Chapter 1

“I need it by next week, understand?”

The boss said once again the torture of being embarrassed in front of my colleagues as he waved his hand away towards me. His gesture commenced the unspeakable truth behind his dissatisfaction with the business proposal she's been working on day and night for the upcoming conference. Getting sluggish as I went back to my desk, a loud thump broke in the silence where she sits.

”You got scolded again didn't you?” one of her office mates said, tapping the folder on top of her head to cheer her up while she replied with a sluggish smile on her lips.  

Soon, I was determined to finish the task given to me and made it in time before the boss scolded me another time. The incident was like every other normal day inside the office which didn’t faze everyone one bit as we are used to it. The long tiring day has reached an end, thankfully for me, I managed to finish all the necessary documents needed for tomorrow’s upcoming presentation for the newly hired employees’ orientation. A long and fulfilling sigh escaped my lips as it signifies the freedom I yearn for after all the hard work she has given for the main task of the day.

“Cheers!”

Upon the clashing of the glasses, they cheered happily. I and my colleagues thought of drinking after work on the assumption that tomorrow will be another day as slaves to their company. After having a few drinks with them, the feelings that weigh in her chest from earlier fade as the night goes on, and soon will have to end drunk away with her sorrows for tomorrow’s beginning. 

“Well, it was such a nice time as always hanging out with you guys. See you all tomorrow again”

Was my last words before blacking out. It was a bit hazy in her memories, but the clear stagnant darkness was visible in her last breath. 

The warmth I felt on my back was bloodbath covered with a crimson red silhouette. There was a faint wailing of the siren and also people around me surrounding the stretcher as if I was badly hurt. Little do I know, there was an incident that took place near the building where I currently work. It was in a split second, but I managed to remember everything vividly with the few moments of my unconsciousness. It began when I was walking home just after the drinking party with my colleagues. They were happy and cheerful, singing and dancing as soon as we got inside the karaoke room, each of which had our turn into selecting a song and singing it. While taking my time to spend it with the others, I received a phone call from my relatives asking the date I will visit them again during the weekends. Looking at my wristwatch, I answered reluctantly as if never wanting to go the next day as scheduled. 

“Alright, I will try to get there tomorrow. I’m with friends right now, I’ll call you back again. Okay, bye” 

I hung up after the phone call and went back inside to resume singing as it was my turn. Thus, after a long night spent wasting ourselves, I went over to pick up something I left at the reception. Just as I was in a hurry, a shining bright light surrounded me that shunned the surface. It was incredible how it managed to get closer to me in a blink of an eye, after which I cannot remember what happened in that one incident. Now in the present, I am lying down on the stretcher where the doctors and nurses were frantically stressing out themselves. I was slowly fading from my conscious thought as the time I had when I was living a peaceful life as a child loved by my parents flashed through my very own eyes, a small teardrop began to take surface at the sides of my eyes dripping down continuously down my cheeks as the sheets were drenched. 

‘I don’t wanna die yet, please oh god I still have much to accomplish at least let me have my peaceful days as a housewife with a loving man’ 

At that moment I had my final wishes as I completely blacked out. A little shimmer shone upon the darkness where I reside, like the milky way into space that has never-ending hollowness into the pitch darkness. There are string-like lights that surrounded me in a form that resembles a ball of light as the other lights flickered until they faded into existence. A soft voice surfaced echoing from a distance not too far for the ball of light, it was talking to it as if it had known its origin. 

‘Fear not your physical body is only at a state of unconsciousness, if you help me and complete this mission I will take you back from where you belong’

That is what the voice said which left it into utter confusion and speechless little green orb. Meanwhile, as the orb continues to flow into the distance the reality and the dimension that connects both slowly close themselves. The doorway is becoming thin by the moment the little shining orb swims its way towards the milky way. 

“Wake up please...come back to us”, a faint voice that seems familiar comes from a man who was worried about me. I was still unconscious like she was in a certain coma, it has been a few days and no progress has been reported. On certain occasions, fingertips will start twitching, unable to make a full movement of their entire arms. Once again, the subconscious mind wanders off around the surface now filled with lights in different colors each. 

“Mom, I am here, can't you hear me? I could hear you all!”

whatever it takes to reach out to them is no use and just a waste of energy if I ever have one which is left here in the dark crying.