What he had said gave me a throbbing headache. It was as if someone was hitting nails with a hammer inside my head. I didn’t want to open my eyes just yet; I was still in the pits of hell. But I heard a familiar voice that was drawing me closer to a distant light.

“What if she never wakes up?” my mother’s voice said from a far. She was sobbing.

“But you should have called me sooner. Why didn’t you?” a man’s voice said.

I didn’t need to open my eyes to know who had just spoken. His voice was calm and soothing. He had the ability to keep it levelled and no matter how angry he got, it never went high or loud. They must have been a few meters form where I was, together. My parents were together.

But where the hell was I? I wanted to see them, to hold them and tell them I’m OK.

I felt an immediate joy that leapt up in my heart and I wanted to see them with my own eyes. I tried to open them a bit, but the light was so blinding that I couldn’t. I kept them shut for a while and tried again.

“Bona Patric, you left us, so why should we run after you when we have problems?” my mother was getting agitated.

No, no, no! Don’t fight! I wanted to scream. Yes, that’s what I’ll do, I’ll speak.

I opened my mouth and tried to speak and tried again but nothing. My voice was just a muffled cry of hums. Why are they fighting when they should be working together?

And where the hell was I?

“You ask too many questions, my queen,” the man with the creature said.

How did I get back here? I didn’t want to be there! I wanted to be home!

“Take me back,” I told him. “Take me back now!” I yelled at the top of my voice.

The ground we were standing on started to shake. I didn’t care if it swallowed me whole, I didn’t want to be in hell anymore. Rather I died than be a queen to these monsters. The more the ground shook the more I wanted it to swallow me. Then it started cracking.

I could see flames from where I was standing. The heat from beneath us was rising and getting hotter. The flames turned from yellow to red; volcano red. I had seen many movies in my lifetime where the earth opened up and people fell at the cracks. I always knew it was digitally made. But this was real. It felt real.

“This is your last chance, my queen,” he yelled from across the crack. “Come with us!” the cracks had grown so large that we looked like we were standing on separate continents.

“Stop calling me that! I am not! And will never be your queen!” I roared in frustration.

With that, the small earth I was standing on parted and I fell. I could feel the heat warming me up from the inside, but not touching my skin; like hot flashes. I was free falling to the depths of the earth and I didn’t care. I was only sad I wouldn’t see my family ever again.

*****

“Mother,” that was the first word that I tried to speak. The light wasn’t too bright here, so I tried to open my eyes.

I looked around and I didn’t recognise the place. I waited for my eyes to adjust to the light and then I looked properly. I was on a bed, a hospital bed. The machines next to me confirmed it. And there was a nurse fiddling with the drip.

“Where is my mother?” I asked the nurse. She turned in horror and looked surprised to see me.

Then she ran outside like she had seen a ghost. I was confused, and weak. I wanted my mother but I couldn’t move. Then suddenly there she was.

She flew into the room with a doctor. The doctor started touching me and checking my eyes and my heart beat. That’s what they did in hospitals so I didn’t mind.

“My baby,” my mother flocked to my side. “It’s a miracle! Praise God!” she shouted and kissed me. “Praise God,” then she started dancing around my bed. She looked rather insane.

Then I saw the frame coming towards me.

“Dad!” I called out to him and he came, with my little brother.

“What’s going on?” I asked, still confused.

My brother’s mouth was wide open but no words came out. My dad started praising the ancestors and the nurses, there were more now, and doctors just kept checking the machines.

It was only after a long while that the chaos died down. So my parents and the doctor came in to fill me in.

“Do you know how you got here?” the doctor asked.

I tried to think but I couldn’t.

“No. I can’t remember,” I finally said.

“You had collapsed and your parents brought you in,” the doctor said.

I saw nothing worth prancing around and praising for with that statement; I used to have dizzy spells all the time, I was bound to faint at some stage. I had an irregular heart, so sometimes breathing would be hard and I couldn’t deal with too much excitement. That’s why I didn’t play any sport.

“Oh, alright. But I’m fine now. So let’s go home,” I said with a smile.

“I’m afraid we can’t do that,” doctor said.

I looked from the faces of my parents to the doctor. “What’s going on?” I asked, addressing everybody.

“You were dead, for twenty minutes,” the doctor said.

My parents looked at me and smiled.

“What?” I asked amazed.

“Twenty minutes ago, I just checked your pulse. And you were dead!”

I smiled. I had never been happier. It was all a dream.

“So it was all just a bad dream,” I said to them still smiling.

They were confused more than I was. They had no idea what I had been through. It was all a bad dream.

The End

*****

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