There was pain, overwhelming and unexpected. A tearing, a loosening. And then, drifting, driftless, weightless, unanchored. Esther wanted to reach for something solid, something to hold, but she couldn’t remember how to reach, and couldn’t see anything to grab. What had been darkness bled into a sudden rushing brightness that blinded and enveloped her. A new sound overwhelmed her senses -- a throbbing, grinding, pulsing sound, fuzzy static turned up to maximum volume. She wanted to shield her eyes, her ears, but her arms weren’t working properly, wouldn’t answer her call.

After an endless time had passed, perhaps a few moments, perhaps many years, the light began to soften, or perhaps Esther had simply adapted to it. The static in her ears began to take on a structure, peaks and valleys, a cadence that was familiar but just beyond understanding. She looked around her, because she couldn’t not look -- her eyelids were as unresponsive as the rest of her body -- and she saw a soft blue-white glow that slowly revealed moving shadows, distant but perhaps coming nearer.

Esther realized that, while her eyes and ears were overwhelmed with input, she had no other physical sensations. She could no move her body, and she also could not be sure that she had a body. She could feel anything around her, nor could she take in a breath to see if her surroundings had a scent. She could not open her mouth to taste the air or the light. She could not turn her head to look at herself, whatever might remain of her. She was reduced to what she could see and hear, a disembodied, powerless consciousness.

I should panic, she thought. But she was not panicking. A calm curiosity was all she felt. Where am I? What happened to me? Who is that? For now one of the shadows was resolving into a vaguely humanlike shape, and it came nearer and nearer, with Esther clearly its object and destination.

The rhythms of the static sound further refined into something like words, as though Esther were hearing them underwater and couldn’t quite catch their edges. As the shadow drew nearer, the sound became clearer, and Esther began to understand.

“Yes, you will have so many questions!” suddenly filled Esther’s mind. The voice, warm and deep and comforting, poured a river of words into her, one tumbling over the next. “Well, I can answer some of them for you, and time will answer others. Oh, we’re going to get on so well, my dear! Let me introduce myself! Oh, no, I see you’re not quite ready for that yet. Let us get you sorted out first.”

What is happening? Esther wondered but didn’t say, because she still could not access her mouth, her vocal cords, her lungs.

And yet the voice answered her: “Indeed, first things first! Dear one, you are dead! Isn’t that wonderful? And I am so fortunate as to be assigned to you as you adjust to your new existence! Oh, it’s all just so exciting, isn’t it?” 

(This post is part of the 500 Words short story project.)