Above the body after death: Something all of us have heard or read about, or seen in documentaries or on film. Across human history, there has been one outlier that purely represents any given emotionally tied flashback that someone would have seen before dying: Good, bad, heartbreak, excitement, betrayal, or love that was not able to see itself through, and many more. Write a story or poem about this, the extreme outliers, both what they're flashing back to, and why they're about to die. Winning piece of ethereal lift and float gets the $100. Go.

LianaViroch

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Cold Heart.

A cold breeze flows through my ears and I look towards the sky

The clouds are rolling like smoke in a jar

They run so fast across the sky that it's like time is speeding up

Orange hues of red sunlight flicker through the gaps

I can feel the pricking of grass

I can feel it in my ears

My toes

It feels like every hair on my body is a blade of golden straw

My chest is cold and I feel my body is frozen to the ground

My heart sinks into the soil. I wonder, what’s left of me?

Small fairies of warmth crawl into my body

They're like little puffs of fire that dance around my face

I can feel them crawling into my mouth

Down my throat

It doesn’t feel bad.

It's like drinking warm tea on a cold winter's day.

I can feel my body getting warmer with each leap down my throat

But my heart feels like a stone

My body gets lighter with each jump down my throat,

But my heart feels heavier and heavier.

The pull of the grass gets stronger and stronger,

Rip.

R. I. P.

It feels like my skin is burning

The blades of grass that stuck into my skin

Are being pulled out as my body floats higher

And higher

Every

Single

Piece

Feels like needles piercing into me

Pluck

PLUCK

No, stop.

Stop entering my mouth little fairies,

This pain is too much for me to handle.

My heavy heart is ripping through my spine

Every nodule popping out of place

It hurts.

I can feel the flesh of my back tearing and ripping apart

It burns.

It feels like I’m bleeding

But there's no blood.

I feel light-headed.

A lump grows in my throat

But the fairies keep going in

I’m starting to choke

I can feel tears trickling down my face and into my ears.

Why is this happening?

I try to move my arms to cover my mouth

But I can’t feel them.

help

I can feel myself screaming

But I can’t hear anything

A ringing in my ears goes on for what feels like an eternity

My bones are aching and cracking and I can hear it in my head

crack

crackle

pop

My body begins to stop feeling and I know in my cold heart,

That I am already dead.