• DEATH approached me silently as I stood completely still, too stricken with fear to even move a single muscle. His chilling presence became maddening as he slowly crept closer with each silent step. His face concealed by the large black hood, his body wrapped in a torn blanket of hopelessness. Under his hood I see all my fears, all my mistakes, all my failures. He taunts me with his very presence. Then something happens. The dark emptiness around us melts away.
    As the scenery came to my eyes I couldn’t comprehend what laid before me. We hovered in mid air with a boiling pool of magma far below our feet. The scent of ash and sulfur filled my nostrils and blurred my senses. The hot wind blew my clothes around effortlessly, and my hair danced along as well. I returned my attention to Death as he continued to walk closer. Butterflies danced in my stomach as I began to walk back on thin air.
    “Stay away from me,” I called out in a shaky and terrified voice.
    Then the air seemed to give way from under my feet. I plummeted out of the air towards the fiery ocean. The now violent wind now pushed against my body, and my screams filled the air as my body plummeted into the magma. But it did not burn. It did not hurt. Instead I became suspended in what to seem to be water. My mouth agape and no water was filling my cheeks.
    An underwater ship lay before silent and dormant. Holes decorated the ship and I watched as fish swam freely through it. I then heard the faint sound of a second splash, and without thinking I swam forward towards the ship. Each breath I took was filled with air not water. As the ship slowly inched closer I began to hear faint whispers, and I knew Death was calling out to me. I quickly swam through the hole and became engulfed in darkness.
    I ran directionless in the dark void as my breathing was the only sound that could be heard. Fear swelled inside my body and was at its peak. As I continued to run a bright light became visible. It was my key to escape. Just when I thought I was in the clear, I head the frightening whispers once again. Death was speaking to me. Speaking to his prey. My terrified screams rattled my brain as I finally came to the light and I leapt forward with all my migt.
    I landed face first against the hard earth and groaned with pain. As I slowly lifted my head I gazed a vast forest that lay before. Birds sung loudly in the sky and the wind gently clashed against the leaves.
    I proceeded forward but only by walking. “Why am I being shown all these places? I’ve never even been to these places?”
    “The time shall come,” whispered Death.
    I quickly whirled around, but I did not see him. I was not greeted by that cold unforgiving face. Just more forest. I kept my eyes locked ahead for fear that he would appear out of nothingness as he was accustomed to doing. I kept walking backwards with my eyes fixed ahead until I bumped into something icy cold. The minute my body pressed against it a bolt of petrifaction engulfed me. More whispers came as I slowly began to turn around to face my obstacle.
    A cold icy hand jetted forward and grasped me by the throat. The predator had found his prey. His face still remained concealed and his hand hid under a black glove, but I could still feel his icy touch. The instant he grasped me the scenery did not melt away. It shattered. I could hear the sound of the glass splitting and crashing to the ground as we both stood atop of a large skyscraper. He held me over the edge and my feet dangled over the mass mysterious city which I had never seen before. Lights glittered to where the eye could no longer see, and the city was coated by the night sky and its admiring stars.
    I looked at my faceless predator as he held me there effortlessly. “What do you want?”
    For a moment he did not reply. He just stood there staring at me, but then he said, “…Freedom…”
    “Freedom? Freedom from what?”
    He leaned forward and continued to look at me. “You have been called upon to complete this task Christopher Hayes. You alone hold the future of all our fates. A mere child of seventeen destined for greatness.”
    “What are you talking,” I demanded. “You’re not making any sense.”
    “Prepare yourself, Christopher. Your journey begins now. This is day 1 of the end of the world. Bring about all of our salvation for you shall hold the key to it.”
    With that he released his grasp and I was sent spiraling downward and was consumed by a sense of vertigo. Once again my screams echoed in the air and beat violently against my ears. The overwhelming fear now consumed me. This was my end. This was death. Or was it? What was it what Death meant? Destined for greatness? End of the world? I hold the key to everyone’s salvation? What did it all mean? I didn’t have time to think about it any further.
    There was nothing but darkness as I blacked out….