I had my head caved in by a guy with a mallet one time back in 2015. Me and some buddies were out drinking and one of them got into a fist fight while we were waiting for a cab. The old saying goes, when one marine starts swinging, right or wrong you all start swinging with him. If your buddy is in a fight, so are you. That's why I know what it's like to get my ass knocked out.
What I was currently going through right now was not the same as what I went through then. That time it was just an instant darkness that took everything. This time however the darkness was more of a shroud that lay over my senses. I was aware of both the passage of time, and a slow acceleration. I knew I should be dead, even though the thought was hard to keep firmly embedded in my mind. I`d died due to my own actions and lack of skill. I hadn't even died in an exciting way. No explosion, no bang. In five years' time the only ones who'd remember my death were my daughters, and all they`d remember was that their idiot father got killed by some dirt.
Well to be fair about ten thousand pounds of dirt, and one great big rock if I had my guess right. What had hit me was more akin to one big rock than a wave of dirt and mud, which was probably the only reason I wasn't currently eight feet underground slowly suffocating.
Now, I'm not a religious man. And to be honest I rarely think of things like what happens to one after death; However, when one finds oneself as a severed being of consciousness slowly being pulled through an unnamed void shortly after death it does make one think a bit. Not the big questions, a man can only change so much. No I didn't find myself thinking on the meaning of life, or on the reason for existence. The only deeper questions I was thinking about was why in the heavens name my hip hurt so bad if I was supposed to be dead. Obviously, I had died, I wasn't happy about that but I`d somehow managed to accept it. So if I had died, why was my old injury on my hip, or my lingering headache for that matter, still affecting me so much.
I get that it's a bit of a foolish thing to focus on given the current predicament. But if my eternal soul is bound to fly through the darkness then why was an old injury and a stress migraine that had been bothering me when I died still annoying me?
It just seemed like a sick joke to be honest. The pain for both was a dull ache, but a constant one, and to live through eternity with a constant dull throbbing headache, or a sharp pain in your hip just seemed weird.
After what seemed like a short time, though I had no way to measure its passing as I was; I began to sense what I can only describe as presences pressing into the veil. Slowly I began to be aware of my own eyelids. I couldn't move them, but they were certainly there, and on the other side of them there was something moving back and forth. I could feel; not hear mind you, a movement back and forth as the shaped walked about. My headspace was slightly distorted as if my eardrums had recently ruptured, and the pressure that Id usually call a migraine was slowly building. Then with a pop I felt my eardrums reform all at once and I could hear.
I didn't immediately hear anything specific. No distinct words, just a low murmur of people at a slight distance talking. I tried tentatively to open my eyes, but that didn't work. It was as if they were sealed together with super glue. I could feel them, I could exert a force on them, but they simply wouldn't come apart. I tried harder, and still nothing happened. As far as I was aware I was still moving, gliding through a space. I had eyes, ears, and a face. I could still not feel my hands legs or torso. And I was gaining speed while others around me talked to one another. Eventually I grew tired of attempting to parse my existence together and simply relaxed, feeling the growing pressure ease as unconciousness took me.