Heaven Bent

Chapter 1-4

I came back slowly. And, at first, still in darkness and silence.

From an absence of thought, my awareness slowly coalesced. Gradually, the most rudimentary aspects of my mind drifted back into being. I began to realize, as I had before, that I existed. That I was something more than emptiness.

Then, the basic memory of who I was filtered back to me. The core of my identity gathered like iron filings around the poles of a magnet.

That was when I first saw the light.

It started as a distant, pale speck in the pitch darkness of my field of vision. Then, it slowly grew larger, expanding as if it were moving toward me. It got brighter, too, and gave off a palpable warmth.

Go toward the light. As reduced and incoherent as I was, D.X.'s words still came back to me...rose up within me as a kind of imperative. These last words I'd heard before the crash became a command for me to follow, guidance like a lifeline for me to clutch.

Go toward the light, he'd told me, and that's what I did. I willed myself to push toward it, and that accelerated its approach. It grew steadily larger until it filled my sight, flaring to envelope me in hot white brilliance.

I'd made it! I'd reached the light! It was everywhere around me, its welcome radiance blotting out the barren darkness.

So what was I supposed to do next?

I remember floating there, basking in that white warmth, happy to be aware of it, to be aware of anything after my time of nonexistence. I felt weightless, unencumbered by the bonds of a body or the physical laws of Earth, unchained from the grip of my life. So this was the afterlife, I thought. So this was Heaven.

Then, suddenly, there was a burst of pain. An explosion like a bolt of lightning ripped through me.

I fell...at least I felt like I was falling. And then, I had the distinct feeling that I had crashed.

Whoosh...then whoom. A stunning impact, as if gravity had hauled me back down out of the white firmament. As if I'd plunged back into my physical body.

And just like that, my eyes shot open.

The first thing I saw was the face of a beautiful dark-haired woman smiling down at me. Her skin was as pale as porcelain, her eyes such a bright blue that they were nearly white. Her lips were painted with diagonal black and white stripes; the stripes on the upper lip slanted one way, the stripes on the bottom slanted the other.

"Mr. Lincoln?" Her voice was high-pitched and melodic. She was haloed in light and dressed in white--white blazer and blouse--but her necktie was black-and-white-striped. "Can you hear me?"

My neck hurt when I nodded. So did my head. In fact, I quickly realized that pretty much every part of me ached.

"Good, good." Her smile widened. "How do you feel?"

I scowled and shook my head. "Lousy."

"You'll feel better soon." She winked. "This is very typical when one makes the transition. Especially the way you did."

"Transition?"

"My name is Lillian, by the way." She tipped her head to one side. "And I think you know what transition you've just made."

"Not really." I propped myself up on my elbows and looked around. We were in a small, Spartan room with white everything--walls, door, ceiling, floor, table, lamp, chair. "I can barely think straight."

"I'll give you a few clues, then." Lillian leaned closer. "Pitchforks. Fiery pit. Brimstone. Eternal damnation." She raised her eyebrows. "Ring any bells?"

Things were starting to trickle back to me. I had a memory of hitting the water, hard. The full story wasn't there yet, but I remembered my lungs filling, my vision going dark. Was that death I was vaguely recalling? "Hell? You're telling me this is Hell?"

Just then, she threw her head back and laughed fiendishly...looking beautiful even then, so slender and delicate.

But the laughter didn't last. Suddenly, she stopped and snapped her head down to smile at me again. "I'm just kidding, newbie." She flicked a finger over the tip of my nose. "This is the other place."

My heart was pounding. "So I'm...I'm really..."

"You betcha." Lillian spread her arms wide. "Welcome, Stag Lincoln, to the first day of the rest of your death."

I swung my legs off the side of the bed and sat up straight. "Oh my God." I held my head in my hands and shook it. There was too much information all at once...too much to process. "This can't be...can't be..."

"Don't worry." Lillian reached out and squeezed my shoulder. "I promise, I'll help you adjust to all this...Daddy."

My hands fell away from my head. Right there, just like that, I went from too much information to total meltdown. "Did you say...?"

"Yes, I did." Lillian squeezed my shoulder again. "You'll see. Everything's going to be just fine from now on, Father."