Cursed Tales 8 - "Ghost-Walker"

Reel Of Time.

When Jonny opened his eyes, this time the effort to do so was much greater than any time during that hellish cycle. Maybe because he had not actually used them for months and months. Feeling hazy, with the ceiling rotating in a motion that made his stomach sick, he looked away and closed them for a bit. Once the boy looked at the place he was in again…his mind instantaneously regained everything. As if a funnel had entered though his ear and had slowly but surely poured the missing information into his head. As in a gaze, he started remembering.
 
He and Miley were walking back from school. Just like the time he saw it, twice in different aspects of the same memory. He was holding Mercury, his brand new kitten, which had curled up into its brand new box and was enjoying its nap. For a second he looked at its collar and glanced upon the writing and smiled. "This precious girl belongs to the household of "Jonathan Newton Turner". Miley’s eyes shined with passion and love, looking back at the boy who was walking back home with her. They had decided on Mercury because both of them wanted to have something connecting them even more. They had thought of different names, starting from Pluto, the black cat with the same eyes from the Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Black Cat”, but since it was too hot during the time they adopted it, they decided upon Mercury. Miley smiled even wider, looking at the excited eyes of Jonny, who had finally done something on his own, without the permission of his parents…finally starting to do things his way. Jonny quickly winked at the girl and giggled. He was going to introduce her to her family… along with his kitten…or at least attempt to.
 
On the other side of the road, on the bridge, one of the most important characters, if you could call an object that way; a driver, from the lower parts of town was heading towards the upper parts to get a part for his brother who really needed it to fix his car. Not wearing a seatbelt, his windows all rolled down because of the cold weather, he was speeding up past the limit, trying to get there in time before the shop closed. He was about a mile behind them.
 
The kids continued walking until Jonny’s phone ringed just by the cone shaped stone structure, probably the second most important character for an object.  Jonny stopped so he could pick up the phone. That call was the catalyst, and the words exchanged between father and son…were gruesome, but needed. In his mind Jonny, picked right back up after the conversation ended.
 
  “Your father is dead…” – echoed the voice of his mother, notifying the young boy of the passing of his late parent.
Jonny nearly dropped the box he was holding, but still managed to shout in full disbelief.
 
“WHAT!?- He screamed.
  With that very scream, Mercury, the tiny black cat was spooked and quickly jumped from the box, running away from his distressed owner. It headed towards the road, but Jonny was not able to react as quickly as Molly did. In the same time, the driver of the old Opel Vectra was speeding just as Mercury had gotten on the road. Seeing it too late, he got confused and turned right…towards the sidewalk side of the Oxfordian bridge. Molly could not grab the kitten in time, as it got rolled under the wheels of the car, just like she herself got completely ran over. The driver was now panicking even more and instead of the stop, he hit the gas while still moving past the dead girl and cat. The Vectra collided with the cone shaped object in front of it, tearing a large chunk, which flew away and struck the head of Jonny, who was breathing heavily in disbelief of what he was seeing. He fell down unconscious in a pool of his own blood, spurting out of his wounded temple. However, the tragedy did not end here. The Opel continued its uncontrolled drive and completely ran over a garbage bin, with a younger beggar boy who was sitting there since dawn trying to earn some money from the common folk. The car finally stopped as the bin actually managed to stop the inertia, but the driver was not as lucky, because both times he collided with said structures, he struck his head into the steering wheel…hard and brutal, with the final second time…being fatal. While all of this happened in the span of a second, an older woman, nearly as poor as the dead beggar gypsy boy, saw everything and remembered she had an old medical kit since before she was a medical assistant many years ago. She dropped all of her groceries and headed towards her house, which was closer to the bridge. She nearly ran there, and as she made it, her thoughtfulness was her demise, because the med kid was located in the basement. She removed the hanged carpet upon the wall as quickly as possible and quickly started running down the few steps. That is when her foot slipped, and all of her body descended down the concrete steps and crashed into the basement floor…broken and twisted in unnatural ways. She was not even involved into the crash…but she still happened to be part of the tragedy.
Jonny blinked, feeling the tears rolling down like waterfalls over the eight dead souls that had nothing bad attached to them. They were just all in the wrong place, at the wrong time…living their lives…and yet somehow he had managed to make it out. He tried breathing, but the air tube in his mouth prevented it from happening. Jonathan was in a hospital, miraculously surviving the horrible car crash. His pulse was beginning to sharpen up, with the machine that kept track beeping profusely. His mother, sleeping beside him on a couch, with her brown hair covering her face, woke up confused, and instantly started yelling for the doctors to come and stabilize the young man.
  -Do not worry dear; everything is going to be okay! – She started caressing his hands, and slowly whispering! , - Do not worry! DOCTOR, NURSE! –she screamed for help.
The medical staff quickly entered the room and started working on stabilizing the state of the boy who had been in a coma for the last three months since the accident. He had lost a lot of blood, but the medics managed to save him. As the doctors were pouring down painkillers and nerve-relievers, Jonathan looked at his mother, and then at the small window close to the bed he was laying on. His eyes expanded once more, just before going back to sleep again. Jonny saw the older lady, Mercury, Miley, the driver, the gypsy boy …and his Father. They were all nearly visible to the naked eyes, but he still saw them. They were all smiling and waving at him…Their lips formed a word, while the cat only meow-ed, but the gesture was more than clear. All of them…said, “Thank You!”
And Jonny went to sleep again.

