I have to admit, my story doesn’t sound like reality. It probably won’t to those reading it. But I don’t care. As long as my story is heard, I will be happy.
A short time ago, I was being operated on to fix a genetic deformity (pectus excavatum) that quite possibly could have killed me, it was so pronounced. When I was put under for them to do the surgery, they gave me a tad too much of the pain killing chemical. ( I honestly don’t know what it’s called.) I was later told that one of the nurses had accidentally undone my heart monitor, so nobody noticed that I had passed away.
While I was “dead”, I dreamed. I dreamed that I was on a path made of river stones. I saw a glowing light coming from the direction in front of me, and only an inky darkness behind me. It seems cliched, but that will be explained in a second.
As I walked down this path, a figure appeared before me. It was my great grandfather who had died in WWII. I always saw pictures of him throughout our house, which is how I knew him. He told me this, “Son, the road you walk is the one you made yourself. Hell to those is the one that they made. Oblivion is what you make it to be. Heaven is yours for the making.” And he faded into the light, and I knew he was at peace.
But before I started walking, I felt something. I turned around to see something standing behind me. I don’t really know how to explain it, other than to say it looked like the Symbiote Venom, but blue and on fire. It smiled at me, and I felt fear, but strength at the same time.
This thing turned around and waded back into the darkness. I heard my name being called and I recognized the voice as that of my girlfriend’s. I heard her crying for me to come back. Before I moved, I reached down and picked up one of the river stones, I thought that it was pretty. Then the crying turned into sobbing. I didn’t care what happened next, but I waded into the darkness and went to find her.
When I woke up in the hospital bed, I knew I was different. The IV tubes in my arms felt weird, like I was disconnected from my body. I heard the heartbeat monitor beeping at a single tone, but it was like that tone was speaking. I looked around to see my girlfriend sitting in a chair beside me, holding my hand between hers and crying. I reached over with my other hand to brush her hair away from her face. She looked into my eyes and she cried out of joy.
After she told me what happened, the doctors came in and asked me a question I thought was somewhat odd. They asked me if I’ve ever had a problem with kidney stones or pearl like buildups. I said no, and asked why. One of the doctors pulled the river stone out of his pocket and said that I had thrown it up before being revived. I now have that rock sitting on my desk as a souvenir, proof that I beat death.
But I didn’t come back alone. When I got home, I started hearing a voice that I didn’t know. This next part is what threw me off.
When I looked in the mirror, for just a second I swear I saw the creature staring back at me and smiling. I thought that I might just be tripping, maybe the anesthesia hadn’t worn off yet. But over the last few months, I can’t deny it any more. I brought this thing back with me, from Oblivion. It calls itself the Phoenix, and it’s been talking to me and controlling me. I’ve started doing things I would have never imagined. I’ve started to steal, my body is growing again, I’ve become stronger than I should be, I eat anything and everything, I have essentially fallen from grace. I’m trying to make a deal with it, to great success. Now I protect those who can’t protect themselves. I fight for myself and for others. But I hate evil. I want to slaughter and massacre all who would do evil.
I’ve already eaten a man. I’m unsure what I’m going to do next, but it probably won’t be good for the bad.

We now act as one.
Leviathan and Phoenix.
Love and rage.
Water and fire.
Me and him.

We are Rapture.