Tied

Drifting seemed to be the right way to describe how I felt. Sleep had never felt so light, so calm, so... Unlike sleep. I realized I was analyzing how my sleep felt. I was fully conscious.

I could look down at myself and see my skinny frame laying completely still under the covers.

Oh God...

Was I dead?

The sudden pain in my belly let me know that I was not dead, but maybe dying...

A thought found its way into my muddled head.

"This has to be the strangest thing that has ever happened to me."
A few more moments of ethereal floating and abdominal pain were interrupted by a sharp tug on the back of my neck. My vision exploded in painful bright colors for a few seconds that seemed to last an eternity, then I was somewhere else.

"Correction: THIS has to be the strangest thing that has ever happened to me..."
I was in a very clean room. There were some monitoring machines and a man laying on the bed, pale faced and fast asleep. the room must have been a hospital room, but all the machines looked seriously outdated. Either this place was suffering from a serious lack of funds or... I looked over at the man again and a cold chill spread along my spine. That face. That wild white hair. I was looking at Albert Einstein, laying in a hospital bed, dying. Also, fun fact, I had been somehow transported into the past.

All of my words suddenly started to tingle disconcertingly, and I felt drawn towards him. Into him. The slow beeping of the heart monitor started to speed up as I inched closer to him, and I could feel myself starting to enter his thoughts. The intense pain in my belly worsened, and my form wavered. Then a nurse walked in, and the connection was lost.

"Hello Mr. Einstein. How are we doing today?" He slowly opened his eyes and regarded her carefully. Taking a heavy breath, he began to speak in a thick German accent.

"I am dying. It is an interesting feeling, but it is unfortunate that it must come with such pain."
She smiled a sweet, comforting smile.

"You're not dying, sir. the doctor will fix that rupture of yours, and you'll be as good as gold." He laughed a weak, throaty laugh.

"It is tasteless to prolong life artificially. I have done my share; it is time to go. I will do it elegantly." Her smile faded and her cheerful demeanor became somewhat somber.

"If that is truly your wish, sir, we cannot force you to go through with the surgery. The doctor will have some paperwork for you to fill out, then we can release you from the hospital if you wish."
He nodded and the nurse left the room. His eyes closed and he muttered to himself before falling asleep again.

I became aware of a dark presence over my shoulder. It chilled me, and I could feel it reaching out for me, for my soul. The scariest part was that my soul seemed to be reaching back. I could almost feel my spirit funneling out of my body and towards the darkness.

I fought back desperately, my soul grappling with itself and with the darkness. I didn't know what this dark beast was or why it had chosen me, but I knew what it wanted. It wanted to change history, to bring back the dead, and it was going to steal my soul to do it. It was going to steal all of our souls. My sister's soul...

I suddenly found my head filled with equations and foreign thoughts. My pulse pounded in my ears, and the heart monitor beeped the same frantic pattern. My vision went double, a picture of the room from where I was floating and a picture from where I was laying in the bed. the darkness filled the room and my head felt like it was being split in two, a dark spot growing like a macabre rose on my belly from an aneurysm bleeding out.

A voice in my head.

"We are not ready yet, but soon..."

I was dropped to the ground, my connection with Einstein and the darkness severed. I could feel my very soul trembling within my body. The darkness left me, biding its time until we were ready. Waiting until the time where souls are most pliable and willing to change hands.

The time just before death.