At first, I thought I was lucky. Stuck in traffic earlier, I thought my tardiness saved my life. My workplace was captured in an inferno, the searing heat and smoke billowing out from the various airways on the various floors. From the outside, I couldn't hear any screams within. I couldn't have done anything, anyways. I look around. A small gathering of people stood outside to watch the conflagration, not a single person taking to their phones and calling for fire control. I've heard of this before: the bystander effect. In an emergency situation, everyone assumes someone else has taken care of the necessary precautions. I resolve to go against such things, dialing emergency services.
"Hello, are you experiencing an emergency?"
"Yes, my-" Crash! A window broke in front of me, the fiery hot glass shards splitting into my face. The flames within caused the windows to rupture, letting the heat out.
"Agh!" I reel, dropping my phone. I bring my hand to my face, trembling as I pick apart the tiny shards that embedded themselves into my skin.
"Sir? Are you okay?" The person over the phone calls for me, but the pain prevents me from responding. I pull my hand back slowly, seeing bits of skin and glass coated in blood. Tears run down my face. This felt like some kind of nightmare, to have such agony from a single window bursting in front of me.Through one eye, I turn my head. Everyone stared at me, some biting their lips in shared pain, others with their mouth agape in morbid curiosity. Why? Why did no one come to my aid?
Just then, I heard a crack, then a pop. The burning building finally crumbled, and I realized much too late that I was to be crushed under its weight.
Crash! Thud. Tss.
The pain stopped all at once, like I was pulled from my body and sent to a dream. I curl my body open from its fetal position, submerged in a lukewarm fluid. I open my mouth, but no voice comes out. I don't feel the need to breathe. Is this what Heaven is like?
I swim around a bit more. What I sense as "up" seems to have a light source. I continue upwards. The farther I go, the hotter it feels. Like I am going to that burning building once more. But I must know what that light is. I finally breach the surface, the heat at its peak. The "air" is stagnant, not much different from the fluid aside from the fact I can't ascend any further. Then I see it. The light source was an eye of some sort. It seemed to gaze right at me, judging me. "Is there something you want to say to me?" No response. It merely continued staring back. "I know my life wasn't lived well... I could have done more. But..." The eye continued staring as I spoke.
"But I spent my days satisfied, even through the ones with pain. I was happy to have been afforded a peaceful life. Though it ended in a gruesome way." The eye twitched. It seemed to be upset by my words.
"What? If you have a problem with me, just say it already!" The eye closed, the light turning to dark as it does. It opens again, the lower lid raised as if in a sneer. I grit my teeth, ready to give this eye a stern talking-to. But the fluid around me began to descend, taking me along with it. The eye receded further from my sight until it was a white speck. Then it was completely dark.
CRASH!
A burning heat. Far, far worse than I had felt ever before. I jolt up from the mossy ground, my body in searing pain. There's a basket on the ground with green crystals inside of them. My body... is wholly unfamiliar to me? I look around. There is too much to take in. I'm in the middle of a rain storm, lightning surging and heavy rainfall hitting my neck. I need to find shelter from this storm. As I stumble through the treacherous forest, I feel more and more comfortable moving in my body. I spot a bored hole in a hillside. It will be a good place to hide from the rain for now.