Arik laid there in a puddle of his own agonizing demise, the gurgled screaming echoing through the nearby verdure. The splintered wood stuck out of his belly like a flag of nature's claim over yet another human's life. The pain was intense, but not as bad as one would have thought. The bludgeoning of the tree did enough damage for him to not feel most of his body, and Arik didn't know if he appreciated that or not. Regardless, the damage was blatantly apparent, and the circumstances dire.

A direct path through the forest to the city line was about a mile, and his muffled screaming wouldn't make it even a tenth that far through the dense foliage. Tears began to well in the mortified eyes of Arik as he desperately sought a solution to this tragedy.

'It can't end. Not like this.'

A light lit up in his brain, but was quickly quelled when he remembered his phone wasn't in his pocket, but rather sitting safely in his backpack by the cedar tree he initially flew from. It seemed that life had cornered him into checkmate, and he could already feel its malignant, black fingers digging about in his mind.

The tears had begun to roll from his eyes down to his ears as his lip quivered.

'Why?... Why me? I did everything right this time. I have been trying so hard. Both mentally and physically. So why do I have to die? Why is it so important that my life has to end?'

The pain rupturing throughout his body had greatly dulled to little more than an insignificant itch. A sure sign that he was close to bleeding out completely.

But rather than lay there with content of the end, accepting death as presented, Arik saw a warm and womanly face. At this point, he wasn't sure if he was just powerfully thinking about her, hallucinating, or if she had actually just come to the call of his screams. But there she was, Celesti, with a halo of bonhomie and a reached out hand of support.

The image made Arik smile with large bloody teeth. But then the image faded away as his eyebrows contorted with rage and he hissed blood from his mouth.

'No. Fuck this. I refuse to give up!'

His once immovable body was now twisting and bending with every fiber of Arik's empowered will. The strained movements were nothing short of extraordinary in effort and pain. Every action overwhelmed his nerves with information of torn muscle, dislocation, and broken bone. But these indications served as nothing more than proof that he was still alive.

Hell-bent eyes scanned the outskirts of the forest for any sign of locational bearing before landing solidly on a tall concrete structure some 30 yards away. The silo.

'There!'

A splintered and partially broken hand grasped the branch in his stomach. Heavy inhales pumped up his courage before he ripped the branch out. More horrific screaming ensued for a few seconds before he focused his brain once again. He twisted his body and heaved a leg over the other to get off of his back. Now on his front, he began heaving himself toward the silo, digging in with his elbows and fighting through the ungodly pain tooth and nail.

This was easily the most painful thing he had ever experienced. All that was left of him was motivation and pain. Any critical thinking was no longer a luxury. It was pure survival at its finest.

Leaving a nightmarish trail of blood behind him, he doggedly inched forward. Every foot of distance was heavier than the last. Every second grew ever darker and every breath became more shallow. The edges of his vision sank away and the colors of the world before him dulled and blended together. A faint image of his hand reaching toward the silo was the last perceptible thing before total oblivion ran off with his spirit.

Nothing existed. Not thoughts, memories, motivations, or even pain.

His body just lay there, barely ten feet from where he originally landed. Motionless.

Dead.

The herbaceous grave cradling the body of the deceased man was still and gentle, careful to not startle the moment at hand. The wind had idled, stagnating in awe of its airborne friend that had only just seen the heavens moments before. The trees were silent, listening for the beckoning circle of life to subjugate the flesh of the creature once so devoted to living.

All three of these animisms held a ritualistic silence, that is, until they were driven to react to foreign forces preceding from within the bloodied corpse.

A sharp gust of wind exploded from the dead body in every direction like a surge of tangible energy. Droplets of blood and clumps of sod flew about amongst the barrier as the tree branches and grass floor tilted away in their rooted prisons. The surge of energy lasted no more than a second or two. But in that span of time, Arik's mangled body had regenerated in a rapid and aggressive manner, straightening every bone and sealing every wound as if they had never happened.

When the surge suddenly ceased as fast as it had appeared, Arik's eyes shot open along with a sharp gasp of desperate breath. He wiggled on the floor and coughed up a storm, immediately feeling his body smoothly move about like normal. The thoughts of what had just happened were rushing through his mind like a vivid nightmare. But he knew they had happened. Even the...

