I look up at the sky. Yes. I am alive the sun is against the back and for once in this time a smile comes across my face. The sand around me is soft and white like flour and it goes on for miles and miles but I don't care.
Oh, how it feels to be alive, not dying, nor bloody, nor about to be shot, alive. Even better, not a human in sight. Are there even humans where God abandoned me too? I sit on the ground expected to be held up by the sand but I just sink in.
This sand is not like normal sand by any regards, it's odd, almost like ash straight from a volcano, or the shedding of bones. Am I even myself anymore? My body must've disintegrated many times now so what am I now.
My arms look about right, I mean they move fine, they're the right skin tone, even that scar I got from playing soccer with Castro all those weeks ago is still there. I check for my old bullet wounds but no scarring from them, quite odd. Whatever God did I cannot explain it.
However now when I close my eyes instead of just seeing the darkness and occasional neon brights all I see is The Man and The Monster that were inside of me. Now that I am no longer just a soul isn't it odd how they stay with me?
The place where I've landed is not so different from Earth besides that. The sun is still a blinding shocking yellow and it beats strong on my back but it is not hotter than the many deserts I have seen.
I look out. Nothing, nothing but desert and dune, however, this doesn't matter. I scream and scream. My voice is loud but it is my own. The scream resounds out to the last dune and it hits it head-on. I am alive.
This world cannot do anything to me but let me change it. I will not fall to any puny capitalists anymore, I will not let the pigs play me like a fiddle and I definitely will not be killed by the CIA.
I walk out forward, each muscle works in perfect harmony, they have been perfected and the muscles are strong like twine. I remember the words of the Tao Te Ching, "a journey of one thousand li begins with a single step."
I walk and walk throughout this desert land. The sun watches from its perch, I am not hungry, I need no water. After thirty minutes or so, I spot a large bird off in the distance. Unlike any creature, this creature is made entirely of a white substance, almost like bone. Its wings stretch out for a considerable distance and something seems to be coming off of them.
It's watching something from up above, and whatever it's watching is lucky not to be in its arms. Long jagged nails line the edges of its feet. I see it stalks its prey on the horizon. It flies overhead for ten minutes before I see it come down. It's talons stretch and it falls from the sky onto whatever it was.
I don't see it come out from wherever it was. Typical of a bird to enjoy its food. I walk away from the bird, it's more useful to keep on with my life as of now. I hum the tune to one of my favorite Waltz by Dimitri Shostakovich, the tune falls in and out of my lips as I walk.
For hours the desert stretches out in front of me. Nothing more but sand and dehydration. My lips are cracked and ribbed with it. As I walk the blazing sun overhead falls off into a subtle evening glare. A gust of wind picks up blowing sand into my eye. I see no reason not to rest.
"God, you think you can kill me again? You think all of these things can kill me God? It's pathetic really testing me. I will not falter." The words echo out onto the sand. God is not listening to me again. Once dejected, always dejected. I am his most dejected sad servant.
I stare up at the black sky. One thing was off about this world, wherever I was, the sky had no stars. Not a single big dipper or north star, not a single bright little ball in the sky. Only a moon but no stars.
I close my eyes. And let the darkness overtake me for a hopefully dreamless sleep.
In the middle of the night, I awoke to the soft pitter-patter of rain on my head. Raining in the desert. I suppose God did look out for me. I got up, brushed off what little of the white ash adorned me, and opened my mouth. The rain was sweet, almost like honey, and as it fell into my mouth. I felt an explosion go on within me
The Man inside of me noticed a little white ball float by him. I watched him stuff it into his mouth and chew on it, rhythmically, he made sure to savor its flavor. I felt stronger, this rain was not simply a desert shower, this rain was different.
I looked up at the clouds and I see a light come down from them. The clouds themselves were made out of jade green light. Glimpses of lightning rippled throughout them as I beheld them. As more and more water fell into my mouth. The Man inside of me grew bigger and bigger. The lights grew more and more numerous and formed a rainstorm above The Man. He closed his eyes as the light stormed around him.
Lightning struck the ground around me and rebounded against the sky. Earth seemed to shake after every blast, I looked at it with more intensity for something seemed to captivate me about it. It couldn't have been anything on Earth, the lightning was too thick, during my motorcycle journey I had seen lightning storms. I had seen how they hurt the people but I had never seen the majesty of them.
Something is within me now. Something stronger than simple reality. The storm had entered within me. The man inside of me glowed, his skin a pale green and my own skin was now green. Like seeing a flashlight shine through skin yet my whole body was illuminated by the light. And I felt something. Something outside of me yet also inside of me. Inside my soul? This soul sight of mine allowed me to inspect the energy rampaging through my veins.
As my mind grew closer to it, the energy recoiled. Was it afraid of my mind? But why? I try to go closer to it, to maybe understand what has invaded me.
It is green, maybe a soft emerald green, or a light jade, the painter in me can't decide, it's outer appearance is like that of scales and it acts like a worm inside my veins. My blood feels, odd? Feels as if something was pulling on it, or trying to get it to move.
As I looked into myself I noticed that the storm had stopped, yet my mouth remained open. I wanted that water and yet, I know it's not coming anymore, almost as if my body hasn't realized it yet. I touch my face, the skin feels different than a day ago, spongy and rubbery. It's not a good feeling like something slimy has touched your face, over and over and over again.
I sit and I ponder as I look up at the cloudy but not stormy sky. I think magic is real. I'm not certain but I think it is. I should've known with the souls and the monsters and the like. Would I be seeing swords coming out of stones, or men who could destroy mountains?
As the minutes went by the energy cooled down but it did not leave. Whatever had come had done something permanent. I had been changed. I flexed my arm in the pale moonlight, the muscles flashed green. What did this mean? What could this do?
The Man inside of me opened his eyes then, and the energy within me reacted, swarming to him. The energy coalesced around his right arm, it formed a large porous ball which he promptly tossed inside his mouth and started to chew. He chews it in his mouth for five minutes, each bite he takes stronger than the last. Until finally he stops, waits for a second, and swallows. Instantly, my body starts to shake and crack, and finally from my arms streams of light burst out and onto the desert sand.
As it hits the sand I hear the distinct sound of something sizzling and burning. My muscles contort with some mysterious lever pulling them and my mind runs abuzz with ideas upon ideas upon ideas. I am reborn.