The day that I died was the day that my life truly began. Confusing? I know, but let's get back to the beginning and hopefully all will be explained...
As it did every day, the sound of my phones' clock app woke me at five in the morning as music piped out of the tiny speakers; ACDC's Highway To Hell. The perfect start to a weekday! It took a couple of minutes for my mind to convince my body to climb from beneath the heavy quilt that I had become entangled in, minutes longer to make my way to the en suite and shower. I had packed my bag the night before to avoid that early morning scramble to find homework assignments and my goggles, showered and dressed in faded denim jeans and a blue long-sleeved top that had seen too much of the sun and was jogging towards school within half an hour.
Born and raised in the ironically named town of Paradise, I had seen very little of the outside world that wasn't broadcast on television shows or the internet but I was largely content with my life. My mother was a nurse in the local clinic, my father a sheriffs deputy and though their hours often clashed it was a happy household and we always sat down for dinner on a Sunday, a tradition that had - apparently - never been skipped for the seventeen years since I'd been born. When I'd shown absolutely no skill at kicking a football or blocking the offensive strategies of the opposing team, it had been my father that had pushed me towards the swim team where my tall frame and strong upper body had excelled.
As content as I was, it was in the water that I found myself the most happy, whether it be accelerating through the pool with a powerful forwards stroke or just sitting at the bottom; holding my breath for minutes at a time, alone with my thoughts. It was to the pool at school that I was running towards now, an early morning swim always woke me up and helped to clear my mind. The school was practically empty when I arrived, only the maintenance staff mowing the field could be seen though I knew that the doors to the swimming pool would be open. Off from the main building and with no access to the rest of the school, the doors were 'forgotten' to be locked up constantly and rumour had it that at least one group of students had been skinny dipping in the chlorine scented water.
I stowed my bags in the changing room, my surname and initial stencilled onto one of the lockers - Anderson, E - , and changed into my neoprene three-quarter lengths before walking out to the side of the pool. The water was still, the room silent though I could hear the ride-on mower at work through the open windows from which the early morning light streamed, though in only a few deep breaths everything was shut out but the tension in my muscles as I assumed a starters position and then dove into the water in one smooth motion. The surface was little disturbed by my abrupt entrance, the angle of my dive practiced to perfection, and underwater I kept my hands positioned forwards like the head of an arrow as my legs kicked in synchronicity. For two lengths of the pool I propelled myself beneath the surface, finally surfacing for air seconds after I begun the third. For half an hour I swum backwards and forwards, a quick workout before my lessons could begin, but before I climbed out I swam to the centre of the pool and dove down to the depths.
My lungs full to bursting, I sat at the bottom of the pool for five minutes, a little slice of heaven before the day could properly begin. In the water I felt at home, in control, and rejuvenated all at the same time. I felt as if the pressure strengthened my muscles, the cool liquid washing away the fatigue of my exercise and of only a few hours of uninterrupted sleep, and though my head was fully submerged I fancied that I could hear people speaking above me.
"There he is again, in the water. Kid can't make friends but he swims like a fish. He'll help the team win, again, but they wont like him any for it." The coach. I knew his voice, the words shocked me though and a bubble of precious oxygen escaped my mouth to rise up to the surface. I must of imagined it. Surely the team didn't dislike me for the way I could swim? We had won the state competition twice since I'd joined the team, the last time the school had won before that was thirty odd years ago... "He's in here every day, sitting at the bottom of that damned pool, before any of the others even get up. Making them all look bad."
Unfolding my legs, I kicked up from the bottom of the pool and broke the surface in two seconds, exhaling and then inhaling quickly as I swam to the surface on my back. My eyes searched the poolside and found the coach as he walked towards the changing room, a whistle hanging from around his neck bouncing against a chest that had long since turned to fat. The green polo shirt he wore, part of the uniform of the sports department, looked stained beneath the whistle. He'd probably been drinking again. No wonder he was spouting such hateful nonsense... Swimming to the side of the pool, I climbed out using the ladder and smiled at him as I waved. "Morning sir, it's looking to be a lovely day!"
Though I couldn't see his lips moving, I heard the coach's response even as he dropped onto the benches at the side and leaned back on his elbows. "Damned kid. Too bright and cheerful for this early in the morning. Wait until he ages a few years. Drinks a few too many beers. His gut will look like mine then!"
Shocked, a little outraged, I stood there with my mouth agape for a few seconds as the coach's eyes focused on me. "What's wrong Edward? Keep standing there like that and you'll freeze. Sun might be shining but winter is on its way."
