The Next Phase

For the past three days, Rachael has just felt a little bit off. She feels like there's an energy inside of her, and she can't figure out where it came from or what it is. In her mind, she said she feels like she had a quart of espresso and cola. With an intense amount of sugar thrown in for excitement. This afternoon is a bit different, though. She feels her skin start to vibrate. Her chest hurts like someone is beating on it, over and over.

She's sitting in her favorite chair in the living room, the TV off; she is staring at it. She doesn't understand what's going on or what's about to happen. All she knows is that she'll have all of her answers shortly.

She's been sitting in the same chair for what feels like 6 hours, staring at a blank television screen. As she stares at it, images pass through her mind, and she doesn't understand where they're coming from. Images of her, but above the city. Images of the city far below her. Friends, children playing on the lawn, a family of deer passing in front of her as she walks a mountain train from a few years ago. She makes the decision. In the morning, she's gonna make an appointment with her doctor and let her doctor try to understand what's going on and help her overcome whatever this medical condition is. It has to be a medical condition, because if it were an issue with her mind, she would know and feel the difference between her mind and her body.

She walks to the bedroom and lies in bed. The temperature in the house is 70. But she feels hot. Like, the room's temperature is higher than it should be. About 2:00 AM, she gets up, walks into the bathroom, and notices a glow as she looks in the mirror above the sink. She opens the small medicine cabinet door to remove the infrared thermometer. She takes her temperature, and it's over 130°F. She has no idea what's going on. At that temperature, she should be dead. Is she becoming some new form of life?

She closes the door to the medicine cabinet and looks in the mirror. There is a glow all the way around her. Like an aura, or like she's going to become white-hot shortly?

She does her best to maintain her physical form because she feels herself slipping away. The more she tries, the harder it becomes, and the more it seems to hurt. As the sun came up and the bedroom brightened, she realized she had been sitting on the edge of the bed for hours. It's almost 9:00 AM.

There's a knock at the door. She received a package of some type. She walks out, and thankfully the glow that she sees cannot be seen during daylight. The delivery person, who was startled when she opened the door, nods to her and carries on with her day.

She looks at the small package about the size of a thick book. Her name and address are on the cover. Rachael Roland. 1416 Express Court. Wait! Rolland? She hasn't gone by Roland in more than a decade. That was the name she had when she was married to the man who treated her like crap. Getting out of that marriage and that relationship took everything that she was. She reverted to her maiden name, Rachael Tomasino. She moved not only across the state, but across the country as well. She wanted to make sure he never found her.

She looked at the address label on the package again and noticed something very strange. A memory resurrected from her childhood. The return address was from a place where she remembers playing as a child.

When she was growing up, there was a small warehouse about a mile from where she lived. In that warehouse was a man running a small business. His business was called Dream Catcher Incorporated. She remembers telling the man that what she said would be the dream of her life. The man offered to grant her dream, only on a date and time of his choosing in the future. She said that she wants to become something. Something she was not. Something more than she is.

He told her she would have to give something up to become what she wanted. She would be transformed into something new, something better, something amazing. Throughout her life, she realized that this could have meant giving up the marriage to become somebody much better, or giving up a location, a town, or a place, which is why she moved.

She opened the package and removed the wrapping from the book. She remembered this book; the man in the warehouse had them everywhere. Cedric Zephanias that’s his name. On the cover of the book, at the bottom. The author.

The image on the cover was beautiful. Puffy white swirling clouds on the bluest and most beautiful sky she had ever seen in her life. The title of the book: three words, each word on its own line. THE NEXT PHASE.

Opening the book, she looked at the copyright. First published in the year 0000. Must be a misprint, she thought. Looking at the next line, she saw the book's current print date, July 19, 1968.

Her mind tried to look back to where she was and what she was doing on that date, then it hit her. That was the date her mother died in a car accident. It was also the exact date she ran from the house and hid herself in the warehouse- that warehouse. The man found her and helped her understand that her mother would be fine. He delivered her book to her, and she is in the process of transforming.

She began to hear conversations around her; the pain in her chest came back, again, and again, and again. The sounds stopped when all she heard was a single, piercing, loud tone that seemed like it lasted for eternity. Then it was gone.

Rachael stood there in the hospital room, realizing she had given up her life for peace of mind, safety, and security, and as she looked around the room, she saw nurses and doctors who tried to keep her alive. She saw her children, grown and crying. She saw police officers placing handcuffs on her husband. Arresting him for her murder.

All of her memories were a dream, a hallucination. She thought this to herself, and as she did, the man from the warehouse appeared.

“Rachael, they were not meant to make you feel sad. Those memories are there by design to help you transition. To aid you in giving up your corporeal being. To let go of this phase of your existence so you will be ready for the next phase.”

She looked at Cedric. “The next phase?”

“Yes, my dear. I am here to escort you to eternity.”

Cedric offered her a bent elbow, and she wrapped her hand around his arm. A moment later, everything started to fade away. She had passed on to the next, giving up everything that she was, everything that she is, but at the same instant taking all of that with her as she moved on to the next phase.