Second Chance

A wrenching pain.
        A blinding light.
        An odd question...." Are you dead yet?."
        It was asked with a child like impatience, the beginning of a whine creeping in at the very end.
        And then I was beyond pain. I was too tired to feel and I just laid on the floor-laid and listened. Small sounds of the faucet dripping and birds chirping where drowned out by the man crashing around upstairs. I could here his heart, even from where I was, as it pounded against its cage and screamed to be let  out.  His heart beat, and the rhythm of his feet pounded in my ears till there was nothing else, there was no one else. No heart beat to accompany his. He panted and gasped as he lugged everything that had once belonged to my family but he would  now gift to his. Then there were tire screeches and the small sounds could be heard again.
        " They're gone." The voice of a child younger then me, high and sweet drifted from my side. " You can open your eyes now", he said.
        I didn't want to. For a moment I even doubted I could. Finally the boy reached out and nudged my shoulder, so lightly it was little more then him placing his finger on  my arm and then pulling back. But that one spot tingled and then burned.
        I ripped my eyelids open and felt the world settle in around me. Slowly, I turned my head to the side and saw my hand sprawled out, white in contrast to the red blood that pooled around it. Some part of me had already connected what had happened and whispered that I was dead. I wished it was wrong, but didn't fight what I knew to be true. Instead I willed my hand to move and found a mirror image of my hand, my  arm lift  right out of my body and do as my mind told it to. The mirror me slipped away and I just crouched there. It took me a while before I could look at my lifeless body, blood dripping down my face and staining my eyes red.  Any calm I had then vanished and I began to scream.

                                                      ***

        The boy told me, " my name was Frank when I was alive, so I quess that's what you can call me. Will you stay and play with me?." He pleaded with me but I didn't move from where  I sat, completely still. " It's not all that bad", he pressed, " well it'll be better  now that someone's here  to keep me company." He looked about seven but I couldn't be sure. Rusty colored hair shadowed most of his face  but his smile was warm and bright.  Slowly he took the vintage  fireman's truck he'd been clutching in his arm the whole time and rolled it over to me and it hit my leg gently.  " Please", he asked and I just couldn't say no. I pushed the truck back and he grinned wide. He reminded me of myself somewhat. He was  just a little boy all alone, no one could hear him, see him, or help him. How many times when I was just a little girl did I consider running away  because I felt the way he must now. 
        We pushed the truck back and forth, back and forth until I realized it was nearly night. I could hear a strong wind outside , and the trees howled. Could I still feel the wind, I wondered? I drifted towards the door and peered outside. I went to the door and prepared to find  out but  then Frank was there, blocking  my way and looking at me with deep black expanses that had once been eyes. With out looking at myself I knew mine weren't like his and what had happened to his eyes must have happened while he was alive. I suppressed a shiver.
        " We can't leave. We have to wait for Mother."
        I tried to move him or at least grab the door handle but he wouldn't  budge. " What do you mean Frank, your mother? Has she been gone long?"
        He dropped his unnerving gaze, " Mother left right after to find Father. I've been here by myself a long time." Right after they died he means, and I can't help but think what a long time he must have waited, his clothes are a few centuries out of date.
        " I have to see if it's the same...I just have to see." I know he thinks I'm going to abandon him, like his mother must have, but he steps aside to let me pass anyway.
        "It is not the same out there. It is only safe in here." Frank offers his bit of wisdom, sounding about as old as he must be.
        " I'll come back, I promise." And I'll make sure I do because it hardly seems fair that I leave him in the house waiting for two people that will never come back.
                                                    ***

