Halfway There | COMPLETE ✔ + Sequel

Chapter 38 - A New Adventure

I never imagined how I would die. I never gave it much thought. I always assumed I would die old and wrinkly with a long life well lived. Most importantly, no matter how old I would be, my father would always greet me with open arms and a welcoming smile into our next adventure. But this...?

This was different.

I sat in darkness, very aware of my own body but somehow unable to move. I was trapped in my own head, my body floating in a pit of black. Is this death? I looked around for some kind of reassurance that death wasn't an eternity of darkness in your own mind but I found nothing.

"Dani?!" A panicked, beautiful voice suddenly echoed off the darkness that surrounded me. I looked around, desperate to find who the voice belonged to.

Suddenly, as if some kind of hot branding iron slammed down onto my back, a strike of excruciating pain shot through the lower half. I could feel the pain slowly maneuver its way through my body, growing as it went. Pain and Darkness? Is this all that death was? Was my father trapped in his own mind as well? Has everything that we lived for just been to lead us to this moment of pain and eternal blackness?

"Dani!" That voice.

The throbbing in my back, the moment I heard my name being called, stopped for that brief second but almost immediately the pain returned. It felt as if someone was grabbing onto my spine with a vice grip and it was only growing tighter.

"Dani, God, Please! Dani!" It was so beautiful, almost as if it were a melody of sweet relief. The second the voice stopped talking the pain would return tenfold.

I tried frantically to claw at the darkness to hold onto something but it was only as if swimming deeper into the pool of black and torture. "Dani, please!" No! Don't stop talking! Talk forever! Rid me of this pain!

It felt as if the pain was endless and eternal when suddenly I felt pressure on my chest. It was short and instant, taking the attention off my back, but it was repeatedly. Chest, back, chest, back. The corners of my vision slowly returned to me with small fragments of light. The darkness disappearing with something completely different.

"Dani?" That voice. So beautiful.

My body was no longer floating. Starting at the tip of my toes, creeping up my body, all sensation returned to my limbs. I was planted firmly the last place I had been, only with pain still searing through my back. My vision hadn't fully returned, black still clouded the corners.

I could see the silhouette of someone looking down on me. Blinding, sky blue eyes stared down at me in a wild panic. Was this heaven? Had an angel come to take me to the land of bliss and contentment? If that was the case why did I still feel pain? My back continued to burn but it had been dulled. I felt the warm grip of someone grasping onto my shoulders when I looked up.

"Dani?" Tears filled his eyes in desperate hope. Nova looked down at me as I felt my eyes flutter to adjust to what world I was now in.

"Nova?" My voice felt horse. As if I had been screaming. A smile spread across his face as the tears fell from his eyes. He leaned his head against my forehead, bringing me comfort.

"What happened?" I asked, attempting to sit up. Before I could go any further my head began to spin with a sharp pain to the side of my temple. I brought my hand up to where I felt the pain only to be met with a cold liquid. Bringing my fingers down, blood coated the tips. My breathing grew jagged at the blood that was seeping through my own head.

I had almost forgotten about the pain in my back until I moved. I winced but continued to make myself sit upwards in a panic. I looked around to see Kyle standing directly behind Nova, smiling as happily as Nova was. Beside Nova, who was at my level, was the black metal of a gun glistening with power.