Peace.
That was all he felt.
Peace with himself. Peace with others. Peace with the whole world.
He was in perfect condition. He didn't need anything more or anything less.
"Mum was right, they do make an excellent coffee."
He could still see the decorations on the bar's wall. The immense landscape's painting by some random artist of the town, the brown color that merged perfectly with the golden flower's pattern painted on it.
No. It didn't sound right; they were just random patterns. And, the wall was brown... bordeaux. No, no, no.
It was a light color... pink? Yeah. Yeah, it was pinkish.
Yeah, now it sounded right. Also, the golden pattern wasn't on the wall; it was on the painting frame.
How could he not see that? Oh, yeah, of course. It was rather small; it wasn't a big painting after all. Painting? What am I stupid? It was a picture of a random landscape near the town.
No. Wait, his sister insisted so much on coming with them. They arrived way later than planned because of her.
She brought her iPad and just... did stuff with it. So, maybe it was a famous painting.
It didn't matter too much when that gorgeous waitress brought coffee and pastries to him and his mother. He would have loved to do a lot of stuff with that blondie.
But his mother was there, so he just glanced at her a few times. Those long black hairs were magnificent.
"Uh...?"
He couldn't recognize his mother's face. He saw her less as he grew up, but still, he shouldn't have a problem remembering her.
Maybe the pinkish wall was the problem? It didn't matter. The real problem was the side-eye of his sister, with her head leaned to the wall, when that waitress came.
No. Wait. There was no wall behind her, or was there?
Wait. His sister was at home. There were only he and his mother.
There was no one there at all. He was all alone.
His perfect peace was disturbed. His eyelids fluttered a little. That bed was like a cloud; he felt his limbs floating in the void.
He accidentally opened his right eyelid slightly and was immediately blinded.
His brain processed that information as slowly as an old car's engine starts in winter.
"Who the fuck put the sun in my room?" He turned around, aiming to use the pillow to regain that peace.
As he twisted, the pinkish color gradually vanished, leaving only darkness. But apparently, the sun was a piece of shit because not even a second later, the pink color returned.
"Mmmhhh!!"
He wouldn't give up so easily. He turned around again and covered his eyes with his hands.
Those sudden moves only woke him up more, and that position wasn't comfortable at all. So, he let go of his limbs, floating away.
"Alright, I give up, time to wake up."
With his eyes still closed, he tried to get up with a decisive push of his arms against the mattress.
They reached well beyond his back without encountering any resistance.
"Uh?"
Confused as hell, he opened his eyes and got blinded once again.
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No words were heard.
"UH?! WHAT THE FUCK? I BECAME DEAF?" He thought.
He tried once again to open his eyes, this time way slower, but a solemn, authoritative, and ethereal voice spoke first.
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He took him way too long to process that information. So long that he managed to open his eyes and see...
"THE SUN?!"
He was joking before, but did someone really put the sun in his bedroom?
Dots started to connect to one another.
"The sun is in front of me, it's a bit cold out here, and apparently, I'm floating. I'M IN SPACE?!"
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He tried to look through the small gap between his eyelids. However, the light was really too blinding, and he was forced to stay with his eyes shut.
The fear of not being able to see what was happening grew inside him.
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His mind started to run on adrenaline and fear.
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His body froze on the spot. His mind froze for a second, and then it flooded itself with a thousand questions that overlapped each other, effectively causing it to crash.
It could be expressed in a single word.
"WHAT? WHAT- WHAT- WHAT- WHAT- WHAT- WHAT-..."
Among that chaos, some key phrases emerged.
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"I died?" That thought chased away everything else and, at the same time, brought calm within him. He found it quite difficult to believe that.
He was alive some time ago. At least, that's what he believed.
"Sun... God..." Someone has to prank him. Someone must have drugged him. There's no way God is real.
Suddenly, he started to laugh uncontrollably. There was total silence, apart from a deep hum in the background. But he still could breathe a dense form of air, so there was no way he was dead.
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"These drugs are remarkable."
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The space surrounding him was a mess; it felt as if he were in the sea during a powerful storm.
He was powerless here. He couldn't open his eyes; something frightening was in front of him, and he couldn't run or hide.
Something ancient awakened inside him.
The primordial fear that modern humans have forgotten.
The ancestral fear of every prey.
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"Explain what?!" He gave up talking; his lungs refused to work. He felt them filled with something and nothing simultaneously, which trembled constantly.
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He felt something flowing into his body; it was a brief moment of extreme pain. That small quantity was traveling back and forth through his body.
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The pink color of his eyelids was disappearing, leaving room for a darkness that is now far too cold.
"WAIT. Wa-" <<-IT. CAN WE MEET AGAIN?! I DON'T UNDERSTAND!>> Finally, he could breathe again and hear his voice.
His body returned to feeling something familiar: air.
That wind was hitting him violently all over his chest and body. His neatly combed black hair had been blown upwards, far away from his face.
He instinctively pursed his thin lips, which quickly became dry.
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Suddenly, his short, large nose began to bleed, and all his face hurt like hell. The wind disappeared and left the place to a cold and level floor.
After inhaling some dust, he opened his eyes slowly.
His face was against a cold and smooth yellowish stone.
The shy light which came in through the partially broken windows was just enough to keep him from being in the complete dark.
With his skinny and weak arms, he pushed his torso up. He still felt that thing traveling through his body. From his fingers to his neck, to his eyes and throughout his whole legs.
As he felt that tiny flow, he felt a presence near him.
Without much thought, he raised his head.
A statue, certainly more than two meters tall, was watching him with golden eyes. It stood inside the temple apse. Its arms were open downward, pointing to a large stone crown on an altar at its feet.
Its face was joyful, with a subtle and barely perceptible smile, completely out of sync with those judgmental eyes that were watching him.
Blood flowed down his nose, falling and splattering on the ground with a harsh sound. He looked at those eyes, terrified, frozen by fear.
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In that moment, the golden, shiny eyes vanished, leaving the statue's gray eyes fixed on him, with that gentle smile.
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He was still on all four when the large wooden doors of the temple were opened. They brought wind and hopeless light with them.
The sound of heavy footsteps and metal beating against itself echoed a thousand times.
His nose was still bleeding when he turned his head to the source of the sounds.
Two men armored without helmet were advancing down the central path of the temple. Swords and shields in their hand, ready for any possible attack.
"OH SHIT."
He tried to crawl back away from them, but he was too weak and, as soon as he raised his left hand, fell face to the floor. The harsh sound caught their attention.
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Quickly, the footsteps grew closer.
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