'I am in outer space?' I look around and found only a sea of darkness and stars. "Man... this looks cool and all, but why am I here?" And as if I had given a signal, I was hit by a headache and some memories lit my head, resulting in me starting to laugh my ass off. "Ha... hahaha, now that—hahaha, way to go." While enjoying 'the after-death laughter,' I was stopped by a woman's voice. "That's definitely a heroic way to die. But why are you laughing? After all, you are dead."
I looked around and found a silver eagle behind me perching over... nothing? Literally perching over the space. It's kind of weird that I kept calm in this situation or the one before, but yeah, I did.
As for her question, I only started to laugh again. I felt happy that I did that. Even though I didn't survive, it was an excellent last experience.
I looked at the eagle and I smiled. "Well, I was living on borrowed time, and the little girls still have a life to live ahead." I looked at the space again and grinned, remembering my last minute, and I knew for sure those few minutes were when I really felt alive—more than my whole life.
I looked at her again and said, "And if we count an orphaned man in his 30s enjoying his last moment to the fullest, I say it's a good deal."
---Flashback (3rd P.O.V.)---
In a private airplane heading to Japan, you could see a dozen people moving around and putting on their parachutes. The reason was a problem in the body of the plane that started to fall apart.
While the flight attendants helped around, the back left side of the plane was sucked out along with the door, and the vacuum caused two teenagers to get thrown out unprepared with no parachute on. In the frenzy, a man picked three parachutes and jumped after them.
Now some may think he's some kind of soldier or a trained person, but no, he was actually a normal man—as normal as can be—in his late 30s, who had no training.
What's more, he was suffering from late-stage cancer and was heading back to his home country to see his doctor. The only positive point for him in that situation was a couple of YouTube videos he watched about aircraft and parachute diving.
In the confusion, and seeing people panicked, his mind went blank seeing the two girls thrown out. From nowhere, a catchphrase from one of the movies he watched jumped to the front of his mind: "Don't think! Just do!"
Then, time as if slowed down for him. His perception accelerated up. In a second he confirmed all the passengers, the next he confirmed the location of a couple of free parachutes, and in the third second he kicked the seats behind, throwing himself out while dragging the parachutes with him.
While falling he put on one of the parachutes and hugged the other two, then he started to dive nose-first. The dive he did was, in a way, impossible without training.
Be it the way he controlled his body, or how he evaded the debris around, he was more like an eagle that found prey and flew to hunt, with no unnecessary movement, no fear—only him with a huge smile on his face and his target between his eyes.
When he reached the first girl, he put one of the free parachutes on her, then hugged her from behind and started diving after the second girl.
After reaching, he did the same thing and drew the two girls into a floating formation to change their position away from the debris. After taking some distance he showed them how to pull the parachute, waiting for the right altitude.
But when they pulled the parachutes, his luck ran out, as his parachute was empty, and to his surprise, the two girls each caught a hand of his—costing the stabilization of both of them and tangling the suspension lines together.
The man looked at the girls and then the lines, and he knew that if this continued no one would survive. He looked back at the girls and smiled. "Live a good life for me!" Then with what power he could muster, he flung their hands in opposite directions.
While he was falling he faced the girls to see them falling slowly away from each other, then his vision went black.
------Flashback End-------
(MC P.O.V.)
The eagle started to laugh. "Well, you are unique in a way. Most people will freak after coming here and start to cry and jump around."
I chuckled. "Well, for me death is something that will come to us no matter what you do and how long you live, so I see no reason to be scared of it. What's important is how you live and how you embrace it."
The eagle just looked at me and smiled, saying, "I see." Then she put her right wing facing me and sent some kind of beam energy to me.
After a while, the stars around me started to shine, causing me to lose consciousness while hearing a soothing voice: "Enjoy your life this time. See you next time."
--------------------_-------
(3rd P.O.V.)
Stormverse
USA, Malibu, California. [Date: 10-12-2010]
In a VIP room, a 6-year-old kid with dark skin, black hair, and who looked like he had just survived an accident opened his golden eyes shakily and started to look around.
And as if he had a headache, he started to growl in pain and then opened his eyes with a surprised expression. After a minute of thinking he smiled and went back to sleep, not noticing a couple of young eagles with black feathers standing on the window while looking at him, then flying away and blending with the night sky.