"Where....am...I?" The man thought to himself as floated lifeless in the darkness that seemed to swallow him whole.
"Oh, seems that you've finally woken up." Said a voice that seemed to emanate from all around him as a pair of eyes opened just inside his view. A pair of deep, penetrating eyes that looking at made him want to run, if only his body would work.
"What happened... to me?" Was all he could muster out of his body that wasn't responding to his commands no matter how hard he tried.
"Oh? You don't remember what happened to you?" The ominous voice said as the answer came to him in a flash.
He was back on the bridge in the family carriage with his wife and his daughter. They were talking and laughing as they were headed into town. The next thing he could remember was his ears ringing, the Bridge was in shambles, the carriage was reduced to splinters. He couldn't stand, his legs were numb. He was covered in blood but he couldn't tell if it was his or someone else's. He had to find his family, he had to make sure that they were okay. He dragged himself through the debris of various carriages and stands that had once dotted the bridge as the ringing in his ears was replaced with wails and screams from those that had also been on the bridge. His vision was growing dimmer and dimmer, he knew he was dying, but he wouldn't stop before he could get his family to safety. He found his wife near the edge of the bridge, Her dress stained crimson with blood. He dragged his body along next to her and tried to hold back his tears and he moved her hair away from her face and meet her stare with his. She looked so calm, he thought, as he held her hand.
"Where is she?" she asked as a small trickle of blood left her mouth and rolled down her beautiful cheek.
"I don't know, I'll find her I promise" was all he could say as he fought harder and harder to keep back his tears.
She squeezed his hand and gave him one of her winning smiles that almost made him lose control over the tears he was now trying with every ounce of his mental strength to hold back. She knew that he was doing his best to not believe that she was dying.
"I love you" was all she could say as he leaned forward and kissed her as he felt her leave this world for the next.
He drudged on, determined to keep his promise to his beloved wife. He would mourn her after his daughter was safe. He went on for what felt like eternity, past so many bodies that had once been his fellow citizens. His eyelids were growing heavier and heavier, but he had to keep going. Thats when the bridge shook a second time and tossed his slowly dying body to the edge of the bridge. The shock had sapped most of what was left of his energy.
"I'm sorry" was all he could pass through his lips as he slid off the side and fell, and fell, and fell.
The eyes seemed to smile as they watched the expressions on his face as he slowly realized what had happened. He never made it to the water alive.
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Somewhere between the Darkness and the Divine.
There's Beauty in the Breakdown.
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Xenoiaos
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Teishi MacDaigh Community Member 
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BatChic
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I felt the expression of devotion that our lead character was feeling, and his personal pain of not being able to accomplish a loving life-task before death. It is my belief that we can feel empty if we fail at Life trials -- and, the trials themselves can represent hurdles in the way of human spiritual expansion.
The *Eyes of Realization* in this piece, were sinister and sadistic -- laughing at our hero at his attempts at love's reconciliation. In turn, the hero was symbolized as a pawn instead of a knight, and the reader cannot but feel for his frustration with the apparent lack of the freedom of choice in the matter.
The last line was excellent: "He never made it to the water alive."
This line reminds me of a spiritual passage:
Please, make me situated in the Holy-boat; Says Nanak,
thus I will cross over this terrifying world-ocean,
and reach the other shore (sggs 1220).
What is the "other shore"?
Simply put, it is a state of Infinite Wisdom — from ignorance born false ego-sense arises bondage (world-ocean), and from Wisdom ensues Freedom. Clearly, the "other shore" ("other world" or "world beyond" etc.) cannot be revealed to one entrapped in the worldliness.
So, with your slant on things, within this story, our hero did not meet with God but an imperfect copy of our hero's own ego as a shattered mirror'd psychological construct of self-image. And what is truly ironic, is that he becomes entrapped in the state of illusion as Purgatory.
Well done! *huggles* dee