The Apparition

Sometimes I feel so lonely. That’s what she was thinking as she walked down the gloomy hallway of the hospital. Why? Why me? Why does this stuff always
have to happen to me? I hate it!!!!! No. No. Don’t let “them” take over. Never!!! Not the bad thoughts.

She walked and walked. All she was wearing was the hospital gown and her torn blue jeans. Where should I go? Where? The nurses will go to my room and find
it empty. They will. They will. Oh no!!!! Panic flooded through her. All her veins flooded with adrenaline. Heavy duty adrenaline. Her heart started beating
fast. Run! Her brain screamed. Run! She opened the hospital door. The weather outside was gloomy. Just as gloomy as the inside of the hospital. There were
clouds in the sky. Big black angry looking clouds. It had just rained. The ground was still soggy. She walked out to the driveway of the hospital. Sick.
Sick.

She walked to the side of the building where the dumpster was and threw up. Not good. Not good. “Don’t be afraid.”

What? Her. She was coming back. The person who always just appeared. “I’m here now.” The girl turned to see her, the beautiful apparition. “I thought you’d
never come,” she whispered, tears streaming out of her eyes.
“Shhhhhhh,” the apparition whispered. The girl walked forward into the arms of the ghost. Or was it? Was it, the person the girl sees, really real this
time? “I’m here,” the sootheing voice whispered. As the girl, the nameless girl fell into the arms of her apparition, where she was happiest, where she
always longed to be, all life went out of her. She went limp, but in her mind, she was flying, flying away with her beautiful apparition who gave her more
life in death than when she was alive.

The nurses found the girl in her bed where they had left her. The strange thing about it was, the girl, who had been in the institution for only two weeks,
who had always been crying and unhappy and panicky, had a peaceful smile on her face. Written on the mirror above the girl’s head in lipstick were the
words, “I’m here.”
The nurse stared at the girl a long time as the monitor let out its constant whail with no beeps. The cause of death was unknown to all doctors and nurses.

At the funeral, where only a few of the girl’s family members attended, a lady appeared. She stood in the back, unnoticed, wanting it that way. She looked
like an angel in the sunlight, seeming to float as she walked, not seeming real at all but like a mere presence. When everybody left, she walked up to
the girl’s grave and put one single red rose on the tombstone. Written on a small scrap of paper rolled up and hidden in the petals were the words, “I’m
here."