A Lit Path

The road always leads somewhere, but it's not always where you want to be.

I stood on a pier, listening to the roaring of waves against the dock as the wood groaned with every step I took. I didn’t know where I was or where I was going. It was dark, an abyss of blackness that acted as solitude. Step after step I took forward, but I felt like I was getting nowhere. Why was I here? What was the point of this demented dream?

Fear began to take its toll on me. My breathing began ragged as continued to look around for any sign of salvation, but there was none. I was alone in this darkness.

The abyss of blackness soon began to dissipate around me, lanterns began to light my path, all hanging from their own post next to each other. Each lantern was of different color and size, but each had a single number decorating their front. I don’t know how far these numbers went, because the further I looked down, the less lights I saw. The lanterns went as far as the eye could see, before the fog came rolling in to block the view.

I decided to trudge down the pier and see where the lights were leading me. Each time I passed a light, it diminished and the lantern fell into the black waters with a loud splash. I began to silently think to myself, continuing to ask the questions that I had been asking since I found myself in this strange place.

Why was I here? Where was I? Is this a dream or reality? Was I even alive?

The thoughts just continued to grow darker and darker, to the point they were the only thing I focused on. Perhaps this was a message from God himself. Maybe he was trying to tell me something, something that I couldn’t understand.

I stopped for a moment, turning to look back over my shoulder. I could hear a faint beeping in my ear that kept in pace with my heart beat. The noise didn’t give me any security; instead, it made me even more frightened to keep moving forward. But I continued forward nonetheless.

The numbers on the lanterns grew smaller and smaller as I walked by them.

Twenty-three… Twenty… Eighteen... Ten… Seven… Four…Until the number reached one.

I stood at the end of the pier, looking up at the pure white lantern with the number one on the front. It was beautiful, like a lily in spring.

The beeping in my ear began getting louder, faster, until the sound just became one long noise. I closed my eyes, hoping that it would stop and that everything before me would just go away. But the beep didn’t stop and instead other noises joined it. Talking, I believe it was. That’s when I opened my eyes.

The pier was no longer in front of me and instead I found myself in a hospital room, staring at a young girl in a white bed, asleep, with multiple tubes and wires hooked up to several machines. The heart monitor had gone to “flat line”. The doctors and nurses around the bed tried desperately to help the girl, but nothing worked.

That's when I finally understood. The young girl was me. I was in a coma. The dream I saw was my time until my death. 

I didn't want this to happen. I didn't want to die. Why did it have to be me? Couldn't it have been someone else? Why did my path lead me here?

I got no answers to my questions.

It was 10:45 A.M. on June 18th, 2005.

That was when I died.