This Is My Life

Silent...

The night aged, the fire burned low and the stars lightly illuminated the distant skies, a few streaking across on paths unknown but to Michael, everything might as well been an illusion. Muffled noises filled his ears, save for the sound of slow breathing. His gaze remained fixated on a woman whose beauty didn't register to his unfocused mind. The world around him shifting, rocking, almost like a ship at tumultuous seas.

He wanted-

What did he want? Was he even allowed to want? What was he allowed?

In his mouth, his tongue felt heavy, he had been silent for long, how long? how long had it been? Did time run normal here? Where was here?

It was as if reality had warped in on itself for Michael, everything around him was clear but also a blur. He heard the woman talk, but he didn't hear what she said. He saw the fire dance, it's shadows as ominous as ever. The woman had been going on about her life. What was she saying?

A mage, a professor of sorts- huh? Did it matter?

His hands felt like rocks, heavy and rigid. His skin felt weird as if something heavy was enveloping his skin, he directed his attention to it, it was nothing. His whole body felt weird.

He begun to take in reality, a wave of the preceding events crashing against his wandering thoughts.

The world started spinning, his heart begun to race, his breath spiked and his mind slowly turned chaotic.

'Why am I here?... '

'what is this place?... '

'The grassland?'

'how long has it been? does time run normal here? where is here? Is it time? time for what? What am I thinking, I'm thinking?... Someone is talking, who is talking- the woman. Who is she? she is the one. No it's not, where am I? I need to say something.' Many voices spoke at once in his mind, his inner voice fighting for dominance amid the chaos.

His lips felt frozen shut, his legs transfixed to the ground and his hands glued, holding a cup of tea. 'Warm, my hands are... warm?'.

He looked down at his hands, and his reflection stared back from the surface of the tea.

On his leg, he felt something warm and soft, it moved. 'THE VINES!' he jolted, wiping fervently at his leg as he scurried further from whatever it was that touched his leg.

"Michael, are you alright?" the woman asked concern tainting her voice with care.

'My name, it knows my name!' he thought in horror. Memories of giant tentacles superimposed with those of giant vines, they were aiming for his head. He ducked and rolled back his heart beating wildly. 'What is happening? I have to escape. Where is Caster?' His eyes darted around searching for the man who was subject to all his rage.

"Michael calm down, you are safe here!" the woman shouted in an attempt to snap him out of whatever he was going through.

Michael expression froze. He picked himself up from the ground, the sound of the crackling fire reaching his ears in a serene harmony. He opened his mouth taking in a deep breath to calm himself. He remembered. Slowly his senses returned to him enough to calm him down. Terror still reigned in his mind, adrenaline still coursed through his blood, but his mind returned to a state that allowed him calm.

"What is happening to me?" he asked the woman, not out of hope that she would have the answers but merely as out of impulse.

"You don't know?" she quizzed more curious than shocked. Both people addressing to different pages of the same book.

"No, I- " he froze, his mind refusing to find the right words. What was he supposed to say, I am hallucinating? I think I am loosing my mind? How did I get here? he had so many questions and none of the answers.

"I'll tell you what I know. sit" she reassured Michael and gestured to a log next to her, closer to the warmth of the flames. She also poured him another cup of tea.

"I'll have you know, I am slightly hurt you didn't listen to my life story." she said with a light chuckle, hoping to lighten up the mood in an effort to calm Michael down. Michael stared, his eyes almost... hollow.

"Anyway, ever heard of the god of death?"

"Yes, what does it have to do with any of this?"

"You really have no idea? Well, from the limited knowledge I have and the few encounters with others such as yourself in the past, you are an emissary of night, or death, or however you want to phrase it.

Every few hundred years a champion is chosen and sent out into the nether to conquer it. You are one such champion and from the looks of it, you are having zero luck in conquering the nether." She paused, letting the information sink in as she sipped her cup of tea.

She expected Michael to be shocked, or at least startled at the revelation, yet, his expression fell like before.

"Ah, so that's what you did to me"

Was it surprising that somehow he had ended up in the throes of an ancient horror such as the god of death? yes, but at his core, he knew that was the case form the very beginning, at least not the part about the god of death. It felt right, like remembering a distant memory. The light show, the beings of mist that came out of him, he remembered them all in that instant. His mind finally allowing him that information. It was like a giant puzzle was slowly being solved right before his eyes.

He shifted his gaze to the sky and sighed, considering what this meant for him going forward.

What was he to do? What was there to be done, really? Ignore the task thrown on his lap? could he even do that? So then, accept it and see it through? How? He knew next to nothing about what his second hell birthed life demanded of him.

"You can start by reaching out to the one who gave you all this, they might have the answers", she said after eavesdropping on Michael's thoughts. It was intrusive and under normal circumstances it would have pissed Michael off, but this were anything but normal circumstances. The intrusion completely lost to him.

"How- how do I do that?" He sounded almost desperate, it was becoming a common feeling but he allowed it. He was after all feeling desperate.

"Same way you reached out to me, I heard of it once when I was still free to roam the Nether. Soul call or something like that, that's what she called it at least."

That was an underwhelming piece of information, up until now, Michael didn't even know how he got here, yet, that was the only way he could get answers?

"For FUCKS SAKE! I just want this to be over" he spoke with a heavy sigh feeling frustrated.

"So what you are saying is, you can't help me?" he wondered. He wanted to hope that she knew more than him to the extent it was actually helpful, but hope was vile to his tongue; he refrained.

"I only know as much as she shared with me. The one before you, it was a couple of hundred years ago so my memory is hazy but I don't recall a way to get rid of your gift."

Michael almost chocked on his tea. Did she just say gift?

"Did you just say gift? How can any of this be a gift to you. Free will is a gift, not having it is what this is." he retorted his face a grimace disbelief.

"Oh yes I did. You don't understand what you have and how important it is to the Nether. If you can harness your power and defeat the king then-"

"I don't care about any of that. I don't even care about this power, so please do you have any helpful information or are you going to direct me to this 'she' you keep referring to, she might actually prove helpful."

"Aliah was her name, and she is dead. Well, dead in a mortal sense, in truth her soul, like many others before her, is bound at the depths of his castle. If you want answers, you'll have to get to the castle. I know where the castle is, and I am quite familiar with the Nether." she paused considering Michael's reaction to the piece of information. He seemed curious, he was interested in what she had to say. She smiled in a way that made him uneasy.

"I'll make you a deal."

[Authors Note: That is a lot of words, hope you like it.]