"...Mmm. What?" 

My eyelids flutter opened and I was instantly greeted by the azure blaze which was the sky above me. Gently the wind caressed my cheek and I gradually began to move my limbs. Yawning loudly, I sat up rubbing my eyes. The soft yet prickly feel of wet grass brushed against my palm and I straight away knew I wasn't in my bed anymore. So the question was, where was I now? Swiftly I swerved my head around trying to figure out how my bedroom has been turned into a field in a matter of hours. But then, it dawned on me, this place was familiar, it was that dream again.

I hadn't had it for a while, it all just suddenly stopped with the arrival of Victoria but here I was again, unprepared and completely unaware of the unearthly shit that was about to be suddenly thrown my way. As I became more aware of my surrounding I noticed a very quiet noise, I listened, it was a song and I listened as melodious, almost angelic singing consumed my ears.

It soon became clear to me that I knew the song, I had heard it countless times before how could I forget. I looked over to my right and it was then that I saw her. It was that girl again, Victoria's doubleganger I'll call her, but she was different from all the times I had seen her. She was dressed in a pure, silk white dress. Her blue eyes more prominent than ever, her golden hair dancing in the wind.

"Oh, so you're awake." She smiled, her teeth seeming to sparkle like jewels in the bright sun's glow.

She got up and sat next to me. She was even more beautiful up close. Like something out of a book her whole body seemed to have a radiant glow, like that of a god.

"Who are you?" I asked. It seemed like I was finally able to talk after countless dreams, but of course, my mind hadn't registered that yet.

She beamed at me, twirling her hair in her fingers all whilst using that tone that adults use when talking to toddlers "I, my little angel, am the person to decide your fate tonight."

Fate? I thought, letting my mind drift, then I realised and I remembered that vision from the other day, something to do with my future.

You have until midnight today... Life or death... By default, you shall die!

My eyes widened and I felt horror weave its way into the depths of my stomach. My heartbeat began to race and it felt as if I was being torn apart from the inside. A cold sweat quickly began to form on my back dampening my shirt. I clutched my chest, watching it rise and fall and I struggled to breathe normally. I was hyperventilating and I was terrified.

"I'm guessing you remember now?" Fake Victoria turned to look at me, she must have seen the look of dread on my face because before long she replied with, "Oh please don't look so sullen, this is just a clarification. You won't actually die if you choose the wrong one." Fake Victoria laughed. "Humans are such gullible creatures aren't they?"

"What?" I gawked.

"All you humans have the same reactions, allow me to explain." She sighed. "You do not die if you choose the wrong one per say." She snapped her fingers and I heard a low rumble and as I looked up to see where it was coming from I noticed a part of the sky began to rip, a bright white light appeared making me have to squint. When I opened my eyes again the two images I had seen in the dining hall appeared in the sky. "These are what you saw yesterday, yes?"

I meekly nodded my head in response, too scared to even speak. What did she mean? Was I safe after all? It was all so confusing, I had no time to sit and think about anything anymore. This was all moving so quickly my mind was taking in more than it could process. I had never asked for any of these things to happen, all I ever wanted was to live a normal life, but it looked like my life wasn't meant to be normal.

I wanted to speak, there were so many questions I needed answering but I couldn't find the words, my heart was still hammering in my chest and I was still drenched in sweat. My throat hitched as I tried to talk and so I just ended up giving her a bewildered expression of panic, fear and anxiety.

She sighed, got up and slowly made her way away from me until she was about three metres away. "We still have some time left so I guess I could talk a little while longer." She said not turning around to face me. "I'm not really supposed to do this but, you look like you're about to be sick and I need you to be completely calm for this to work effectively so I'll tell you what you want to hear." She replied her voice going dangerously quiet and I could sense a hint of annoyance in her tone.

"By using these images, we can determine how weak or strong a soul is, this is very important. We only show these images to souls who are in danger of falling off their set path, but we can only do that if that human's soul will let us." She said pointing to both of the pictures she continued.

"In each of the images, one person is not of this world. One of the images contains a dangerous spirit and the other a saviour spirit. If a soul is still fairly strong it will recognise the saviour and reach out for help, but if a soul is corrupted, it is fooled by the fake one. At this point, it's very unlikely that we would be able to do anything to help it." She plucked a flower from the grass and inhaled deeply as I wondered what she meant by we. 

"I know this is all quite complicated for your human brain to comprehend, but I explained this the best I could and I do hope I've put your mind at rest. You're actually quite a strange one, no human has ever gotten me to explain eternal judgement before." She laughed as she pointed to the sky at the hazy pictures.

