All he wanted was silence.After all those years of listening to the uninterrupted noise of the machines over his body, all he asked for was just a few moments of silence to put his mind at peace again.His eyes, intent on the fan's blades over his head, begin to close in another attempt to try to sleep, spilling only a tear down his cheek. while all of his vision starts to fade.
"If I could just….try one more time"
After a heavy sigh, he starts to feel an inexplicable lightness accompanied by a small gust of air coming from the ground.He opens his eyes seeing an intense glow, from it comes a small feminine voice.
"Try your life again… ….I can't do that, but I think I can make you something better!"
Suddenly he starts to feel his body falling.He sees a flurry of colored lights.Unaccustomed to such luminosity, he instinctively covers his eyes with one of his hands.The air in his lung burns, it's been a while since he breathed in such an intense way.
Getting calmer to open his eyes, he realized that he wasn't in free fall, but surprisingly on a roller coaster.This information left him with a sense of relief, which unfortunately lasted very little, as a few seconds later he remembered his fear of heights.With nothing else to do, he just goes back to screaming
"This can only be a nightmare!"
After a few minutes of high speed corners, screams and pants in need of cleaning, the roller coaster is finally over.He almost fainting starts to look around seeing that he finds himself in a totally dark room, in such a way that he cannot see the walls.Looking more closely he can see a light a little farther away, when walking towards it, he realizes that with each step the air in the place seems to revitalize it in an almost magical way.
As he gets closer to the light he sees one of the most beautiful figures in his life.Sitting on something similar to a throne, a woman with white hair and red eyes, looks at him penetrating to his soul.Her face is calm and unwavering, she doesn't even blink.
Mesmerized by her splendid beauty (and confused by the current situation), he continues to watch her, waiting for an answer. This lasts for a long time. He quickly realizes that no matter how angelic someone is, it's weird to be looked at for so long, deciding to take the initiative.
"Is everything alright?"
He waits for an answer, but the air of mystery is cut off by a certain low sound. He concludes that that sound was probably a snoring coming from her. In a quick action he claps his hands once, trying to wake her up.
"Ah…..sorry I think I ended up falling asleep, today was a tiring day"
He looks at her a little dubiously. In a few seconds his thoughts changed drastically on her. Her face of charm and mystery had totally transformed into a silly figure. He lets out a look of disappointment momentarily.
"Come on don't make that face, what did you think of the roller coaster?" the woman said that leaving her throne with a jump.
"I almost died on that last fall, there wasn't a better way to get in…. here ?" He says this with a tone of fear.
"It's because of people like you that my ideas are not approved by the boss, I don't need the roller coaster to make you enter here, but it makes the arrival more energetic, don't you think?"
He didn't pay much attention to her, he was still thoughtful. It was sad but somehow he felt in his body that he was no longer on earth.Even knowing of his death a question remained open, where was he exactly?
Seeing this, she gets very close to him, taking his hands. He gets slightly flushed, it's been a long time since he got close to an unknown person, much less a beautiful woman.
"Don't be shy like that, I'm sure it must be very confused"
"I have an idea of what's going on, I knew I didn't have much more time anyway….i just would really like to know if you are….some kind of demon ?" he says that stepping back a little
Her face becomes serious again, the atmosphere in the room becomes more tense again. She turns to her back, giving a smile. He gets more scared, taking other steps back, after so much suffering the last thing he expected was to find a demon.She turns around and laughs out loud, her silly face makes him calmer, coming back closer to her.
"No, of course I'm not a demon, I'm the goddess in charge of this sector, you can call me…" She pauses for a moment, looking around. "You can call me Eiko."
He gets a slightly suspicious look. Eiko looks him straight in the eye, he ends up looking away. She comes closer and puts her hand on his left shoulder, trying to make him somehow more comfortable.
"Don't be suspicious John, I would say my name, but he is unpronounceable in the language of humans."
Unlike other times, he is in an aggressive stance. He tries to look aggressive but his shyness stops him, choosing to just close his eyes and speak.
"I haven't introduced myself yet, how do you know my name?" John complains, raising his voice.
"I know everything about you, after all this is my job" Eiko says this while opening a magic screen in front of her. "Your name is John Smith, a very common name right. You were born 16 years ago in the United States but spent most of your life in France due to your illness that required experimental treatments".
He looks at the screen that plays several videos of his life. He can see his birth, the beginning of his illness, even his parents helping him. John gets slightly emotional seeing all that, preferring to turn his head to the side and stop looking .
"After the start of your illness, you always had to go to the hospital, trying different experimental treatments. Because of this you were always confined in hospitals, in this situation you started to consume all kinds of books, you like movies too, but when you see that a book was good, you practically dives into the story".Eiko while saying this notices John's confused face.
"I'm in charge of helping people like you after their last breaths." She opens a second screen in the air to explain "When someone dies without being able to enjoy their life, I step in to give them a new option in the afterlife.The option of putting them in a new world".
In this new screen John sees several worlds, some looking technologically advanced, others looking more medieval. Among those worlds he sees people in danger being saved by heroes and big villains trying to conquer cities. The adventures really seemed to be limitless.
"However, nothing is for free, you can even choose where you want to go, but you will have to work for us, playing a missing role in that place, which can be many different things." Eiko opens many other screens showing other worlds and asks John. "So you have plenty of possibilities to choose from, knowing you I believe you're going to want to go into a fantasy world right?"
As he listens to all this, doubt is what reigns in John's mind. His whole life he wanted to go out into the world to adventure but now that he could finally fulfill his dream what he felt most was uncertainty. Thoughtful he looks again at the screen that passed his life, remembering a phrase of his mother. "Son, we all came into the world for some reason, I know you've been going through difficulties but I know that when you discover your purpose."
"I want to go to a place where I'm needed," says John bluntly. "I would go straight to a fantasy world but I feel my duty is to go somewhere to be useful and not just go somewhere wandering aimlessly".
The goddess looks at one of the screens for a few moments. After an analysis she looks at John with a wide smile as she opens a large luminous portal.
"I can't say it's going to be easy but I think I can take you to a place where your experiences can be used for something good".
He looks at that portal, which radiates a light that unlike the others, does not blind him, but opens his eyes to a sea of possibilities that may occur. For a few moments the mixed emotions of knowing that unfortunately he would no longer see his parents and that he would finally be able to live makes him cry to the point of sobbing.He looks back, hesitating a bit when remembering his old life.
"Can you send a message to my parents?" asks John as he wipes the tears from his eyes.
"Yes of course" says Eiko flatly
"Tell them that my love for them is eternal." he pauses for a moment."Even though I couldn't find my destiny in my short life, now I have the chance to make one myself."
She extends her arm upwards, sending a signal of light that rises indefinitely into space. After that she turns her hand towards the portal , with a really mysterious look this time .
"Now that we've got everything sorted out...please get on the roller coaster"
John, totally disbelieved, looks at the portal that starts to open and shows the beginning of a roller coaster. With a face of fear and anger, he holds back a little trying to calm down.He, on the impulse of his emotions, enters the portal while complaining.
"You know what, I'm going to enter into this thing, after all you only live once" John rethinks the sentence analyzing the context that he is in. "Actually you can live twice...just forget the phrase"
"Don't worry, I think what you have to worry less about is the roller coaster! " says Eiko while waving her hands