Harsh Realm

Part 6

“And so I run now to the things they said could restore me, restore life the way it should be.” – Cough Syrup, Young the Giant

Part 6

        Ever since Sage told me – or more like, ever since I found out the hard way – that I was just like her, that I was dead, I had been oddly calm.

        Of course there was my initial freak out, but now I felt… better. Maybe it was because a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders, causing me instantaneous relief. I no longer felt like I was insane for talking to a dead girl, because I was dead too. As if that made things any less weird, which it didn’t, but at least I wasn’t crazy.

      I have to confess though, on the inside I was sort of restless. It was on the outside that I appeared calm and collected. My mind was swamped with questions, like why could I still not remember dying? And why did it take Sage telling me that I was dead for me to figure it out?

    But the question that plagued me the most so far was, who killed me? Sage had said I was murdered just like she was.

        I had no idea how she knew all of this, but asking her a question and expecting to get a straight answer was like asking a little kid what they want for Christmas, and them answering “A unicorn.” It was a futile mission, asking Sage questions that pertained to anything particularly important.

        And although I knew it was a stupid idea, I asked Sage about what had been bugging me; what I wasn’t expecting however, was for her to actually give me an answer, even if it wasn’t the answer I wanted at the time.

        We were sitting in my bedroom. I was flipping through some skateboard magazine, which you can obviously tell I wasn’t thinking too much about, but rather turning pages just to seem busy. Sage was lying on the floor, reading To Kill a Mockingbird.

        “Sage?”

        She didn’t respond, so I called louder the second time.

        “Sage!”

        She sat up, earbuds falling from her ears and onto the floor. I hadn’t noticed she was listening to music. Then that made me wonder what type of music a girl such as herself even listened to.

        “What?” She replied.

        I looked down at my fingers, suddenly nervous to ask her. She sighed and closed her book, probably sensing that I wanted her full attention.

        “Spill it, Nate,” She insisted, looking me dead on.

        “There’s just some things bothering me,” I muttered.

        She laughed unamused while wrapping her earbuds around her iPod and setting it to the side of her, on top of the book. 

        “I knew there must’ve been. You’ve been way too calm about this whole thing.”

        She noticed that?

        “Oh,” I said sheepishly.

        “So, come on,” Sage urged, “out with it.”

        I stared at the floor for a long minute, trying to talk myself out of asking her anything at all. She said I would eventually remember everything on my own anyways. But I had never been a patient person, especially when somebody knew something that I didn’t.

        “Who killed me, Sage?”

        “I don’t know,” She answered straight away.

        I looked into her green eyes and knew immediately that she was lying. She hadn’t been looking me in the eyes when she answered. She looked away when she answered, staring at something to the left of me, and then conveniently returned her eyes to mine afterwards.  

        “Please don’t lie to me. I’m already dead, so whatever the truth is, it can’t kill me.”

        “Funny,” She deadpanned. I just smirked.

        “Come on Sage, you owe it to me,” I said.

        Saying that had turned out to be a bad move on my part because Sage freaked out.

        “I owe you?” She questioned, rising from her spot on the floor, walking towards me. “I owe you,” She stated simply, more to herself than to me. “Unbelievable!” She yelled incredulously.

        If it weren’t for the fact that Sage was a teenage girl, I would have probably barricaded myself into a corner by now just to get away from her. She may have been small, but her temper was larger than the both of us put together.

        “Sage, calm down.”

        “You wanna know who killed you?”

        I had a feeling it was a trick question, so I kept my mouth shut.

       “The person who killed you, is the same person who killed me,” She’d spoken slowly, “The same person who shot and murdered four other kids.”

        The conviction she held in her voice when she spoke was all the proof I needed to know that she was telling me the truth. I didn’t attempt to stop her when she immediately turned and left the bedroom.

        She didn’t answer my question spot on, which frustrated me, but at least I had gotten some information out of her. This raised another question: Why did she know everything about what happened to us, but I didn’t know a thing? It was like I was completely in the dark, and she had a box full of lightbulbs, but wouldn’t give me any. 

        All I knew now was that I was dead, and the same monster who killed Sage, killed me. That person was the reason we were stuck here, wherever here was. I didn’t know who did it, but I planned on finding out. 

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Super short update! I'm sorry, I'll try to make it longer next time. Life has been kinda stressful lately so yeah. 

Comment? Vote? :) 

Thanks for reading! 

-ladyginger97

(Dedicated to exhaling_ bc you are amazeballs lol)