The Crying Angel

Word count: 1371

While in the passenger seat of our car I observed my surroundings as we drove past them. Mom drove a bit too fast, still angry with me for always arguing before going on our yearly trip to the cemetery. So, what? It doesn’t matter, why put flowers and light candles on graves?
I believe that once you’re dead you’re dead, everything is black, and you know nothing of what happens around you. Maybe we get reborn into new bodies on the other side of the planet, I don’t know, but I don’t believe in Heaven and Hell. It just doesn’t make any sense. Many would argue with me, more than my mom, who is very religious.

There can’t be unlimited space in any of those two places. Hell would probably be filled, thousands of years ago. There can’t be more than a hand full of people in Heaven, with their rules it’s almost completely impossible to get in.
The car stopped. I got out and stretched my legs; my whole body were stiff after our five hour long drive. Why did they have to bury our relatives this far away, when the local cemetery looked the same?

I held Lily in my arms; she’s a black Norwegian Forest cat. Her yellow eyes turned against me. She looked at me as if asking my permission to explore the place on her own. I looked back at her. I knew that she would come back like she always did, so I let her down, and she tripped away, and her long fur bounced up and down.
There’s something special about her; ever since she was a kitten she’s always been listening to me and never been running away, like other cats would do.

“Are you coming?” Mom snapped. I woke up from my deep thoughts and followed her into the cemetery. The graves were lined up in perfect lines, some of them already decorated with candles and flowers, others not.
“I am going to walk around on my own. Say hi to our dead relatives from me.” I said and disappeared down another path. Mom muttered behind me, but I didn’t care what she thought.

I was curious of the old part of this place; I’ve always been in the new good-looking part, but never in the old one. There was a huge hedge separating both places. It was perfectly trimmed and from afar looked more like a green wall, than a hedge.
I walked though the small opening in the hedge, and let my gaze take in the other side. It looked like no human had put their foot on this side for many years. The hedge looked like something from a horror movie. Since the hedge was so high; most of the old cemetery was covered in darkness, even though it was only a little past noon. A chilly wind blew though the cemetery and I shivered. It grew colder and colder, as I slowly moved forward between the dirty gravestones. Goosebumps now covered my body, and every little sound made me jump.

My eyes widened as I saw a little boy standing next to one of the graves. The grave had a statue that looked like a crying angel, and the text was on a plate at the foot of it, long ago decayed. The boy looked like he was five or maybe six years old, he had chocolate brown hair and eyes of the same colour, and his skin was a little paler than it should have be.
He wore something covered in dirty that looked like a nightgown or a dress, it must have been white or cream coloured once.
I slowly walked against the lost boy and then crouched down in front of him.
“Where’s you mommy?” I asked him. He looked into my eyes, and opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again. After a while he turned his head to the plate on the statue, I followed his gaze and tried to read it, but it was truly impossible. The boy came to stand next to me, and he touched the statue. The text became like new again. I looked at him with horrified eyes, but he just smiled sweetly at me. I looked at the plate again and read:
“In memory of Emmelie Norton and her son Jacob Norton” I whispered.
“Mommy left me all alone.”The boy said. I looked at him again, the smile had disappeared, and now tears rolled down his cheeks. I lifted my hand to remove the tears. 
“I am sure that she will be back soon.”
“She said she would be, but it’s been so long.” A shiver went along my spine, as fear washed over me.
“A...are y...you Jacob Norton?” I asked with a shaky voice. He smiled again, and nodded. A cat meowed behind us, and I turned around. It was Lily, standing ten feet away from us. She took a few steps against us and then fell to the ground.

“Lily!” I screamed and ran to her. She was lifeless, she wasn’t breathing or anything. White smoke came out of her mouth. I jumped back, and hit Jacob and his mother’s gravestone with my back. The smoke turned into something else, a woman!
My mouth fell open and my eyes widened, as I saw the beautiful woman standing in front of me. She looked like she was a little more than twenty years old. Her hair was shoulder-length, the same brown colour Jacob’s hair had, and the same eye colour too. She walked to Jacob and lifted him up in her arms. She looked like the angel statue, but without the wings.
“Jacob, I am so sorry for not returning to you earlier.” She apologized. She had tears in her eyes, but she managed to keep them from falling.
“I forgive you mommy, you’re here now.” Jacob said and giggled.
“That is good.”
“I want to be a cat too, mommy, can’t I?” he asked
“If Jamie wants to take care of us both, then it’s okay.” They both turned to me.
“Sure, that would be great.” I said, not knowing what else to say, most of the fear was gone now.

The woman put something on the ground; it took a few while to understand that it was a little dead kitten. The kitten looked newborn, eyes closed and no fur. The boy went to the dead kitten and touched it. He turned into smoke, and went inside the little body. The kitten began to breath and tried to crawl with his tiny legs. Emmelie took the kitten up in a bit of cloth and gave him to me. Then she smiled and turned to smoke herself and went into the adult cat. Lily began to breathe too and sat up. I crouched in front of her and said:
“I could call you Emmelie instead of Lily if you want.” It looked like she shrugged, like saying it doesn’t matter. She turned around and began to walk against the new part again. After walking a few steps she turned her head and meowed. I stood up too and followed her.

Mom was waiting by the car and she didn’t look angry anymore.
“What’s that?” she asked and pointed at my hands.
“Emmelie had a baby.” I said, impressed with myself for coming up with something that good, without thinking about it. Well, she did have one long time ago, so it wasn’t really a lie.
“Who’s Emmelie?” Mom asked, looking confused.
“I renamed Lily to Emmelie; and this is Jacob.” I showed her the kitten.
“She never looked pregnant.” Mom argued.
“Well, she only got one kitten...and look he’s tiny.”
“Fine, let’s go home.” She said and sighed.
The long ride back went in a flash. I and Emmelie were in the backseat taking care of Jacob, as Mom drove in silence.
When we came home I watched Emmelie and Jacob rest, for a while, before I went to bed myself. When I was in bed I realized how tired I really was and my eyes fell shut.

“So, that’s where our souls go after we die.” I thought before falling asleep.