I frowned at the coach, his temperament now not matching his earlier words, but didn't pause for another moment as I shook the water from my hair and strode into the changing rooms with a purpose. If I changed quickly and ran, I'd be able to grab a quick breakfast in the canteen before English Literature class. I hated the Shakespearean tomes we were forced to learn but my teacher, Miss. Alexandria, had a way of making the world of William Shakespeare come to life and she made me see a world beyond Paradise. Back in jeans and shirt, my trainers beat a fast rhythm upon the ground as I ran across the playing fields to the main school building, my bag bouncing against my back with the weight of school textbooks. I shifted as I ran, slipping earphones into my ears, and pressed play on my phone. Set to randomly play through the songs, the brassy tones of jazz saxophone were piped into my ears and a smile settled onto my lips. Richie Cole, a favourite of mine, was demonstrating his skills in a live recording older than I was, and the sound of the instrument resonated through my body as I pushed the door to the canteen open and stepped inside.
The atmosphere of the room hit me like a solid wall, the sound of conversation around tables an almost physical force, and for a moment my concentration wavered entirely and I almost missed a step. From nearby I heard snickering, eyes turned towards me, and I cast my own gaze downwards; I hated confrontation. Didn't want to draw any further attention to myself. I stepped around a thick slab of a student, the school's first string quarterback, but his words still hit me through the soothing sound of music. "Idiot. Can't even walk in a straight line without tripping over his own feet. No wonder they keep throwing him in the water where he can't cause anyone any trouble." For a moment, a solitary fraction of a second, my eyes met his and I saw that his lips weren't moving.
I was imagining things. Putting words where they didn't belong. It wasn't the first time this had happened, though it was happening now more often, and as usual I chalked it up to stress and feeling alienated by the 'true jocks' of the school. Paradise was definitely a football town. For every game, the entire town turned out. If there was a swimming competition, you could guarantee that the benches were almost completely empty, the parents of the kids competing normally the only 'fans' to shout encouragement. His foot lashed out to trip me but I stepped over it even as he extended his leg, somehow seeing the movement out of the corner of my eye, but what I hadn't expected was the way he shoved at my shoulder. With one foot off the ground, I didn't stand a chance. I went flying into a bin, bouncing off of it and knocking its contents atop me as I fell to the floor. Rubbish decorated my top, my head, as the onlookers burst out laughing. Perhaps my being content in Paradise wasn't quite the truth.
Pushing myself up from the floor, banana peel falling from my head down the back of my top and then to the ground, I glared for a moment at the quarterback before running back the way I had come, out of the canteen and towards my English class. My stomach rumbled, hungry for the food that had been denied it, but I didn't stop until I was at my desk and behind my book. Chewing on a protein bar I'd found in my bag, I sat and waited for the bell, Miss. Alexandria appearing through the door a few minutes after I had settled down and flashing me a concerned look before she settled in her own seat behind her desk. As Miss. Alexandria retrieved a copy of The Birth of Merlin from her bag, I did the same and exchanged it with the beaten up copy of Romeo and Juliet that I'd been reading. "Poor kid. He's here before I get to the class every Tuesday, munching on one of those stupid bars. Doesn't he get a proper breakfast in the morning? They serve food in the canteen until a few minutes before first bell..." I looked up, over the open book on my desk, and stared at Miss. Alexandria as she wrote on the board. Her lips didn't move but I heard her words clearly. "Does he have problems at home? Are his parents looking after him? He doesn't seem to be bruised or injured but he never really seems happy..."
"Miss. Alexandria?" My words were timid, I felt apprehensive as I spoke. Was I imagining things again? She turned her head to face me properly, her eyes drilling into my own blue rimmed orbs.
"Yes, Edward? Are you okay?" Her voice was steady, no trace of the concern I had heard - or, at least, thought that I had heard - seconds before. She smiled at me, a lovely, cheerful, gesture that normally had me smiling in response. But not today. Today I just felt... confused. Lost.
"I think I may of hit my head a little earlier, do you mind if I visit the nurse?" Maybe I was imagining things. Or maybe I was going insane. It seemed like the latter was an option. The play of Macbeth had ghostly delusions, was I having my own?
