Leah looked out to her window from her bedside in her bedroom. From the twentieth floor apartment she can see half of New York through that small narrow window.
The city is beautiful around this time; pigeons fly by in flocks of eight or ten and fly right past the mirror-like windows of skyscrapers reflecting the sunrise in bright flashes of light, brightening the darkness of the faded white walled apartment bedroom. She sighed.
“Damn, that is bright.” She says as her body faces the light at full blast. She holds her hand over her eyes to avoid looking into the bright light.
“Yeah, it is.” A male voice said from behind her as she lay still on the bed. She shifts her body to look at the man in her bed. “Why, hello John.” She says smiling as she leans in for a kiss from John. He leans in and extends his neck to her head coming closer for the kiss. They almost kiss but sadly she just phases through him. “Shit.” John says and exhales in frustration as he pulls back and rests his head. The coldness of the pillow is the only thing that touches Leah’s lips.
“How come you can’t kiss me now? You did so well at controlling it last night.” She asks a little disappointed. “Because it’s like over-exertion for ghosts, I can only focus all my energy on one thing for so long- then I’ve got to recharge.” He explains as he sighs softly. “I hate being dead.”
“I know I hate it too, wish you were still alive with me baby.” Leah says as she pulls back her covers and sits up in her bed. John just phases through the blankets and sits up with her. “-I too baby, I just want to hold you like how we did last night, you know?” He refers to how he had conjured up the energy to have sex with her last night as a ghost. “Yeah, look I have to get ready for work okay?” she announces to give the hint so that he could give her some privacy.
“Okay-“he begins to get off the bed and walk straight into the wall until he turns around once more. “Hey-“he calls to her and she turns her head to him. “-I love you.” He smiles and conjures up some energy into this next motion as he rushes up to her and kisses her unprepared lips long and deep without phasing through her body this time. Her eyes close for that brief second and she is lost in the kiss. Before long it was over and he backs away quickly as if he had been running a marathon, breathing heavily with fatigue.
Leah rises from her bed and looks at him; worried that he might fade away like last time. “Hey, don’t use up all your energy okay- I don’t want you to leave again.” She warns him. “I know-“he breathes out before speaking again with a sly smile “-but it was worth it.” She smiles and rubs her shoulder, shivering from the cold that surrounded John. “Well let me tell you; facing all that cold temperature shit while having sex was worth it too.” He laughs and replies: “Sorry, it comes with the afterlife.” After which he walks through the walls and gives Leah her privacy.
Suddenly the loneness sets in and she is reminded of why she has this bizarre life with John.
What was this? Why is he here? Isn’t he dead?
He was, in fact he has been dead for nearly two years. He died while he was taking a cab home. The taxi crashed into a semi on the bridge and fell into the ocean along with two other cars and people plummeting to their deaths while the sharks waited for fresh meat on the ocean floor. Needless to say he was a victim of a terrible accident and for Leah to find out on the night of her birthday was almost too much for her. Almost a week from her birthday there was a funeral for a picture in a coffin. There was no body to bury which only made Leah even more inconsolable than she was the night she found out he was dead. This was a sad fact of her life and she tried to live on but the more she tried to forget him or at least let go, she couldn’t.
One night after the funeral she had tried to kill herself. A bottle of Jack and the twentieth floor can be a grieving girl’s worst enemy at that point but that day they were her best friends. She wanted more than anything to jump as she stood on the edge of the building feeling the midnight air breeze past her blonde hair. She first throws the bottle over the edge to see how long she would have to fall.
The bottle reached the ground in five seconds, the glass shatters into a thousand pieces onto the asphalt road which was always empty around this time. Seemed easy enough- her drunken mind had thought. “See you soon John.” She said as she leans forward and allows herself to fall from the ledge.
She was standing at the edge by her toes until she is lunged backward and pulled back onto the roof of the building. “What the hell?!” she cries at her mystery savior. “Can’t you see I am in pain? I can’t live anymore! Just let me fucking die!” she commands as she gets up from her fall on the roof only to see John standing before her. She is agape in terror and happiness, seeing that John was alive and well. He stares at Leah with a horrified stare. “Don’t you ever-EVER- do that again!” he warned as Leah rushes in to hug him, but in a jolting shock of disappointment she doesn’t even touch him so much as make contact with his leather jacket and jeans that he had been wearing the day he died.
And now here they were, after two years of studying demonology and the paranormal they have finally found a way to be with each other whilst he is still amongst the living.
But even when he was gone for even the smallest of moments she was reminded of the days when she was alone, when that side of the bed was empty and that cup was filled to the cusp with the medicine she knew that would ease the pain.
She is reminded of hell and allows a tear to fall from her eyes. “No- it’s not like that anymore.” She says as she draws in a sharp breath but finds it hard to continue breathing. “Shit-“she swears under her breath. “John! Help!” she shrieks as she collapses onto the floor and finds it too hard to breath. John rushes in from one of the walls and is by her side on the floor. “It’s okay- I am here!” He tries his best to soothe her but she is still in pain from her panic attack. “John- I need… inhaler.” She manages to say as she is desperately grasping for air. But within no time at all John looks to the nightstand next to her bed cluttered with tissue and make-up and finds the inhaler right there on the edge of the dresser- six feet away. He concentrates on the item and reaches his hand out to it. With ease the inhaler levitated off the nightstand and in to his hand. The energy flows out of his presence in a sigh of relief as he places the inhaler into Leah’s hands for he can no longer hold onto items physically anymore; at least to him-not for another day or so. Leah points the receiving end of the inhaler to her mouth and breathes in sharply holding in the medicine and exhaling. She inhales with ease and is able to breath normally again. “What was- that?” she asks him referring to the telekinetic reach for the inhaler that accompanied Leah almost twenty-four seven. He looks at her with a smile “ I have been practicing but only when I had the energy- like I had just done.” His smile fades along with half his body then flashes back again without a seconds passing.
This kind of thing only happened when John used up too much energy, he would sometimes fade away entirely from sight and appear later in the day. It took enough out of him to even make himself visible to Leah, but of course not nearly enough as it took to act upon sex with her. Last night was almost enough to fade him out of existence but he didn’t- there was something new here- and Leah noticed.
“I- I thought about it again.” She says quietly. “It was the day you sa-“
“I know what it was!” he says abruptly as the clutter of mess on Leah’s nightstand shuffled off the smooth wooden surface and unto the ground by itself. But Leah knew it was John. Only he could move stuff like that and judging from how the things moved after John’s outburst, it was a mood thing.
“Sorry- I know, I just don’t like to think about that. It was bad enough knowing you were going to die because of me. I don’t need to be fucking reminded of it!” he says looking away containing his anger, or at least the brunt of it. Leah looks at him, puzzled and almost hurt, but above it all here was a faint feeling of understanding. She didn’t want to make him angry; if anything him being on this earth with her after everything that has happened, was a blessing from God and she shouldn’t probe him about this anger towards her. It was very possible to piss off ghosts, all she needs to do is let him cool off and do a little calming down as well.
