02 - So, I'm Not Dead?

"What do you mean, you don't know! What's going to happen to me!" any trace of levity from my teasing has long since been expelled from my body by fear and anxiety.

Just like that, our roles were reversed. Now she was the one with the teasing smile on her face and I was the one getting upset.

"Calm down," she said, "all it means is that you're able to hear true names and you might be able to learn gravity magic."

"Magic?" I asked. Now she had my attention. After all, who wouldn't be interested in learning magic?

"Oh, I almost forgot," she said, "How did you get here? This is my dreamspace and I didn't create you. So, what are you?"

With every word she said, my confusion only mounted, "Wait, I'm not in heaven? I thought I died in my sleep or something. Also, what do you mean 'what are you?' I'm a human of course."

"Human?" her head tilted like a confused dog, "What's a human?"

"What do you mean? Humans are... they're... we're... well, we just are! Humans are the dominant species on earth, we have dominion over the entirety of the planet," I told her.

"So you're an inferior life form? That still doesn't answer my question, how did you get here?" she said.

"Inferior life form? I'll have you know that we're pretty special and for the last time, I don't know how I got here - I just woke up on your lap!" I shouted.

"Wait, if I'm not dead, isn't this really bad? What happened to my family and friends, my dog? Am I going to be all lone, are they all dead, are they alive, but too far away to ever see again? Is there even a point living anymore?" what started as my hysterics, slowly devolved into depressed ramblings.

Before I could fall ever deeper down that rabbit hole, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me and hold me tight, "Calm down, even if we can't get you back home, you can be with me. I'll take care of you."

Too shocked to even respond, I just wrapped my arms around her back and sank into the hug, burying my face into her shoulder.

"Alright, let's give sending you home a shot," she said softly.

"Ok," I said in a quiet tone, still holding on to her.

"Picture your home in your head and really try to imagine yourself there. Picture the sights, remember the smells, focus on the tastes," she said.

I took a moment to think of the small two-story house I stayed at with my parents while I went to college, the family dinners on Sundays with my grandparents and the perpetual smell of disinfectant that my father loved.

"Done," I said.

"Keep focusing on it," she murmured.

A few minutes passed in total silence before she let go of me.

"It's not working," she said, "your home is beyond my influence."

Seeing my crestfallen look, she said, "It's okay, you can live on the world that I made. I'll even give you something to make it easier."

"Can't I live with you?" I asked her, hoping to at least be able to spend some time with this kind woman.

"No," she said, tearing through my last vestiges of hope, "You lack the power to stay here in the long-term. I noticed when I scanned your body - your vessel will die from cosmic radiation if you stay here for another hour. If you leave before then, your enhanced body will be able to break down the radiation."

"So I can stay with you for a bit longer?" I asked.

I can't believe how pathetic I am right now, begging a random woman to stay with me.

"Of course," she said with a warm smile.

She wrapped her arms around me and sat us down so that we were cuddling.

"You know?" she whispered, "This is the first time I've been able to connect with someone. Everyone else is one of my creations and either fear or worship me. No one ever talks to me like a regular person. Since you've helped me experience something new, I'll give you one wish. Except going home - we already found out that I'm unable to."

Suddenly feeling immense empathy for her, I remembered how challenging it was to make friends even without those boundaries. I couldn't imagine how lonely it must feel to not have anyone to talk to.

"Okay, my wish is to be strong enough to spend more time with you," I told her.

A blush spread across her face and neck, and tears appeared in the corner of her onyx eyes.

"Really?" she asked.

"Really," I answered.

She gently leaned forward and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek, "Your wish is granted, but I can't just give you instant power. I can only give you the best starting point to grow your power.

She pressed her soft palm against my sternum and whispered, "Close your eyes."

I followed her instructions and soon I began to feel a source of heat appear near my heart. Somehow, I was able to sense its location and shape intuitively.

She whispered again, "Think of it like a heart, make it beat."

Entering a trance-like state, I let her words guide my actions. I willed the heat to take the form of an orb and made it pulse. Every time it pulsed, the energy compounded on itself - building up pressure. Ignoring the crushing feeling, I forced the ball of heat to keep pulsing, faster and faster.

When it felt like I couldn't take it anymore, I felt a cold presence leaking into my body through her hand, wrapping around my heat. The cold began to shape the crude orb of heat into an intricate, crystal heart, even going as far as creating veins that intertwined with my own. As the heat spread from the crystal heart and into the veins, the pressure began to be relieved and I felt something strange.

It was... exhilarating. I could feel the raw power pulse through my body, completely at my command waiting for me to activate it. Following my instincts, I activated the energy. It lit up and rampaged through my body, enhancing my senses to superhuman levels and granting me immense strength and durability.

"Well, how does it feel to form a god-heart?" she asked me.

"Indescribable," I told her, "if before there was a weight lifted from me; this time it feels like a shackle on my soul was broken."

Her face lit up with a smirk, oh how I loved that little smile, "Well that's because one was broken. What I had you do was ascend. Congratulations, you're a god! You don't have a unique power or authority yet, but you have all the basics: strength, invulnerability and immortality. Just because you feel stronger doesn't mean you should go around picking fights. After all, you don't know how to fight and other gods have had more time to build up their strength and powers."

"I think my brain just short-circuited for a second - did you just say that I'm a god?" I said, my head empty from the shock.

"Yep!" she said cheerfully.

"I thought you said you wouldn't be able to help me gain power..." I said.

"I didn't, you're still weak in the grand scale of the universe," she said in a chipper tone.

"So gods are weak?" I asked.

"Nope! Just you!" she said happily.

"Well, fuck me then," I sighed.