A Thousand Million Universes
When you die time stands still, and in that infinitesimal fleck of space stretches a thousand million universes…
FLASH.
David.
…the misting clouds of color and dust swirling lazily through the fathomless depths of inky space, the infinite planets dancing around giant spheres of dazzling light…
“He’s crashing! We need to hurry…”
FLASH.
Come to me, David.
…shining brightly from the eyes of the face staring down at him from above, her image only visible in the center of brief flashes of light flaring across his vision…
“Lydia.”
“He’s awake.”
“Do you know where you are, Mr. Brant?”
FLASH.
It’s time. Come, David.
…though he was unable to focus on her features; the light was playing tricks with her skin and making it appear as if her face were the surface of the sun, burning his eyes with every glance he stole…
“Where’s Lydia?”
“You’re in the hospital, Mr. Brant. You were shot—”
“Where is she…?”
FLASH.
Let go, David. Just let go.
…but there was no mistaking those eyes deep enough to hold a thousand million universes, and that voice that could wake him from the deadest of sleeps with only the faintest of whispers…
“Get me a crash cart, now!”
“We’re losing him.”
FLASH.
David.
…and he was sinking from this world in a swirl of black and shadow, the colors of life turning grey and all sounds turning to piercing cries before silencing forevermore, and he passed out of all knowledge and time, an eternity of nonexistence, and even his own name was lost to him, and how to speak, how to think, to breathe. He was lost to the darkness.
It was a hand he felt on the side of his face, but how he knew that he could not tell. From its place spread a sensation through his body, and he knew warmth once more. The hand started to pull away, and with it soared his body, up from its eternal cell of darkness and into the light. Dark clouds existing only to smother and suffocate began to bleed with the warm colors of a setting sun, its reds dancing with the oranges and yellows in a mesmerizing masquerade of fancy. A gust of wind drew its fingers through his hair and washed across his cheeks, flowing up his nose and filling his lungs with breath.
Something about the breath stirred in his mind, a memory long forgotten in darkness. He somehow knew this breath, had felt it in his lungs before; it had once filled the lungs of another.
David.
She was standing a little ways before him. Just standing, as if she had always been there and his eyes had simply failed to notice. Her lips were pursed, though she relaxed them once she noticed his focus on her. The right side of her mouth lifted in that half-smile he knew so well, and in that instant he remembered.
The Accident. The Crash. The Beginning of the End of His Life. The incident had many names in his mind, though it held only one truth: it was the day his wife had been stripped from the world, and in that moment he had begun to die. Their lives had seemed perfect, yet in one instant his actions proved to be the downfall of the one person he loved above all others. A sudden flash of brilliant light, the twisting shriek of writhing metal, a concussion of devastating flame, searing, burning, blistering.
The mere memory of it all drove him to his knees before her, shoulders hunched forward as wracking sobs shook his body, threatening to overwhelm him to the point of submission. He reached his arm out towards her, trying to grasp a handful of her flowing skirt, but she was forever beyond his reach. No matter how many paces forward he crawled, the fabric rested always just beyond the tips of his fingers.
Without warning, David began to sink into the ground below him, a dark mouth opening to swallow him whole and bring him back into darkness. He cried out for her help, but the woman remained motionless staring down at him, that half-smile still gracing her lips. She had helped him once before, and it was now time for him to help himself.
The thought of returning to his eternal prison flooded David’s mind to the point where no other thought could exist. He worked at leveling himself within the sifting mass pressing around him, worked at finding his balance in the dark. Slowly, he could feel the speed of the decent begin to lessen, before he finally stopped. Blood pounding painfully in his ears, he began to work his arms and legs, cautiously raising them and allowing the darkness to fill in underneath. He took a tentative step and found the mass solid enough to hold his weight. Putting small amounts of pressure down on his foot, he began to rise, the darkness falling away and dissolving in the air around him until he was standing fully out of the mass.
The woman held out her arms to him, that smile never having left her face, and he began to move towards her. He no longer looked at the swirling, gaping hole below his feet, but fixed his gaze on her eyes, those eyes deep enough to hold a thousand million universes.
He fell into her embrace, his arms and hands grasping her so hard he should have been hurting her, though no sound of pain escaped her lips. Her skin and hair were smooth against his face, and the scent of her favorite candy filled his nose: strawberries and crème. Tears once again began to flow from his eyes, though no hell mouth opened below to swallow him. These were not tears of guilt, but of love, of joyful times and happy memories.
“I knew you would make it,” she whispered into his ear.
David pulled away slowly to look at the whole of her face. She was not crying as he was, though it could not have been any clearer how happy she was to see the man before her.