I don’t fear death. I still don't... even after experiencing it.

Until a few days ago I was a college student living life dangerously. I hung around people doing crazy stunts off of moving cars. The stuff you see in action movies. My friends were very talented. I’ve never seen one of them with a bigger injury than just a broken arm or a leg. I’m even more surprised now that I think about it.

I wasn’t really apart of their group. I was more of the outcast, always doing the least dangerous stuff. I might not fear death but I don’t like hospitals so it was the logical choice. I was pretty scrawny. Not enough to be a weakling but enough to be easily hurt. Once I broke my leg just from jumping 10 feet.

But I’ve always wanted to try something more. Something that I could talk about to my kids and maybe even my grandkids. So, I took up a climbing challenge. I was to climb my way up a 60-foot rusty ladder and take a picture on the roof. Seemed easy enough. The ladder was situated on an old abandoned factory. It wasn’t very stable but I thought nothing of it. I began climbing and after 10 straight minutes of climbing I was exhausted and I realized I was way over my head and decided to climb down. I stepped down 2 or 3 steps and the ladder broke. It snapped cleanly off the wall. I began falling slowly like in a comedy movie. But it wasn’t funny for me as I was the one that will suffer the fall damage.

My body connected with the ground and I blacked out. After I came to, I realized I was in a cozy sofa in a pure white room. There were three doors, a bookshelf and a desk with a futuristic computer. The doors each had a sign over them. The first one said “Hell” the second one was “Heaven” and the third one was blank. The desk had a nameplate on it. It was incomprehensible to me. It was in some foreign language. I’ve studied English and Russian in school, but I’ve never seen such symbols before. There were only 3 apparent symbols but that’s as far as my knowledge got me. The bookshelf had a few books in English, a few in Russian and a few in other languages. I could recognize some as Bulgarian, German, Greek and Chinese or Japanese. My friend studied Japanese so he explained the differences to me but I only listened half-heartedly. I picked up the English book. It had a black cover with only the words “Bible” in yellow.

I put it back and through the door came a man dressed in pure white. He had a pretty well-kept beard and amazing hair. He looked like a saint. I stood in awe of the sheer size of this man. He was over 8 feet tall. I’m just a 5”11’ kid myself so you can make a comparison. He looked at me with judgmental eyes.

‘Mr. Cains, first name Jake. Born on February 7th, 1999. Current age is 20. Nationality is English. Am I correct?’ The man asked as though I was in interrogation. He stood in front of me like a statue awaiting my answer. I mustered up all my courage and replied

‘That’s right, sir!’ I said as though I was in a police station. I have been in a similar situation as my friends are complete idiots and often do border-line criminal stuff so I often go as a witness.

‘So are you aware why you are here Mr Cains?’ The man asked in a condescending tone.

‘I’m afraid not, sir!’ I began to recollect what had happened before I blacked out, but my realization was cut short by the man’s next sentence

‘You died. Date of death was 18th of November 2019. And was it a gruesome death. Oh boy, a five-story fall…’ The man exclaimed as he turned his gaze to me. ‘But you know… It’s not your fault. It was actually an angel’s fault. He ran into the ladder while he was coming back from a church and accidentally broke it. He didn’t even notice you there…’

‘So, what happens now?’ I looked around and my gaze fell upon the door to “hell” and then shifted to the blank sign.

‘Well, you have two options. You either get reincarnated as a hero in another world or I send you back to earth but I will rewind your body and everything around you 5 years. Which do you choose?’

‘Can you even do that?’ I was genuinely curious.

‘Of course! I’m God!’ The man said so confidently it was as if he was preparing soldiers for war. I thought about it. I mean being a hero isn’t that bad. I might even get a girlfriend. I might even fight dragons.

‘I have decided.’ I said with confidence. I realized that I might as well try to sound cooler. ‘I shall take the latter option.’

‘Are you sure?’ The man asked me as if my choice was weird or taboo.

‘Of course!’ I said confidently. After these words left my mouth, I realized my mistake.

‘Wait, wait, wait! I’ve made a mis…’ I tried to say before my soul was sucked out of me. I blacked out

I woke up in my bed and I looked at my clock which was on my bedside table. It displayed both the time and date. It was the 18th of November, 2014. I jumped and looked around. The place looked like my room but something was off. All of my stunt stuff was gone. I checked my phone. I used to have an iPhone which I saved up all summer for, but instead, all I could find was my old Samsung S3. I checked my contacts and I realized that all of my current friends were gone. All of those crazy punks were replaced by my peaceful middle school group. I looked at my notes which I remembered having taken each day at school. I opened the first one and it said

‘17th November: Test tomorrow. Math. Bring protractors and pencils.’

I stared at it and realized that I have school at 8:00 in the morning and it was currently 7:40. I jumped out of bed and searched every nook and cranny for my clothes and my math notebooks. I rushed outside and ran full-force towards the school. Seems like my second chance has begun… but I wanted to be a hero so much more!