Five Years Later.

The wind was still as sharp as ever. His windbreaker was doing most of the work, but regardless of that, for autumn, it was quite chilly. He had spent some time avoiding this very place, but in the end, fate had decided that he needed to come here…and see. His feet stopped by the cone shaped stone structure…located in the middle of the Oxfordian Bridge named, “Fate”. He smiled when he learned that detail while doing some research on the current subject. He was still the same boy, rather, young man, with the curiosity and vigor of anyone willing to change his life around. Yet he was free. Finally, he was free. Jonathan Walker looked at the sign on the structure and felt a slight breeze of goosebumps go by his whole stature. It noted:
  “In loving memory of Elizabeth Livemore, Mercury the Cat, Miley Sunlock, Simsi, Trevor Vehilard and Jonathan Newton Turner!”
Jon smiled and caressed the fur of the ginger cat sitting patiently and lovingly onto the shoulder of the man. It was a ginger cat with white straps over its body, and black circle stripes over its eyes. He was hesitant about getting another pet after Mercury, but that is what Miley would have wanted. Naming it Mars, he continued the “M” legacy of names with the feline. Its sweet vibrating murmur kept him peaceful, while still looking directly into his name. He was no longer a “Turner”. He and his mother changed their names to “Walkers” as soon as they sold the Tabaco Company for more than they could ever imagine. They started a normal life, now that his father was not there to control everything. At first, Jon did not know how to proceed with his life, but it soon become clear to him, that this was his second chance, and that even with all the hardships and strict rules his father had paved onto his previous life, he still had done it for his own future. Now that he was older, he understood it, and cherished those moments, yet still preferred his new style of life. Now he was free to do everything he could not before. He entered a public school, made friends, went out, and had a life. His mother was fine with it, as long as he was happy. It was her only child, so she would give her life…for his. Jon was now nearing the end of twelfth grade, and he had to decide upon a college and other professions. It was an important choice for him, but soon as he started growing from his previous self, he was keen on the quill, and making up random stories. It was either going to be something involving philosophy or something connected to writing. Either way, he was good…his life was good, he had good and many a friends, a new pet and…many memories. Memories that still produced questions he could not really fully comprehend at first, but began to slowly understand as time went by. What troubled him the most was his conversation with his guardian angel, and how everyone had one. He wondered about all of those people that died…did they have an angel to help them? Jon was aware that maybe all of this might have been just a big strange dream…but I did not feel that way. He was truly saving their souls, taken by such a heavy and almost absurd way. He understood that his mission was to guide their souls to the Afterlife…and make their journey easier, as he himself was battling to stay alive until he was finished with that task. He asked himself questions, he could not really answer. He wondered If they all had a second chance…Maybe not, since they had died on the spot…and he was just injured enough to enter the nethers for ninety days. He wondered if other people had that chance like him; when they were also injured enough to barely die? Did they also help other souls, make their way towards the light easier to handle? As Jon continued onto the Hope Bridge, with Mars on his shoulder, his eyes glanced upon the waves underneath the structure, gently crashing by the piers, and continued questioning reality…humanity and the overall reason as to why they were here.
  -Meow! – Meow-ed Mars and licked his ear.
Jon smiled but did not stop walking, but managed to extend his hand as to pet his precious friend.
  -Maybe you are right buddy…maybe we are all just a simulation! – He said and chuckled.
As he did, he turned to look ahead, and just then, by one of the lampposts ahead…he could swear on everything he loved and cared about…that he saw the faint hints of a wing graciously ascending above. Jonathan smiled and remembered the angel. Maybe things were real…No. They were real. Everything was real…he himself was alive…well, and real. But just for ninety days…when everything revolved around him helping other ghosts to their afterlife…where he had to do so in order to survive and manage to understand what truly happened. Just for those months…he was really dead…yet, alive and helping others. Helping them walk past the gate to the heavens. He, just for that time, was truly…
A Ghost-Walker.