The Dead Don't Lie

The watery solution was very warm and thicker than she thought it would be. Naci could feel it painfully entering her lungs and filling them up as if she was a human water balloon. “So, this is the trauma of being reborn. Painful! Damn, it hurts! No wonder babies are born crying.” She thought to herself.

Naci believed this was a new chance at a different life. Her past was made up of systematic metaphorical decisions. She followed through with each eventful turn of her life, as if the choices were premade, and the outcome already designed. She was merely acting out her life. Having said that, she was also left to deal with the consequences.

She had worked for the Cryo-lab for the past ten years. Others did it. So, why couldn't it be her way out? When Jack ripped her heart out, she was done wondering. Her decision was made.

She will wake up in the same body, as she laid down with, but everything around her will change. No friends. No family. Even the room she was in. She expected everything to be foreign to her. Just as she began to feel at peace, the fear of what-ifs entered her mind, "What if I die and never return? What if it is a lie and cryo doesn't work? What if I am drowning and this is the end of my life?" She felt dizzy from the screaming in her head as the last tiny vestibules of her lungs filled with the watery liquid. Her mind relaxed, the pain ceased, and she drifted into an unconscious state.

“12072001." A deep loud voice entered Laci's mind. "You have less than ten minutes to get off this Vessel!” The man shouted as he opened the coffin-like pod that contained Naci’s Body for the last 5 decades. At least, that is the timeline she believed herself to be in. He had already drained the warm liquid that encapsulated her body and shoved the tube down her throat with oxygen. She sat up and pulled out the tube, coughed, and spit out the remaining solution. Her breath was rapid and shallow. She knew she needed to take a deep breath. She failed at first. Looking around her she thought, "Those numbers. Clever. my birthdate. I guess that is how they keep up with us. There is that pain again.” This time, it was air trying to fill her lungs. She inhaled again. "Breathe Laci!" She silently coached herself, until air pushed through to the bottom passage of her lungs. She let out a sigh of relief. "Finally!"

“Let’s go, Let’s go, Let’s go!”

There was that voice again, commanding them to move. Naci looked around to see if she could find him in the crowd. There were many like her waking up the same way. She sure did not expect to wake up like this. It was not in the handbook. Then again, she could not recall anything about her past. "It's too soon." and just that quickly, she saw his face in her mind's eye. "Oh yeah, Jack! He is why I did this."

While she was trying to remember how to walk, the others got their legs and were running feverishly past her. Somebody pulled her half-naked body out of the pod and told her to walk fast. Her body felt like a noodle. She was clumsy and unsteady. She gained her bones when she realized the others were passing her by quickly. She never liked being in the last place. The first sign her subconscious thoughts were no different today than they were before she went under. But she did not have time to dwell on that. What she wanted to know, as she hastened forward was, "Were they running from something, or to something?"

Naci shouted out to anyone listening, “Am I the only one who cares where we are going?” Just as she asked the question, she saw a waterfall of people, hands up, slipping into darkness.

"Oh, hell no!" She said as she came to a dead stop. She tried to warn the others, but they kept moving past her in some weird momentum that kept them running forward. She instantly thought “I read Alice in Wonderland. I’m not about to go down that rabbit hole.” She veered off into the darkness and hunkered down until all she heard was silence. The walls were wet behind her, and the structure felt more like a cave, than something in a building. She saw a light in the distance and decided to navigate herself out of the darkness.

She heard what sounded like chants. Cautiously, she followed the sides of the wet, cold walls, until she could see inside the dimly lit room. There were dark figures wearing long hooded robes standing around a huge round table. The table began a slow lift, stopping above their heads. A group of scantily clad people, with shaved heads, was led by another dark figure into the room, each one chained to the other with a thick collar around their neck. Naci watched, with a quizzical brow, trying to figure out what she was witnessing. The people were arranged strategically underneath the table. Then the table began to lower, pushing the men down on their knees, leaving their heads exposed through holes in front of each of the dark figures. Their chokers were then connected to an apparatus on the table that pulled tight and kept their heads from moving. They did not speak, but their eyes showed their fear.

Each member of the table held a pick hammer. They chanted for a few more moments and then, Naci watched in horror, as they began to strike the tops of their captives’ heads. With each blow, their prisoner's faces raged with pain. The hammers split open their skulls and exposed their brains. In unison, the dark figures bent over the heads of their victims. Naci gasped when she realized they were feeding. One of the figures heard the sound and turned towards her. It was the bloodied face of a screech owl.

Terrified, Naci turned and ran back into the darkness. She felt sick. She heaved and gagged, but nothing came up. Her mouth was dry. She needed water.

