Ch-42-Memories

I started to wake from my coma that was induced after the system detected a fatal error that could potentially kill me or at least cause lasting and severe damage. The first thing I felt after coming to was a warm feeling originating from my chest just above where my heart would be. This brought back the feelings I had from all the memories I had relived during the coma.

(3 Hours Ago)

When I fell unconscious, I was greeted by an infinite black void that made me feel like I returned to the moment after I died and before I met the goddess. I would have thought that I died again if I did not remember the system screen I saw before arriving here. I was not even surprised by this because when I was setting up the system with Elinaria, I made sure to specify that there was supposed to be an emergency measure that would leave the host unconscious so it could better focus its energy on keeping the host alive. This would not activate for any reason other than a system error or failure. So, I could not really use this to keep me alive or sustain the function of my body in the event of an externally induced injury. Even a self-afflicted injury is considered external, so I need to be careful when cultivating to make sure I don't get one of those internal injuries they talk about in those novels. Regardless of what I was thinking, the void around me started to shift and change.

I was soon standing in my old bedroom on earth with my computer desk in front of me. The computer was on, and the chair was facing the screen. I was hearing the keyboard being typed on. As I walk forward, I come up behind the chair and am able to get a better view of the monitor as well as who is sitting in the chair. Right there on the computer is my old self playing a game I am all too familiar with. I was also able to hear what was coming through the headphones. It had been a long time since I last sat at this computer, let alone play games, because of something that happened when I was last at this computer.

The conversation from people on the other end of the line was something I missed from when I was playing games. Then I heard one of those guys I used to talk to mention something I would never be able to forget. Before my old self or I could move or anything, the phone I left resting on the desk began to ring. I knew what that call was about, and I placed myself between the phone and my old self and started screaming not to pick up the phone. My old self ignored me as if I wasn't there and reached for the phone. His hand went right through my body as if it wasn't there, and pulled the phone to him.

I kept screaming not to pick up the phone, but my cries went in and heard as my old self looked at the unknown number and decided to answer. When he asked who was calling the person on the other end, he said that he was with my father's work and asked for my name. Giving it, I then heard the one thing that would haunt my life for the rest of the future. My father, a firefighter, died in a fire when the building collapsed on him as he was trying to save someone trapped in the fire. This news still hit me just as hard as when I first heard it.

However, I was not given any time to process this as the scene changed around me. Unlike last time, I found myself sitting on the floor with my legs having collapsed from underneath me. Around me, I could see the garage where my family stored some things and where my father had kept his workbench. I could see my old self cleaning up some stuff after finishing some work on my father's old car that was sitting there. It had a small fuel leak that I was trying to find and could not fix at this point.

This was a scene that I was very familiar with as it was the scene that I remember being my death. Soon, the electrical surge hit, and I was able to hear the scream I made when the explosion hit me, but the memory did not end there. My old self was thrown on top of the car as the lit fuel trailed back to where the leak was in the car. The fuel in the car then went off, exploding the vehicle with me on top. My old self was stilln't dead, and I was able to see all of this from where I was sitting at the side near the door.

Behind me, I heard the door open, and someone walked down the steps into the garage. The person then started to call my old name, and I realized that it was my mother. She had run forward and pulled my now burning body from the fire and had my sister, who entered the garage at some point, call the emergency line. I was unable to tell how much time had passed after that as they tried to put out my body and keep me alive till the ambulance arrived. The entire time, I was off to the side, spectating everything and unable to interact with the world. Soon, the ambulance arrived, and I was loaded into the back with my mother and sister accompanying me to the hospital. I was reasonably certain I never made it and was soon proven right as my vital signs on the monitors that the paramedics hocked me up to began to fall.

My mother started to try to talk to me, telling me how much she, my sister, and the rest of my family loved me and not to leave yet as my time was not up. This did not change the outcome, though, and my body still failed, leaving me dead before I reached the hospital. I was still somewhat conscious, though, and I was able to hear what she and my sister said.

My mother wanted me to give my father an update in the afterlife as well as a final goodbye, while my sister was screaming for me not to leave them like Dad did. There was nothing I could do, though, and I was left there watching all of this as a bystandered, unable to affect anything.

The world faded to black once more and stayed that way as I cried and wailed in the darkness for what felt like hours. Eventually, I started to feel my body once more, and I started to rouse. I did not want to, however, and tried to stay there so I would not forget any of this again. The choice was not mine, however, as I began to wake up from this dream-like state where I could remember everything.

The warmth was the first thing I felt, followed by the rest of my body reminding me of my mother. Opening my eyes, I saw Raina there with tear stains streaking her face and her eyes looking directly at mine. In them, I could see her fear and worry. My instincts started screaming at me to hug her and not let go as she might disappear the moment I closed my eyes. White the state that my head was in, I saw no reason to refuse and lunged forward, wrapping my arms around her.

I could feel her stiffen slightly before relaxing and hugging me back. For a reason that I could not tell at the moment, it felt to me like I was being held by my mother again, and after the trip down memory lane, I just had, the floodgates opened. Tears started to stream out of my eyes as I began to cry all over again. The only response I got from Raina was to hug me tighter and not let go. So I sat there for hours crying until I ran out of tears and my voice no longer worked.

I could feel that I was a mess at this point but I no longer cared about that. I just sat in her arms with my shoulders still shaking and still gripping on to her tightly. She did not let go either and was even whispering into my ear that everything would be alright and that the pain of the old was over. It was almost exactly like what my mother had said when my father passed away. This hit me even harder and I wanted to cry more but the tears were all gone and I could not speak any more. It only led my to feeling more tired than I already was after all that crying and so I feel asleep on Raina's shoulder, but this time when the world went black I was able to feel the warmth of my mother holding me.