EPISODE 8: THE OBLIVION

EP 8: THE OBLIVION

When I closed my eyes, I could feel the pain caused by the bullet wound.  Then my past memories had a strange playback in front of my eyes and from this I understood that It’s time for my story to end.

But I was ready to accept it because the reality is so painful that the one who was close to my heart took the choice of pressing the trigger against me. Also, I didn’t want to hold grudge against him for that and I want to let go of his action.

What we thought we want to be in our life was always our intention and what really happened was the expectation of the so-called fate. But if we were strong enough to accept it, even death becomes ordinary because the angst over it faded away in time.

Even if I was given the choice between life and death, my choice would be a peaceful death. And this was because of my strong belief that I might have a chance of meeting my dead parents above.

I suddenly woke up and all I saw was burning forests around me. I just searched for Austin, but he just fled away. Then, I just ran searching around to find what was really behind the huge sound I heard earlier.

After some distance, I found some tribal people crying in front of the charred dead bodies of their family. Their houses were destroyed and on seeing that I just couldn’t handle myself seeing their suffering. We the people of IDENTITY couldn’t keep up their promise and it showed our incompetence. I just could do nothing but console them for their loss. I tried to touch their hands, but my hands just phased through them. And that’s when I realised, I am dead and this is my wandering soul’s last moments. I was suddenly sucked into the skies and from a height I just fell into a cell of a prison.

“Oh, my head just sucks” I just shouted.

I just stood up and found one guy around the age of 40 staring at me inside this white cell with four translucent walls.

“Oh, holy shit, not again in this kind of place” I shouted.

Then, he just introduced himself as Zack Giovanni from Russia.

“I am Jonathan Ray. May I know what place is this?” I asked him in tensed manner.

“This is the prison between the passage of life and death. And if you are in this place, it means right now you are in coma”, he replied.

“I wished I could die freeing myself from all these burdens”, I said to him.

“Death is not always the only way to escape your burdens. It’s all about fate. When things we hope happens so easily, there will neither be any God nor crime”

“Just accept the life the way it is, even though it was miserable” he replied in a positive manner and I understood his wisdom.

“Hey man, you are bit nerdy. Can I ask you one more question?” I said.

“Carry on” he replied.

“How long are you spending your time in this prison?” I asked him.

“I had an accident while driving my car and I feel like being here for something like a year”, he replied and I was stunned on hearing it.

“I think time runs slower compared to the reality” I asked.

“Maybe it’s just our head meddling with us. Einstein explained it in theory of relativity as time dilation” he replied.

“What’s that?” I asked him.

“If you observe a same clock but two different situations, one is moving and another is stationary with respect to you. The moving clock’s ticking will appear slower compared to the stationary clock. That’s called time dilation. Maybe this place around us is in constant motion and we are just stationary which is creating an illusion of time running slow”, he replied.

“Looks creepy”, I said to him.

“How did you manage in this place? I am feeling like hell for real” I said.

“I was just furious like you but then I realised being alone is a gift only when you understand the illusions of life. And for which, it takes time”, he replied.

“I believed at first, that I will escape this prison. But then understood hope can be painful sometimes”, he said.

After some time, a portal just opened and on seeing it, I was bit confused.

” It’s for you”, Zack Giovanni said.

“But, how would you know that?” I asked him.

“I lied to you before. I got freed once and when I woke up, I found that I lost the major part of my life. Everything I had in my life just vanished, my parents were dead, my wife got married to someone else and it was just me alone in that bed. I was coward, I didn’t accept the way my life was and I took the decision of committing suicide by jumping from the window near my bed. Then I realised my mistake after returning back here and that’s how I earned the life’s lesson but no returning back as I lost my chance”

“Just don’t think about that. Let me say you something. When you are getting freed from this prison, if you have already found the purpose of your life then you will have a peaceful death. I knew you still have time to figure out and I am wishing you good luck”, he said.

“I wish I could spend some more time with you” I said.

“Even if it was 60 years or few hours, we would have learnt the same. But I have to say that, I will always live in your mind as memories and my words will always remember me in you” he said and just after some time another portal opens. On seeing it, he realised this was the purpose of his life that to guide me with his wisdom.

“Finally, you found peace, mate. If there was an afterlife, let’s hope we meet there” I said with a smile.

“Okay, it’s time to bid good bye”, he said.

“Good bye, Zach”, I said.

Then, we just passed through our portals. I just woke up in a hospital with few nurses near me. When they saw me returning back to consciousness, they informed the doctor in charge of me.

After some time, he entered my place and introduced himself as Jacob.

“What year is this?” I asked him.

“Its 2019. You were finally awake from coma after 8 years. You’re not completely normal because your muscles are wasted due to disuse and it’s going to take months to get back into your form”, he replied.

“Who admitted me here?” I asked him in muffled voice.

“I really have no idea about that, but nurses said that somebody dropped you here and said that you were stuck in a fire accident. But before getting the details of him, he just vanished and we couldn’t find him. We were worried about your condition and after years of struggle, you are back and we are happy for you”, Dr. Jacob said me.

A nurse just entered our place and said, “Somebody just arrived few moments before and asked to give you this red envelope”

I felt suspicion on seeing that bloody red envelope. I just opened the seal of it and found a golden ACE OF SPADES card. I just turned it back and found that it was written as WELCOME BACK AGENT RECK. Then I understood ‘A’ refers to AZRAEL also known as ANGEL OF DEATH.

I heard the words of Zach saying about the purpose of life. Now I understood the reason why I returned back to life. And I got a “SAVE THE FREAKING WORLD” reminder in my agenda.

TO BE CONTINUED...