Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Mission

Adam Bishop

I felt so happy and at peace. I woke up from a dream and when I came down, dad was having breakfast with mom. He was caressing her belly and they were laughing. 

I didn't understand what was going on, but he's alive, and that means everything that happened to me was just a bad dream. He didn't die, he didn't leave his mountain of debt to me, mom was happy and I am eighteen once again, chasing my dreams.

"What's wrong, Adam?" My dad asked me, probably noticing my silence. 

"Oh, nothing, dad. I just had a really, really bad dream." I answered dismissively and joined them for breakfast so I won't be late. 

We laughed and talked while we ate breakfast and I can't remember when was the last time I laughed that much. I was floating with happiness and I practically skipped school. 

"What a beautiful day." I exclaimed and breathed deeply. 

Most of the students smiled at me and I smiled back, beaming when I saw my best friend. We went to class together and ate at the cafeteria with two of our other friends like always. 

Everything seemed so perfect and surreal. I didn't question anything and went with the flow. 

When I came home, my parents agreed on eating out for dinner and that's when my happiness started to dissipate and I started to question everything. Everything feels too perfect. Like an imagination. 

And as we ate in my favorite restaurant as a kid, I knew it was an illusion. A product of my desire to go back in time where everything was still perfect and I wasn't a damaged human being paying for my dead father's debt, supporting my family, and being cheated on with the very first man I trusted my heart with. 

But this isn't the real world anymore. If I go back in time, Vincent, my little brother won't exist and he's my world. Him and my mother are the reason why I was persevering. Why I'm fighting life no matter how hard and unfair it gets. If he's not in this world, then what is the sense?

"Why aren't you eating, Adam? Don't you have any appetite?" My mom asked and I looked at her with tears in my eyes. 

"This isn't real. You are not that happy anymore. God, I wish those sparkles in your eyes are still the same but you changed when dad died." I croaked with tears falling down my face. 

The pain in my heart now feels too real for everything to be just a dream. 

"Adam! What are you saying?" My mother exclaimed in horror and my dad was quick to comfort her. "Your father isn't dead!"

"Adam, you are upsetting your mother. What is going on with you, boy?"

"You died," I told him with the emotions bottled up inside me. Anger, hatred, longing as I stared at the man who resembled my father. "You killed yourself because you couldn't take the pressure anymore. You left us. You left your responsibility to me." I cried and stood up with shaking legs. 

I am overwhelmed and I just want to wake up. If I'm already dead, then so be it. But I won't stay here and pretend that everything is okay when it's not. 

"None of you is real. This is what I hoped for, but it's too late now."

And just like that, as if I said a magic word, everything around me started to change. My parents started to disappear into thin air. The place changed until I was surrounded by nothing but white. Everywhere I turn, I see nothing but white smoke. 

"You're finally awake? I thought it would take you a long time to realize it was not real for it was what your heart desires." An eerie voice said but I couldn't find where it's coming from. 

"Am... Am I dead?" I found myself asking, looking down at myself to see that I was wearing the same clothes I did when I got into an accident. I remember what happened now and there's no way I'm alive. 

"Yes." 

I choked on a sob and broke down. I cried my heart out, my wails echoing around the place. I feel so suffocated, like there is a brick in my throat. I couldn't breathe and it feels like I am being torn to pieces. 

I thought of my mom and Vincent that I left behind. How will they live now? Our relatives are in another state and I wouldn't even count on them. They rarely message us, and they only do when they need something. How can mom support Vincent when she's still coping with my dad's death? And how about Vincent? Who will be there for him as he grows up?

Grief was what I felt first. I couldn't even feel sad that I died, but I was agonized at the thought that I left my family behind. After what seemed like forever, I felt a sense of desperation come over me. 

I want to live. I want to go back. 

I forced myself on my feet and looked around, hoping to see the one talking to me but I saw nothing but smoke. 

"I want to go back. I want to go back to my family. Please!"

My voice bounced back to me but there was no answer. I waited. I waited until I heard a bone-chilling chuckle resonating around the place. 

"I have read your mind. I have heard what you said before you died. Didn't you ask for it? Didn't you want to free yourself from them? Hypocrite."

