Eternal Silence
Don't forget to read from the beginning or Part 4: Mirror Reflections
Everything stood still as the dragon stood over me and I--trapped between the dragon's glistening white teeth and the cold of the ground--trembled. She reared her head back, preparing for the kill and I closed my eyes. I imagined my step sister waiting for me to return, our parents milling around with the other guests. Smiling faces would be the last image in my mind if I could help it.
I felt a rush of heat, followed by a searing pain in my sides. So this was it--death at 21 years old. I wondered what my obituary would say; surely no one would guess I was killed by a dragon. As the pain grew, spreading from my sides into my arms and legs, I wondered how long it would take to die.
Now that death was inevitable, I became curious as to what this journey would entail. Would there be a white light? A tunnel? Would I be ferried from the world of the living to the world of the dead by some "Angel of Death?" Or what I simply breathe my last breath and cease to exist.
After a few moments passed I heard someone screaming. It was a language I didn't understand--or did I? There was something vaguely familiar about the words in my ears. I opened my eyes, against my better judgment, and my world became unfamiliar. It wasn't the same; I can't explain what changed, but it had. I was no longer on the ground, but up in the air.
Below me my mother was the one yelling--not scared or surprised, but chanting passionately as though she knew exactly what was happening. She shook her fingers in an odd gesture toward me then reached below me as though she were lifting someone to their feet. That's when I saw myself--still lying on the ground, accepting her hand and rising to my feet. But it wasn't me--I was in the air above, caught in the dragon's clutches.
"Momma!" I screamed out, begging her to come back for me.
The sound escaping from my lungs was not what I expected. I tried to reach my hand upward to scratch my head and realized that although I could not perform the task, my hand was unbound. Nothing was holding me. I wasn't in the dragon's claws. I was the dragon and the dragon had taken my place.
