"HELP!!!!"
In a dimly lit alleyway, amidst the pleasant sound of falling rain, a shrill call for help broke the silence of the early morning hours.
"Hurry the fuck up man." I hissed under my breath, as my buddy Jonas grabbed the screaming girl's mouth, cutting off her sobbing cries.
"Fuck man, get off my ass" he grumbled back, as he shoved the girl deeper into the alley. I stared at his back for a moment, frantically searching for some witty retort. Nothing came to mind, so I turned back around, and leaned against the brick and mortar of the neighboring buildings.
From behind me, I could hear the sounds of stifled cries, Jonas' excited panting, and the calming rumble of the rain.
I could understood Jonas, who liked raping girls on the streets, but I never thought it worth the risks. Why risk arrests, cops, and jail time, when you could just hire a street girl?
The poor girl let out a pained gasp, and I knew Jonas had started. I pressed my hood and cap further down my face, letting my vision be engulfed in calming obscurity.
The rain continued pouring, so much that I wondered how Jonas wasn't cold.
'What a fucking drag,' I thought. 'Reckon he's already finished, and just staying back in the alley for show.'
Amidst the falling rain, approaching sunrise, and the muffled whining coming from the back of the alley, my thoughts felt especially poignant and loud.
'Am I fucking Schizophrenic?' I wondered. My consciousness seemed to ricochet the thought around my head.
"Oye, J!" I called out. "Somethings not right. Let's get outta here." I called.
I turned around, ceasing the virgil over the entrance of the alley, and strode down the cracked pavement, my hands fumbling for the knife at my belt.
I turned around the dumpster where Jonah had taken the girl, dragging my knife free of my belt.
There was nothing there.
Only a smear of blood on the dumpster, mingling amongst the graffiti.
***
"Fuck, fuck, fuck!"
As I ran I hissed curses and obscenities. I was not scared, however the thought that a murder had taken place behind me, still shocked me to my core.
No, I was not scared.
I dashed sideways and ran out of the alley into the open street.
Thud!
Standing at the entrance of the alley was a man in a tattered cloak- not at all like the cheap one I had seen at conventions, but a heavy, grimy cloak. The kind you'd expect to see in a museum.
Tearing my eyes away from the fringes of his robe, she slowly traveled up his gargantuan, muscular frame.
"Holy fu-"
With the speed of a snake, his gauntleted hand burst out of the shadows of his body and grasped my neck.
'Is this fucker wearing armour?'
My throat screamed for air as he lifted my body slowly off the ground.
Darkness consumed my vision obscuring the giant, the dark alleyway, and the thinning rays of the morning sun piercing through the rain.
'Not like this.'
The words faded from my mind as my sight spun and fell dark.
***
In a world of golden lights, I awoke.
I instantly knew I was dreaming.
I drifted through clouds gilded with ethereal thread and silent lightning.
Thin, soft radiance broke through the clouds from all directions. Up, down, left, and right- all was enfolded in light. Even from the depths of my soul, the temperate light shone through me.
My thoughts were fluid, gentle, and poetic- perhaps the effect of the soulful realm.
I was a soul.
I was dead.
Killed by a giant in a black cloak.
From the depths of my being, the desire to mock, and hate, and cuss, surfaced, before dispersing in the light and the clouds.
But... wasn't I also the man who had been slain by a tiger in the jungles of Peryiar?
And the child whose life had been culled in a nightraid. Wasn't that also me?
As the clouds passed through my formless body, memories of past lives awakened. It was odd, to remember the people, the personalities, and the souls you once were.
Eventually, I passed through the clouds, reaching my final destination.
An indescribable feeling of inevitability welled up inside me as I beheld what lay in the center of the realm.
I beheld the visage from the 'ground,' a reflective pool of water filled with the golds, and pinks, and magentas of the heavenly realm. Its surface was a clear aurora made by the absence of waves.
Suspended above the pool was a maiden, dazzling and divine not words fit to describe her countenance. She wore no clothes but tattered white rags around the shoulders, hips and wrists. Her wrists were raised elegantly above her head in submission and feet grazed the surface of the water.
Entwined within the woman's body was the image of chains, piercing through the tender flesh.
My poet's spirit could hardly describe the sight. It was long, that my spirit stood there, not thinking, not speaking, but my adoration and love for this woman only grew in the passing time.
Perhaps it was but one second, or perhaps it was a year, but eventually, I felt a pull on my soul.
A chain, much akin to the one pinning the maiden, had emerged from the still water, and had tethered my soul. It grew taunt and drew me to the water.
I had no body, no head, no eyes, but I felt the water infused with divinity caress the depths of my spirit. With a sudden jerk from the chain, I fell, Falling through an aurorae of stardust and light.
Our eyes flashed in danger and alarm.
But it was too late. I was already awake.