~Alex~
Astral projection is something that I've had since I was a kid. I'm no stranger to seeing my own body laying on a bed. I remember being able to go through peoples dreams; going to other places that I haven't been to without moving my actual body; controlling my astral projection even when I'm half awake; and a whole lot more.
It's quite different when you know you're in a coma and can't go back. It's scary, unsettling, and lonely. It feels like a dream but it isn't.
I stood there looking at my body which was on a hospital bed, my little sister, Dianna, holding my hand, her eyes puffy from crying.
"We're all scared in a way, aren't we?" said by a voice from behind me. I turned around to see my mom looking at my sister.
"I guess so." Dianna was wiping the tears off of her cheeks. "It's his birthday in a couple of days. He could've at least waited for that."
"He's still alive. Let's just hope he comes back to us." Mom gave Dianna a hug.
Dianna couldn't hold her tears back and started crying again.
I started crying, too. I hugged her and kissed her forehead. "I'm right here, Dianna." I hugged her tightly, though I wasn't sure if she can feel it.
She stopped crying and looked me straight in the eye.
"Brother?"
"I love you, Dianna. Don't worry. I'm ok." I assured her. She giggled while tearing up then straightened her back.
Mom wondered why she suddenly changed. "You saw your brother?"
She nodded, "He's ok."
They both smiled.
With a sigh of relief, I leaned against the wall. For a few minutes, I watched mom and Dianna talk about me; from stupid, dumb things that I did to embarrass them to memorable heart felt moments I had with them.
"I remember that time when he would visit me in my dreams when he was out of town." I remember that, too. I always visited her to check if she and mom were ok. "It felt so real!"
"Hmmm, I remember those. Sometimes he would do that and drag you into mine, right?" I always did that, specially when dad died. I found a way to keep us together even if we were apart.
It's amazing, really. I never actually learned it. It came naturally as I grew up.
I stood there, leaning against the white wall of the hospital room when suddenly I had an uneasy feeling.
The walls of the room disappeared and turned into a wide land that was dark and gloomy. The sky was blood red and had clouds as dark as nimbus. The surrounding forest seems to have been decimated; the trees were sliced in half, some burnt, some uprooted. The soil was littered with mutilated bodies and shattered weapons.
The bodies were that of angels and demons.
The angels wore gold and silver armor plates with weapons like swords and spears all adorned in crystal tips or blades.
The demons wore heavy plated armor with crimson and black lining, and demonic runes. Their weapons were made of obsidian, black from the tip of the blade up to the butt of the hilt.
The hospital room transformed into a battlefield and I was smack dab in the middle of it.
I was stood there, frozen solid, watching as the hordes of demons ushered from the south. I could barely make out any details from here except that the wore the same armor as the dead demons.
Leading them was a woman on a black mare in a crimson Greek toga. Her hair was pure black, tied back with what looks like a sheathed dagger. Her eyes were as dark as vanta with red pupils. Her skin was as pale as a corpse drained of blood. Her eyes were piercing and full of malice, complimenting her wild grin which shows her blood-stained, jagged teeth. Her body was that of a goddess, making even an angel do her bidding. At her side was a sheathed gladius spewing a red malevolent aura.
She rode ahead of the horde as if surveying the battlefield. She stopped a few feet away from me, elegantly dismounting her mare.
She scanned the horizon from left to right, walking around looking at the damned, inspecting the weapons of her warriors.
She was getting closer to me with each passing moment. She was down on one knee when her head snapped to my direction.
"Well, Well. What do we have here?" Her jagged teeth didn't make it easier stopping my bowels from exiting my rear. Her dead eyes glared at me with such killer intent as she walked towards me, grinning and giggling. Once she was inches away from me, she sniffed the air.
"Agartha. You wreak of her smell." She said as she looked around, as if she cannot see me.
"Fear. I smell fear." she giggled evilly. That wasn't fear she was smelling, it was me shitting my astral self. Are those even possible?
Her face was so close to mine, I could smell the iron off of her breathe. "I can't see you, but you're there. If only I can see you..." she was laughing. And it's not the cute type, it was maniacal.
"...I'd eat you." her voice spoke in a whisper so soft yet with words so clear as crystal. My spine tingled, shivering in fear, heart beating as fast as it can.
How is this possible? Is this an illusion? It feels so real!
A shimmering light came from the north, interrupting our rather sweet and not-at-all scary conversation.
"Lucia!" a voice shouted from afar
From the north were battalions angels, flying in formation, ready for war.
Ahead of the angels were three figures.
On the right is a man in onyx plated armor with a crimson cape riding a black stallion with red eyes. He had a claymore that was half the length of his body, decorated in both angelic and demonic runes, glowing red like Lucia's.
On the left side was a flying angel with white, shinning, wide spread wings and in golden, heavy plated armor. His spear laid in his hands, on par with his height. It's shaft was long and engraved in arcane runes, topped with a diamond spear tip.
In the middle was a woman in white robes holding a unique weapon that I could only describe as a scythe with the ankh (the Egyptian symbol of life) on top of it's blade. Her blonde hair, like her robe, flowed with the wind as she rode on a griffin.
Before they could come any closer, Lucia grabbed my shoulder with her hand, as if she can see me.
"Fortune is never in your favor, isn't it, little one?" she stared at me with a wide grin. "Give my regards to the Council and the Pillars, will you?"
And then she stabbed my heart with her blade. "Here, a parting gift."
I fell to my knees, gripping my chest. I looked at my chest, there was no wound but it surely feels like I was stabbed by a sword.
The background flickered once more, morphing into a garden, with me lying on the grass in the middle of the pouring rain. A woman with blonde hair in a Sunday dress was holding me in her arms, crying and begging.
"....., stay with me." her tears were falling on my face. "No. No. No. Stay with me!"
I looked at my body and there it was. A gash in the middle of my chest where my heart is, bleeding like crazy. In the far right was a woman in a black dress, standing in the open, looking at us.
Her lips were moving as if she was trying to say something. I could only make out the words 'sorry' and 'love'
I smiled, and with a last look at the blonde woman, I closed my eyes.
The proceeding moments were blurry. I seemed to be back on the hospital room but this time I was laying half-conscious on the floor. A lot of people were in the room, gathered at my bed, running left and right. I could here commands coming from what seemed like a doctor.
Am I dead?
The next thing I knew is that Death and Michael talking while I'm lying in a bed of sorts. The moment my eyes opened, Death snapped her head me.
"You're awake."