9 Not Heaven

Death.

The first thing I saw, when I reached the other side of the waterfall was death.

There was a pool of blood, so thick I couldn't breath.

The air around me was hot and moist and smelled like rotting bodies. No, it smelled like fish to be honest, fish that has been rotting for days along with eggs.

It was hazy, darkly hazy, there was red fog everywhere.

I looked back, and I couldn't see the waterfall.

Don't scream.

Don't scream.

I screamed.

I panicked.

But it was silent.

Dead silent.

It was like no one could hear me.

My ears rung.

My throat felt dry.

I turned my head here and there but couldn't see anything other than the red fog and blood around my feet.

"Alam!" I screamed into the red darkness.

"Han!"

"Anyone!"

"Please!"

"Help me!"

I curdled up into a ball.

Out of all my years of lonely ness and pain, nothing could amount to the trouble I felt now.

I felt like my insides where tearing me up as I breathed in the air tainted with blood.

As I stood there for what felt like hours, I eventually became numb, both physically and mentally.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

I forced my head up looking to see something, anything.

No, I hoped it was nothing.

"Giraffe?"

I opened my eyes.

Huh?

Wait what?

I looked around.

There was fog everywhere but not red fog.

The wet stuff I felt under my feet was water.

I looked around and was glad to see plants and trees everywhere.

As I came back to my senses, the numbness I felt faded away.

I looked down.

"Giraffe!"

My dog.

That right.

My dog.

I looked at my dog, lying on the floor.

A bloody mess with bones jutting out of his rib cage and his eyes a plain white.

I back myself up back against a tree.

I slid down.

"What!?" I gasped.

I covered my mouth with my hands and sat there shaking.

Was I back on Earth?

How?

Where's Alam?

Why is Giraffe dead?

Where am I?

I looked around.

I got up suddenly.

I started running.

Why?

What was I running from?

I don't know.

However, my instincts where telling me something.

Don't turn around.

That's when it happened.

I tripped on the small boy who started this.

"Alam?!"