Every pore on Jace's body was soaking up the feeling of complete Nothingness.

Except his ears. His ears couldn't quite rest. They were picking up a sound. A sound like nothing he had heard on Earth. There was the gentle crash of waves and the rushing of water up the sand; but somehow different to earthly waves. There was the wind carrying grains of sand; but at a slightly different velocity. There was the twittering of birds; but...were they chattering in a different language? There was the rustling of tree leaves; only, he couldn't quite understand what the difference was.

Then he realised they were all murmuring something. Whispering something in his ears. The crashing waves, the wind-carried sand, the twittering birds, the rustling leaves were all saying....his name.

"Jace......Jace..."

He tried pushing the sounds from his mind. They were disturbing his blissfulness. He tried resisting it, tried shutting it out of his brain. But the sounds only grew louder, more persistent.

"Jace, Jace. Open your eyes."

Open my eyes? he thought. Even thinking hurt. No, no, no. Opening his eyes would mean using his muscles; straining to do something. He wanted to do nothing. To stay here forever.

But the sound wouldn't stop. It permeated into his very being.

"Open your eyes! Jace, OPEN YOUR EYES!"

It was a command, and the only way to stop this ear-shattering cacophony was to obey it. Jace focussed all this will power into opening his eyes. The state of blackness slowly turned to dark gray, then lighter and lighter until he could see a golden glow coming through his eyelids. With one last effort of strength, he pulled them open fully.

All he could see was blue. Blue sky? He could hear nearby waves crashing onto a shore, could hear birds twittering.....and shifting sands.....and leaves rustling in the wind.....but it all sounded normal now. Had he just dreamt that he heard his name in the usual sounds of nature?

Jace figured he must be lying on his back. If he could just roll over.... The sight that met his eyes took his breath away.

A crystal clear turquoise-blue sea bordered by white sand sparkled in the noon-day sunshine. Surrounding the sea, far away on the horizon, were sharp blue mountains that reminded Jace of the Swiss Alps. Only without the snow on top. Somehow he knew that here the temperature was perfect all year round, even on the tallest mountain peak that stretched to touch the sky.

The mountains tapered down to rolling green hills, then eventually gave way to grassy plains that met the sand on the shoreline. Just behind the sand on Jace's left were the tallest, most luscious palm trees he had ever seen. He could almost taste the sweet large coconuts that he saw growing at the top of the palms, several stories above the vine-covered ground.

Jace was now sitting up and could take in the full extent of the beautiful landscape. Across the sea to his right, on the opposite side to the mountains, was another jagged cliff face with a swift waterfall flowing over the edge into the sea. He could see rainbows in the fine mist that rose from the deep rock pool beneath the waterfall.

"There must be more mountains behind that range, where the river originates from," Jace said aloud to himself, the words escaping his lips without him even caring.

"Yes. This sea is lying between two large mountain ranges, with more rain falling on the East Hebron Range than the West Hebron Range. Which is why to the right of us we have the beautiful Moriah Cascades."

Jace nearly jumped out of his skin! He leapt to his feet and turned around in the same instant. Standing there was Cyrus himself with his usual peaceful smile on his face, yet a hint of amusement twinkled in his clear blue eyes.

"How did you get here?" Jace asked after he'd recovered from his fright. "I didn't hear you walking up at all!"

"No, I guessed you didn't," Cyrus chuckled, "After walking these sands for many years, one learns to do it quietly. There are so many other amazing sounds to hear, why waste our ears on scrunching sand?"

"Hmmm, good point," Jace frowned. "One question, Cyrus. Where in the world am I? Or to be more correct, which world?" he tried chuckling at his joke, but it came out as a nervous cough.

Cyrus stared out at the Cascades for a few moments before replying. He never grew tired of watching the sparkling water fall to the sea below, shimmering in the warm sunlight as it gave in to gravity's laws. "Let's just say, this is my version of Heaven. Except, of course, the real Heaven that Jehovah made is somewhere else, waiting for us when our time comes. This is just my in-between little paradise, a way to say 'thank you' to the people I had the privilege of creating."

This puzzled Jace even more, "You mean, I'm dead?"

"Yes," Cyrus grinned.

The realization slowly dawned on Jace. "You mean....yes, of course....the Tiritian soldier – he must have...killed me." His voice came out filled with surprise at this revelation, but it still carried a slight hint of a question, as if he couldn't quite wrap his mind around being dead though feeling more alive than ever.

"Well, his sword was meant for me, but I'm sure they wanted you dead, too," Cyrus said simply.

"Yes, that's right!" Jace continued, "I pushed you out of the way, and I must have been stabbed instead. And you are still alive...or, were alive. Errr, why are you here?" again, the frown on his face clearly showed his brain wasn't functioning quite right just yet, or perhaps it was the unusual circumstances in which he found himself that had Jace confused.

