'I'm so fricking dead', 'I'm totally dead' I think to myself. Surprisingly death is a lot more comfortable and warm than I had imagined it to be. I wonder what happens next though. Suddenly {Shut up you're not dead} interjects into my thoughts.
'Wait, why not?' I try to look or feel and all I receive is warmth and darkness. 'Feels pretty dead to me'
{Do you really think death would be this warm? Stupid kid.}
'Says you were the same age!' I hate having to continually remind Aziz that were the same age. Yet out of all the voices, he is usually the voice of reason compared to some of the ... others.--I resent that--
'Of course, you do' I responded rolling my not-so-existent eyes. Something interesting about my exchanges is that since our thoughts are so intertwined unlike a typical exchange this conversation only took place in about 1 second real-time, although many words were exchanged.
Suddenly and surprisingly I started to perceive a bright light, reddish as if someone had held a flashlight to my closed eyelids. {I told you we weren't dead} Aziz laughs.
'This isn't funny.', --Agreed--, 'Something very serious just happened, we could be in the hospital permanently disabled for life for all we know!' My fears slowly expounded upon themselves as the light grew closer. Thoughts of what that could possibly be were racing through my mind. Every detail and every moment of my life was clear as day. 'I barely made it to 17. I'm too young to be disfigured for the rest of my life.'
{Calm down kid. We are not dead. We are not disabled. We don't seem to be on earth anymore, however.} Those last words came as a bit of a shock. 'Not on earth anymore?' {Wait and find out. You can always trust a god.} Aziz was a bit of a narcissist. I say a bit but really I mean TOTALLY OUT of this WORLD a narcissist. He insisted on the name Aziz because it means "The All-Powerful" in Arabic. How we know Arabic is beyond me, but it's not like I really care what he calls himself so, Aziz it was.
{One day you will realize I'm not just a foolish narcissist like you believe.} Aziz said to himself in the deep recesses of young Eli's mind, far away from where his words would be perceived by the boy.
Our little sidetrack quickly came to an end when I was suddenly and forcefully pulled by my head.
Hit with bright lights and a variety of sounds, whatever was going on was incredibly chaotic. I managed to finally open my eyes to immediately face what I was seeing in disbelief. 'I've finally lost it' I think to myself. What I see is what seems to be the inside of a small country home, it seems furnished well enough, and looking around it looks to be the inside of a bedroom of some sort. What stands out to me the most, however, is that the lights don't seem to be lightbulbs, instead, they seem to be some sort of glowing crystalline material.
I'm at more than a traditional loss for words a rush of question's filling my mind. 'Where the heck am I?', 'What is everything around me?' 'Why can't I see anything besides the ceiling and upper half of this room?' I try to resolve the last question to no avail. 'Maybe I am paralyzed!" I suddenly realize.
{Shut up! You're so annoying! And you complain about us all the time.} Aziz spouts exasperated with my behavior. {Just shut up and wait, all will be answered in good time} I wasn't the type to wait for a good time, especially since my thoughts tended to move a million times faster than my actions ever would. 'Hey Aria you with me? Any idea what on earth is going on.' --Nope! Definitely not going on there!--
Puzzled by her response, I tried to ask further yet I was suddenly berated by a strong and powerful slap to the behind. "Holy ****" I tried to yell out, yet nothing besides a rush of air came. I realized up until this moment I had been holding in my breath. I hear talking going on around me yet I can't really seem to make out what is being said except a few words hear and there. "Breathing" "will be ok" and "strange baby" were all I could manage to make out before my senses began to shut down once again.
'Why can't I control my body!' I inwardly scream.
It was then my life truly flipped upside down. As my senses slowly faded I heard a few short words that would change my life forever.
"Good news! It's a boy!"