The light was encompassing him. Safety, warmth, love, and compassion echoed all around his senses. He heard, he felt nothing but the light. He pushed the memories of pain and hurt out of his mind and thought, There is nothing else but this. This must be all there is, all there can be, all there needs to be. He felt like he could reinvent his life's past to be what he craved most. Remember when you taught me to ride the bike? Or when I got that really good grade on the test? Those were the best days… just you and I. He felt like there was no such thing as lies and that anything he said would be true. No matter what he did, or what he was going to do, he was already forgiven. His worlds were all gone, and there was just this. The most peace he had ever had, the most peace there could ever be, and the only thing he had ever wanted. Mother, I-
The pain, the terrible pain, the pain of years of torment, the pain of life with hate and abuse and falsities ripped through his head, his whole being. The light that had been encompassing him had turned red and slowly ripped apart with tendrils of something awful. His paradise was falling apart, and he was helpless to stop it. The tendrils grew out to reach him and they pulled him down to their source: a lightless abyss. First it was a hole, but as they drew him closer, parts of it began to fade down, until what looked like a cross was before him. One last, mind-wrenching bolt of pain struck him, making the new world dark, like the abyss.
The smell of blood and metal filled his senses first. Then he realized that he was kneeling, his hands on a cold, grated floor. He could hear monsters, the same that wandered his worlds, and the sound of metal grinding against metal, and sometimes an unnerving crunch or watery noise. Finally he opened his eyes and looked up. Before him, standing tall with her arms out as if protecting something, was a woman who looked as though she had been torn apart and put back together. There were great gaps of muscle uncovered on her arms and legs, her whole torso was covered with a pale sheet that almost blended with her skin, and her hair was so light it seemed like an extension of her flesh. She looked at him with dark eyes and smiled. Her arms fell relaxed to her sides.
"Walter, did you believe your work was done?" She said. Her voice was like an angel and devil speaking at the same time, and it didn't come from only her throat, but from the monsters, too. He realized that there were more and more coming in, and that the metal was steadily corroding. Walter looked at the woman and stood up.
"I was so happy," he said calmly, though he didn't mean to. He still had some serenity from where ever he had been before. "Why did you take her from me?"
"We both nearly succeeded, you know. The rebirth was so close to being complete."
"Why did you bring me back here?"
"But even in death, I cannot stop. You and I both know. Salvation must come. Soon."
Walter was starting to feel impatient, as his spiritual anesthetic was wearing off. "Why do you need me?" He looked down and muttered, "I was finally with her…"
"To help me finally bring forth God, and Paradise. By ourselves, we had come so close, but failed. We mustn't end our goals there. We're special, you know. We have inherited this world, and with this power we will succeed, together." She turned around and started to walk away. She stopped, turned her head and lost her smile. "Find her. Find Alessa. Her work is not yet done, either." She started walking again. Her spine was exposed up to the top of her neck, and he could see its outline under the sheet. He thought of the stories he heard as a child, and he wanted to tell her to leave him be. The words caught in his throat.
"How do I find her? How will I know? I've never seen her, only heard about her." That's not what I was trying to say...
"Trust in your teachings, Walter. You were chosen for the rebirth. You are Valtiel's vessel." She left, though there should have been nowhere for her to go. The corrosion kept creeping towards him, and the monsters grew restless. "Make your decision," they said without truly saying. They taunted him. Finally Walter closed his eyes, letting himself drift back to the real world, the normal world. I must find her, so that I can be with Mother again…