*NEWS ALERT: FLORIDA SENTINEL, JUNE 7TH: - DISASTER AT DAYTONA INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY WHERE 3-TIME NASCAR CHAMP MIKEY ANGELO COLLIDED WITH DIVIDER BARRIERS GOING APPROX 116 MPH AFTER BEING STRUCK BY FLYING DEBRIS LESS THAN ONE MILE FROM THE FINISH LINE. PARAMEDICS AND EMERGENCY CREWS CURRENTLY ON SCENE. ANGELO NON-RESPONSIVE - CLICK HERE FOR MORE DETAILS.

  "Okay people, on the count of three, ready? One...

  Mikey lay flat on his back.

  "Two...

  The sun blazing behind his wide-open eyes.

  "Three..."

  Looming directly over him and upside-down, a group of hands were reaching somewhere behind him, two of which slid just underneath his gently resting crown—

  — alley-oop!"

  — and lifting—

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  "Easy does it now, he's no sack of potatoes."

  As his body rose off the ground, the whole world went silent. And yet he could still hear the sirens. And the footsteps, clamouring in every direction. And the screams of panic overlapping the undefined background.

  "It'll be okay, kid. You just stay with me."

  A voice he recognized spoke reassuringly. But Mikey for the moment found it difficult to differentiate one voice from another. "Stay with me, Mikey. Can you hear me?"

  Everything was going in and out of focus; sights and sounds bleeding together, echoing simultaneously across the nebulous blue sky, which was being enveloped by a blindingly-bright light, until he could see almost nothing else.

  Mikey Angelo had no fear of death. Some might even say he courted it at every turn. And given his unhealthy penchant for pushing the envelope past its limit, if this was his time to go, then so be it.

  What better time, he figured, then while holding the lead?

  Not every race is about who finishes first.

  "Huh? Come again?"

  "What'd you say, Mikey? Shut up, I CAN'T HEAR HIM!"

  Some even go around the track longer than you can imagine...

  "Who the hell said that?"

  Mikey awoke whole. Sitting upright. In a forest clearing.

  "What the—?" His own words reverberated back to him and out beyond the expansive stratosphere to eternity.

  'Where the hell am I?'

  It was sterile and undisturbed. A circle outside of time, at the centre of a lush, vibrant eco-system. He realized he could see everything in perfect detail, including his own body, from above. Luminous. Surrounded by a chorus of at least four or five others, each its own pulsating body of light. One had the shape of a tall lanky man. Another was unmistakably female, (betrayed by her round pregnant belly). Another, standing directly across from him, offering little to no clues whatsoever. And something else...

  He could sense a presence in the trees. To go with a pair of very patient eyes, watching. Perhaps waiting.

  "No way this is it for you yet, kid, you hear me? We still got plenty more laps to go, you and me."

  The familiar voice cut right through the baffling hallucination.

  The light became brighter, enveloping every other-worldly detail, until finally...

  Mikey opened his eyes.