Chapter 3

December 25, 2012
12:00:33 a.m.

My name is Paul.

I'm pretty sure I just died, but I don't think I'm dead.

The whole thing feels kind of weird but I think I'm dead.

Oh, wait. I'm not dead, am I?

Everything happened at once, you see, so it's all mixed up in my head. It was ... is Christmas Eve ... well ... it's technically Christmas Day since it's after midnight, but who really thinks of midnight as tomorrow, right?

Nothing makes much sense right now. One minute I'm sitting in a booth at the diner, having coffee and a cheese Danish. Then WHAM! Someone clicks on every light in town and shines them all in my face at once. It is so bright I can't see, but the brightness doesn't hurt my eyes.

Then this giant shows up, throws the front door off the hinges, and I think that's when I died—if I died. I think that's when a lot of people died—if they did—but it all happened so fast, I'm not sure I'll ever get it straight.

There was noise, lots of noise like the world's biggest blaring car horn stuck in the On position. You'd have to experience it to understand, because even that loud didn't hurt.