She walked along the walls until she heard the babbling sound of water. She turned a corner and saw a small creek filled with phosphorous light. She hurried to it, cupped water in her hands, and drowned her thirst.

She shivered. It was dark and cold. She felt so alone. But she had no time to feel sorry for herself. So, she kept moving cautiously, wondering what other kind of crazy she was yet to discover. Then she felt a pain in her chest that instantly took her down to her knees. It was as if the air was let out of the room. She could not breathe and began gasping for air.

She heard a faint jingling. Like metal clanking together. The sound got louder until an elderly woman appeared next to her.

“Where did you come from little one? Oh, I see, you are having trouble breathing. You must be a loose chickee.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out a nebulizer and shoved it into Naci’s mouth. “Now there.” She said, “Take a deeeeeep breath, then come with me.”

Nothing about this woman made her feel safe but she followed her. She was weird. She did not like her voice. Was she saving her only to eat her later? Laci had questions, and the old lady answered them all

“My name is Sara-Belle, and no, I am not going to eat you. I am not a cannibal. I got this voice from my parents. Sorry if it frightens you, and yes, I have always been a little weird."

“How is she reading my mind?” She questioned herself.

Sara-Belle responded knowingly, “I am not a mind reader. That is just your fear talking.'

“I don’t fear you.” Naci said with a contemptuous voice.

“That’s good. You will do better with your choices if you do not let fear think for you.”

“There it is again. Choices.” Laci thought to herself. “Everything boils down to choices. Humph, I did not choose to be in this place. Whatever it is.” Then asked out loud, “What is this place?”

“This is eternity. It is where your heart lives.” Sara-Belle said, then sarcastically added, “Your leftyour mind and soul are over there somewhere, but your heart is right here.”

“I don't understand what you're saying?” Laci rebuked.

“Tell me about what you have seen since you have been here.”

Naci told her about watching people fall into a black hole.

“That is, you doing some soul searching.”

“I'm not talking about me. Other people were dropping into what looked like a black hole!” She said a little louder as if that would change Sara-belle’s perception of what she had described to her.

“Think deeper!” Sara-Belle encouraged with a softer voice. “Now what else?”

Naci described the human-like owls wearing robes hitting people’s heads with hammers.

Sara-Belle paused in thought for a moment, then raised a finger and spoke with certainty “You were trying to knock some sense into yourself and make up your mind about something that has held you held captive.”

“That's riculous. Do you think you are you some kind of Shaman?” Naci asked.

Sara-belle did not answer.

“OK! Let’s say I believe you. Where is my heart?”

Sara-Belle opened up her robe. Dangling from a chain around her neck was a bright red locket. “I have it here.”

“That’s just a necklace on a chain. Is that what was making that clanking sound? Aren’t you afraid they might hear you, and come after you?”

“They do not exist. Just like I do not exist. I am merely a fragment of your imagination. This will end when you choose to take control of your mind.”

“Choose? Again, with the choices! I changed my existence because of it. I have made wrong choices, my entire life. That’s why I am here.”

“Your life is not predetermined dear. It is time for you to face your presence. Use your mind and heart together. They are very powerful allies. They give you the freedom to create your life’s purpose.”

“OK! Then give it to me.”

“The heart locket? No! You are not ready for it just yet, you have to...”

Naci whipped her body around, kicked Sara-Belle’s feet out from underneath her, threw an elbow into her stomach, then pushed her onto the ground and shoved a knee into her chest.

“I’m a 5th generation black belt. Now, give me the damn heart.” Sara-Belle reached over and unlocked it from her chain. Naci could feel Sara-Belle's heart pounding heavily in her chest. Her breathing was labored.

“What’s wrong with you?” She asked as she took her knee off her chest and stood up. “Sara-Belle? I did not mean to drop you that hard. I am sorry, I just wanted the locket. What can I do to save you?”

She whispered, “It is your life, you need to save!”

“What? I don’t understand?” She said crying “Sara-Belle! Don’t leave me here!”

Sara-Belle reached up and gently touched Naci’s cheek with her frail fingers “Just breeeeathe!”

Naci sobbed and she clasped the heart locket in her hands, pressed it against her chest, closed her eyes tight, and took a long deep breath.

Naci abruptly sat up in the bathtub, the water splashed around her wetting the floor of the bathroom. She coughed violently as she tried desperately to draw air into her lungs. Exhausted, she lay back in the tub, breathing heavily at first, then relaxed as her body calmed down.

She looked down at her hand releasing her fingers slowly from a tight fist, revealing the heart-shaped locket in her hand.