New Beginning

"What's this feeling? Moments ago I thought I was in pain but now I'm not sure. It's almost as if my entire body has pins and needles. All I can see is darkness. Hello?"

Minutes passed like this and Charlie began to feel scared. As fear filled his body he realized that he might've just died! He wasn't sure since he couldn't imagine death but he felt that his current predicament fit the bill. He was also pretty sure he got hit by a car so there was that.

Having accepted his death, Charlie began to calm down. He wasn't non-existent so that was an up. But if he was here, then where was here? Limbo? It didn't matter though, Charlie didn't want to be here so he decided he would try to leave. The only problem was that Charlie didn't know how to leave.

He thought for a minute and decided, "I should first try to move" so he tried to take a step forward. The only problem was that he couldn't feel any reaction when he ordered his muscles to move. He decided that perhaps he was going about this wrong. He had died so it follows that he would no longer have a body. And if he no longer had a body then what did he have? A mind? Could he move his mind? "It wouldn't hurt to try".

So Charlie focused very hard in his mind to will himself forward. He thought of his current "body" as though it were a cloud and imagined that cloud moving forwards. Surprisingly, this seemed to make something happen. Charlie didn't know what had happened but he figured it was better than nothing so he kept at it.

Charlie continued to will himself forwards for a very long time. He had lost any sense of time long ago and resigned himself to moving forwards. The only events that broke up the long periods of intense concentration were when Charlie bumped into other things. While he couldn't necessarily feel anything, he knew he had touched something since the pins and needles feeling intensified on the front side of his "body". Charlie wondered, "Are these other people who died?" But without any source of information Charlie could do nothing but move past these objects.

One thing he did notice was that the other objects weren't moving which led him to believe that they weren't like him. While pondering his current existence, Charlie finally felt something other than the numerous objects from earlier. It triggered the same intensification of pins and needles but it came from below him and as he moved forwards he realized that it slanted upwards. Charlie imagined the object to be similar to the shore of a beach. He imagined that he'd been swimming to shore from a large sea and had finally been able to touch the ground again. This gave a sense of accomplishment to Charlie since he knew he had progressed and was no longer adrift.

With renewed energy, Charlie continued moving forwards. He eventually felt his pins and needles going away and being replaced with warmth. This pleasant warmth intensified until it was all that Charlie could feel. When he couldn't feel the pins and needles at all, he stopped. Not of his own choice, but because he couldn't will himself any farther. Charlie suddenly felt exhausted and lost consciousness.

When Charlie woke up, he was surrounded by the same pleasant warmth as before but there was also a rhythmic sound that Charlie couldn't discern. It seemed familiar but garbled like the beat of a song heard from underwater. The sound was almost always at the same pace, excluding minor fluctuations.

Charlie felt extremely comfortable; like he was submerged in a warm bath. It wasn't hard for him to fall asleep which he promptly did since he still felt tired.

Charlie was now dreaming of running; he was nowhere specific but he could feel his body's sensations as he moved. His heart beating, his lungs heaving and his legs gliding over the ground. The dream was cut short by a sensation in his foot. Charlie was very confused and groggily thought, "I have a foot?". It had been a long time since he had tried moving a physical body but he would try anyway.

Charlie attempted to wiggle a toe which caused some movement although it didn't feel right. So, he decided to try to take a step which resulted in what seemed to be a leg moving forwards. Charlie had moved his body again, but that wasn't what he was thinking about. He was thinking about the voice that had sounded when he kicked his leg forwards.