Fields of Elysium- Prologue

         

Fields of Elysium: Prologue A Man Reborn

         This is a story about Kail. Kail never had any dreams nor goals in life. He simply followed the crowd. It was much easier if Kail didn't make any decisions, then he could remain blameless. But one day as Kail walked across the street a car came sliding through the light. Kail had no time to react. His body seemed weightless as he spun through the air. An elderly women would describe him as being an angel floating like a feather. The teenage girl screamed hysterically as she realized what she had done. She stomped on the breaks but she was three seconds too late. She ran out onto the crosswalk as traffic from all directions abruptly stopped. She crouched near Kail and apologized over and over, while warm salty tears began to blur her vision. People stopped to watch the commotion, others drove away hoping not to get involved. A man with thick glasses and neatly combed hair called 9-1-1 and stood at the corner. He began to jot down what he had seen and heard onto his steno notebook. He approached the girl and asked if he could help.

         Kail saw everything in slow motion. He saw the girl's face, and wished he could calm her down. He tried to speak but only choked at the effort. He saw the faces of bystanders and hoped to see a familiar face. He found none. He found the task of breathing to be both difficult and painful. “I'm sorry, I'm so sorry....”, she kept repeating. More than anything he wanted to forgive her and tell her it wasn't her fault. His eyes bulged wide with comprehension. There's no way he could communicate. His body had betrayed him when he needed it most. Looking outside of himself, he knew he was witnessing his own death. He looked at the girl hovering above him. She was beautiful, he didn't recognize her. It was odd, he thought, to be falling in love at a time like this. As if sensing his feelings, she reached out to hold his hand. Her eyes squinted and splattered droplets of tears on him. “Please..... please.... I'm so sorry....please...” she whispered. Kail sucked in air, but choked on bile and warm fluid congesting his lungs. His body spasmed once then twice and darkness engulfed him.

         The girl became silent. The man with thick glasses stood wide eyed in disbelief. He opened his notebook and furiously scribbled down what he witnessed. A slow smile crept across his face, he felt so much joy at having been here to see this. It had been weeks since his editor asked him to produce something, and now he finally found it. Voilá! Nevermind him being late, Dr. Flores would have to wait, his therapy sessions weren't accomplishing much lately. Some drivers were getting restless and some people got out of their vehicles in search of answers. The small crowd began to assemble along the streets. A crowd of people stood and stared. They waited not knowing what to do.

         The officer arrived and took the statements. He cleared a path for traffic and asked that the girl and the bespectacled man wait near his vehicle. The man shuffled his feet while the girl shook violently between sobs. She didn't want to be punished. She didn't want this responsibility. She wished so much that this wasn't happening to her. She wished that she could undo everything.

         The ambulance arrived, two men strapped him onto a stretcher. They loaded Kail into the vehicle. The younger man checked his pulse as the elder began prepping the defibrillator. They exchanged a look and the younger man shook his head. The young man closed the door and asked the driver to head towards the hospital. The ambulance blared down the street and a crowd of people turned away, except one man.

         Kail stared in disbelief. He shook his head. Everything was unreal, time flowed slowly at first but now it began to speed up. The officer was speaking too fast, the girl's tears dried up and her parents came to pick her up as her car was being towed away. The man with the glasses disappeared. The elderly women boarded a bus, and the blur of traffic whizzed right through him. Kail paused slightly and tried to find a meaning to all this. He tried and tried but nothing made sense.

         He stared down at his feet, he felt his shoulder, his arms, his legs. Everything felt tangible but he couldn't connect to anyone or anything. He raised his arms and shouted, “I am Aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!” and waited. No one paid any attention to him. He tried a second time and still no response.

         He slumped his shoulders and walked down the sidewalk. He felt a hand grip his shoulder. Kail turned to see a beautiful girl with greenish-blue hair. “Aren't you being a bit overdramatic?”

         “Who? What? Wait, you can see me?” he asked her.

         “Melanie. Junior officer of the angelic corps. And, yes I can see you, touch you, and hear what you are saying and thinking at all times. Any more questions?”

         Kail, shook his head, and each question that popped up was promptly answered by Melanie. It was awkward and very uncomfortable. “Please stop doing that! Could you just let me think by myself without responding each time?”

         “Okay, okay, I'm just trying to be helpful.” She held out her hands before her. Kail gazed at her and smiled. “No, I won't have sex with you,” she pre-answered him.

         “I wasn't going to ask you that question.”

         “You were thinking it, that's why I answered you.”

         “Look, can you just let me ask you a question verbally before you give me an answer?”

         “Of course I can do that.” she smiled affectionately at him. “Its just more fun this way.” Melanie was very buxom, she wore torn jeans and a black leather bustier. Her hair was woven with tight ringlets of curls that were shoulder length. She attempted to look serious by folding her arms across her ample chest. On her second attempt she succeeded. Kail still found her to be odd standing there in front of him, she reminded him more of a genie than an angel.

         “You came from the angel corps? What is the angel corps?”

         “Each angel belongs to the angel corps. Our job is to serve and protect humans, like yourself. We each are assigned to protect a special person who has a specific destiny to fulfill.”

         “Wait, you're saying that you're my guardian angel?”

         “Well, erm, ah, yeah, I guess that's it.”

         “What the ?!?! You are a terrible guardian angel! I am dead, how could you be protecting me when I am dead?”

         “Well, that wasn't part of the itinerary, but yeah, you're dead and lets move on from this point.”

         Kail shook with frustration. This strange girl, claiming to be his guardian angel didn't show any remorse over what had happened. She didn't even seem to care about him. He didn't know whether to be angry or sad that his death meant so little to her.

         “I told you before, you're being overdramatic. This isn't the end just because you died.”

         “Well, from my point of view... it pretty much is. I'm dead and I didn't accomplish anything before I died.”

         “No Kail, you've got it all wrong. I'm telling you this isn't the end for you.” she smiled at him warmly, “this is only the beginning.”

         to be continued "Fields of Elysium- pt 1 "  [E]