Don't Be Afraid

Stephen reached for the shower door. He had no idea that his life would be over in seconds. As the bathroom door opened he looked up with surprise to see an unfamiliar face. The next thing he heard was a gunshot.

After a few moments Stephen stood up. He looked down to see his own crumpled body on the ground. With horror he thought of his wife and son who were still in the house. He neither felt sadness nor disdain. Anger nor suffering. His primary thoughts were on his loved ones. His movement towards the door was so quick that he became a flash of light. Into the hallway and towards his Son's room.

The man with the gun was standing over them. Susan huddled in the corner with Darren's 6 year old body bundled tightly in her arms. She was crying. She looked up to see a lightening bolt pass through her pursuer's chest and land between her arms on her son's torso.

The man with the gun smiled briefly. As Stephen passed through him he got a glimpse of the beauty he had taken from the earth. Beauty he himself had never been lucky enough to experience in his miserable life. And then the smile turned into a scowl with the horrifying realization of what he had done. He clutched his chest but it was too late. His heart had already stopped. He collapsed to the floor.....dead.

Darren hardly noticed that his mother was no longer holding him. Moments of fear and panic had been replaced by an awesome calm. He felt his whole body move as if the ocean had risen to knock him over but he remained still. His mind raced with primordial visions of his father. He saw his father's birth. He felt his anger as the other kids teased him on the playround. He experienced his father's joy and pain. His wedding day. The day he became a doctor. Countless moments of life and death. Sitting calmly holding a patient's hand. He saw his own birth and felt his father's pride and joy. And he heard his fathers words, not from his ears, but internally...

Darren....Darren.....Don't be afraid!

Darren's reverie was quickly broken by the schrill screams of his mother. She had raced into the bathroom and found his father....lying dead on the floor.