Questions were practically clawing at my mind fighting to be the one asked first. There was so much I wanted to know, I needed to figure out. Eternal judgement, souls, saviours and dangerous spirits. What did it all mean? I ran my finger through my hair trying to process all that I had been told in the past five minutes. 

"Oh." I spluttered.

Oh, Oh? Your whole life from this point on is never going to be the same! You're sitting having a conversation with an alien about your future and all you have to say is oh! Josh you flipping idiot get your mind out of the gutter and fucking say something! I snapped at myself.

"So let me get this straight, my spirit is in danger of falling off its so-called right path so you, whatever you are, are here to see if my soul is strong enough to be able to get back on its right path." I said eventually finding my voice again.

"Bingo! Wow, you make it sound a whole lot simpler than it actually is." She sat back down as she lay her head in the grass and took a deep breath of air. "I could go into so much more detail about this, but that would involve about five-hundred years of teaching, patients and an IQ of over two-hundred. Which as far as I know of is not something average humans are capable of." She laughed.

"What are you then. You've been appearing to me in my dreams for like a long time. I had never been able to speak to you at all and now I'm talking with you like I would any other normal person. And you just expect me to accept all that you told me, assuming it's all real after all, how can I go back to normal after learning I might live like shit the rest of my life?

"That I can't say, see there are things I just cannot tell humans about just yet, the human race isn't ready to know about this existence of my kind quite-" She started but didn't finish. Without warning, I felt it, an earthquake. It started off slow but then gradually gained more power.

"What is this?" I shouted over the noise, the vibrations shaking me.

"Ah, is it time already?" Fake Victoria chuckled. "Come, Josh, the time has run out and I am not permitted to tell you anymore, though if it makes you feel any better I pray that your soul will choose the right path."

I screamed as the ground shook more violently and the earth started to crack. Eventually, those cracks opened up more turning into holes, pits that seemed to go one forever descending deep into the earth below. I was frozen in place for a while as the ground started to break away even more, fake Victoria was nowhere to be seen and I couldn't move, my legs wouldn't let me. I came to a stand still, just staring in absolute terror at the chaos around me. How had it come to this? 

I don't know how long I was frozen there but it wasn't long before the inevitable happened, a massive boulder appeared out of nowhere headed straight for me, it was then that my body decided to come out of standby mode and my survival instincts kicked in. Don't get me wrong, I was just about ready to piss myself then and there, but there's a time for taking a piss, and a time to use your head. So that's what I did. 

Quickly I dived out the way, missing it by about an inch, but it hadn't ended there. I looked up and a group of rocks each about the size of my head were flying about, I raised my hands to my head using them as some sort of shield which, as you can probably already tell, didn't get me very far and I still had the fast eroding ground to worry about. 

With amazing acrobatic skill even if I do say so myself, I dodged herds of boulders all headed my way. I didn't think I'd ever been more happy to have actually paid attention during P.E. 

"Woah!" I screamed as the ground shook more violently with each passing second. Everything was crumbling away and I lost my sense of balance. The ground underneath me opened up and all I could see was the black, gaping abyss of darkness below, waiting to devour me and I found myself falling. Time slowed down for a second, and all I could hear was the petrified pounding of my heart against my chest and the feeling of cold sweat pouring down my face and clinging to my skin.

I twisted and turned, flailing my arms in all directions in hope that I'd grab onto something, anything to slow the rate of which I was falling, but nothing helped. I quickly began to gain speed and I could feel the air surging past me. Scrunching my eyes closed, I clamped my hands over my ears and screamed at the top of my lungs thinking I would never escape the hell I was trapped in. 

"Aaaah!" I cried as pieces of debris floated around me.

As I found myself falling lower and lower, my life sort of flashed before my eyes, you know like in the movies and I had my one final thought before everything went black once again. 

Oh God, or Buddha or whatever higher being may be listening. Please, keep mum safe and save her from herself, she may seem like a waste of space but it's been hard for her, for both of us. Let Victoria make lots of new friends in the new club though I won't be there to support her. I may have only known her a few days but she's already become more of a special person and friend to me than any other of those kids at school. And finally I know this may be a bit late but now's a good a time as any, if this really is my last few moments as a human on earth or whatever, I just want to say. 

 I'm sorry for being such a pessimistic asshole and retarded bitch my whole life.

***

Keep reading for the next chapter..... 

Chapter 7.3 Another Strange Dream!? (part three)