“No-“he says out of nothingness. He looks her in the eyes this time. “I’m sorry, I know that this happens when you think of-“he stops and reluctantly speaks again. “-that. But if I am angry just let me know okay? I will work on it.” She listens without saying a word. “I love you.” She smiles and gets back on her feet. She feels the warmth of love again rushing into her chest replacing that small spark of hatred and pain from that night. “I love you too, John. It’s okay-“she continues and sighs. John looks up at her and rests his right arm with his right knee and sits there on the carpet floor. Leah twiddles with the inhaler she always carried since she was thirteen for her acute asthma. “-I understand that this scares you and it scares me too- but I have you again- that’s all that matters. I may think about it sometimes and I may get pretty dark, but that’s why I have you.” She smiles at him and he smiles back feeling calm and loved again as well rather than feared for his unnatural being. “Okay-“he says. She turns around and heads to the dresser to gather her clothes and bath towel for a shower.
“Hey thanks.” John says still in the same position as he was before. She turns around from her pacing to the dresser and looks at him still smiling. “What for?” she asks. “For saying that I was a blessing.” He replies. This struck her as odd considering she never said this aloud only in her mind just now. “-Yeah, no problem.” She says awkwardly, after all she didn’t know what to say, was this some sort of ghost thing that he could do? Maybe.
“Do you think there is a God?” he asks now holding the look of curiosity in his eyes and within that look he had also held in fear.
“Of course- he gave me you. That is why you’re here right? Because he sent you here to look after me?” she asks feeling even more weird and uneasy than before. John looks down in disappointment. He hangs his head low and looks back up at her. “I think so- but sometimes I wonder what really happened.” He asks. “I thought that was what happened?” she replies. “No, I said that: I think that was it, not that it was.” He points out. She scratches her hair and looks to him with the feeling of regret over what she might hear next.
“Then what do you think?” She asks him. He looks away at the nightstand with the clutter of makeup and tissues on the floor and back at her. “I don’t know- but when I died-“he says as he got up from the floor. Her eyes follow him up and make contact with his face full of fear and nervousness.
“-When I died- I didn’t see heaven.” He says with a hint of sadness in his voice. She was baffled but all that could come out of her mouth was this- “What did you see?” she asks. He bites his lip but eventually says it: “Darkness- I saw darkness.” This answer floated in the air like a poisonous cloud filling the lungs with unease and fear. What did he mean “darkness”? Why didn’t he see God or heaven or angels? More importantly, did he even go anywhere?
These questions buzzed around Leah’s mind until one particular question came to mind. One that froze all other questions in place and become one:
If not heaven, then did he go to hell?
***
The question of whether or not John was damned was another thing entirely reserved for later. Now she had to go to work; though John’s answer did make her feel rather afraid at first she had to research this some other time.
The odd thing about working at a convenience store for Leah was that she had to face drunken guys and angry customers with shitty lives that take out all their problems on the employees of the Seven Eleven. It was a job that came with the secret requirement of dealing with “troubled customers”- that didn’t bode well with John; even when he was alive he would reserve his taxi from his job just for when she was getting off of work. It was -in his defense- the best way to keep her protected. John was- is a good guy who will do anything for Leah; including protect her from the drunken assholes at Seven Eleven.
She was walking to work along with John standing next to her. The two of them stick close to the sidewalk avoiding the constant traffic that flooded the streets of New York.
“I hate your job.” John says to Leah. Leah looks at him to her right and exhales in exhaustion. “I know. But John, I have to keep this job; without it and the job I have at Macy’s I am screwed. I cannot pay rent without it and you know how hard it was paying rent even when you were alive.” She explains. He just stares ahead looking frustrated, his left hand was in his pocket and his other was swinging forward and backward to the motion of his walk. “I know.” He responds. He looks over across the street to see a child next to her mother, the mother was talking on her cell phone looking rather annoyed and yelling at whoever was on the phone. The little girl seemed to be looking at Leah. But then her eyes shift and stare directly into John’s eyes. This confused John, wasn’t he supposed to be invisible right now? He stares on in the strangeness that was this little girl with blue eyes, black hair, and a floral pattern dress. They pass the mother and child shortly.
John strays behind and stares at the little girl- and the girl stares straight on back. “W-wha-“ he wanted to finish his sentence but he already knew the answer. Leah and John searched this topic on google once. When John first reunited with Delilah they started searching up everything and anything there is to learn about ghosts and the supernatural- only to further understand what was happening. Supposedly, John was back for a purpose and he was to complete his unfinished business here on earth. Another topic they searched up was if whether or not others can see him. Of course Leah can see him, he was here for her- but they didn’t know who else was able to see him. They soon found out that others such as children or other ghosts and or demons could see him. But what he didn’t understand when he saw this little girl is that he felt something off of her. She gave off this weird sort of vibe, this mysterious feeling of pain and overwhelming fear. She stares at him innocently and then turns her head to her mother. The oppressive energy fades and everything comes into his senses again, hell he didn’t even know he was out of his senses. “John, what the hell, you totally faded on me then just appeared?” he shakes his head and looks to her, she looks annoyed and somewhat pissed off. “What happened?” he asked all too quickly. His voice was almost trembling. She changes her expression to one of concern and looks closely at him. “Hey are you okay?” she asks- raising an arm as if to touch him but stops her motion- realizing that she can’t touch him right now.
He looks back at the mother and child – the kid was still looking to her mother and the mom was still arguing with whoever was on the phone. “Yeah, I’m just-“ he pauses and turns back to her. “-fine.” She stares at him awkwardly and looks to the child that he was staring at and remembers what they found out about kids seeing ghosts. Realization shows in her eyes, she was thinking that maybe this whole being seen thing affects him somehow. “Did she see you?” she asks him referring to the kid. “Yeah, uhh, I dunno. I think she might have been staring at you for talking to yourself.” He lies and chuckles to make him seem less suspicious. Something was wrong and a bad attempt at a joke wasn’t enough to stop Leah from finding out what was wrong. It was her turn to be the protector instead of the protected. “Okay- well let’s go okay? We aren’t even supposed to be talking in public anyway.” She says and gestures the other direction as to say ‘come with me’ and the two of them leave the area quickly.
**
At the Seven Eleven things were quiet, John hung out by the snack area, waiting to mess with whoever went by there. Sometimes he would just throw something off the racks, like a candy bar or a bag of chips and then later freak the customer out by making the candy bar appear to levitate. Leah was behind the counter serving customers and staying quiet about John; sometimes she would find it hard to resist laughing at John and his antics and eventually bawl out in laughter making the customer think it was her pulling that off.
It was a hoot on Halloween but all year round’ was a pain in the ass for the customers, but she didn’t care she hated this job anyway.
