Dying in Valhalla

     “She could have asked questions until she died of old age instead. But Dr. Niide had already given her the toxin. She was suddenly very tired.
     It wasn’t so different from falling asleep, but it had a very final feeling to it. That finality was what she had to overcome. For all time, death had been final. Now it was not. It was much like the first time Violet tried to swim, when she’d had to make herself dunk her head under water. Everything inside her had told her not to do it, but after some hesitation, she’d remembered that it was what she was in the water to do. The instinct not to submerge was ferocious, nearly impossible to fight, but she’d mastered it and forced her head under the surface, and she came back up with water in her ears. She did it with ease every time she went swimming after that. She was in med bay to die. She would wake up again. She forced herself to let the drug take over, to let her heart stop, and she fell into nothingness.
     She knew she was dead as soon as she was alive again. She had been dead. She knew that and was therefore not dead anymore. She was in med bay, and for some reason she was relieved that her ears weren’t full of water. She opened her eyes to see Veikko and Vibeke beside her. She was home safe in Valhalla, Hall of the Slain. She laughed to herself. They’d named it exactly what it was.”

from VALHALLA by Ari Bach, part one of a trilogy.