Heaven's Door

• Montana Shepherd, Grade 11, Corridors College -
• Short Story
• 2018

Excellence Award in the 'Write Along 2018' competition

The black void of emptiness drowned me beneath the surface of quintillion drops of water. Nothing floated around me, nothing beneath or above. I was alone as if 60,100 feet beneath the deepest ocean. No floor, no sky, but a black loophole that stretched beyond my own imagination, one where pure darkness was manipulating my senses. I couldn't find a wall, the ocean drowned me, my mind and body, numb. I could slowly feel my mind slipping away. I couldn't feel my body if I had one. My mind empty, all I could think of was the emptiness around me. The alien-like ambient flow replenished my soul and drooled upon my ears. I didn't know how I ended up here. I wasn't scared, wasn't confused. I was at peace. I was dying.


My eyes twitched, fixating on an illuminating light that radiated in the distance. Unusually my mind tensed. I could feel my innocent soul creeping away. I saw it, lighting up a path. There was a door? A way to escape? Escape the sinkhole that was full of water to the brim. I tried moving, floating with it, but I couldn't. I didn't have a physical body to move. I tried imagining myself following my own soul, but the lightbulbs within my mind had blown out, my thoughts were fading, I was fading. The light in the distance, growing brighter and brighter. Blazing more golden beams than the sun. Did the sun still exist? The shiny golden sphere blinded me. Through squinting eyes, it exploded into millions of shards. Scattering beneath. Floating on the never-ending journey to the pits of the ocean floor.

The door disappeared, the lights far below my feet.

A current pulled me roughly towards the door that never existed. A mythical creature gliding past me as if flying through the sky of an underground world. It's wings glazed in white silk. A torso of a mermaid, legs of an angel. Soul unknown to Earth. Heavenly, gentle. It circled around me twice before ascending rapidly above. It's body dancing in the waves as a new kind of brilliance making home to no thoughts in particular. My body followed, my eyes gazing above. Chilly water rushed through my hair, iciness filling my lungs. I couldn't breathe, I rarely kept my eyes open long enough to know where I was. A sense of mystery flourished my undying empty thoughts.

I got closer, closer to a clue in a long time. The surface rushed closer, waves forcing me down. Two steps forward, one step back. I instantly lost sight of the angel that guided me, saved me. I never gave up. I flew to the top gasping for sweet air.

My eyes peel open, taking in the sights of no water at all. My medical gown dry, mind confused. My surroundings were strange. Cords leading to monitors, chairs leaning against walls.

I was alive, that's all that mattered in an ocean of thoughts or none at all.