Chapter 1

There was too much noise. Sirens blaring and light flashing. Its was all very annoyingly loud. Loud radio chatter, the creaking of metals being stressed and de-stressed, the blaring sound of the car’s horn. Can’t a person just die in peace. Caden Kastler could feel his life ending. It wasn’t getting brighter. There were no memories flashing away quickly. And it definitely wasn’t peaceful. Everything was just too damn loud.

It had been a long drive home from meeting his daughter. Little Sandra ‘Sandy’ Kastler was just starting to walk. The smile she held when she finally saw new opportunities that would come from being able to walk. That four toothed smile was an image that would be forever imprinted into Caden’s brain. His dying brain. Hi dying body. His dead soul.

“Sir! SIR! Can you hear me? SIR.” The emergency first respondent trying his best to get Caden focused on him. Caden just wanted to die in peace. After all, he wouldn’t be alive after two more minutes. Caden decided to look at the person shouting at his face, painfully turning his head in the process. “Sir, we’re going to get you out of the car. We’re going to cut the rail that is pinning you to the seat first. DON’T MOVE.”

Caden gurgled a chuckle, blood dribbling out of his mouth, before gripping the first responder’s arm tightly. A deadly tight grip of a soon to be dead man, and in a surprisingly calm manner, he said “Don’t ... bother. I’m dead...” he coughed more blood out before continuing “I’m dead anyway. Won’t make it ... a meter. Help ... the other ... guy.”

“Sir, you will be ok. We will get you out of here in no time. Just hang tight and we...” he was interrupted by Caden’s bloody chuckle. Caden looked at the respondent and with a smile that screamed lost hope and finality, and said “I have ... a guard rail through ... my chest. My legs ... are crushed into ... jelly.” This time he coughed hard and his vision finally started to blacken. “My ... spine ... is broken.”

It was getting darker, and the noise was finally muffling out. Caden no longer had the energy to keep his face pointed at the respondent, and so it started to droop downwards, his eyes starting to close, no longer breathing, and blood dripping from his mouth. “Help ... the other guy.” And with that, he exhaled one last time and everything faded to black. No bright lights. No feeling of peace. Just ... backness.

A sense of floating.

Feeling pulled.

A rapidly increased feeling of being pulled. A light?

It was getting brighter.

The feeling of being pulled now felt like falling.

The light was getting too bright.

Feeling of falling too fast was now coupled with feeling of an oncoming object.

Its was getting unbearably bright.

And then Caden jerked awake, just like a person who jumped awake after falling in their dreams. His was starting to get his bearings and opened his eyes, saw the bright sky, and then closed his eyes. ‘Wait, what?’ he opened eyes and sat up.

He looked around rapidly “What in the hell. What in the actual f...”