Today however, she wasn’t looking over at John fucking around with the folks of New York. While he remained tossing a chip bag at a little kid who picked it up and showed his mommy over on the next aisle what the Doritos did. Of course the mom just nodded and laughed at her son’s crazy story. But John couldn’t help but laugh aloud and look over to Leah in approval. But Leah wasn’t looking she was staring down at her phone looking online for anything about ghosts who didn’t go to heaven when they first died. But all she found were articles about purgatory and she already knew about purgatory- John was in it right now- stuck between worlds not knowing how to get to heaven… or whether he belonged in heaven. She sighed in frustration and John watches thinking of what might be wrong. Leah saw a strand of her blond hair in her eyes and moves it behind her ear. She puts her phone in her pocket and looks around for anyone around to watch her- no one, just that little kid and his mom on the other side of the store. It was a slow day and the boss wasn’t going to be in for a while. She was even alone in the counter and her co-worker was on lunch break. She looked at John and waved her hand into her direction, asking him to come by.
(What’s up?) He thought into her mind. “What the fuck?” she swears under her breathe- he was never able to do that before- their basis on communication had always been direct speech, this was crazy and she had absolutely no idea that a ghost was able to do this- let alone use telekinesis like he was a casual telepath.
(Calm down, it’s okay- I told you I have been dabbling with my powers lately.) She was wide-eyed and baffled but soon she took control of her face again and tried to act calm, oh well, at least she doesn’t have to look crazy when she talks to him on the street anymore. (Speak with your mind) he says in a calming thought as he slowly walks closer to defuse the awkwardness of this new found power almost making it seem like he was actually talking with her face to face. (Okay- what the hell happened back there- with that little girl.) She thought and he must have caught it by the look on his face- so blank with “what-are-you-talking-about?” written all over his expression. (Nothing)
(Listen you need to tell me because there could be something mote to what is going on with you.)
(So?)
(So, you have powers that most ghosts don’t have- there could be something more to this thing that has been happening to you- I looked online-) Her thought was interrupted with condescending oppressiveness.
(Oh you looked online? You know they feed you bullshit stories and crap.) He gets defensive and his thought starts to feel like a headache. She shuts her eyes and groans softly.
(Damnnit John, there is something wrong and I need to know!) She says with anger shooting the thought like a telepathic bullet into her ghostly boyfriend; he winces in pain as couple of chip bags fly off the shelf behind him. This wasn’t new, whenever there was some psychological disturbance his powers would make things lift itself up and float around in mid-air. Sometimes they would just shove away in the opposite direction that he was facing, sometimes even fly around like debris from an explosion.
After he calms down she speaks again: (What happened back there?) John froze, his eyes wandering into her sympathetic expression. She wanted to help him- although all these powers seemed like a relatively good thing she was starting to worry about him- he may have come back to protect Leah- but sometimes even John needed protecting.
(The little girl… I don’t think she was a little girl; sure she looked like it- but she wasn’t. She kept speaking to me the same way we are doing right now, only she was whispering into my mind making me feel weak. I felt…) He stopped and looked down, his blonde mess of hair that covered his face as he kept adjusting his sleeves in nervousness. He looks up again and he seems to be crying, streams of tears come from both eyes as he exhales in a loud shudder. “I f-felt like I, w-“he stuttered but he managed to say only half of his sentence. From Leah’s left eye a tear broke out and made a dash down her cheek. She could feel his pain almost as if it was inflicted from him onto her. “- I felt like I was dying again.” She saw the pain in her eyes and she finds herself crying from both eyes just as John was. She quickly takes her shirt sleeve to her eyes and rubs hard leaving her face red and irritated. She looks up only to see John not there anymore. She is shocked to see him gone. She was starting to panic until John was next to her behind the counter and wraps his arms around her. She gives into this embrace and hugs him tight. They didn’t fall through each other but actually touched each other, holding close to one another. “I love you.” John says as he holds her tightly. She just hangs on tight and feels his love for he made her feel this as well. “I love you too, John. More than anything in the world.” She says smiling.
She looks up from the hug only to see the mother and son approaching the counter with the Doritos and two bottles of Coke.
(John, I have to take these customers-)
(I understand-)
With that John lets go of the hug and so does Leah as she shifts positions and gets to the register in front of her as she handles these customers for the moment. She finds herself missing his touch thinking if only that hug could solve all her problems-
(Yeah, if only…)
-then she would have been lost in that hug forever.
**
John and Leah walk home at 8:30 almost every night- It was fall so the cold was starting to set in- getting itself ready for winter; luckily she had brought a jacket. The two walked down the street that lead to her apartment only a two blocks from the Seven Eleven where she had worked. As John walked beside her she began to shiver. “Ever think that I being a ghost- carrying all that coldness and stuff- can actually make the winter worse to bare?” he asks her as she rubs the sleeves of her red jacket. “I think so.” She says through chattering teeth. John walked beside her casually as if the cold wasn’t even there, whereas to Leah it was freezing. “You know, I have noticed something.” She says as they walk under street lamps that illuminated the streets along with stop lights lined up in every intersection. A blue Chevy passes them as John looks to her. “Yeah, what’s that?” he asks as they continue to walk. “You can control it.” She says. “What can I control?” he asks. “The cold- you seem to be able to turn it on and off.” He stares at her in an unusual way. “How?” he asks. “I don’t know, but you weren’t cold when we had sex last night, and you sure as hell weren’t cold when we hugged back there- “she says and then pauses to turn to him. The light from the street lamp reflected off of his hair casting shadows on his face. “You were actually pretty warm-” She trails off at ‘warm’ and notices something rather odd. John just looks at her with worry. “What- what’s wrong?” He looks behind him to see what she was staring at what was so odd.
It was a small building with a large neon sign that read: “Talk to the dead” in bold light blue letters along with a neon purple crystal ball. Below the sign was a broken window that looked as if a baseball had been thrown through it. Bars covered the window along with newspaper. The front door was made of glass with a wooden frame- the illuminated greenish florescent came bursting out the door’s glass- along with a sign that said “Open”.
“What you didn’t know that was there?” he asked her as they both stared on. “No- but I just had an idea…” she said but almost immediately the idea was shot down by John. “No we are not visiting a psychic.” He says immediately. Leah turns to him. “Look we will go inside and if she notices you are here with me then we will stay. If she calls you something like Jack or Ricky or anything else we will take off.” She says. He sighs knowing how persistent she was and gives in. “Fine but it is horseshit you know? They are just going to rip you off and I will have told you so.” He said grumpily but Leah didn’t pay him no mind, after all if they were going to find answers, she would require the help of a medium. She knew that there was a point where the internet becomes useless and that you needed to seek the help of an outside source.
**
Leah and John walk into the small building wedged between two taller ones. The inside was lit up with a florescent greenish tint in the light. This room was small and was assumed to be a waiting room. Chairs lined up against the walls, which were covered head to toe with posters of Christian propaganda. A lone crucifix hung at the edge of a wooden desk that sat in the far left corner. The desk was rather large for a psychic’s place of business, it was made of dark red cherry oak and behind it sat a Mexican woman chewing her gum while reading People magazine. She paid no mind to Leah, though she was the only one in the room except for Ryan who remained invisible to the woman. To the left of the desk was a door that must have been the main office.
