Mr Bliss

They say your brain keeps living for several seconds after you are assumed dead. They say you can hear and feel everything around you for that moment. Some people say you can feel your soul leave your body. It's like that. Only worse.

Dying was excruciating, sorry to say it, but it really was. I wasn't used to feeling pain and this was exceptional pain. This is the last thing my eyes saw.

All hell was breaking loose, Valkyrie was out of it, Skulduggery was having a hard time with Jaron Gallow and the cleavers had just arrived. The stupid boy, Fetcher, was opening the portal and these slivers of shadows passed through, they materialised, they were horrendous. They didn't seem remotely human. They had hands and the likes, but there was no form to their lumpy grotesque forms. They honestly looked like a lump of muscle thrown together. Just the right thing for a challenge. Skulduggery threw a fireball at one of them; hit it in the face, that didn't work.

A cleaver rushed in to pursue this new enemy, it lasted a second, the Faceless One looked at it and the cleaver shuddered, it screamed under its visor and collapsed into a puddle of blood a grime. It nearly frightened me, Skulduggery went at it again, and this time so did I. That wasn't smart, thinking back. It felt that. Looked right at me, I felt like jelly all at once and I felt inhuman. I felt like i was being torn to shreds by thousands of invisible creatures, then it pointed. This part all happened in slow motion. It was sickening. The first thing I felt was my rib cage, it splintered outward showering the grass with my warm blood, and then my lungs collapsed. My stomach flew out and at this point my heart stopped beating. I felt it crush within my unfolded chest; I spared a look to Valkyrie. Then my skull imploded. My eyes filled with blood and shattered, I could feel every particle and fibre of my being rupturing with a sickening crunch.

I'm really quite surprised I lasted that seven seconds...I didn't really have much brain left after it pointed at me. But yes that's what I remember seeing. Turns out though, your body is quite separate from your soul and that's what I am now, I'm a soul wandering the world. It wasn't a very pleasant death to be fair, but the battle was quite good at least.. I stuck around long enough to get a glimpse of Skulduggery getting dragged into the portal; I was even here when he came back. He really doesn't know how to die.

Dying isn't that whole, floating experience, not like falling asleep at all. It's like being tortured and feeling your death over and over again, the pain and the suffering are just continuous, as though your mind isn't sure where to go past pain. But you get used to it, never goes away, it just shifts, you allow yourself to become distracted by it. So that's what I did. I distracted myself so well in fact that I managed to get out of my dying position and walk around, I wobbled at first, didn't really know how to use my legs after all that time. Or was it a few seconds? I don't even know. Either way, I could move.

The first thing I figured out is that I couldn't do magic. That was a blow, I think that hurt is harder to ignore than dying. I rather liked being different. Although I guess I am a walking dead guy without a body. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I made my first visit. I went to a library; I hadn't been there in years, hundreds of years in fact... China said I had a habit of destroying it as soon as I walked in. So I strolled over, the sun looked hot, I couldn't really feel it, I dodged passed people who walked towards me impassively. I did this a few times. Then I dodged through a pole. This was fun. I knew the city well. I decided on the rout and I walked straight to it. I flinched the first few times, but then walking through objects became quite ordinary.

"Hello" I jumped, or I would have if I knew how, actually no I wouldn't have, most unlike myself, I think dying has unhinged me.. Anyway, that was revealing.

I turned and an old bearded man was standing on a lounge apparently on-top of a young male. He was standing on his legs. The man rubbed them subconsciously, staring at the screen.

"He's been there for an hour scratching away, watching this blasted TV show"

"That's nice, I have to go"

And so he turned to leave, that was strange, there were other ghost people.

"What am I?" I said abruptly turning back

"Lost?"

He vanished.

"Asshole"

I continued on my way and I strolled up to the street and decided to turn the corner. I was confronted with a scene, China was on her knees, Skulduggery was staring at her and then left abruptly as Eliza Scorn cackled loudly. Valkyrie said a few words and turned off too. Eliza was blissful. Never liked that woman. She hit China and I snapped and reached out towards her running as full pelt, as I grabbed her, the library blew up.

"Typical" I said under my breath. I hadn't actually grabbed Eliza but she definitely felt something because her arm dropped to her side immediately the smile on her face wavering only for an instant before she spat at China and kicked her in the chest. She left, leaving China in a bloody heap, alone and defenceless. I stayed while she cried. I'm not one for sympathy but I guess I tried, she couldn't hear me, in fact she was laying in a heap right through my calf..

This is going to take some getting used to...