Onlookers gasped in horror as the train, screaming down the tracks, bore down on the boy sprawled out on the cold metal. The conducter pulled the brakes as hard as he could but there was too little time. The boy managed to get back to his feet as a blinding light illuminated his face. The train struck him, whipping his head back and sending his body sailing into the inky darkness of the tunnel. Nobody dared to move.
"Whaaaa..."
"Sniff... whaaa"
The sounds of a baby crying we're lost to the crackling and popping of fire. Suddenly there was a loud, harsh screech. The steel frame above the car seat snapped in two. A set of gloved hands hoisted the child out of the burning car and into darkness. There were flashing red and blue lights. The baby cried and whined ceaselessly. He wanted his mother. The child opened his eyes and scanned the scene. The lights we're dancing in the night sky. A beautiful, young woman with long black hair and deep hazel eyes was standing beside the burning car. She didn't seem to notice the raging fire burning inches from her soft face. The child whined louder as if to get her attention. The woman looked at the child, puzzled. The baby boy reached out to the woman. He curled his fingers and squirmed in the rough, gloved hands.
The boy woke to find himself being hoisted over a man's shoulder and carried out of the dark tunnel. Was he dead? He couldn't tell. He couldn't move; he couldn't feel. He saw the sad faces of the onlookers and a young boy sitting beside the tracks crying and screaming. He didn't feel the belts strapped around his chest, waist and legs as he was hastily lain onto a gurney and carried through the brightly lit tunnels, hurrying by the colorful ghosts of the subway and out into the rain towards red and blue lights.
Then he saw a woman. She seemed as familiar as family but he wasn't sure he'd ever seen her before. Her long, black hair waved gently in the breeze as if the rain couldn't touch it.
The boy stared at the ceiling of the ambulance. The curious woman was sitting beside the two medics who had their full attention on the boy. They asked him questions like: "what's your name?", "how old are you?", "where do you live?" but he couldn't make his mouth move. The strange woman's eyes were fixed on him. She stood; the medics didn't seem to notice her presence. She moved directly over where he lie and spoke, eyes transfixed on the bewildered patient.
"This will all be over soon, Alexander."
She bent slowly and kissed Alex on the forehead. Her lips were warm and soft. And then, bubbling over the ecstasy, a terrible pain ran through his entire body, knocking him unconscious.
"Hello Alex..."
"Wake up, Alex."
Alex woke up and found himself floating in what seemed to be puffy, black clouds. He touched a mass of this black material and found it to be solid. He scooped up some of the cloud and played with it in his hand. It was like soft marshmallows. He let the strange blob slip from his hand and watched it slowly float down into the darkness.
"Alex" a voice spoke in front of him. The mysterious woman walked towards him in the distance. "Yeah?" Alex responded after a moment. The woman did not respond and kept walking toward him. "Where am I?" Alex asked as innocently as he could. The beautiful woman responded quickly: "Nowhere, Alex." Alex didn't ask anymore questions and remained quite. The woman kept staring into Alex's eyes. The air was thick.
"Alex, you're nervous."
"Yeah, a bit I suppose."
"Why?"
Alex thought about this. Why was he so nervous? It could be because the woman standing before him was the most gorgeous creature he'd ever seen. Even more so the fact that she seemed very interested in him.
"Umm... I don't know. A lot of weird stuff has happened in the past few hours."
Alex thought about it.
"First I was knocked onto train tracks and now I'm floating around in a ghost world..."
Lost in thought, Alex began to play with the odd black clouds again.
"Alex, listen to me" the woman said breaking the uncomfortable silence that seemed to always appear when he spoke to girls.
"I am not of your world. I harvest the souls of the dead and transport them to the realm of spirts"
"So you're the grim reaper?" Alex responded.
"Yes, I suppose I am but I would prefer Harvester."
"Where's your scythe?" Alex said almost without thinking.
The Harvester smiled. "I have no use for one, Alex."
Alex chuckled at all those ill-conceived notions of what Death could possibly look like.
"You were expecting a skeleton in a cloak?"
"Yeah" Alex laughed "so am I dead?"
"No, Alex." Harvester said reassuringly. "You are very much alive."