I was speechless as I remembered asking for death. He was right. I was so hurt that I just wanted to escape everything. 

"I did at first, but I was hurt and that is the reaction of a human being! Is it wrong to feel like that for once? I didn't ask for this! I was young and I had a life ahead of me!" I burst out while looking around, swallowing and wiping my tears. "But no matter how painful life is, I would still choose my family over my own desire!" 

The place suddenly changed to what looks like what you see in sci-fi movies. It looked futuristic yet realistic at the same time. Like a mixture of a dream, reality and fantasy. Am I in heaven or hell?

What shocked me the most is that a white figure wearing a cloak that hides their face suddenly appeared in front of me. They had a towering height and I had to look up at them. They are letting out an intimidating aura so much and it made my knees buckle. 

"W-Who are you?" I asked and stepped back to distance myself from him. "Where... Where am I?"

"You are in Hallow. A place where we judge a soul. Whether they will go to heaven or hell." His eerie voice responded as he walked around me. He sounded robotic and terrifying at the same time. 

"So you're like a reaper?" 

The man chuckled and a cold shiver of fear ran through me. "What happens to you is in my hands. Right now. You are floating in between," he waved his hand and suddenly, bubbles appeared and I was shocked to see memories of me from birth until I died. "A filial son. A good samaritan who helps people even when you have nothing..."

"Look, mister, uhm, sir? It's not my time yet. I died because of a careless driver! I still have a life to live, a family to support. Hell, I haven't even gotten back at my cheating boyfriend and traitor best friend! Please, I will do everything. I want to go back."

"Look around you, little human, everyone around here says the same. There is no such thing as wronged death or time. Your lifespan is determined the moment your mother gives birth to you. Your life is borrowed and it is time you give it back to your creator."

My shoulders slumped in defeat. "So that's it? I would be locked in heaven or hell forever? But what about my family? They need me. Is there really no other way?"

"Like I mentioned, you are in between. Your soul is floating in the middle of heaven and hell. You haven't served your purpose. You might just be right about a wrongful death."

I blinked and hope bloomed in my chest. "Does that mean I am still not dead? I can go back?"

"I have no answers yet, human. I will talk to the creator."

I opened my mouth to ask him when he would be back, but he just disappeared into thin air, leaving me with a million questions and a troubled mind. 

Because I had no means to check the time, I waited patiently for him to come back. There is no other place for me to go anyway. I was stuck in a floating stone and who knows where I'll be if I fall down. The other stones were too far for me to see and I couldn't see anyone else. 

After what seemed like eternity, he came back and appeared in front of me. I tried to get a look of his face, but his cloak covers most of his face. 

"The creator will give you a chance to go back—"

"Really?! Thank you so much! I—"

"If you succeed on a mission he's giving you."

"... what? What mission? I will do it!"

I am willing to do anything if it means I can go back to my family. According to him, a chance like me is rare and I would be stupid to not take the opportunity! The mission can't be that hard, right?

"You are to be reincarnated in the body of a slave in the world of Eldoria, the world of mythical creatures before its ruins. You will change their fate and prevent its destruction by changing the Prince and preventing him from annihilating his whole kingdom. Before his beast killed everyone to extinction."

"Okay. Wait, what? Let me see if I heard you right. You want me to change a whole world's fate by changing their prince? How will I even do that? That is such a huge responsibility! Is there any second choice? That one seems hard and impossible. Hell, I can’t even help myself."

It's like they are giving me a chance that I will fail anyway and for what? To crush my hope? 

I can't see their faces, but I could tell they are rolling their eyes. 

"You only have a year to do it. If you fail to do so, your soul will cease to exist along with the whole of Eldoria." 

My voice was unheard as he snapped his fingers and I suddenly felt like I was being pulled by a heavy pressure. I felt like drowning and I couldn't grasp anything to keep myself afloat. 

When it stopped, I gasped for air and sat up while breathing hard, grasping my chest to catch my breath. When I finally got a hold of myself, I found myself standing in the middle of a world I haven't seen before with different creatures walking around me. 

It might sound dramatic, but I think I lost consciousness and fainted right then and there.