Gasp.

Tan took a long deep breath as his eyes opened. Had I been knocked unconscious in battle he thought; a deed no man was capable of. But he felt no pain, not even as tiny and insignificant as an itch. He howled himself up to his feet with a graceful motion and for the first time noticed that he was in an unfamiliar place. The sky was painted a deep white color as if shrouded by leagues of clouds. The ground was flat as far as the eye could see, marred with meadows and trees with bountiful fruit that stood in solitude. Am I dreaming? The thought vanished as soon as it crossed his mind for he could feel a fleeting pain upon pinching himself.

He tried recalling the memory of a place such as this in the annals of his brain, but they all returned in a hazy blur. One moment he was buried deep in the halls of inns drinking himself to death, another he was surrounded by enemies and friends alike, sword at hand. Each memory was accompanied by sound and scent. The constant clunking of swords and the foul, revolting smell of blood and burned flesh fought for a place in his mind. But they were countered by the ripe smell oozing out of the fruits. He felt frustrated, but he quickly calmed himself with the constant whisper of his mantra, ALLAHU AKBAR. Staying in a single place was getting him nowhere, he recognized, so he chose a random direction and started marching towards it with resolve. 

*** 

After several hours of methodical marching, tan stopped and began to examine his body up and down with a look alternating between awe and frustration. He felt no exhaustion. His breath was still steady and calm, muscles bursting with energy. He felt like the days in preparation for a fight, rejuvenated, without the thirst for blood. He sprinted towards a shallow body of water, unmoving and clear as a cloudless sky. He gazed into the water and a man with deep dark hair, ruffled and thick, gazed back at him. His eyes were a dark brown, a dirty black from a distance, with a fleeting madness stuffed behind them. His face was cloaked by a stoic facade, but a hint of surprise and shock leaked out as he reached to feel at his face. His skin was smooth as silk as if a bottle of body lotion had been emptied on him. And that long, hideous scar that chased all those women that showed any interest in him was nowhere to be seen. He felt elated at this sudden fortune, before eventually being swallowed by the depression of his situation. He scooped a handful of water, before drinking it whole. Though he felt no thirst, he needed that comfort familiar actions brought him. As soon as he averted his gaze to the direction he was walking towards, he saw a giant gold gate, embroidered with glowing diamonds along the sides that was not there before. The gate opened with a low creak, and through it, a city materialized out of nowhere. It wasn’t like the long rows of brick houses with the dirty alleys he was familiar with. This city glowed but it wasn’t blinding, houses were tall as if they hang from the white sky. “Heaven” he slowly muttered as he read the broad blinding letters emanating from the gate. He was hit by a feeling of both ecstasy and disappointment. He could no longer fight for his people or remember the face of the man who was worthy enough to take his head. But the disappointment was quickly taken over by the ecstasy. He took a step forward, beyond the gate, with hesitance that exploded into a puff as soon as his leg was over to the other side. He began marching towards the city with more enthusiasm than before, the gate behind him disappearing just as mysteriously as it had appeared.

***

Beyond the white sky and the heavens above it, a thousand glittering beings with wings knelt before the darkness. Their faces were a mix of guilt and fear, but they all knelt without the intention of ever looking forward. Suddenly, a voice boomed from a distance with a commanding tone “what happened.” a figure, head still bowed, stood. A man with a stout build and puffs of light softly streaking out of his skin. “A glitch occurred within the system,” he said with hesitancy and fear. “By when will it be fixed?” the voice boomed with reluctance. Another figure stood behind the man, a woman this time with unmatched beauty, and said with resolve,” In a minute, but a man has been pulled by it. A minute will be 500 years for him, but we will get it done.” The already overwhelming pressure spiked, and they were all slammed back to their knees. “Get it done,” the voice said with anger. And as soon those words reached their ears, the presence disappeared, wisps of pressure still keeping their facades grim and the beings started shuffling about. 

*** 

Time passed as days became months and years became decades. But the time felt stagnant to tan, for there was no ball of blazing heat that would shift as days became nights. The look of unending ecstasy he had on when he first walked towards the city was nowhere to be seen. In its place, a look of depression cloaked his entire being, like a caged beast that understood the inevitability of its escape. It has been 499 years and 364 days, but Tan was aware of none, as he sat on a throne that seemed to make everything around it look bland.

The first couple of years he wandered around aimlessly celebrating with people here and there. Heaven he thought, and infinite possibilities bobbed into his mind. But what he failed to realize was that there was nothing that time couldn’t take the glow of. Time was the ultimate infinity. He imagined the most glorious throne there ever could be, but against the time it was like a leaf before a storm, it lost its magnificence in the manner of decades. And everything else he imagined suffered from the same fate. Tan shifted about uncomfortably in his throne, gazing at the once shining city, from where the gate had disappeared. “It is perfect but flawed” he muttered under his breath with a look of distaste. There was a time he dreamt of nothing but going heaven, and now that he was here he hoped for nothing but to return. “One last chance and I wouldn’t fight for a fraud,” he thought. He got up, turned around, and looked upon the flat unchanging fields. He walked forward with leisure and caught a glance of a shallow body of water in the distance. He turned and started pacing towards it, with a bit more haste in his steps. Upon reaching it, he looked at his reflection, his features unaffected by the flow of time, but the fleeting madness took over. He scooped a handful of water and drank it in a rush. To his surprise, the golden gate reappeared, and above it, a gleaming “Exit heaven” was painted. Tan burst into laughter and rushed towards the gate as if it would close any second. Upon entering the scenery around him changed and the 500 years of torment by perfection came to a close.