself in, I forced myself into the only possible exit point I could find. A tiny storage closet, barely big enough to fit me. I bolted the door, which creaked so loudly I thought I’d go deaf.
The screaming was never-ending. Heavy fists pounded on the door. It’d give out any second.
Sharp knives found their way through the door gap, cutting my toes to shreds. I shrieked in agony, cursing and praying to every god I could think of. Blood trickled down my ears.
I can’t remember when it stopped.
I kept still, waiting for the pain to return. To increase three-fold. This had to be some cruel joke.
It wasn’t.
I collapsed to the ground in a broken heap. Red light illuminated the hallways as I left the cursed mansion.
The bleeding never stopped. My toes and ears never healed. I got sick often. Each house contained some kind of terror or another.
So I learned to be careful. I learned to watch the houses, meticulously working to find the safest option. But even that wasn’t enough. Plants didn’t grow here. All I had to feed myself were snakes and rats. Sometimes I was forced to use spiders.
The water was never fixed either. Its location kept changing, forcing me further and further away. No containers either. I couldn’t bring anything back. I spent years trapped there, no matter what the doctors say.
Here, I was comatose for 12 hours. There, I was struggling to survive for 12 years.
I have always been fine with death. For me, it’s a part of life.
Now, I’m terrified. Each year brings me closer to that horrible city. I don’t want to go back. My friends think I’m insane. I don’t eat much anymore. I must be as thin as bone.
I don’t care. I’m tired of running.
If I’m going to go back…at least it’ll be on my terms.