Alex didn't feel very alive.
"Right now," Harvester continued, "you are in a place I created."
She raised her arms and rose from their resting place
"Your body is resting peacefully in a hospital back in your home realm." She motioned upward to Alex. He began to float up with her.
"However, your mind is right here with me in my realm."
They both stopped.
"Why am I here, Harvester?" Alex asked.
"Because you are needed, Alex. Something is very, very wrong and I know that only you have the means to make things right again." Harvester floated gracefully through the strange black clouds.
Alex considered this for a moment. He was needed? Why now? After 17 unremarkable years of living. He pondered what he could possibly fix.
"Alex," Harvester spoke softly "you shouldn't doubt yourself." She moved closer to him in the blackness. Alex spent a few seconds admiring her form.
"Are you sure you have the right person?" Alex said, doubting himself very much.
"Yes. I am certain."
Harvester continued up through the clouds. Alex followed closely. They wove through the clouds and rose higher into the inky darkness. He wondered what was happening back in the real world. Harvester said he was in a hospital, probably the big one downtown. His aunt was sure to be there. Alex's aunt was a widow whose husband had died around the time Alex was born. Her husband had returned from a major foreign conflict and quickly became very sick. Even though the sickness took a lot from him Alex's aunt had once said their final days were happy.
Alex began to move around more freely in the clouds. He realized that he could control his speed and pitch. Harvester stopped and looked down at him, weaving and spinning through the black clamor.
"Alex, look up" Harvester spoke suddenly. Alex stopped quickly and looked up. Tiny rays of light were cutting through the canopy of darkness up ahead.
"It's almost time for us to leave this place." Harvester moved back down to Alex who was still watching the lights.
"Alex, you were supposed to die today but I prevented that." Alex felt a chill. He never thought he would face death so young.
"You have talents unknown to you. In time you will discover them and master them." She paused and scanned Alex's face; he seemed deep in thought.
"First, I must explain our situation" Harvester said as she turned and scooped up some black material from a passing cloud. She let it float out of her hand and, curiously, it hovered completely still in front of her, defying the lazy motion which dominated everything else. The puffy ball began to contort and stretch until it settled into a large sphere. "Like I said before, there is something wrong with your world: too many people are dying."
Alex had noticed, to a degree, that the headlines were much too often peppered with news of murder, suicide, and mysterious deaths.
"Yeah..." Alex said, distant. It felt as though the world as of late was covered in a suffocating shroud. Government was in a state of negligence with most senators and congressmen rarely showing up for work. The courts were at critical mass. New murder trials popped up daily and very few were ever resolved within a year. The president spent the majority of his time at his complex in Arizona, completely ignoring his executive duties. Religious fanatics were claiming the "end was near" and it wasn't uncommon to see large groups of people outside newspaper buildings and government offices holding signs that read "Repent Now!"
"Much like your world," Harvester continued, "My world is governed by certain laws." Harvester paused and examined the sphere further. "There has to be a balance, life and death. One is no greater than the other." She seemed please with her creation. You couldn't guess from her face, she still wore a blank mask, but Alex was sure of her pride. Harvester continued: "Each realm is governed by a force. Life and creation exist here, as death and destruction rule your world. The souls you see all around you once resided in flesh, and each one has a story to tell." Alex felt overwhelmed. Was he the first one to hear these words?
"I can only collect the departed spirits" Harvester said, arousing Alex's attention once more. "I have no means of communing with them." Harvester looked up at the beams of light dancing above them. "But I believe you can" she said returning her gaze to the boy. "The black clouds wandering around here are spirits" Once again Alex chuckled at human conceptions of spirits and souls. He now felt a tinge of guilt for disturbing the celestial bodies. Harvester spread her arms out as if to offer the spirits to Alex. "This is your test: find the sphere I created." Alex winced. "If you grope around in the dark by yourself you'll never find the sphere. You'll have to ask the spirits for help." Harvester faded into the hazy darkness and left Alex alone in an unfamiliar world.
(C) Jon Chrisawn
[Notes: due to myspace's strange blog formatting, all of my single link breaks have became double line breaks and have spaced out everything strangly. Just bear with me here...]