The Man in The Field

The sharp pain woke him up, his eyes shot open, but it was dark. It took him a moment to realize it was night, probably past midnight. He tried to move his arms and legs, but for some reason he couldn't, exhaustion? Or something else?

He couldn't collect his thoughts enough to think about it, so instead he tried turning his head to get a look around him, to the left of him, others were laying on the ground, but some with their bodies arranged in contorted positions, unnatural positions... He felt sick to his stomach and turned his head the other way, but what met his gaze was the glazed over eyes of a woman, dead, it seemed.

For some reason, the woman didn't revolt him like the other bodies had, there was a familiarity coming from her. She looked in one way young, but at the same time old. Her hair was white as if it were by age, but healthy as if it was that of a young woman. Her skin was wrinkled, but yet oddly smooth and without imperfections, her lips full and a playful red, almost inviting a kiss.

The thought of kissing the lips of the woman lying beside him had barely been registered, before he noticed something, it was so sudden and quick, he wasn't sure it actually happened, but then it happened again.. She blinked!

He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. The woman looked at him and began to weep beside him. "Oh you foolish boy" there was anger in her voice, but more so sadness and sorrow, "you should have known this would happen, like your father before you, and his before him" she started getting up, and her figure seemed to change, her resemblance changed to that of another woman, a more familiar woman.

"Mother?" the words, barely above a whisper, left the lips of the man laying on the ground, "but you're -" "Oh my foolish boy, what did you hope to accomplish here? Pain? Suffering? A medal?" the last part had a hint of venom in the tone as the figure of his mother turned away from him.

He once again tried to get up, but it was like there was a weight on his chest, making him unable to move an inch, the woman seemed to notice his useless effort, but when she turned to look at him, her figure had once again changed, this time to a younger woman.

The man's eyes widened, and tears started flowing from his eyes.

"Was it worth it? Leaving me for this?" she gestured to the field around them, the bodies laid scattered around. "I begged you, I cried for you and I prayed for you to change your mind! You didn't have to go, you didn't have to be here, you could've stayed!" the woman screamed the last few words at the man on the ground, who was now fully weeping, he could barely make out her silhouette, and when he blinked as the only response he could physically do in his situation, as he opened his eyes again, the woman was gone... His eyes went wide and he frantically looked around to get another glimpse of her, but she was nowhere to be found in his field of vision.

He closed his eyes again, weeping harder and struggling to gasp for air due to the pressure on his body. "I would've loved you, you know" the sound of a young girls unfamiliar voice, sounded in his ear, he snapped his neck around to the sound and looked at the face of a girl, no more than eight years old. For a moment he didn't recognize the girl, but then he saw the resemblance in her face. Her eyes, piercing blue as his own, and almond brown hair like the woman from before. She looked at him, a cold stare. "You could have been my hero, but you had to try and be everyone's hero instead, and what did that get you?" her words added to the pressure on the man's chest and made his breathing even more struggled.

"I hope leaving us was worth it, worth our heartache... and our hate!"

The girl disappeared and behind where she stood, the old? The first woman was sitting down. His gaze went to what she was sitting on and with a grunt, he saw that she was sitting on two bodies that were laying still on the ground, seemingly not noticing her sitting on them. "Well, can't say their words are anything special, it sort of becomes the echo in a place like this..." she made a deep sigh and fixed her gaze at something seemingly beyond the field they were at before looking back at the man, her eyes still full of sorrow and pity.

Her expression changed to that of a motherly warm smile "now then, I think it's time for us to leave" she knelt down close to the man, her face getting closer, again he noticed her lips, so inviting, but he shouldn't, he thought of the young woman and the little girl. But the lips were too enticing, and he was too tired to resist, he gave in, closed his eyes and kissed the woman.

He only felt the lips for less than a split second. He opened his eyes, and found himself standing up in the field, he looked down his body, touched his chest, the pressure was gone, he could move!

He looked around to find the young woman and the girl, but what his eyes found, was himself. Laying on the ground, he saw himself, covered in blood, missing both arms and a leg, lifeless eyes.

"Don't linger on it, it is part of the past now" the old woman spoke softly in his ear "follow me, to your new home"

The field started to vanish before his eyes and he could hear the sound of his mother humming the lullaby she sang to him as a kid

"Welcome my foolish son, you joined me too soon"