Valley of Silent Men

GO TO HELL

A blast of lightning, excruciatingly quick, and fatal, ripped through my heart.  A world of pain, and unbearable torture had culminated in the blink of an eye.  Death loomed, mocking the frailty of life that I had only moments ago boasted; “If you don’t take care of your own life, who will?”  The answer was sudden, and unrelenting.

When the beguiling warmth of the slow poison hit my veins, I began sinking into the beautiful sleep, but it only took a millisecond for the cocaine to hit. A shrill, but muffled moan, marking the inception of my demise, was the only sound between the grave, and what was left of my life.  I was dying, and knew it.

I heard Margo only briefly, and then was swept into the midst of a strange darkness. What seemed like seconds, in reality, was longer. Sirens now occupied the space between pain and darkness. I was vaulted into another dimension of amazing clarity. The paramedics were putting me into the ambulance. I was in pain, and now the minutes felt like hours, that felt like days, that felt like suffering never ending.

The ambulance raced to the nearest trauma unit, while paramedics feverishly worked on me. As they labored intensively, in an effort to bring hope into my lifeless body, it became evident, that this tragedy was not going to have a happy ending. One of the paramedics talked on the phone to the hospital, while the other continued his futile attempt at resuscitation. Even in my state, I heard one of the paramedic’s say, “We’re loosing him” and my life signs, like the last ember of a once raging fire, faded to black.

“He’s gone!”

“Where am I?” The silence was haunting. The darkness was thick, like being encased in metal, with the ability to move freely. All at once, I was catapulted from this murky unknown into a brilliance beyond words, endowed with a peacefulness beyond measure. I did not know if I had been in this place for a moment, or a lifetime. But, what I had surmised, was that I never wanted to leave this state of bliss. Feeling, Thinking, and Knowing were as one emotion.

The questions began to flow, but so did the answers. They were one in the same. I felt as though I was in two different worlds, in the same thought.

A light more brilliant than the first, flooded all space and time.  For the first time in what seemed a lifetime, I was pain free, not only physically, but all emotional wounds were also non-existent. After I had stopped reeling from my new found state of bliss, I realized that I was in an entirely new place.  I could see a crowd of people in the distance; they were happy, and laughing. It seemed they were coming toward me. I started walking to greet them, and took a step, and began swiftly plummeting. Without warning, I was thrust into the lowest, most painful moment, in the history of mankind. I was in HELL!