27 January 2013
(authors note: this is a dark story on a touchy subject, I don't mean any offence it's just an idea that was stuck in my head, I do have other story's that are no where near as dark that I will hopefully load later. Thanks for reading and I hope you like it :) )
Prologue (part one of two) The girl in the cafe.
Can you see that girl? The one sitting in the corner of the cafe. One glance and you see her raven black hair, her pale skin and pure blue eyes. In one glance you see her dress, simple in design; navy blue in a vintage kind of style, her red stilettos adding a certain kind of flare to the whole outfit. In that one look, you think nothing of her. Now look closer. Her hair has a strange tinge of red, her blue eyes show freckles of gray, all rimmed with red from her tears, her lips are raw and her ivory skin has small stains of mud. Now her outfit, can you see the mud stains, places where it's torn? Now look closer. See how her eyes stare off into the distance, look at how her hands are trembling, see her cheeks tainted with the palest of pinks, see how she makes small scratches of the side of her hand thumb with her index finger, four scratches then a pause, four scratches then a break as if she's counting. If you looked even closer you could see the scars that where no longer there, you would hear the screams she pleaded with only a few hours ago. You would see the marks he left on her. But no one looks that close, they only share a glance, one quick look, enough to judge and assess, and then they walk past. From that one glance what would you think? That she'd been stood up? That she had ran away from a party? That her boyfriend had broken up with her? Do you want to know the truth? The truth being so cruel and horrific not even she could believe that someone would cause so much pain for there own selfish want. What if I told you that this girl had a family? Loving parents and a brother? What if I told you she had just had her heart broken? What if I told you, this girl was an A* student, with dreams of being a doctor? What would you say? Now what if I told you this girl died? That right now, this moment her body was being buried somewhere in the woods, abandoned, alone, never to be found. And this person you are looking at, the girl in the corner of the cafe, that girl with black hair and blue eyes, the girl in the navy blue dress and red shoes was nothing more than a ghost. What would you say then? Maybe just maybe you'd look closer. You're probably wondering how I know all of this? It's quite simple really, see I'm that girl and approximately two hours ago, I was killed by my so called boyfriend a man I that I thought loved me. Now what would you say if I told you that I was sixteen, that I have never done anything wild, that I had never been to a concert, hell I hadn't even gotten drunk. Yet here I was, dead before my time. I heard a song once, I loved the lyrics, thought they were so poetic, now they annoyed me; 'well I've had just enough time.' but what if you hadn't? What then? Quite frankly right this moment the song seemed like it was giving me the middle finger. No I hadn't had enough time and it wasn't fair. "Here." came a small voice, I looked up to see Adam place a cup of tea down in front of me. "I read you liked tea." Remember when I said I was a ghost? Well technically I'm not, I'm sort of... Well I'm not really sure what I am, they haven't explained it to me, all Adam said was that I was more than a ghost, a living dead person. I have no clue what he means, but well, I'm dead, is there anything worse that could happen to me? Adam was a tall man, If I had to guess round about mid 20's; his posture reminded me of my farther. He had soft Hazel eyes that matched his hair, his nose was slightly crooked but it worked in his favour. It was clear he worked out and at moments when I looked at him he would smile, but it was obviously forced, he was sad, I could see it in the way his lips would quiver slightly until falling back into a frown. I think he could be quite handsome if he wasn't so sad. "Thanks." I whispered taking the tea holding my hands around it wanting nothing more to feel warm, to feel something but there was nothing, I felt no heat, I looked up at him as he plastered yet another sad smile on his tanned face. "Yeah you'll get use to that, not feeling heat, on the positive side you can't feel the cold." "Oh." I liked feeling the heat, another thing that wasn't fair, "Yeah." I looked at tea, in my mind imagining the heat, the way it use to burn my skin. "It gets easier Ella, you'll see, and you're not alone, there's Damon and Bradley and you'll like Harper, she's well she's very sixties." "Don't tell them." it was the first thing I came out of my mouth, suddenly fear gripped me. I didn't want them to know, I didn't want anyone to know, I wanted it to stay hidden, swept under the rug because that way I won't have to face it. "Ella." "Please." I whispered meeting his gaze as he studied me closely. "I won't." he sighed eventually "and I'll tell Damon not to as well." I didn't like the fact a stranger knew how I died, it made me feel like a rumour. "You'll like him, he's sort of the boss, gives us the assignments, he'll show you the ropes, tell you the rules, keeps all of us in check, especially Harper." "And you?" I whispered. He smirked and for the first time I saw a genuine smile. "Please me? I'm an angel." I tried to smile, he did seem nice, and I wanted to smile, I wanted to reassure him that I was okay, that somehow I would survive, but that was a lie, al, I felt was empty, open like a book, broken i was anything but okay, I felt rotten and undead, sick to the very pit of my stomach, I didn't think this feeling was going away anytime soon. Just then the front door opened the familiar 'ding' broke the silence of what was a very empty cafe along an abandon road. It was late, very late; we had been sitting in this well, what Americans would call 'dinner' for a good two hours lost in our own thoughts. I looked up to see him, he walked with an unnatural grace, his hair seemed primed, his posture straight and formal. Adam looked back and smiled waving go catch the mans attention. He walked over, his eyes sad as he took me in, I couldn't help it, I liked his man instantly, he reminded me of Alan Rickman, not the professor Snape type of way but lime the gentlemen in that period drama, 'Sense and Sensibility?' something like that. Either way he looked like he had just stepped off the pages of a Jane Austin novel, not in the way he dressed but just the way he looked, the way he walked it was all... Very old-fashioned. "Hello Ella." He said sliding onto the seat opposite me, jeez even his voice sounded old. "Damon?" "Got it in one." He said winking obviously trying to make me laugh, I managed a smile but it felt so forced and unnatural I just gave up. "Hay." He placed his hand on mine, I pulled back immediately, my eyes wide, "I'm sorry." he quickly said leaning back. "I should of..." "It's okay." I whispered of course this man wasn't going to hurt me, he was this leader Adam had promised, he was safety, but the idea of a man touching me, of anyone, I didn't want to think, I didn't want to feel it. "No, it wont happen again. I'm sorry Ella." "For what? You didn't do anything." "You're taking this very well." "It could be worse," This was true, at least j could still drink tea, it was something. He sighed shaking his head turning to Adam "Insolent whelp! You didn't explain it to her did you?" I almost laughed at the name 'insolent whelp,' it seemed so alien and unnatural in this world yet somehow it worked in his tongue and voice. "Well, I tried, but this shuts hard." "Don't swear, we're in the company of a lady." "You bloody did-" Damon waited him with the newspaper "Ow!" "I told you not to swear." "We all swear in front of Harper." "It's Harper." "Point" "Not that thus isn't fun or anything but could you, you know explain a few things," I said no longer able to take the arguing. Almost instantly they stopped as Damon's eyes seemed to darken. "Okay, here's the thing, you're dead as in you are not in your afterlife." "This is a shit afterlife." The sentence was said before I even knew it. they both laughed that sad laugh, I'm gonna have to get use to that aren't I? "It sure is." "So what am I? I mean people can see me, I can talk to them, I can drink, I'm obviously not a ghost." "No you're a collector." "Collector?"
On The Other Side • Opuss № I