"Of course Edward, I'll write you a note. Would you like someone to walk with you?" Miss. Alexandria lent over her desk, writing a note upon a piece of paper that she then tore in half and handed to me as I finished stowing my stuff back in my bag. I tried to flash her a smile of my own, to look as if I weren't concerned, but from the look she gave me it was clear she doubted me. Standing up, I left through the door seconds before the bell rang and the hallways filled with students pushing past each other to reach their classrooms before they were tardy. I slipped through the gaps between them, trying not to get my feet stepped on, but I was like a salmon trying to swim upstream. Shoulders knocked against mine, a backpack hit me in the face, soon I found myself being pushed back towards the doors of the school and it took me a few seconds to realise that it wasn't an accident. The school's defensive lineup were gently steering me out of the building, through the door and towards the football pitch. It was there that I met the quarterback, surrounded now by the defensive lineup that had pushed me through the halls, and as I looked at his Letterman jacket I noticed that it was stained with a dark liquid.
"Edward, Edward, Edward. Why did you do it?" I wasn't imagining it this time, that was for certain. His lips were moving, a smile forming across his face as his compatriots chuckled around us.
"D-do what Michael?" I stammered, looking around myself for an avenue of escape. The defensive lineup did their job well, Paradise regularly won its games and our defensive side were unmatched in the state. "W-what are you talking about?"
"You got chocolate milk on my jacket, Edward. Went and spilt it all down me. Now I look like I can't clean up after myself properly. Why'd you go and knock into the bin Edward?" Michael smiled at me, his gaze menacing, and I cast my own eyes down towards his feet. He was strong, stronger than me certainly, and I knew what was coming next. This wasn't the first time he'd lashed out at me. My dad was the sheriffs deputy, his was a drunken idiot that often ended his night in a cell when my dad was on patrol. Being the sheriffs brother meant he was also let out pretty quickly when dawn came and the sheriff made it out of bed.
"I didn't do that Michael! Y-yo-... I slipped, I'm sorry!" I'd almost done it. Almost blamed him. And he knew it, his gaze had took on an even more menacing tinge to it. I found my gaze drawn to his own, to the fire burning in his eyes, and flinched.
"You blaming me, Edward? You think I spilt chocolate milk down myself? We're not all clumsy fish, swimming all day, flopping about on the land. Smell like one too, don't you Edward?" Before I knew it, something wet and slimy had struck me across the face. Solid and heavy, it had sent me sprawling to the ground and for a moment my vision blurred. I wasn't used to being hit, it wasn't something that happened very often in a swimming pool! When I recovered, pushing myself up, I noticed that one of Michael's flunkies had a dead fish in his hand, the very fish he had struck me with it seemed. Anger simmered in my stomach, a fury that was quenched as I remembered that I was surrounded. There was nothing I could do as Michael planted his foot on my chest and pushed me back to the ground. Again his flunky struck me, the fish slapping my head with a wet squelching sound. I shuddered, disgusted, and tried to cover my face with my hands but felt a foot pressing each wrist down to the ground. Humiliated, I waited for it all to be over. Someone shouted nearby, the pressure on my wrists and chest eased off and I hesitantly opened my eyes in time to see one of the groundskeepers coming our way.
Taking this opportunity, not looking a gift horse in the mouth, I sprung to my feet and ran. I ran as quickly as my powerful legs could carry me, breaking through a gap in the group, but heard Michael shouting as I pushed past him. Felt his fingers close momentarily around my arm though I managed to shrug out of his grip. "Get him!" His voice carried, his teammates - so schooled in following his orders - complied without a moments pause. I ran and they chased, following me through the field and out off of the school's grounds. They weren't finished with me. Michael, leaner than the defensive team, managed to outpace them quickly though he was still struggling to keep up with me as I broke out onto the main road. An elderly woman pushing her shopping trolly turned the corner, causing me to lurch towards the road as I avoided her, and in that instant Michael kicked at my legs and I went tumbling into the road. Before he could follow me, the sound of a car's horn honking and the light from its lowbeams deafened and blinded me. Instinctively I crossed my hands before my face, some small part of my brain knowing that my flimsy protection wouldn't help. For a moment I felt fear, then for a single instant... clarity. Peace. I was going to die and I accepted it... Then, in a rush, the sounds faded and the light against my closed eyelids vanished. I felt drained, tired, cold, and then the sound of screams and blaring horns was replaced by the gentle lapse of water against the shore.
My eyes opened slowly as a warm sensation travelled up my body. In embarrassment I looked down, expecting to see a dark stain forming down my trousers as I had - I thought - wet myself but instead my eyes looked upon the crystal clear waters of an ocean and the sand beneath my body. I heard the cawing of gulls circling above, the sound of waves breaking against a cliff face I saw to my left. I was dead. In heaven. But then, why did I still feel the slime of dead fish upon my face, why wasn't I surrounded by majestic buildings and statues, Saint Peter standing at the gates? I surely wasn't in hell, this was far too beautiful a landscape, and despite the name I definitely wasn't sitting in the town of Paradise.
