Edwin Cast was a regular guy living and working in a small mountain town in eastern Kentucky. At twenty years of age, he'd done quite a few jobs; ranging from working as a grocery stocker at Walmart to working in the various (and numerous) coal mines littered across the mountain landscape. He never held any position for long; but never left with any hard feelings.

In fact, most places would beg him to come back.

Unlike most workers, Edwin did his best every single day, and loved learning new things. Even before joining the workforce, his school days had drawn an even larger amount of attention. Acing every test, scoring the highest, joining and quitting clubs regularly. He'd go with whatever interested him and consume it like a dry sponge in a desert suddenly dropped into a sea.

He wasn't interested in going to college though. While advanced learning interested him, he wanted to do and experience everything he could.

So after graduating high school at the top of his class and winning five different great scholarships to different colleges and Universities; he instead went the other route. He jumped fully into working, and soon became an even bigger celebrity locally.

But that didn't mean that there weren't any bad things in his life. Quite the opposite. His mother was chronically ill, and had been ever since he was a young teen. The rest of his family was basically non-existent. He grew up with little money, and sometimes even less food. During his school years, almost every cent went towards making sure he would finish high school instead of dropping out. His mother became increasingly sick and frail.

Afterwards though, he reversed what had been going on. He worked harder than anyone, gained bonuses and extras, and got his mother into a good hospital and made sure to pay everything she needed. It was rather heartwarming, in a way.

Until that single day in May, when he found out that his mother had died of heart failure. It was a great shock to Edwin.

He was working at a bookstore in town, and when his cellphone went off, he answered it immediately. It was the emergency contact number from the hospital. The words that were spoken seemed to go in one ear and out the other, but it was enough to cause him to stumble and knock down an entire shelf.

After that, it was all on auto-pilot. He cleaned up, finished his job, and left without saying another word. He didn't even clock out properly. His boss was so surprised that he ran after Edwin, determined to figure out what had happened. He never got the chance.

There was another facet of things that were going on in Edwin's life. At every place he worked, he always did the best he could. He worked harder than everyone else. Made great impressions on his bosses and superiors, and learned and did everything he could. He even had a knack for management and finances.

But the other employees were a different matter. He got along well with most, but there's always someone in every job that was not pleased. Not at all. The 'old favorites', the 'old boys club', the 'heir apparent', they went by many (informal) names, but almost all of them were pushed aside when Edwin came around.

Especially if they were wealthy and arrogant. Edwin had little time to suck up or pamper those who thought they deserved whatever they could get. So he'd blow them off and go on his way. Some of them he'd known in school. Others were the owners kids, or those who'd been working the same job half-assed for years.

It doesn't really matter who or why though. It simply came back to kick him in the ass on that very same day.

Several of the guys decided to get together and came to the decision to duke it out with Edwin.

And they caught him as he was walking home, so distracted that he didn't even grab his bicycle from work. It normally would have been a twenty minute ride out of town and into the hollers where his small single-room house was. Walking took nearly three times as long.

He was ambushed just outside of town, still walking in a daze.

The first blow hit him in the back, just above his shoulder blades. It was hard enough that the old board used to do so broke in half. But it was enough to stagger Edwin, and he was on his knees before he even knew what happened.

The second was across the right side of his face, knocking him sideways and onto the ground.

After that, there was literally no stop to it. Pieces of wood, twisted metal pipes, even a half-broken pickax from one of the mines. Blood splattered across the ground and more than half his bones were broken. They trashed him across the back and along his arms and legs.

The only reason it stopped was because of the bookshop owner who'd been chasing after Edwin. The assailants ran off, but the old man from the bookstore recognized several of them, and within minutes Edwin was in an ambulance and the police were out in force.

Edwin didn't even make it to the hospital. He died in the ambulance, his world at first having become a scarlet haze of pain that slowly went black around the edges. He couldn't see, couldn't hear. Severe cranial trauma and spine injuries left him unable to move or speak. He drifted away before the paramedics could do anything.

The news of Edwin's murder spread like wildfire in a town where almost everyone knew everyone else. At first only the guys recognized by the bookstore owner were tracked and caught, but soon enough all of them were rounded it. It was the most brutal thing to happen up in the mountains in years. Even the media got involved, claiming that it looked more like a gang-land attack than anything.

Premeditated murder.

Edwin though never got to know. He was dead, and the town turned out in force to mourn his passing, and that of his mother.

But things for Edwin didn't stop there. Even though his world had gone black, his mind didn't stop working.

*Why why why why why why why why* Over and over again, the word repeated in his mind, until it grew so loud that he was screaming it.

“WHY!?” The word blasted into the void seemingly from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.

But there was nothing around. No sight or sound or even a scent. But he could hear his own voice echoing back at him. That shut him up rather quickly.

“Wait... How can I talk? Didn't I die?” The words came out in a rush, but the sound of his own voice brought him out from his state of confusion.

It was only then that he realized that he could still feel himself. Not his body, but something else. He didn't feel hot or cold, nor could he feel a heartbeat or even his breathing. But at the same time he felt like he was floating in the blackness. He couldn't see himself at all, but he felt safe and even comfortable.

It was definitely an odd experience.

But it didn't last. There wasn't any way to gauge time in that place, but it seemed to happen only a short while later when he finally started hearing something, first softly, barely more than a whisper; and then more and more strongly.

It was a chant; almost like a hymn, a soft singing chorus you'd most likely recognize in a church or a chapel. It was beautiful and mysterious, but Edwin couldn't recognize the language. Only that it was getting louder and louder, filling the emptiness with a sense of longing and desperation and need.

As it reached its peak, he felt like something had suddenly grabbed him, and was pulling on him. He was moving, but through the void there was just the feeling of it. He had no body, and there wasn't even the passing of wind or friction. But he was definitely moving faster and faster. It was so totally different from anything he'd experienced that he actually let out of -whoop!- of excitement.

For a guy who always enjoyed doing new things and learning more, it was great.

And then there was light, a pale red glow that started as a dot in the distance that quickly became brighter and bigger as he neared it. A circle of light that opened in the middle of the blackness. It was also hot, and grew hotter and brighter the closer he got. And he wasn't slowing down any, either.

It almost felt like he was burning as he drew even closer.

“What the...!” He couldn't even finish his yell as he was suddenly yanked through the glowing circle.

It was only then that his consciousness finally receded.

But he did hear something before his world went black again. He couldn't understand the words, but he did get the meaning behind them.

““Success!””

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