System Reboot

The car purred beneath him. The road was dark and misty. The trees formed a canopy over the road, protecting the car from the onslaught of the rain. Corners flowed into each other as the rhythm of the road numbed his brain.

Suddenly he was blinded by the headlights of another car. It was in the middle of the road, heading straight towards him. He slammed on the brakes. There was a screech from the tyres as the car struggled to stop.

The world slowed. He saw every detail of the crash. He saw the bonnet of his car crumple, as the headlights came ever closer. A bulb blew. Glass rocketed in every direction. He felt an immense pain as the bones in his right leg splintered. The windscreen smashed under the impact. Glass rained down on him. His vision blurred. The mangled wreckage creaked and moaned as the hot engine cooled. He grew dark and listless as his soul drained away.

He felt a pull on his consciousness. It was the first time he was aware of something more than his existence. The cloaking black that had become his world shifted and writhed, like ripples in a pond.

His blackened world was disturbed again by a memory he didn’t want. He bucked away but on it came until it consumed him.

Daniel White liked ice-cream. He had liked ice-cream ever since he could remember. He was five now but he still could not keep the cold substance off his nose. His sisters were always making fun of him, but that was hardly fair. They were eight and had had three years to perfect the technique of eating ice-cream.

His train of thought was broken by a searing pain. The logical part of his mind told him that he was dead, and he knew it, and it was impossible for him to feel pain as a disembodied consciousness. However another part of his mind told him that it was possible and that he was in incredible pain. If he had had a body at that moment in time he probably would have curled up into a ball.

Daniel and his friends were celebrating his 13^th birthday. They were on the trampoline in the back garden and his sisters decided to shoot them with the water pistols Daniel had unwrapped that morning. His friend Fred screamed and bounced too hard, and unfortunately Daniel landed at the same time. Somehow he fell off the trampoline and broke his leg. The pain was immense. All his friends were ushered home by embarrassed parents and Daniel was rushed to hospital in the backseat of his dad’s car, screaming all the way.

He flinched internally at the painful memory. He didn’t want to face the things he left. The memory of the day he got his license gained his attention, it was a happy memory.

Daniel was nervous, he really wanted his license. The sooner he got it, the sooner he would have freedom. His family was stepping on his nerves. Being the youngest he was always the scapegoat, always the one left to pick up the pieces, always the one left out of the picture. His license would bring him freedom from them. It would bring him freedom. The assessor was a short stock woman with a bad temper. She came stomping out to meet him and he opened the door for her. By the end of the test he had charmed a smile out of her and had gotten to know her. She claimed that no one had ever taken any notice of her, that it meant a lot to her and Daniel had rekindled her faith in the youth of today. He wished she was his grandmother, as his actual grandmother treated him with distain and look at him as if he was dirt that had somehow appeared on her pristine trouser leg. It was one of the best days of his life.

He now felt a stronger pull, he didn’t want to go where it was taking him, and he felt the presence of the overpowering sights, sounds and smells. He came to the border of the Blacklands. He had not dared to explore this far to the edge of the domain, where the outline of the living world came into view. He was being dragged towards the Divide, a place where none of the residents had ever gone. It was an unspoken rule. Not that he had ever conversed with anyone else in the Blacklands, he had been too stuck in his own head. As he passed through the barrier between the living and the dead realms, he lost consciousness.

The rest of his memories came back in a tsunami of emotion; trying to force his dysfunctional family back into his being. He didn’t want this. He didn’t belong with the living anymore.

His senses were overcome with pain. It felt like someone was actively hammering nails into him, all over his body. His body. He was breathing. It was impossible. It is impossible. But it did not feel like a memory. His body ached. Shafts of pain traced their way up and down his body like blood coursing through his veins. He could feel the left side of his body and could move his fingers and toes on that side, but he could not feel anything on his right side. It was like he was numb. The pain of his memories and the trauma of his body, shut down his brain.

                                                                    “SYSTEM REBOOT”

The words flashed over his vision. He could hear a whirring sound in his right ear. The numbness subsided in his right side. Unbearable pain blossomed throughout his body. He opened his eyes, his vision was watery and blurry.

He looked down at himself; his right side was metal. He stared, and he still didn’t believe it. He moved his right hand. He saw the movement. It was impossible.