As my eyes drifted across the horizon, I watched as one of the gulls I could hear descended down towards the water, looking for food I guessed. Before it could settle, a school of eels leaped from beneath the surface and attacked the gull as one. It lasted but a second, torn to pieces by the multitude of creatures it faced, but the eels didn't drift back down to the ocean; instead swimming through the air as if there were waves only they could see... In fear I recoiled, scrambling backwards like a crab until my feet were no longer touching the water, but the warmth that I had felt upon being submerged went with me. Like sparks of electricity coursing through my body. I shouted, as loud as my voice could go, until my lungs felt raw with the outburst and the more I spun around on the tiny island the crazier I felt. I shouted for help, for companions, for anyone to come and find me, but I knew somehow that nobody would. That I was all alone in this place. And as afraid as I should feel, the presence of the water calmed me in a familiar way and with every surge of the tide I felt power anew in my veins.
The eels came closer, drifting towards me, but with a slash of my hand - a gesture of dismissal like shooing away a fly - they turned and fled. "As used to seeing a Human as I am to seeing flying Eels." I rationalised, if seeing flying eels could at all be rational. "There are types of fish that fly, maybe there are eels too. They say we have lots of the sea to explore still, hundreds of new species could live in the darkest depths we haven't discovered..." Sure. But then, how did I get here? "..." My internal and verbal struggle had no answer to this question. I knew moments before that I was going to die. Perhaps I had? Perhaps this was my afterlife? It was, at least, a peaceful one... Collapsing to the ground, I looked up and instantly my eyes widened. There wasn't one sun circling this planet but two, the orbs bright and colourful, and in the clear ski other planets could be seen in the distance. A tugging at my foot cast my gaze downwards in fear but this time it wasn't the eels returned but a crab-like creature sliding over my foot and onto my leg. Before I could shrug it off it landed upon the ground, rolling onto the shell on its back as it landed badly. Tiny legs tore at the air, trying to find purchase, and after a moment I leaned forward to right it. Instead of attacking as I thought it would, the creature's many legs propelled it back towards the water where it sank beneath the waves.
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." I muttered, quoting the familiar Wizard of Oz as my mind struggled to grasp at the details around me. With every passing second however, something new and mysterious happened. A tentacled creature soared overhead, twenty foot tall though not an eye in sight; it seemed to be a jellyfish though one that could easily pluck him from the ground it seemed. A bird swooped down, its form shimmering as if it were made of mist and water, and as it brushed against my outstretched fingers it vanished, a fresh surge of energy invading my body. A shout from behind me forced me to my feet, turned my head towards a creature as it walked out from the waves. "I'm going crazy. Or I'm dead." I said, recognising the creature from films and half truths, distorted somewhat. Skin the colour of the palest blue sky, eyes a deep amber that held his, the creature had two legs and webbed feet where he was sure a tail should of been. It looked like a mermaid, clothed in a material that clung to the body yet repelled the water that now streamed off of it as its feet found the sand. It opened its mouth, spoke in a tongue I didn't understand and for once I was glad that my hallucinations or delusions weren't as full-blown as I believed.
"I can't understand you, mer-lady. I'm not that crazy, not yet. You're a figment of my imagination, a delusion of my psyche, a creation born from my desire to see a friendly face. To be honest, you look a little like Miss. Alexandria. Smile for me?" In response, the mer-lady pulled what looked suspiciously like a dagger made from bone or shark's teeth from a sheath at its hip. It stalked forwards, webbed toes spreading sand as it moved, and its amber eyes flashed in fury.
"I do not do as you bid, Human. You trespass on my island, my refuge. You do as I bid!" In shock, my eyes widened further. "Who be you, Human? Why you on my land? Where your ship or wings?" The dagger waved, pointing at him, but the mer-lady didn't step closer.
"Wait, I understood you. You speak English?"
"No, Human, you speak my tongue. Who be you? Why you here?"
For several long heartbeats, Edward stared long and hard at her. At the weapon in her hand. The waves behind her. He had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. But if this wasn't Paradise then he didn't have to be that same frightened individual that had cowered before a bully and a fish. "My name is Elzyn, mer-lady. I do not know how I came to be on this island, nor do I know why, but an hour ago I thought I was going to die and then I found myself washed up on this refuge. I did not mean to trespass on your land, I simply needed a place to sit and think. Where am I?"
"We are near Athas, Human Elzyn, on my island. This place is known as Zendikar."