I took a gasping breath, clawing at my throat as I relived the sensation of my life’s blood spilling from my lips.

Heaving stale air from my long-empty stomach, I braced my forearms against the freshly overturned earth to hold my limp body.

My muscles were utterly wasted; every movement a searing flame into the newly reactivated pain sensors, but...pain. It had become foreign to me, over the years.

No matter how long I spent clawing at those endless concrete walls, ripping the nails from my fingertips, rubbing my skin raw, down to bone. Not for a single moment did any of it hurt.

Of course, on that platform, those injuries had never faded, plastered forever to my half-there, half-not body.

I centred myself with a deep shudder, forcing my eyes to remember natural light, outside of that awful, flickering lamp, emitting an unnatural yellow glow across the tracks.

As my vision focused, I at last noted my surroundings. Dirt, that was dirt beneath my fingers.

With no small amount of shock, I took in my somewhat unmarred fingers, scarred only by what had occurred in life. In limbo, I suppose, injuries serve only to torment the victim of such an imprisonment between worlds. They don’t truly exist on one’s mortal body.

I savoured the feeling of fresh oxygen pumping my reanimated lungs like a great bellows to get my cold blood flowing once more.

Finally mustering the strength to move, aside from my previous surge as I coughed myself to life, I twisted my neck to survey the area.

Old habits die hard, I guessed, with slight amusement at the irony. Die hard, I had thought. Like me, in the end. Even thirteen years wasn’t enough to erase instincts of self-preservation. More irony, it seemed, as my actions of doing just that had led to my death.

A large, calloused hand stretched into view, an offering of sorts. I narrowed my eyes, marvelling at the sensation of true movement.

After a moment, I decided to accept the assistance. My hand gripped his, the feeling of warm skin utterly new after so long without.

My legs screamed in protest as I stumbled to my feet, but somehow managed to hold me up. Likely due to the man now holding me up by my shoulders.

All of a sudden, memories rushed into me; a hand—that same one—beckoning from the first train to arrive in almost fourteen years. My steps, hollow against the tiles, then the floor of the carriage. Flashing lights, as we sped forward, away from that place of eternal suffering.

My throat worked in an attempt to create sound. Nothing.

I tried again, managing to produce three words.

“Thank you, Dream.” For that was Dream’s mask in front of me, the smile glaringly recognisable.

I sank to the ground, my knees folding under me. The sun crested the hills, shining brightly and warming my back. Heat; another long-forgotten concept. One I was eager to reacquaint myself with.

The first of many, I realised, with great satisfaction. I was back. I was truly back.

Despite what my blue-grey veins suggested, I was well and truly alive. A slow grin spread across my face as I beheld the sunrise for the first time in over a decade.

I was alive; revived. I had survived death itself, and was ready to unleash myself upon the reformed world I found myself in.

Yes, this was my sunrise, my dawn. The beginning of the end, as they say.

I turned to face my saviour, remembering the deal I had agreed to.

No stress, I had replied, when this man had proposed our bargain. It would be my pleasure.

And as he watched me in return, I could have sworn an answering smirk ghosted across the features beneath his mask.

Yes, I thought again. It was about time chaos reigned once more. I twisted back, and started eastward down the rolling hills.

I would not look back. Not towards my grave, my years of torturous silence, or my life before death. Only ahead; to the future. The one I was sure to build, if only to send it into smoke and ruins like before.

History repeats itself, an old friend of mine had once said, with great conviction.

Perhaps I’d pay him a visit.

And as I walked into the blinding rays of the sun, I glowed as bright as a god, bathed in golden light.