Leah was shy and could feel John acting so negatively toward being here. He seemed especially creeped out about that crucifix. “I swear if Jesus keeps staring at me like that I probably won’t want to go to heaven.” He says from behind her. She wanted to say something but she shut up, thinking that if she gave away his presence the whole reason for coming here would be rendered useless and the psychic would figure out that he was with Leah. The door shut silently and Leah stood there expecting the receptionist to notice her.
“ESMERALDA !” shouted a woman’s voice in the back. Esmeralda the receptionist groaned and shouted back: “WHAT!?” her Mexican accent was heavy but understandable. “Check in the customers!” Leah’s eyes grew big thinking about how the hell she could have known that. “Fine-” Esmeralda put down the magazine and looked at Leah as she smacked her jaws with the gum jammed so far in the back of her mouth that she could easily choke on it. “-Que pasa, sweetie?” She says in a harsh sort of voice.
Leah wasn’t surprised at the shitty behavior the receptionist showed but she went ahead and told Esmeralda what she wanted. “Hi, I’m Leah Jameson- I am here to see the psychic here-“she was rudely interrupted. “-No, what do you need? – a reading, a glimpse into the future, a fuckin’ séance?” , “-A fuckin’ exit- this place gives me the creeps.” John says from behind Leah as he examines the posters on the wall.
Leah is confused but then she gets caught back on but is still speechless. Esmeralda rolls her eyes and sighs. Suddenly out of the door comes a red-headed young woman dressed in a red tank top and blue jeans. “Esmeralda, just send them in, I know what they want.” She says to the receptionist. “Whatever.” She gets back to her magazine when suddenly she realized that the woman said: they, what did she mean? “Okay-“ John agreed- “-As long as we are in there and not out here.” The woman took Leah’s hand and leads her into a room that was dimly lit and contained hanging rosaries, a desk with books cluttering the entire thing and shelves and shelves of more books along with several artifacts that looked kind of strange. John gazed upon the room and felt slight discomfort “Fuck- never mind I will stay with the rude Mexican receptionist lady-“he says as he turns to go through the door. Leah held her tongue but she sighed tiredly. But just then the red-headed woman locked the door and turned to face John directly as she extended a hand toward him in a pointing gesture. “Stay.” She says with the face of sincerity. John stops in his tracks and is stunned- he wasn’t even allowing her to see him- how the hell could this be? “Wait, you can see him?” Leah asked stunned. “You came in here expecting me to be one of those hacks, but as it turns out, I can see Casper here. Sorry if you are offended at that.” She said to John. John was still shocked he couldn’t even speak. “Okay, allow me to introduce myself: my name is Anna Sullivan; I am a gifted clairvoyant, medium, psychic, whichever you like- but for the most part I know why you are here.” She says quickly, it seemed rather odd that this woman was the head honcho of this place- it was even more odd that she seemed so young. How could someone so perky and energetic be the owner of this dark, dim, atmosphere? Anna walked across the room to sit at the desk- she closed most of her books and made room on the desk for placing a hand of just casual book placing. She sits down and gestures at the seats “Here take a seat-“ Leah and John reluctantly take the two leather seats and sit down. “-You must be Leah, and you must be John.”
“Yup, I am definitely confused right now.” John says to himself. Leah remains quiet and still pretty confused. “How the hell can you see me?” John asks as he is squinting his eyes in bewilderment. Anna sighed. “Okay- allow me to explain things: I am a clairvoyant- that is the preferred term I use- I can see, hear, touch, feel things no normal human being should. When I was five I could talk to my grandma -who had been dead for two years- almost every day. At ten I could see the future and past in random flashes and visions that were never really in order. At fifteen I could sense evil, demons and the devil and such. By nineteen…” she paused and looked at both of them almost as if looking at a reflection. “- My boyfriend died and came back after I almost committed suicide.” Her voice slowed down majorly and became very sincere. She even recalled to the memories she had of her about to overdose on medication only to see her dead spouse knock her hand backward and see the pills fly everywhere and onto the ground by her bedside. Her boyfriend with the bullet wound in his head. Her boyfriend telling her that life isn’t over for her yet- she had a long way to go. “- he was there to keep me from overdosing and after he told me that I had a purpose he vanished and I guess he went to heaven.” She explains. The odd couple feels rather relatable to this, they felt that they weren’t alone and that they had come to the perfect place for help, and though Anna was probably the right person to contact- the room still gave John the chills. “Sorry for your loss.” Leah said. “Oh don’t be-“ she switches back to perky but remains sincere. “-If it weren’t for him, I would not have moved on. You see, when someone you love dies, you need to let go- otherwise you will just die inside, ultimately it will lead to your own self-destruction. But in your guy’s case, something else happened- didn’t it?” The two exchanged looks. “Umm, yeah- we need to ask you something.” Leah asks. “Go ahead.” Anna responds.
Leah looks down then up again. “What special abilities does a ghost possess?” Anna nods then responds keeping eye contact with both of them. “It varies-“ “How?” John asks.
“Well, it depends on how strong or malevolent the ghost is- if it is a weak ghost- it can only speak to you in small whispers and barely shows itself every now and then. A strong ghost, however, can move objects over and appear in dreams; hell, even make itself known to certain people it has history with.” She says. “Wait- what if they can do more than that?” Leah asks feeling rather uneasy. John could sense it too, almost as if there was something wrong here. Anna just looks at Leah as if she had broken her mind and left her confused. “Like what?” she asks.
She thinks about this for a second. Thinking about this morning and this afternoon and thinking about all her research in the paranormal. Everything that John has been able to do seemed way more advanced than what Anna had described. She felt afraid that Anna would say something like John wasn’t really John; she was afraid she would say he was a demon.
“Show her John.” John looked to her in surprise, “Are you sure?” he asks, this was against Leah’s nature to tell John to perform things like this in front of others. “Yeah- just show her one thing-“ she says as she looks down. He raises his hand and reluctantly flexes his ability toward the books that stood in stacks on the desks. One by one, each book begins to lift itself up and circle around the desk like a tornado. John tries his hardest to maintain the ability for as long as he can while he cringes in mental pain as the books kept on spinning around the room. Anna stares on at the books swirling her desk. She had never seen anything like this before. Granted she had seen a poltergeist in action but this was different. Leah sits there watching John, noticing that he was beginning to fade away; his face started to become transparent and in some parts would turn a shade of blue. “John-“ Leah said to get his attention, but he was too focused on the books spinning around the room, creating a violent wind pattern. “John, stop!” she says but he doesn’t listen. The blue surrounding his fading exterior turns a violent red; his face was no longer cringing in pain but looked rather angry. The wind flows through the room like an actual tornado, Leah’s hair flows violently with the wind as did Anna’s. Anna was struck with fear this was not the works of a simple ghost- it was in fact demonic. “STOP!” Leah yelled; John cocked his head in her direction his eyes black as night as he roars and she goes flying across the room and onto the floor.
The books fall and the wind stops when Anna pulls out a rosary from off her desk and aims it directly at John. She speaks something in Latin with force and before her eyes, John is gone; he vanishes from thin air with an intense roar. “Leah!” she calls to her as she attends to her passing scattered books and pages ripped from the binding of the book.