He flipped over and rampantly patted his abs to feel for the wound. Nothing. He then pulled his shirt up to visually check for it. Maybe some of his senses were going haywire? Still no wound, but his clothes were soaked red like a gruesome horror scene of a cheesy slasher film.

Despite better judgement, Arik jumped to his feet. He felt around his tattered clothes in a confused flurry before freezing still, his heart skipping a beat. The grass where he stood, and where he was lying down seconds before, was coated in a red tinge of thick blood in every direction. It looked like a body had hit the ground at impossible speed, exploding with blood on contact.

His head slowly turned behind him. His eyes struggled to focus on the morbid visuals and everything had begun spinning around him. Looking anywhere else would have been a calming reprieve from the impossible scene at hand, but his sight was painfully fixated on it. He couldn't look away.

A trail of blood led from his feet to a pine tree that seemed battered and broken on one side. At the base of the tree lay several small branches and hundreds of small pine needles, accompanied by one of Arik's shoes.

'It must have been knocked off during the fall,' he thought to himself meekly. He smiled a sickly grin and shuffled forward a few steps.

Squish.

He looked down to the sound and slippery footing he had stepped in.

An intestine, soaked in blood and strewn about the crimson blades of grass.

Arik stared a few seconds in quandary, then shrieked and fell back onto his rump, the butt of his pants soaking further with blood. He crawled backward from the organ a few paces, his breathing erratic and threatening sobs. Before he could further gain his bearings, he turned to his side and threw up.

• • •

A digital crackling fire sat at the center of Arik's phone screen, emitting a comforting warm light over his face and the heavy blankets that covered him.

It was the next day. Arik had found himself with a mighty cold that stomped out any motivation to function as a normal human being. Not that he really had any. Not after what had happened the day before.

He recalled the events of the day prior in his head like a grim fairy tale that just sounded like it was made up no matter how it was told. And to make the tragedy worse, he had to douse his bloodied clothes in a creek of snow run-off. Well, it was either that or walk through town with gore soaked clothes and have every other person call the cops on him. Arik didn't see much of a choice there.

The weather was fortunate enough to not be overcast, but it was still frigid outside. That paired with the icy cold clothing made for a particularly tenacious combo that resulted in Arik's feverish status. And to kick a man while he's down (literally), all of his clothes from the incident were destroyed, including the glaring hole in his favored leather jacket that he had been wearing for over a decade. To Arik, that was like suffering a death in itself.

But not all was so bleak. He counted himself lucky to not have his phone on him at the time he fell, along with the other stuff in his backpack. He still had a date with the whimsical Celesti Mercurio on Friday, and a job interview on Wednesday. Hopefully he would feel better by then.

And then there was the whole flying thing! Yesterday he had all but mastered it he felt. He couldn't quite get an adequate picture of how the experience truly felt. The adrenaline at the time made sure of that. But he was still proud of that one moment.

The first man to soar to the clouds without the help of machines. That title will forever be his.

However, make no mistake, Arik was now mortified at the idea of flying again. He only built up that precious confidence to fly because he thought he was immune to falling as a product. But the truth decided to show its virulent face and spike him back into the earth without even a hint of why it happened in the first place.

That was what scared him in the end. The not knowing. Why did he fall? Did he have a heart attack like he had theorized when it happened, or did he simply run out of... fly? stamina?

The questions were as ridiculous as the idea of magically flying. It was so frustrating, but there was nothing he could do. Trying to fly and recreate the experience again was out of the question and idiotic.

Then there was the dark door in his mind.

The dark door tried its damnedest to keep the thoughts of what happened afterwards at bay. But they were still there, whispering between the cracks and knocking for attention. Arik could hear them of course, but he ignored them. They weren't calling out too loud. Not yet at least.

Suddenly, a text notification appeared at the top of his phone screen, muting the pops and breaks of his fake fireplace and springing him out of his forlorn sulk.

Celesti: "So what are you going to wear on Friday? I don't want to end up wearing the same thing.:P"

A smile spread amid Arik's face as all of his troubles and worries melted away without him even realizing. He got to work on a clever reply.