I opened my eyes, the pain had vanished alongside any wounds. But how?

"I must have died." I thought to myself.

I took a look around where I was, nothing but darkness everywhere. The only thing I spotted that was out of the ordinary was a small path leading forward. "How can something be out of the ordinary, when oridnarity doesn't exist here." a voice exclaimed. Immediately I froze, searching around trying to figure out where the voice came from. "Contine onward" it said, without another option I continued on the small path until I arrived at a giant lake. Weirdly the water wasn't moving, no fish, no wind, no life. But something else piqued my interest, metal chains were laying on the floor, clearly attached to something in the water. I moved closer to the lake, although this should situation should have felt overwhelming and frightning, I felt weirdly calm. 

Now standing at the shore of the lake the voice said "I am happy to make your aquaintance Arden." Surprised and a bit shocked I answered "How do you know my name? Show yourself!" Immediately the chains started rattling and moving, the water became agitated and waves started forming, a bright light appeared in the middle of the lake. Whatever it was that was imprisoned here, it cam straight for me and fast. I stepped back, trying to not get wet by the waves that were forming everywhere. As the creature reached the shore and slowly appeared from below the water, I laid eyes upon something I had no words for.

Before me there was a person, a small boy, he looked as if he was about 19 years old. He had blue eyes and golden hair that shined in the darkness, golden chaines where attached to his feet. The chains seemed endless as their golden glow shimered througout the entire lake, making it slightly glow golden. The boy wore a white robe with jeweles and golden embriodery, on his beautiful head there was a golden crown ontop of which there shined a burning bright miniature sun, rotating. It was mesmerizingly majestic.

"I hope my appearance doesn't frighten you." he said calmly walking towards me. "No, not at all." I said freezing in place, the rattling of the chains could be heared as he made his was towards me, stopping right before me and taking a good look at me from bottom to top. "You must have many questions." he said pausing for a second before answering what was written all over my face "Since I know your name, it is only fair that you know mine. I am Wilhelm or just Wil and as you can undoubtly see I am bound to this place for reasons which I won't be disclosing, so don't even bother asking." Taking another glance at his majestic appearance I said "Am I dead? Is this the afterlife? Are you the grim reaper?" Before I could continue my barrage of questions he interjected "Slow down, no you are not dead and no this is not the afterlife. Do I look grim to you? I couldn't be anything further away from Death." I was puzzeled, my face clearly showing "Before you ask, this place does have a name. The realm inbetween, which should explain itself. You are currently inbetween worlds, inbetween life and death, not really belonging to either, a soul lost endlessly wandering while your body remains in the realm of the living." Pausing for a second to even try to comprehend my current situation, I remained silent before saying "Then what about you Wil, are you also a lost soul endlessly wandering the realm inbetween?" A laugh escaped Wils mouth, smiling he responded "No, I am not wandering around aimlesly like you. Instead my situations is ... way different." he paused for a second before continuing "I have no soul and no body like you, infact I don't even exist." I was clearly dumbfounded by his response, which in reaction to he added "Don't try to grasp an undestanding of something that by your understanding is impossible to be. You'll only go mad, but to put it simply I am what your race calls a god." I was at a lack of words, gods, I always thought they didn't exist because of the cruelty they let happen everywhere when the Holy Eternal Imperium of Mankind attacked the world. Infuriated I said "If you are truly a god, then why ... why did you let those cruelties happen. Millions of innocent people lost their lives when the Imperium attacked and countless more were enslaved afterwards. How could a so righous god let something so sinister happen!" trying to catch my breath, I contued "Countless people lost everything. I lost my mother, my only family I had left because you were to lazy to interfere!" tears started rolling down my face. Wilhelms facial expression changed, now looking at me with disgust the golden chains in the lake were now violently shaking, swinging around causing massive waves to appear on the water surface that was completly calm just a few seconds ago. Fear freezing me in place, I watched as giant tsunami like waves aimed directly at me came closer and closer, just before they made impact, they froze. It was as if time had stopped, I quickly turned back my attention to Wil who seemed to have calmed himself, "Sorry" he said quietly with a sad expression as he turned his back to me, walking back towards the lake as time rewound and the lake returned to its original calmness. I couldn't end it here, I had to stop him and get my answeres. Rushing towards him, I grabbed hold of his right upper arm holding him in place. "You can't just leave me here to wither away!" I said loudly, not turning around to look at me Wil said "It's your decision. As I said before, you are inbetween the worlds. Make your choice, Terra or the afterlife, life or death. It's up to you." Without even thinking about it I said "Life" which promted Wil to finally look me in the eyes, his expression was sad and he seemed hurt. He leaned forward, standing on tiptoes to close the distance between our faces, before I could react, his lips touched mine. Although quickly parting again as I stumbled to my kness, feeling sleeply and powerless my body hit the soft ground as sleep consumed me.

"Goodbye. Until we meet again" Wils soft voice whispered.

Image of the Lake with Wilhelm in the middle.