Leah strives to get up but is then lifted from the ground by Anna. She is trembling but was almost certain that John was a demon, he was never a ghost. All of this was a façade and she had been a fool from the start of this mess. Anna held her close to allow Leah to stand up right without help. “It’s not John is it? He is a demon.” Leah says with quivering lips almost at the edge of tears. “Not exactly-“ Anna sa id as she guides Leah back to the chair.
Once she is seated Anna looks around the room for a book. She finds it and brings it back to the desk. “What is he then?” Leah asks while she rubs her head which got hit while John was having that episode. Anna bites her lip, looks at Leah, and then responds. “Has he ever been in contact with anything- weird?” Anna struggles with the wording; she didn’t know how to ask her the question. “What do you mean?” Leah responds. “Did he act weird one time? Was he ever not himself?” Leah realized what the question was; in fact there was some unusual change in behavior since yesterday.
“There was this time a year ago when he froze in position when we were on the couch watching TV, he looked the opposite way I was- it looked like he was scared of whatever he had been looking at. His figure started to fade and then I had to snap him out of it so he would return to normal- then it happened again today. During work he mentioned what he saw.” She paused remembering how John had spoken of how he felt like dying again at the sight of the little girl on the street. “What did he see though?” Anna said impatiently; Leah was annoyed but she told her anyway. “A little girl, but it wasn’t a little girl he said- I am not too certain. He said that he felt like he was repeating the moment of his death whenever he – saw her.” A tear ran down her cheek, she had suddenly realized that he wasn’t there. She could look around but he wasn’t there. Her breathing grew forced and labored as if it was unnatural. “That’s what I thought.” Anna says as she opens the book to a certain page. It was a large rather dusty sort of book, with pages that were yellow and fragile with age. The binding was almost about to fall apart but it withheld through most of the damage done by John. She finds the passage she was looking for along with a picture of a creature with horns, standing on a tree branch, overlooking the figure of a man with a round sort of bright light surrounding him. She inhales and exhales slowly as she reads the passage aloud:
“ –The entity of those once alive are susceptible to possession of evil, as long as they both share the same environment. Benevolent spirits can obtain that once living soul to molest the space of those who the spirit was in contact with.” Leah just stares at her awkwardly while breathing in her labored way- she couldn’t take the shortness of breath anymore and grabs her inhaler from her purse and placed the inhaling end of the device in her mouth and pressed firmly on the top button releasing the breathing medicine into her mouth- touching her tongue with instant relief and soon invading into her lungs. She gasps loudly and breathes normally again. Anna looks up at her. “Are you okay?” Anna asks “Yeah, it’s asthma; it acts up whenever John isn’t around me.” Anna feels her pain almost as if her mind was in Leah’s. She too once felt this way and she remembers how hard it was to let go. “You miss him don’t you?” she asks her, already knowing the answer. “-What do you mean he was here like a min-“Anna stops her. “-you know what I mean.” Leah places her inhaler in her purse and looks up at Anna. She wasn’t comfortable discussing her boyfriend’s death. But this was somehow expected, she thought. If Anna was going to help she needed to know every detail.
She recalls the events and then speaks. “He was on his way home- I had called him ahead of time and asked him if he could pick me up from work because I didn’t feel safe out at night. He was across town beyond the bridge, he had made it to the bridge but there was an accident- a semi had knocked his Taxi over the bridge and he drowned in the river-“ she sighed but she continued while Anna listened patiently. “-A week into his death- much like you- I tried to kill myself. I drank half a bottle of Jack from the top of my apartment building and tossed it to see how long it would take me to reach the bottom and see John again-“A small tear crossed her cheek and she wiped it away quickly, almost as swiftly as it took to fall from her eye. “- But then, as I was about to jump- he saved me; he pushed me away from the ledge.” Anna felt sympathy with Leah and was prepared with the exact same thing that she was told when her boyfriend came back from the dead that night: “You have a purpose in this world Leah- sometimes the world can be an awful place and I know how you feel because I have been there before. I know how cold and dark a place the world can be and how much John had kept that place from hurting you. But right now you need to understand that you have to let go of him.” Leah shook her head no- almost refusing to get help from this woman telling her what to do. “NO!” she shouted but Anna was prepared for this- she might as well end the argument now. “You must hear me out; otherwise your boyfriend will become the very goddamn thing that destroys you!” She shouted back. Leah is stunned, terrified. As she stares at Anna with blind hatred Anna reaches out her hand and touches Leah’s forehead.
Before Leah’s eyes, her mind is spinning with images and not very pleasant ones. Her eyes grow wide with terror and soon turn bright white disguising her eyes with total blankness. In her mind she can see John, but it wasn’t John. John had eyes as black as night and was smiling wickedly at Leah as he gestured his right hand to her direction. It seemed to her that she was floating in midair against the wall of her apartment. She could feel her neck squeezing and her lungs pressing for air. That’s when she knew what was going on: John was strangling Leah to death. From behind him peeking from behind John was a little girl with a pale complexion and skin so dry that it was cracking at the smallest of smiles that she made with her black eyes much like John’s. The two of them together shot terror through her mind as the entire living room implodes and explodes out the side of the building as if someone broke a window during a flight and the wind sucked everything from inside and spit it out into the atmosphere.
Leah is released from the nightmare and her eyes are back to normal while she is gasping for air. Her terror was still there but she still felt the slightest of disbelief. “You bitch! You put that in my head!” she shouted but Anna shook her head as she collapsed into the chair she was in before she rose from it. “No…” she says weakly trying to grab ahold of her breath as well. “-I cannot project images into a person’s head! I can only show someone the future and past.” She says sincerely. Leah stares at her with fixated and hurt eyes. “What, w-what are you s-saying?” She stutters.
“Leah; those images, were your future.”
Leah stares at Anna feeling as though a bullet at shot through her chest- her asthma was only going to get worse from here. She inhales deeply then exhales with a shuddering sigh of sadness. By now she could practically see how this was going to end- with her death- because there was no way in hell that she was going to have her house exercised just to keep John from hurting her. The thought of John strangling her to death was unbearable but if she wanted to get out of this and still have John she was going to have to die first. It was her suicide attempt all over again- only this time she won’t be the one to take her own life. These thoughts crowed her brain and buzz around like a horde of wasps; confusing her and tormenting her mind with the sheer thought of death being the only solution.
But wait- she can’t think like that. Otherwise that would mean that whoever was with John in the vison would win-maybe she was the key to stopping this. Maybe, just maybe, she could keep John and still get rid of the problem.
“Anna-“she finally said. “Yes?” she replied, she held her head in her hands for she had developed a migraine from all this crap she has to put up with. At least she got paid for it- though she had a feeling that she needed to charge Leah a little less considering this was a spiritual emergency. Damn my sense of morality- she thought to herself. “What can we do to help John?” Leah looks to Anna feeling hopeless; she secretly hoped that whatever she had to do to help John would not in no way cast him away from her life. She had already lost him once- she cannot risk losing him again. Anna looks up at Leah’s eyes which were watering with tears that would soon come with whatever explanation she would give her. She looks into these eyes knowing that they would soon shed tears- she didn’t have to be psychic to know this- sometimes she thought she did but Leah’s feelings were too painfully obvious. She fights back her pain and places her eyes on the book before her seeing as though she was explaining what was going on just before going into detail on John’s death. She looks on at the page of the ghostly figure being overlooked by the demonic creature from a tree branch and reads over the words on the page quickly- yet she finds nothing.
