It wasn't the sound of an emergency room that greeted him either.

Probably for the best. Given the state he was in he'd most Likely have needed to spend a lot of time consuming all his food through a straw.

It wasn't a prospect he really liked the idea of.

He'd yet to open his eyes. Part of him hardly dared. His body seemed restored, such as it was. The softness in which he Laid had a pleasant fluffyness to it that reminded him of clouds and he desperately hoped that he wasn't about to have a face to face with St Peter. It took him several minutes before curiosity outweighed fear and he finally had to know where he was. He lifted his eyelids to look out upon the afterlife.

Ice. Ice and snow. It was everywhere. Not ‘bad English winter’ everywhere either. More like ‘Antarctica’ everywhere. Everything was made of pure white with enormous glaciers rising above him and spilling around the spires of a castle forged from the purest blue ice. The place was a majestic testament to winter with great towers and a rolling drawbridge settled above a moat in which snow remained settled and unmoved for eternity.

William sat up and realised that something was wrong. He wasn't cold.

Temperature didn't seem to be something he felt any longer. He checked his other senses. His eyes were obviously working, he could feel the snow beneath him, the scent of his gloves was easily settled in his nostrils and he tasted the cool flakes of snow upon them. A few claps of his hands showed that his senses seemed to be functioning fine. He just simply couldn't feel the cold any more.

It sure as hell didn't seem like any afterlife he'd ever heard of. Not unless...

He thought back to his days in the army. The girl he'd been seeing was arguing with him. She was hot tempered, red haired and beautiful in a way he didn't know existed until he'd met her.

“Up my arse!? Up my arse he says! William Bennet if you think you're ever putting anything up there then you should know that you've got more chance of hell freezing over!"

Her yells and that distantly familiar playful anger echoed in his memory. Well he'd married her shortly after and after a few years they started getting slightly more adventurous in the bedroom and...

Well it was the only explanation he could think of at such short notice.

The thought did remind him of her. She'd died in her late thirties in a road accident. A bitter thought ran through him as he considered that was something else they now had in common.

He'd never believed in the afterlife and if he had he still wouldn't have Liked the idea of it. Never ending happiness for just the small price of your soul? The idea seemed to cheapen what it was to be alive.

The only saving grace was that he might have gotten to see his wife again. It seemed that wasn't the way it worked.

With a short sniff he buried those feelings down where they belonged and made his way toward the castle since it was the only sign of anything in the barren wintry landscape.

As well as being hauntingly beautiful to behold, the blue ice castle was also staggeringly enormous. Parts of it didn't seem like they should have been able to stand but gravity didn't seem quite as important here. He walked over the bridge across the moat of snow and under the great gate set into the outer wall. The courtyard beyond was filled with frozen fountains and beautifully crafted ice statues. There was even a frozen likeness of a few trees and he noted beautiful sapphire roses of the glassy frozen substance crawling up the wall beside the gate.

The snow crunched beneath his feet as he looked around and tugged off his gloves along with his overcoat. He laid them over the still fountain and made for the door. He didn't notice the way that they vanished behind him. Not even a chill passed through him despite his lack of winter wear in such an obviously freezing climate. Lifting his fingers to run his hand through the bristly strands of his beard,

William pushed the great door and heard the sudden crack as it jerked and forced itself open. The massive arch in which the door was set suddenly emptied as the door split in two and swung to either side in a grating, jerky motion.

The sudden Loud noise in amidst all the silence made William jump with a startled Little grunt before he peered beyond. Eerie blue light emanated from beneath the ice to show the inner castle. A massive hall lay before him. Great tables were carved from frozen slabs and intricately decorated with various runes and images. Massive pillars lifted to the roof above which was covered in its own great carvings that seemed more magnificent to behold than the decorations of the greatest houses of human worship. William actually stopped breathing as he looked over his surroundings. It was the stuff of dreams. Eerie, silent and stunningly beautiful.