        The moment I stepped outside I noticed what Frank must have meant by 'it's not  the same.' Inside, in the house I'd lived in, was born in, little is different then what it was.  I could walk, and touch things, and pick things up. But there, outside, there were no familiar walls to keep me from just...just what I don't know but  I have a strange fear that the wind I have longed to feel could tear me apart and scatter me across the world.  My feet don't make contact with the ground , instead I just hover, swaying like a swimmer in the ocean. I smile and wonder if my legs have fused into a ghostly tail, but then I think again and the thought isn't so amusing.
        I was undecided where to go but then it hit me, the park.  I remember going there with my parents and then just one of my parents at a time till it was just me by myself. I didn't want to be around when my parents came home to find my body anyway.
        When I reached the park it was too late for any one to really be out and I had the swings all to myself. I swayed over  and sat but not for long because it was like trying to hold sand in your hands while your fingers are spread apart and you feel it all slipping away. I hovered over the swing and managed to get it swinging just a little. Barely. I don't know how long I sat there like that but the night had turned from black to gray.
        Behind me a couple was walking along the sidewalk but then they stopped and I could hear what they were talking about. The man was talking about all the things they could afford now and how he hadn't even needed to rob that house the other day. Something about that sounded familiar but I didn't  know what and I came closer, until I was only a few feet away to hear what the women , who is much  more soft spoken, had to say.
        " No", and she took  a deep breathe that only made her seem more nervous. " No, I'm using the money to start a new life somewhere far from here. Don't you see? You didn't have to rob that house, one way or another. We can leave but only if you promise never to hurt another person. Please, I love-." One slap from the man silences her and the beginning of tears form in her eyes.
        " What?! Now you don't approve of the way I've gotten the money to buy you things and take you out!? You have no one, Daisy and have you forgotten that it's my address you filled out on the back of that lottery ticket?."
        The women could only be eighteen , but she seemed more my age as she realized the situation she'd gotten herself into with no one nearby. She began to cry and shake her head no, saying no to a lot of things.  He stepped forward, furious and fist raised but then I stepped between them.
        His fist passed right through me but stopped before it came to Daisy's face when the icy burning sensation took control. This is the man who killed me  I finally realize, but  I can't bring myself to do him any harm.
        Some part of me thought he would just walk away after that but after a few minutes of rubbing his arm he was up again, knife in hand. This time my standing between them didn't stop him from plunging it into her stomach.

                                                  ***

        I threw myself at the man, no longer caring if I hurt or even killed him, just as long as he wasn't allowed to do to any more people what he did to me. My punches and kicks made him gasp and hurt but it wasn't enough, I saw he was determined  to get closer to her, to finish her. I then reached my hands into his mind, swatting and waving, ripping and tearing until he fell, eyes open and breathing, worse then dead.
        Turning my back on him and what I had done, I looked to Daisy, who was  wild eyed with fright and astonishment at what this man had presumably done to himself. She tried to crawl away but could only clutch her stomach in agony. Leaning down I grasped the hilt of the  knife and was able to slowly pull it out. Blood poured around her and I placed my hands on her wound, hoping  it would help numb the pain. It did seem to help for a little while but then she looked at me like she really saw me and stopped breathing.
        I looked up and her mirror image, her spirit was there." Thank you", she said before she was gone, probably to the place I should have gone to while I had the chance.
        Wild thoughts raced through my head. Maybe I could bring her back. Why not! I wasn't going to doubt anything then . I beat her chest but it wouldn't start again. Soon I was tired, more then I've ever felt before. I'm sure that was  what  happened to Frank's mother. She wandered too far and she's out there right now, sleeping. We were not meant to leave our  homes, we're not much more then a dispersing mist outside them, I saw then.

        I  couldn't fight the weariness any more. My eyelids were winning the battle and I fell, I fell right on top of Daisy.
        I'm so sorry Frank, I thought.
                                                       
                                                ***

        " Hello?", the women who had once been my mother stood at the door studying me. Did she know who I was?  " How can I help you", she asked, only seeing what was in front of her , not me.
        " Yes, my name is Daisy, I saw the for sale sign and was interested in  your house."
        She opened the door wider to let me in and I saw  Frank smiling down at me from the top of the stairs. My mother doesn't' say anything for a few minutes and neither do I.
        " My daughter died in this house", she breaks in out of nowhere," it's just people seem to want to know this...."
        " Why,  is the house haunted?." Her jaw tightens. " I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be rude."
        " I understand. I don't believe in all that anyway."
        " Oh, I see. I know this is very sudden but I really like this house. I feel like I've lived here  my whole life", a small bitter smile creeps onto my face and I turn away from her, just  as she is from me, so she won't see my bitter tears," I'd like to move in as soon as I can."




                                        The End