REAP

God

The time?

It is 11:51.

The clock is ticking.

The purplish, blue pallor of his face makes him almost unrecognizable; I don't need to see him to know it's him, though. His dirtied soul flits around his body, shyly. Because of the shame he feels. As he looks up to me from the pristine linens, the bits of him scatter even more. He, of course, is unaware that I can see these things. More so, feel them. Every troubled human has the same fleeing look to their soul. But this boy, he's different. His is like the picture on the tv when the white noise comes on-

Beautiful,

bold,

banal,

bellicose,

bedraggled.

Enticing.

In two days, he finally wakes up.

"Well, this is embarrassing." He shifts in the bed, trying to sit up. He fails.

"Why, yes. Yes it is. I mean, really? Cloth gowns in the winter? What a scandal." I say teasingly, trying to cheer him up. But the white noise suddenly jerks and I realize he's actually embarrassed. Ashamed even.I clear my throat to start over again. "Well, yes. It is." I let the finely pointed jab sink into his thoughts and continue- only this time with a smile. "What you pulled was foolish, and without me there the driver would have been charged with involuntary manslaughter."

Thankfully, this time, my cockiness drags a smile out of him, and he pokes my side.

"I know." His tone is serious, and I'm thankful for that. Atleast I didn't get kicked out lacking a good reason. Without a project.

The nurses come in and express, on multiple occasions, how without me bringing him he wouldn't be recovering this fast. They also say that he'll be released in the morning.

What the ditsy mortals don't know is that I'm the reasoning for that. Not because I checked him into this sterile hell, but because of what remained from my previous life. Ahem- death.

How does one restart a life?

Well, I don't really know... But I'm working on that.

The few days I had in the hospital I spent reading a ridiculous amount. I don't sleep, or atleast not in the way mortals do- so I had plenty of time. When I wasn't reading, I was exploring.

Hospitals are delightfully entertaining when you can feel every life throb and flicker away.

Before I know it, I'm being shooed out the door with a plastic baggie full of medicine and a miraculously healed suicide patient.

When we've finally made it to the marble stairs that lead down to the half-empty parking lot, he grabs my shoulder to face me to him. "Why do you keep saving me?" He asks, letting me know with his grip that he's not letting go until he receives an answer.

"Because I don't think you have anyone else to."

He seems uncomfortable with my accusations which I take as a sign of confirmation, so we walk in silence.