­­My life was a somewhat short, but well lived one. I was happily employed at the local bank as a teller, living in a two story condo, and engaged to an attractive and wealthy lawyer. However, my story is not about my life. It begins at the time of my death.

I had always been a dreamer and I suppose that’s how this whole situation came about. There I was, lying in the back seat of the car waiting for my fiancée to get out of work. I had been imagining myself soaring through the sky, weaving in and out of the trees, the leaves of October flying around my head. I recall it was quite the enjoyable dream....

Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted by a car horn, followed by the crashing of metal and glass. The next thing I knew I was lying on a gurney in the ambulance, listening to the voices around me, but my head was too cloudy to make out what they were saying. Fairly soon I had drifted back to unconsciousness and into the darkness.

When I came too again I was in a crowded hallway in the hospital. Everything seemed like a blur of color and noise until I finally was set into the hospital room. I heard the slow, uneven beating of the heart monitor, and the far away voice of my fiancée and someone I couldn't recognize. The voices drew nearer and I could faintly make out what it was they were saying.

 "I don't think there is a chance for survival here. The damage is critical and she is losing blood faster than we can keep it in her. Due to the point of impact and the way she was positioned in the car makes it unusual that she even survived the initial hit. We’re doing everything we can but I thought you should know she won’t have too much time left."

"Well, isn't there a way to remove the shards of metal from her? That should keep the bleeding down once it is removed... right? There has to be something you can do - you can’t just give up on her!"

"I'm afraid that if we removed any of the shards, her heart valves would collapse. There are too many of them near her heart."

 "Well how much time are we looking at? Is she in a lot of pain? There has to be something… She’s my fiancée!"

"Well, with the condition she is in now, I would say about twenty minutes. But if anything changes it could be instant. We have her on serious pain killer so I don't think she can even feel a thing. If she does pass it will just be like going to sleep forever."

Then all I heard was the sound of weeping. I didn’t know what to do, everything was swimming around in my head. They say that when you’re about to die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. Well that’s exactly what was happening to me.

I remembered things I never knew I remembered before. Things like my first birthday and how my family was crowding around me to get a better look, taking dozens of pictures. The first time I broke a bone, when I was camping. I fell out of the tree I was climbing and couldn’t move. It was about an hour before my family finally found out where I went.

There were so many fragile memories that were coming back to me. I should have been feeling pain from the gaping wounds in my chest and sides, but instead I was feeling pain from the things I would never get to do. Pain from the things I forgot I knew, and for those who would only get to keep a memory of me. I was dying, and there was no going back.

Things were going by me so fast now that I could scarcely keep up. Brief flashes of my brothers and my parents, anyone of who I had loved, were now bringing endless tears down my face. I saw my fiancé, the man I hardly knew. How could I have married him? It seemed so strange to marry someone you did not know completely, or even love completely.

I wish I could say I got to see my family before I died. However, the last thing I remember seeing is the heart monitor screen. It flashed a few faint lines, gave a few weak beats, then it went flat, and the world grew dark.

The world was a silent coffin. Was I already buried? Was I still in existence? I felt like I was nothing, but everything at the same time. A piece of the puzzle, but without me there was no complete picture. Was this heaven or hell, or something entirely different?

Days seemed to go by. Years, even. But the world remained a dark nothingness. There were no colors, no sounds, and no movements. Nothing at all, and I never had felt so utterly alone.

I must still be existing, I thought to myself. If I wasn’t then how could I experience these emotions? But that’s all I was, an emotion, a remnant, a fray in the fabric. No one knew I still remained behind.

Yet something changed during this silent isolation. I felt a warmth inside, and hope. Something was coming for me! I knew it, the feeling welled up in me and I trusted it completely. Inside my hollow remainder I felt a burst of excitement, and something else, existence.

I felt something shift in the darkness, and pull at me. I was dragged forward slowly until I felt I was at the precipice. Suddenly a small speck of light burst through the darkness, blinding me. It slowly grew brighter and brighter, surrounding me completely. Then everything disappeared.

When I came to I was lying on the hospital bed, the light was dimmed to almost nothing. Had this all been a dream? I was alone in the room, and there was an eerie silence. The lights in the hallway began to flicker slightly. I must have passed out and imagined this whole thing! The heart monitor next to me was still beeping slowly, the green line moving up and down like it would normally.

I got up and removed the devices from my body, then made my way out into the hallway. There was no one around, and all the lights in the rooms were off. Something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it could be. I was about to head back to my room when I heard a low scraping noise, like someone was moving a metal table down the hallway. It grew slowly closer every second.

I moved over and tried to open the door, but it locked behind me and I couldn’t get back inside. The sound stopped for a second and I leaned back against the door and sighed. It was nothing, just my imagination.

Suddenly the light at the end of the hall flickered, and went out. Sparks went flying, and the scraping noise was coming again followed now by a low hissing cackle. Then all of the lights started flickering wildly. Each one started to spark and go black, gaining slowly on me.

I backed up and tried not to panic. Then I caught a glimpse of movement to my right. It was only a mirror. I felt like I was missing something however, and I looked again.

Right behind me was a dark figure. It was looming over me, yellow eyes gleaming from within. I spun around franticly trying to catch sight of the thing. But it was no where to be seen. I ran to the end of the hallway and out the doors. Light poured into my eyes and I felt warmth rush into me.