Arthur was lying in his bed, a little feverish from the rain he had been caught in a few days ago.
He thought he would be fine, but today, suddenly, everything worsened.
Arthur's room was silent. The curtain remained half closed, allowing only a pale strip of light to cut across the space. The air felt heavy, warm, and difficult to breathe.
Arthur's body burned as if it were being slowly cooked from the inside.
The fever had come without warning earlier.
First came the chills. Then the fatigue. Now… it was something completely different.
Arthur felt as if every thought required effort. His head throbbed violently, pulsing in irregular rhythms.
The simple act of opening his eyes made his world spin. His muscles were weak and useless, as if they no longer belonged to him.
He tried to get up, only to fail soon after.
His arms trembled before they could even support the weight of his own body, and he fell back against the mattress, breathing with difficulty.
"Damn…" he muttered, his voice dry and almost inaudible.
His throat burned. Even swallowing was painful. Even breathing felt wrong.
He thought it would pass. It was just a flu, after all. It didn't seem like much. He always got better after resting.
But now…
Something was definitely wrong with him, very wrong.
The fever increased with each second. His vision began to blur, while dark spots appeared in the corners of the room.
Arthur tried to look for his phone. He needed to call someone. An ambulance, his neighbors, anyone.
His arm moved slowly across the bed… only to find emptiness.
Then he remembered. The phone was actually in the living room. He had left it charging on the couch.
A chill ran down his spine. The living room seemed miles away. How would he manage to get it?
He tried to sit up again, forcing his body beyond its limit. His feet touched the floor for an instant… before his legs failed completely.
Arthur fell back onto the bed, gasping.
It was no use. Simply put, he couldn't.
And there was no one at home. Arthur was an orphan.
His parents had died a few years earlier, victims of a car accident on a wet road during a short trip that was supposed to be ordinary. Since then, he has survived alone, supported by the money his parents had left him.
But this year would be different.
He would start college and get a job. Finally begin to truly live.
Finally escape that constant feeling of merely… existing.
But fate seemed to have other plans for him. Before he even had a chance to improve his life…
Before he even discovered who he wanted to be, this terrible fever struck him.
The heat increased.
His body trembled uncontrollably now. Sweat soaked the sheets as cold and heat mixed into an unbearable sensation.
Time had lost its meaning. Arthur did not know how long he had been like this. Minutes? Hours?
Arthur did not know.
His consciousness began to sink slowly like someone being pulled to the bottom of a dark ocean. He realized something terrifying. It was becoming difficult even to think. Difficult to remember. Difficult even to exist.
Fear then arose. A primitive and raw fear.
'I… can't die like this…'
His voice did not come out. No sound, only weak thoughts echoing inside Arthur's own mind.
His eyes stared at the ceiling one last time.
'I can't believe I'm going to die from a damn fever…'
Regret came like an avalanche. All the things he had never done. All his postponed plans. All the life that had not even begun yet.
'If I get a chance…'
His heart beat irregularly, each beat weaker than the last.
'I swear I'll live the way I want…'
Darkness began to consume his vision.
'I'll have the best life I can…'
And then…
Arthur finally died lying in his bed. No farewells, no witnesses, no one even knowing.
…
But at that very instant… something happened.
His soul, something that should have followed the same invisible path as countless other dead, suddenly stopped.
As if it had been grabbed. Pulled. Torn from its natural destiny. An incomprehensible force enveloped him.
And then…
Speed. At an impossible speed.
Arthur saw nothing, felt no wind or movement, but he instinctively knew he was being hurled through something far too vast to comprehend.
Distances that could not be measured were crossed. And then, everything ceased. Leaving only darkness.
Arthur no longer had a body. He had no breath. He had no sense. Yet he still thought. Time completely lost its meaning.
Minutes, hours, years, centuries. He did not know.
'Is this what death is like?' Arthur thought.
There was no pain. There was no peace, it was only an empty existence.
'To remain forever in this limbo… with nothing else?'
Even without a heart, he felt deep fear, even without lungs, he felt suffocation at the thought that he would spend eternity like this. But then… something pulled him again. This time, with more violence.
…
Meanwhile. On the outskirts of an unknown forest…
A thin young man held a rusty sword with trembling hands.
His clothes were worn, full of patches. His bones could almost be seen through his tanned, thin skin.
In front of him, a small snake hissed, its body coiled, ready to strike.
The young man took a deep breath. If he failed to hunt something today… perhaps he would not survive the next day.
Hunger had accompanied him for weeks or years. His reflexes are far too weak. As he tried to gather the courage to attack, he did not even notice the faint sound coming from behind.
Another snake, almost identical, silent and fast, appeared.
The bite came without warning, its fangs piercing the young man's left heel.
He screamed, immediately falling to the ground as the venom was injected in large quantity. The sword fell beside him.
The two snakes then fled into the vegetation. The pain was instant and violent. His heel darkened, turning purple within seconds. The venom spread through his weakened body like liquid fire.
He tried to crawl, tried to stand. But his body was already condemned. The world spun, and his breathing failed. Foam appeared on his lips.
Alone beneath an ancient tree, the thin young man agonized.
Minutes turned into hours. Two hours of growing pains. Until, slowly… his chest stopped rising. His eyes lost focus. And he died. Forgotten by the world and by everyone.
…
At that exact moment, something crossed the sky.
Too fast for any existence to perceive. Too fast for the world itself to react. An invisible presence tore through space.
And then… a soul fell directly into the body of the fallen young man. The dead body trembled.
The fingers contracted. The chest expanded violently, pulling in air for the first time after death.
His eyes then opened suddenly.
In confusion, in pain, but alive…
Arthur breathed.