She flips frantically through the book feeling panic and darkness clouding up in her emotions. She sees absolutely nothing. Leah notices her frantic behavior. “What is wrong?” Leah asks reluctantly almost afraid if what Anna might say. “Everything-“ she stops mid-sentence and gazes upon the pages before her inside the book. At this moment she forgets something. A pain in her chest, it was an awkward pain. This pain practically told her she needed something- Air?
Maybe.
She thought of this then realized- yeah- that is it. She forgot to breathe- she couldn’t breathe. Her airway was closed- her neck was caving in. Leah gasps as she witnessed from her chair the horror that was happening to Anna. Below her chin -as she gasped hard for breath- red marks began to appear around her frail neck. Before she could even register half of what was going on she is thrown across the room and into the bookshelf behind her- destroying the wooden frame of the shelf and collapsing onto the floor along with t bookshelf’s contents. Leah screamed in horror as she stood up from her chair and backed away from the scene. Aside from John’s telekinetic tornado this was the most bizarre and unnatural thing that she had witnessed in her whole life and possibly the most terrifying. Her first instinct was to run but she felt something keeping her from doing so.
From behind the desk she could see Anna struggling to get up from the floor. Her hand lands on the desk with a loud thump. Leah is startled but merely jumps at the sudden movement. Her tears that welled up within her eyes had long since ran down her red cheeks but this time it was not because she was sad but because fear had taken over her. Her hands shook by her side feeling as though they were going to fall off her arm sockets.
Anna’s struggle for the top of the desk had been successful as she slowly rose up from the ground and was on her knees looking over at Leah from over the desk in a quick second. Leah gasped- for something wasn’t right. Anna was living and breathing, sure blood was oozing out of the wound in her neck that punctured her two jugular veins but- oh, that’s what’s wrong. Anna’s eyes were nothing but dark red pools of blood. “You’re going to die tonight.” Says the dark voice that came from the mouth of Anna; the deepness of that voice penetrated through Leah’s ears like a shriek from a little girl who fell off the swing or like that of woman who has seen a rat run across a room before her very eyes. Only difference is that this kind of clarity in that deep voice was all too real and Leah knew that this wasn’t Anna anymore.
“What the fuck is going on here?!” Shouted Esmeralda the receptionist with annoyance and anger; she was reading an article in People about some guy burying his alter ego in a cemetery up in Maine. However her interest in reading had been interrupted by Anna’s possession session. Anna and Leah turned to see Esmeralda open the door. Within that brief moment Esmeralda was off the ground and choking out just as Anna had been earlier. She didn’t even have a second to react and she was already dead. How unfair.
“You dumb bitch!” Shouted Anna as she flicked her hand at Esmeralda; and just like that the receptionist’s neck snapped at an instant- death was quick but not painless.
Almost without second thought Leah burst through the door and ran out of the building- but not before hearing from Anna that her soul will burn with John in hell.
**
She ran home in fear of being caught by Anna or whatever the fuck that thing was. As far as Leah was concerned Esmeralda and Anna were both dead, John was gone and was God-knows-where. She needed to hide or at least find a place to think. So naturally that place of solace would be home- wouldn’t it?
Or was it not? For all she knew she just needed to get away- and fast. She ran ahead at least halfway through she had stopped to catch her breath by the street corner beside an ally way. The dark misty streets of New York sunk deep into the atmosphere and made everything hardly visible. She could only see the street and whatever was five feet ahead of her. That was of course excluding any form of light that could be coming out if the nocturnal mist of the night. New York was not safe at night and she knew this very well. But now there was something even more terrifying than the streets of New York at this moment.
She stopped briefly and drew in a sharp breathe as she continued to walk down the street along the sidewalk. Repeatedly, she inhaled and exhaled and inhaled and exhaled- over and over until she felt dizzy. Hyperventilating didn’t really help much when you were running from a demonic entity with possession of a clairvoyant. She thinks briefly on what was going on; she realizes that a demon possessing Anna is already the worst combination imaginable- since Anna was already psychic enough to know what happened to Leah two years ago it would be unimaginable to think of the advantage the demon had with Anna’s power. This was how she assumed possession was to work- she was half right but that still doesn’t help her much. She starts to pick up the pace when she realizes once more that she was most likely being hunted down. She turns left at the building next to her and walks on to her apartment building.
But amongst the mist and the darkness that surrounded her she wasn’t alone- because a man had been following her since that ally way she had passed not five minutes ago. The man stalks her slowly staying only ten feet away from her, but as she continued to walk he seems to be closing in on her, nervous and sweating with anticipation.
Oh he was going to rape this bitch- maybe even snatch her purse and sell whatever is in it for drugs or something. He was unaware of the system of drugs that circled New York- he was after all a tourist from Nevada. No he knew nothing but he knew that he liked what he was seeing as he stared on at Leah’s ass while he was only four feet away. The man with black hair and a leather jacket was ready. He was an animal- ready to attack. He was a lion and she the gazelle.
But what he doesn’t understand that there is a food chain here in New York as well; and even lions are hunted sometimes.
Before his very eyes and almost stealthily John appears in front of the pervert’s view of Leah’s ass. His eyes were black as night and his blonde hair hung low in front of his eyes. “See something you like?” he said with a wicked smile, it was so dark and twisted- it was disgustingly horrifying to see the way he looked at him- with hatred and happiness. It was like some twisted form of evil. An unnecessary evil used against another evil that deserved less of what he was going to receive as punishment. “What the fuck!?” He shouted at John and fell backward at the sight of him. Leah quickly turned and saw before her was John looking at the man who was shivering in terror. She felt weird and confused she didn’t know whether to be relieved to see John or to run in screaming terror, nor did she know what that guy was doing on the cement staring at John like that. Could he see John? What was going on?
“Stay back Leah, you will get yours- Jack the Ripper here needs to be taught a lesson.” Get yours? Oh no, John was still influenced by the evil that he had encountered a while back. He wasn’t John he was still that thing that was inside Anna, only this time John was turning the wheel and pressing the peddles, the demon was operating the stick shift and fueling the tank. “John what are you doing?” she didn’t get an answer and the man stared at John with fear as John walked closer to him, footsteps pounding on the sidewalk like cement blocks pounding on carpet floor- muffled like gunfire under suppression. “No, get away from me!” He shouted at John in terror. He desperately tried to shuffle away from him but he was too late. In almost inhuman speed he grabbed the man and slammed his body into the brick wall of a building they stood behind. The pain felt almost instant, numbing, then the rush of hurt would flood the man’s head then soon the rest of his body- for his skull had been cracked and the rest of his bones were practically nonexistent at this stage. Oh but the pain didn’t end there. “Oh God.” Leah muttered as she stared on in horror feeling helpless and frozen in place.