"Well, since I am the creator of Sen Cyrus and this Cyrus Paradise," he waved his hand, gesturing to the world around them, "I can come here without being dead. Just like how God is in Heaven and on Earth. But I am not omnipresent, so I can't be in my two places at once. I usually come here when night has fallen in Sen Cyrus. But only for a little while. Time is 100 times faster here than in Sen Cyrus, so one minute there is equal to 100 minutes here. I like to keep it simple," Cyrus ginned at the funny expression on Jace's face. "Right now I am here to see how you are doing, and to explain some things you might be wanting to know," Jace nodded his head in agreement, "But we only have 100 minutes to talk. Time is still continuing in Sen Cyrus, and as you would remember it was a pretty intense battle that was going on when you died and came here."

"Yeah, I can't imagine what they're going through! What if more of them die...and here I am, powerless to help them...." Jace's voice trailed off as concern for his friends rushed into his mind.

"Exactly, I don't want to be away for too long but we have much to talk about, which is why my friends woke you up rather quickly. Usually people sleep here for a day or two after they die. Sad to say, a few other Sen Cyrians didn't make it in that battle with the Tiritians," Cyrus' voice faltered.

Jace looked further down the shore and saw what Cyrus had motioned to. Lying on the sand were a good many people, sleeping peacefully beside the water's edge. Most of them were men who had been fighting in the battle, but a few women were among those who were one step closer to eternity with God, with Jehovah. From now on they would be gloriously happy!

"I'm sure they'll enjoy it here," Jace said sadly. He would enjoy it here too, but he kept thinking of everyone who would miss him – his parents and sister, his friends, and Emily. He didn't want to begin to imagine how they would be feeling now. Would they miss him? Did they care enough about him to be deeply upset that he died? They were selfish thoughts and he didn't know where they came from, but wouldn't you think them too if you had just died? Wouldn't you wonder if people would miss you, if you'd made enough impact on the earth in your lifetime that people would be sad you left?

But mostly, Jace felt a deep sadness at not being there for them during the remainder of the battle. What was happening now? Were the Tiritians winning? He might have saved Cyrus from one close incident, but Cyrus would have to go back and who would be there to save him next time? He guessed the governors would do that job, while the men and women he'd brought from Earth would help win the battle. Maybe they didn't need him now to finish what he'd started. They were strong, and they would continue being strong in his absence. At least he prayed they would.

"I'm thinking you have a choice now, Jace," Cyrus' steady voice cut through his thoughts.

"A choice? What kind of choice? Looks to me like I'm dead and that's that. I'll be here for a little while before going to heaven when Jesus returns to Earth. And...and I'm fine with that....I've always wanted to get to heaven," he actually started looking forward to it. It would be another adventure all over again to explore this world on his journey to Heaven.

"Yes, that is all very well, but what would you say if I told you you could go back?" Cyrus turned his head to look seriously at Jace as they both sat down on the warm sand.

"Go back? You mean to Sen Cyrus? To Earth?"

"I can bring you back to life if you would like that, Jace. Or do you think you've done enough in saving my land and helping my people?"

"Well...." Jace wasn't sure what to think. Could Cyrus really bring him back to life? "Of course I don't think I've done enough....I could live a thousand years and still feel like there's more work I could do for God....so, yeah I think if given the chance I'd love to go back to Sen Cyrus and finish the battle, go back to Earth to my family and friends and job...."

"Oh, I need to mention that I can only bring you back to life in my world. You are officially dead, Jace. Dead to every world that exists, and only Jehovah has the ability to completely give your life back in the physical realms. But here, in my own universes, I can give you the chance to live in Sen Cyrus all the rest of your days. There would be no going back to Earth," he looked at Jace with a twinkle in his eye. Although the discussion was serious, Cyrus enjoyed seeing the look of astonishment and wonder play across Jace's face.

"Not go back to Earth? Well, I guess that's better than being completely dead," he tried to laugh. "Ok, I'd love to go back to Sen Cyrus and finish the battle. After that, I'll figure something out....this is a lot to process, obviously."

Cyrus clapped him on the shoulder, "That's the spirit! I will show you a bit more of this paradise just so your decision can be final. But we shouldn't be gone for too long...who knows what's happening in the Land of Sen Cyrus?"

They stood and brushed the sand from their legs before walking over to the cool shade of the palm trees. Jace glanced back at the majestic mountains and sparkling sea and wondered if he was making the right decision to leave this paradise and go back to Sen Cyrus. He had to admit Sen Cyrus could almost be classified as a paradise in its own right.

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Ahhhhhhh :) <3 So, Jace is alright afterall! well, kind of hehe x) Let's just wait and see what happens next, hey?! :) :D
So what did you think? did you like it? What would you do in Jace's position? 
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to vote or comment if you want :) 
~Em <3 <3