6/25/14

"Hailey." 

"Hailey, I need you to wake up now." 

I didn't want to wake up. I'd been gone for a long time, after all, at least as far as I was concerned. The voice probing me to open my eyes didn't sound like a familiar one. It sounded cold--metallic. White. Behind the voice was a gentler and more pathetic noise: the sounds of someone crying. The scene playing out was all too cliche. It didn't seem real. Things like this only happened in ABC dramas and bad soap operas, not to me. My name sounded foreign to me as it echoed through the dark halls and empty passageways inside my barely-breathing mind. Everything took effort. Every thought, every motion. Every second I spent alive was killing me. 

Sleep. 

The hundreds of Saturday mornings I had spent getting up early to go running along cold pavement seemed suddenly wasted. Why do such a thing? If only I had rested then, maybe I wouldn't be so tired now. 

"Hailey. Wake up, Hailey." More crying. Somewhere my soul watched and waited as the sounds grew dimmer. I faded. Then, the terror set in. 

What if this was real? I started to feel the pain then, that and the pain of memories as I saw every bad act trickle slowly before my eyes. What was hell really like? 

"God, please forgive me." It was my voice this time, crying out in a terrible scream. The hopelessness made me feel sorry for myself. But almost as fast as they had come, the worries faded, and I felt only a sweet sense of safety billow around me like a fog. 

"Hailey." The call sounded deeper this time, and sweet and sad and very joyful all at once, as if God Himself was murmuring my name. "Wake up, dear heart." He said. 

"Must I?" I heard myself reply. 

The words were spoken in a language I didn't know, yet somehow I understood them perfectly. I began to feel warm, and a strange honey-like taste filled my mouth. 

"Yes." 

"For how long?" 

"It will feel like a long time. But it won't be." He answered me, sounding so lovely. Tears wet my face, but in an instant they were dry again. 

"Goodbye," I said sadly. 

"This isn't goodbye," The deep voice melted away into silence. 

I opened my eyes. The room before me was quiet and warm, and sunlight poured over my face. In front of me a young man I'd never seen before sat staring at me, open mouthed. I felt the warmth of his kiss still fresh on my lips, and frowned. 

"Hailey?" He shook his head and smiled widely. "I can't believe it," he said. I squinted hard, trying to place him, and feeling panic rise when I couldn't. It must have shown on my face because he laughed, "Don't worry, you don't have amnesia."

Thank goodness. That really would be too cliche. 

"Who are you?" I whispered weakly. 

"It was me who saved your life. And then you saved mine," he answered softly.