CHAPTER 9 – DEATH


    His mind ran in circles, circles to escape the imminent choice: the final decision over life and death, breath and rest, consciousness, and the end. Theomitus feared the end and the off chance that there was no after. There was nothing waiting for him on the other side. Like a closed book, the end of a story.


    What if life was what you made it, and this wasn’t the beginning of an even bigger journey? Merely the end… No matter what the results may be, one thing was certain: this last adventure of the king’s legend would be the greatest of all. Many times, before he had witnessed death from the other end, serving enemies their final judgment on the battlefield and watching family members succumb to their own fate. But now, finally he was the victim of nature’s target. He was being killed by the will of the fates and combined wisdom of the universe. There was no arguing. There was no resistance.


    All that was left was one simple task. Theomitus had to let go on his own, of it all. The king has to give up his life, his bonds, his attachments, his knowledge; everything he had come to understand over his lifetime. That is what the dead have never been able to tell us…death is a choice. The king considered the idea, and it revolted him. He toyed with it, but he remained distant, he hesitated before the end. The days were growing darker, and it was getting too hard to hold on. King Theomitus of the Lion Kingdom nation now had one final task… choosing when to die.


    Dawn breaks and the King shares his last laugh with a Priest.


    ‘Breath, Beat’


    Two chariots came for him, unbeknownst to the rest.


    ‘Breath, Beat’


    Familiar faces and ancestors. Harbingers of the Heavens


    ‘Breath. Breath’This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    His family gathered around him. Sons at both sides.


    ‘Breath. Beat’


    A small candle of life burns down within him.


    ‘Breath. Breath. Breath. Beat’


    ‘We are all here with you.’


    ‘Breath. Beat. Breath.''


    His brain fills in euphoria.


    ‘…Breath…Beat…’


    Only love can he feel now, and the light shines of-


    ‘…breath...’


    This is it.


    ‘………’


    The king passes from this world.


    There is no grand departure or epic ascension. He just ceases to be.


    Along with the king dies certain reality, sensitivity, and morality


    And all the boy can do is sit there, in tear soaked eyes


    Move. Breathe. Live.


    Please


    …Life can go on.


    I let go of his hand,


    For the last time…