stay

The stories say that life flashes before our eyes as death covets us.

But what becomes of those who are loathe to respond to death's desire?

It is possible that a new world invites them into its realm

while those present during that final moment

assume roles in an altered tale.

Trapped in limbo and haunted by psychic warnings,

disoriented souls are hurled into a world

scattered with intermittent recollections and eerie probabilities.

Wandering through clouded time

where moments are predicted before they evolve;

invisible boundaries weaving an intricate paradox

where simple truth was once implied.

There is an instant when a life is offered an alternate conclusion;

stay and twist reality, or follow death, leaving time intact.

Those who cheat death, even briefly, absorb witnesses -

creating a dent in the universe, the skip of a heartbeat, a halting of clocks.

Yet when the dying finally accept their fate

each observer will carry a piece of that memory

until the moment they are confronted with their own death

caught between two worlds, forced to choose and remember.