The man was still up against the wall but John no longer physically touched him, he was being restrained through the power of John’s mind. John stands before the man as he looks at the wound at the side of the man’s face. A long cut was bleeding out from the side of his face- blood ran down from the left side of his face like a waterfall of grotesque red. “I-I-I” the man stuttered as he was face to face with John. He was losing consciousness but he was, for the time being still very scared and had wished that he had never left Nevada- stupid brain- stupid bleeding, dying brain. “Come on buddy it’s just a scratch-“ he says with a chuckle and the man still struggles with his words. “-I am not done with you bitch, look at her…” John says with anger in his voice. The man still mumbles and blood runs down his face and unto the ground as he can barely lift his head, let alone form a coherent sentence. John then steps closer and raises his hand at the man when suddenly his head is jolted to look to his left and faces Leah- scared and disturbed at what she was seeing. “LOOK AT HER!!” he roared at the man and the man screamed, mumbling something along the lines of: “I’m looking!” but it came out as: “I’m looin’!” for when he opened his mouth blood poured onto the sidewalk into a black puddle along with several other teeth. Suddenly John’s tone changed and he played the happy guy again. He raises his hand to Leah and points at her with his other hand forcing him to look into Leah’s fearful eyes.
John laughs and whispers in his ear: “That’s my girl buddy…” he snickers wickedly and the man whimpers.
(Fuck)- He thought to himself. “You like looking at girls?” he says with a sudden sincerity. No answer; the man couldn’t keep himself from blacking out from losing so much blood. John felt annoyed for he had to force him to turn his head. Suddenly the man’s head jolted to face John. “Hey, you didn’t answer my question.” The man could only make out a responsive groan in pain. “No?” John assumed the answer- (Please, stop)…- the man thought. Of course John could read his thoughts but he assumed the answer for him. “Here let me help with that-“ He says as he drops both hands and inhales deeply. The man could not even begin to express the amount of regret he showed for coming to New York. Well, I guess he could start by screaming.
Before Leah, the man that was acting as John but wasn’t him became an animal. Everything she ever loved about John was gone in a swift action, as John gouged out the man’s eyes with his mind, blood poured from his eyes like uncontrollable tears. Soon the man’s eye sockets became blood filled pools that oozed down the face with sickening speed. Hs eyeballs were destroyed and wrecked from within the sockets. John had snickered. “I guess he didn’t like what he was seeing.” He chuckled at the horrible pun and stares at his kill with joy and psychotic black eyes. “Your turn now babe-“he says as he turns to see that Leah had made a run for it. He laughed and saw the figure of Leah running through the mist and to her apartment which was a mere twenty-five feet from John.
John shouted at her from where he stood. “Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be, Leah! Die peacefully, not like this fucker!” He shouted angrily at Leah. He felt exhausted- breathless even. His face almost fades away from visibility but is soon restored. “-And this little piggy went home.” He says to himself as he vanishes in thin air, leaving his victim dead on the concrete of the urban jungle.
**
Her lungs at this point could have been torn apart and ripped to shreds from lack of breath, but that didn’t matter anymore- she could be underwater and swimming away from a shark and be inhaling gallons of water without thinking, because that was what fear was- that is what fear can do. Right now her brain was saying- screaming: “run!” so she ran faster than any normal being should be able to run; whereas her heart and lungs begged for the mercy of breath and rest- which was not a luxury she could not afford right now.
As she stormed through the double doors of the building that led to her apartment she considered taking the elevator but then again that could be what John was expecting. She in turn, took the stairs up to her home on the 20th floor; this was going to be hell for her lungs later on. Eventually and after five minutes of grueling terror on the stairs she had reached her apartment. To be honest it was more like a loft- but a shitty loft- not much to see here but an exit to the roof and scattered furniture with a view of the city through two paneled windows.
She charged into the hallway from the stair well only to see something that struck fear in her heart. It was a little girl with black hair, white and yellow floral dress, and pale skin. Every feature of her stuck out as dead, corrupted and evil. Her dress looked as if it had been exposed to years of radiation, her skin was cracking, literally cracking at the seems- like dry skin that hasn’t met a drop of water in a good century. And her eyes were like those of John’s when he attacked that man: black as night and as hopeless as a damned soul awaiting judgment. Leah screamed at the sight of her and nearly fell off the stair well due to the shock of surprise. But she withheld herself from falling and just stared on at the girl as the girl just stared on back. Impatience met with fear are two things you never want to witness in action, you begin to start doing things you never would have done with a clear mind.
“What do you want!” she yelled at the girl. And with a distorted twist of evil she speaks inside the mind of Leah.
“John-“ Leah was cringing in terror as she suddenly knew the reason for John’s behavior- he was possessed or at least influenced by evil, ghosts couldn’t be possessed they aren’t even alive – right?
“You can’t have him!” She shouted at the little girl, feeling as thought now her job was to protect John from this thing. She was defenseless now but somehow she will find a way to stop this. The little girl giggles condescendingly.
“Too late- he’s already mine. You have lost him”
Was this true, had she really lost him? She wasn’t sure but she didn’t want to give up so easily. When you love someone so much you just tend to deny any other lies or unspoken truths that you don’t already know about the person. You begin to deny every bad or unspeakable thing about that person that you would go at great lengths to prove that person wrong.
“NO!” she yells as she charges past the little girl and into the hallway.
Before long she is at the door to her loft and without hesitation she swiftly unlocks the door and charges inside. Once inside she turns and slams the door shut. The bang of the slamming door sounded more along the lines of a gunshot. She locked the door and began to cry. Her muffled sobs scream allowed as she covered her face with her hands. She just wanted this goddamn day to end, it all started out so great. Now it was just all complete shit. She thinks to herself about whether or not she should have just jumped off that roof in the first place- it would have saved her two years of terror. Every other day or so John would act up and use his powers to do things, bad things. Ever since he came back it was like he was a totally different person. Sure John the person was still there but John the soul, his heart, it wasn’t there. All parts of him loved Leah but some more than others. It was as if this thing that was John was only an imitation if the real John- the John that died.
“Baby.” Said a voice from behind Leah, she removed her hands and turns slowly to face him. It was John, standing in the middle of the living room standing beside the couch. “John?” she squeaks out as tears roll down her face. She drops her bag onto the floor. “Yeah, baby, it’s me.” He nods with his words and to Leah’s surprise he looked just as upset as she was only he wasn’t crying. “John is it really you?” she asks trying so very hard to keep her guard up. “Yes. Yes it is.” Leah dropped her keys on the floor and ran to John, tackling him down into the couch with her, holding him tighter than she had ever held him before. “I miss you so much…” she sobs her face dripping wet with tears. Ryan held her close into his arms. “I know, it’s okay.” But he knew it wasn’t he knew that as long as he wasn’t alive that Leah was more vulnerable to the dark thoughts of suicide that cloud her mind and overtime she would be compelled to do the deed and jump of the building in sadness and happiness, hoping that she would be reunited with John in heaven- or hell. At least to her it didn’t matter because anywhere was heaven with him.
