The Beginning of the Beginning

Lying in total darkness and unaware of his current situation Will Sotman had to rely on sounds find out what was going on.

The surface he rested on was hard and coarse, almost like rough sandpaper

and his position was very uncomfortable; that much he could tell.

"Is this blood?" Will wondered. He had an iron almost metallic taste in his mouth.

With words fading in and out he was only able to make out three words: accident, pulse, defibrillators.

Will was terrified.

He tried to remember what happened.

How he ended up like this.

but he couldn't.

The world he knew was going away

and the thoughts of death slowly drowned him

"I'm too young to die."

"I'm nineteen and have my whole life ahead of me, I never got to see the pyramids and climb the Eiffel Tower. I promised myself to go see Aurora Lights above the Iceland Sky."

"Hang in there", said the paramedic."Don't give up! It's important that you talk to me. Tell me something about yourself.". "Can you do this for me? Blink twice if you understood this."

A pause. "Hurry! We're losing him!".

"No, this isn't how I die. I demand help; I demand to be alive!"

He screamed But no one could hear, as his thoughts had no voice

Will was from Colorado Springs, where he studied to become an Architect.

He had always planned on traveling the world with his best friend Felix;

a lanky boy who was totally focused on becoming rich.

His family was poor, they made just enough to scrape by. He was

determined to help his family out of the pit of poverty, to repay his parents for raising him.

But Despite his efforts, he couldn't say these things out loud.

He couldn't even blink.

Will's blood pressure started dropping.

Doctors and nurses rushed at him.

The doctors grabbed the pedals and began resuscitating.

Lights began flashing in and out.

His chest sinking and rising,

his fingers feeling cold, and his body feeling stiff. He felt alone.

suddenly, he saw his body and saw himself lying on a stretcher.

He looked at his hands and saw them transparently almost invisible.

Then his memories hit him the car, fast, so fast, he almost couldn't see it. He could still see the bright color and the blaring the followed...

"Is this really how I die has it all been for nothing? Or am I already dead?"Will thought.

"Would I have been forgotten in two years time?"

"What will they say at my funeral"

"They'll talk about the boy who was run over and died.. Pathetic."

"And why did this happen to me? Where was the Guardian Angel that was supposed to watch over me?"

"It doesn't matter anymore"

"My heart must have stopped beating and I feel my brain running out of oxygen."

...

But Will Didn't Die.

Instead, he fell into a state of deep coma.

His friends and family kept visiting him.

They shared updates with him, cared for him, cried and laughed with him.

But Will was in another place, between life and death.

And in that state Will found himself sitting on a bench in a playground.

There, he saw a young boy and girl sitting on a teeter-totter,

The boy was very pale and had black and was laughing merrily with the girl,

who had a fair complexion and long brown hair.

He walked toward them.

"Hey, do any of you know where I am?"

There was no answer it seemed, as if they didn't notice him.

"Hello?"

'Maybe they're also stuck in this place. 'Will thought.

"Hello? What are you doing? Hello?" he waved his hands.

But the children continued playing, wholly immersed in their game.

After a while the boy finally noticed Will.

"Hi, I'm death and this my sister life!"

'Huh?'

Both never stopped playing, only putting their feet down to push back up. He didn't bother questioning their names or the seasaw.

"This entire existence is the result of our game; yours too. Both Life and Death are needed for you to survive."

The playground disappeared. everything was black except for the teeter-totter.

Will fell.

"Aaaaaaaaah!!!"

"And yet people value only life and despise death. Why is that?"

"Why do you refuse to see us as one?"

Everything calmed back down.

Will had no words to say, He was still processing the idea of talking to life and death.

"am....am I dead?"

"There is no such thing as being dead. I am Death and yet you see me playing with Life.

"I am Life and yet you see me playing with Death, "The girl said.

She continued "We are inseparable. We are Black and White, together creating all the colors you see around. We are silence and sound, together creating voices and music. For too long have humans plotted ways to separate me and my brother, You portrayed in the worst possible ways, describing him as an old wraith with a scythe, lurking around corners."

Will felt confusion and despair. He felt like the teeter-totter Life and Death were playing on.

Life said he was being unfair to Death, and Death said he was taking Life for granted.

"What we are doing is the Universe," said Life.

"And you are a part of it; you too are playing it. It is a place for both the dead and the living."

The scenery changed again, he was in space but he could breathe.

"It starts, sometimes feels right sometimes feels wrong."

The air in his lungs wad sucked out like a vacuum was put in mouth. He couldn't breathe.

"then it ends."

"and if it didn't end it wouldn't be worth playing."

And just as quickly as it went it came back. He could breathe. Gasping, he looked around. He saw a baby in a womb, then a coffin with arrows in between them, like how the water cycle was displayed in elementary school.

'Reincarnation?'

"And when this particular game ends it doesn't mean another isn't starting."

Before he could understand it, it was swept away.

"But you people aren't living nor dying; you are merely surviving - demanding to be alive."

He was climbing on a cliff he had a sudden urge - no - an obsession. He needed to climb up,

he needed to and when he looked down he saw an ocean. The word 'DEATH' was proudly displayed.

"'You must go on,' 'you mustn't get sick' and 'you mustn't give up' Why?"

"because of your fear of dying you are only surviving, not living, enjoying nothing, afraid of everything."

"And in the moment of death, you regret not living."

"You regret not seeing Pyramids because you thought there would enough time."

"Oh, the future is the sweetest lie on Earth", said Life.

"No one ever thinks that you and all the people you ever met will eventually die until death."

"Did you genuinely consider it? Did you accept the inevitability of Death?"

"You didn't."

"Otherwise, you would cherish the present very dearly."

"You would love your friends and family on the level you couldn't understand. Did you truly love them?"

"Did you cherish the present? You didn't, for you would appreciate every moment and every fiber of it."

"You were breathing, feeling, seeing, hearing, scenting and tasting."

"You had the opportunities for living, and you took it for granted, hooked on the drug of the future."

"Tell me, when did time ever solve anything?

Did it work out for you?"

What Life and Death had spoken to Will had him burst into tears, regretting not living in Life and dying in Death.

As Will stared at Boy and Girl rising and falling, he understood the game Life and Death.

The constant push and pull are in no one's hands, but the choice to fear Death is the same as fearing Life.

"We offer you a choice, wake up and live or Die and leave everything behind."

There was a glint in their eyes as they said this.

"We will give you as long as you like to choose. And remember there is no such thing as being alive or being dead"

Will contemplated while the twins rose and fell.

'Any sensible person would choose Life.....but that would oppose what they were telling me....wouldn't that tangle with the cycle of Life and Death?'

Will felt a massive headache from the thought of thinking things over.

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Will didn't know how long he had been there, But he had made his choice

He chose his words carefully

I, Will Sotmon have made my choice....

I have chosen to leave everything behind.

The twins smiled.