Forever yours, Eric

ONE

"Wait hold on repeat that again, what did you just say to me?" I questioned eagerly, as I faced the man standing in the white suit, white hair and tanned skin. He couldn't be much older than forty but due to the colour of his hair you would think he was well into his eighties.

A sigh escaped his mouth as he sat himself down on the white couch in the stupidly blinding white room. The best part was the couch was the only piece of furniture that existed here, there was no windows, no rugs, no tables just a stupid white couch , four stupid white walls and a stupid white ceiling. There was no light and yet the room could easily blind you thats how bright it was. The man in front of me took a deep breath that filled the deafening silence "For the fifth time Eric, you're dead."

You're dead

You're dead

You're dead

You're dead

The words rang through my head on repeat like a broken stereo, I suddenly felt weakness in my knees as I also collapsed on the stupid white couch beside the man with the stupid white hair. "If I'm dead... " I paused, mainly for dramatic effect but also to show the man that I finally acknowledged the situation. "Does that mean that this is heaven and you're, you're god?"

For some reason, my question seemed absolutely absurd to the strange man as he just erupted with laughter.

"Oh, the humans never change." Shaking his head, he shifted his body to look at me pressing his lips together into a thin line as he tried so hard not to smile. "No this is the waiting room, and no I'm not god I'm your guardian angel I looked after you whilst you were still alive."

I lightly shrugged my shoulders and looked at the man from the corner of my eyes. "Clearly you didn't do a very good job did you, looking after me if I'm dead now. You know just saying."

A sudden slap across the back of my head caused me to flinch and and immediately rub the back of my head as my gaze met the mans but before I could say anything in protest he fully interrupted me.

"Don't disrespect me like that, I protected you many times when your stupid self wasn't paying attention whilst crossing the road because of that stupid device you humans are all so glued to all the time."

"A mobile pho- "

"Don't interrupt me when I'm talking." The man said rather sharply and I raised my hands in full defence. This reminded me back when I was in High School and my teacher would scold me for talking to my friends whilst they were trying to give us a so called important lesson on Pythagoras theorem. Which by the way, in all my twenty five years of life I have not once had to make use of that.

"Anyways, where was I oh yes so before you so rudely interrupted me I was just explaining how I saved your life several times however this time it was different Eric. As much as I wanted to protect you the drunk driver made it pretty much impossible." A little sigh escaped his lips, almost as if the reason for my death made him sad.

A corner of my lips tugged into a reassuring smile as I reached out and patted his shoulder, was this how you're supposed to comfort people? Was this how you're supposed to comfort a guy that was supposed to be your so called protector?

"At least I'm in one piece here huh?" There I was once again trying to make the best out of the worst. Ellie always hated when I did that, she hated whenever I would try to make a joke or a sarcastic comment in serious situations.

The older man gave me a half hearted smile as he bit down on his lower lip and nodded his head. "Normally angels don't really introduce themselves to the people they have been looking our for but since before you move on you still have a mission to accomplish and I'm supposed to make sure you play it by the rules I thought it'll be best if I do in fact introduce myself, my name is Jeremiah."

Ah there it was finally, I can put a name to the face. It'll be much better to refer to the older man as Jeremiah rather than constantly calling him 'older man'. Now that I knew that he had a name it made me wonder if at one point before he became this guardian angel if he also had a family, if he also was an ordinary human like the rest of us. It made me wonder if maybe once I'll be on my best behaviour here if I could also become a guardian angel and look over someone. My thoughts are clearly getting distracted here let's refocus back on his words. I had a mission here and it also came with rules? Rules in heaven, I didn't think that was a thing. "What's my mission?" I questioned, a smile now beaming on my face. I do love a good challenge.

Jeremiah got up from the white couch and walked across the room until he was in front of me, he was staring completely into space and for a moment I watched him carefully. Finally he took a deep breath and turned around to face me, which was when I realised that his eyes were grey, a very light grey on top of that.

"Eric your mission is that you have to help your loved ones move on from their loss. You were very much loved down on earth and your loved ones are finding it harder than normal to move on. They need you to help them, show them that it's okay that they can carry on living." The smile that was beaming on my face not so long ago now faded, and I could see the worried expression on Jeremiah's face. He was worried about me, about how i'll manage to see my loved ones and them not even knowing I was there.

However I decided to play the brave card. Almost immediately I got onto my feet and fixed my dark blue flannel shirt, as I slipped my hand into the pocket of my jeans. "Easy stuff, now you mentioned rules? what rules are there?"

"As a what they call 'a lost soul' you can move things around in the human world, you can touch things and they will move.. - " Jeremiah started explaining the rules to the game I was about to play.

Of course, my own impatience got the best out of me and I just couldn't help myself and interrupted him mid sentence again."Kinda like in the movies when the ghosts move furniture and stuff to scare the living shit out the people that live in the house - oh shit wait I just cussed, can I even cuss here or is that gonna take me to hell?"

"Eric just shut up please and listen, but yes you can cuss however please try not to some people might get offended. Anyways back to the rules, as much as you can touch things and what not you under any circumstances must not make direct contact with any of the living humans. You can't leave them notes or anything like that. However what you can do is try and help them move on with their lives, put them back on the right path consider yourself their guardian angel." Jeremiah carried on explaining, whilst subtly moving his hands around as he spoke, that was another thing I noticed about him. He moves his hands quite a lot.

"Can they -" I started onto my next question but Jeremiah looked over at his watched and arched his eyebrow lightly shaking his head.

"Sorry Eric, time in the waiting room is over your mission starts now, sleep well."

With the click of his fingers I felt my eyes growing suddenly really heavy as I collapsed down onto the floor except when my body hit what was supposed to be the ground all I felt was the comfort bounce of a super comfortable and soft mattress. I felt gentle breeze and heard a lot of noise as I was falling but as soon as my body hit the mattress it all faded away. There was no breeze, no noise. Just complete and utter silence, but as much as I fought I couldn't open my eyes so instead of fighting it much longer I simply caved in and convinced myself I was sound asleep.

/ Authors Note;

Hiii everyone thank you for taking the time of your day to read my story. Forever yours, Eric is an idea that has played in my mind for quite a while I just didn't have the motivation to write it. Feel free to send through any constructive critism and please be patient with me as this is my first story that I have decided to release on here.