“I love you so much.” At least that much he knew to be true. “I love you too-“Leah says with a loud cry as she nearly chokes on the sadness in her throat. She so desperately wanted this- she needed to be held close by the one she loves. But sadly he wouldn’t be like that for now. “Look- Leah, this isn’t going to last, times almost up.” He says as he tries to pry her from his arms. She is reluctant but eventually she lifts herself up to view her deceased lover, wishing ever so much that she could just bury her face in his chest and allow him to embrace her. She dries her tears and looks him in the eyes. “What do you mean?” She suddenly realized what he had said: Time? What does he mean almost out of time?
Was he given this moment with her?
Was he going to be that thing again? She could only remember the flashes of the gruesome scene that took place nearly minutes ago. “I mean there isn’t much time she has been holding me back from you since day one- forcing me to do these things-“ but he was too late to say the rest. He suddenly stopped mid-sentence and his head knocked back with force- as if he had suffered whiplash. Then once his eyes had rolled to the back of his head the return, black as night.
Leah felt a heavy weight in her chest- as if someone had laced her lungs with metal. What was he going to say? What did he mean? She thought about what was going on and about what was so important that he had to break the moment they were having together.
Without warning his head is cocked in Leah’s direction and Leah immediately stands up from the couch and backs away from him. “Honey- I’m home.” He says in a casually demented tone, his voice growing deeper and darker within the second. He rises from the couch and begins to lift himself off the ground by few inches. The couch and the coffee table are thrown by the invisible force of John’s power. The couch landed in the kitchen area in the corner breaking glass and slamming against cookware with a loud bang. The coffee table which was inconveniently made of glass slams against the flat screen TV, shattering both at once and spreading glass across the floor and flying through the air. Leah screamed and rushes to the door in panic, her heart, which was once calm, began to race violently inside her chest but nearly stopped when she tried for the door and it wouldn’t open. She wasn’t strong enough to kick it down so she was fucked either way.
She turned to see John, demonic John, nearly inches before her- nearly pinning her to the wall she leaned against. She tried to scream but her scream fell silent when all that came from her mouth was silence. John looks into her eyes and she looks into his. She only sees darkness in these eyes. At some point she was able to see her soul mate, but now he was gone, all that lives here is darkness. “What’s wrong, honey?” He said condescendingly sounding like the real John. “John, please don’t-“ But she was silenced by the gripping intensity that was John’s hand wrapped around her throat. “You don’t like me anymore, is that it?” With each word his hand gets slightly tighter. “You fucking hate me don’t you?” he yells at her face. Her eyes wide with terror and sadness- (He’s gone) she thought, (It’s no longer John) he heard these thoughts and he just about lost it. “Oh it is me darlin’- I am John, you can’t say otherwise!” he yells. The temperature in the room grows incredibly cold and the house suddenly welcomes a draft and air rushes through the room like a small tornado had passed through the loft with ease. (John, please don’t do this!) Leah realizes he is reading her mind and pleads for John to stop. But he refuses. “SHUT UP!” He yells as his anger destroys his surroundings and the powerful wind breaks the two glass paneled windows and soon after tears away the entire wall as if someone had opened the window on an airplane while in flight. Along with it, came the whistling of the wind vibrating Leah’s ears. “You will die and he will be MINE!” John says- Leah notices this and notices the girl she met on the stairwell- smiling with wickedness in her smile. “Goodnight, Leah.” Leah grabs ahold of John’s hand and tries her hardest to pry his hand away from her neck but he just wouldn’t budge.
Blackness surrounds the edges of her vision and she takes one final look at John for she knows that death is imminent. She opens her eyes wide and stops trying for breath. John looks at Leah and feels pain, regret, and sorrow at the fact that he must kill her. For the last time, John- the real John- looks at Leah and says the last words she will ever hear:
“See you tomorrow- I love you.” She has no time to react to these words but is only given time to let her lungs die and soon after, her heart. (I love you too.)
**
Leah looked out to her window from her bedside in her bedroom. From the twentieth floor apartment she can see half of New York through that narrow square window.
The city is beautiful around this time; pigeons fly by in flocks of eight or ten and fly right past the mirror-like windows of skyscrapers reflecting the sunrise in bright flashes of light, brightening the darkness of the faded white walled apartment bedroom.
“Damn, that is bright.” She says as her body faces the light at full blast. She holds her hand over her eyes to avoid looking into the bright light. She notices something very weird, her boyfriend John wasn’t next to her, she thinks to herself thinking that maybe he had to recharge his batteries after last night. She sits up and covers her naked body with the comforter on her bed- missing John’s presence.
Below twenty stories, on the sidewalk of New York’s vast landscape was John, crying and looking up at the building- only it wasn’t the apartment it was the construction crew repairing the damage done from the tragedy that struck nearly a month ago, and it wasn’t sunny, it was dark, cold and pouring down rain. The crew on the twentieth floor had to put on rain coats and cover the gigantic hole in the twentieth floor of loft 22C the loft that Leah and John shared so many great moments in. Now it has become a constant reminder of the hell they now share.
“You shouldn’t be here John- she might find out too soon.” The dark twisted voice of a little girl had said behind him. He turns to look at the little girl behind him on the pavement of the street “Can you just give me a fucking break!” he says as the rain falls heavy on the sidewalk, darkening the atmosphere of the city. For some reason rain made the world darker in moments like these; moments of regret, hate, and depression. “There are no breaks when you cheat the devil now get up there and hold her, kiss her and don’t you dare tell her what is going on.” She says with her voice sounding as though she was replaced by the devil himself. She smiles wickedly and giggles in her little girl voice once more. “Then don’t punish her punish me! I deserve this goddamnit not her!” he shouts at her, hatred making his way into his voice, hatred for the little demon child before him. “Oh… but that would be too easy for you.” She says with a curved smile. The girl stood at only three feet and was still a menacing little bitch. Then again she was never just a little girl. “You don’t see it… we are punishing you. This is your hell now, John.” He wants to kill her; oh how he just wants to just kill the demon’s false illusion and ring his hands around the neck of the real demon behind the childish disguise. But he can’t. He has tried but always failed. “How can you do this?! Leave her alone!” He begs as he goes down on his knees and sobs into his hands and remains unheard. This was his fault, ever since the day he came back to life, why couldn’t he have just left well enough alone? Oh that’s right, because then Leah would have took that leap of faith, hoping that she would be caught by John’s strong arms at the bottom. If he had just let her die he would be stuck harvesting souls as he was told through his contract with the devil in exchange for immortality. Torn between love and loyalty he had to make a choice. In this case he was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t.
Now here he stays, forever to repeat the events of that unholy day with the soul of Leah by his side. Every damn day he was forced to love her, hate her, kill her and then repeat the process in this hell. It was as if his and her slate were washed clean but if you looked closely enough you could still see the scratches and the marks left by the grueling and haunting past of the day John was forced to murder the woman he loved and trap her inside the memory she held of that same day she died.
END.
Hells Reject 