Dead Girl Walking

One

Chapter One

October Fourth was the night I was killed. The night that the knife plunged through my heart, the bullet shot through my head, the time I drew my last breath. But was there a knife or was there a bullet? Was there even either of those?

No, there couldn't have been a bullet to my head. Maybe somewhere else, or maybe a knife? Possibly did I die from blood loss? No, it couldn't have been that either. Trauma to the head? No, my head was found. That rules out anything to do with my head, besides of course, decapitation.

My head was the only thing that was found. In the woods near my house, behind a large rock, already feeding the crows. My body was nowhere to be found near that- they checked everywhere.

And how do I know? I'm dead, after all.

The night I died is simply a hazy memory in mind. The last I remember is leaving my junior prom, feeling dizzy, and possibly collapsing on the sidewalk? Where my captor took me and chopped off my head? There were so many missing pieces to my story. Details the police and even the best investigators couldn't find out.

The morning I woke up, my head hurt a little, but still, I woke up. I was still in the outfit I changed into after prom, my red-and-black striped sweater and navy-blue jean shorts. The last thing I remember wearing. I didn't remember coming home and getting into bed that night, but at that moment I figured I was too tired or too drunk to remember it.

When I walked from my bedroom and into the kitchen, Mom's crying eyes met mine for just a second before she returned them to her hands.

"Mom?" I asked her, not knowing what had happened just yet. "Mom, is everything okay? What's wrong?" How could I ask her that question? Her daughter was dead. That was what was wrong.

But no response. Of course I know now that she couldn't see or hear me. Nobody can.

A knock sounded at the door and I offered to get it for Mom, still not realizing that she couldn't ever know I was there. Mom walked to the front door where the knock pounded at; her legs wobbly, ready to collapse under her weight.

Her shaky hand reached for the doorknob and pulled the door inwards toward herself, revealing who was outside. The police.

I still remember their voices. Standing in my kitchen, confused as to why Mom was crying. But what they said confused me more.

"Hello, Mrs. Sterling. I am sorry to inform you of this, but we need you to come with us to the station to confirm your daughter, Kamaria Sterling."

"She's there! She made it back? Kam is at the station with you?" Mom's face lifted up. If only it never had to dim back down.

The officers looked at each other, puzzled. Mom didn't know I was dead. "Ma'am?" They softly asked her, like the quieter their voice the less Mom would break. "Have you turned on the news yet this morning?"

As they asked, Dad appeared from Mom and his bedroom. "What's going on? Darlene? Why are the cops here?" The beginning of Dad's breaking.

"We have to turn on the news." Mom said, turning to the TV with the remote in her hand. Her voice was shaky and unsure. She had to have been starting to put the pieces together. The pieces she had.

The TV clicked on, immediately turned to the news channel from Dad watching the previous morning. The morning his daughter wasn't dead.

"Early Sunday morning, about four hours ago, a young girl's head was found on the route leading to Shady Oaks Park, officials say. Just an hour ago, a young man, Marcus Teagan, came to the station and said he knew her. Teagan reported the head belonged to his girlfriend, Kamaria Sterling. Officials are still waiting on the official confirmation of the girl."

I remember flinching about the way they said my name- Kam-maria instead of Kam-aria. But seeing Mom drop to her knees broke me even more.

"No, that's not my daughter." Dad started, "Kam is asleep in her bedroom. She is, she came in late after her junior prom last night. No, that can't be her. That route doesn't match up to our house!" Dad began shouting as he stormed to my room, violently opening the door. My empty bed pushed against the side of my wall broke Dad. "Kam?" Dad stuttered, his voice shaking.

I followed him there. I saw the way his eyes dimmed, the way their glass shattered.

"I'm sorry folks." The officer said, but was that really the best thing he could've? I'm sorry folks? Like he was the one who killed their daughter? Who killed me?

I was more upset by the breaking in my parents than the fact I was dead. No, that didn't settle in yet. It wasn't until I followed my parents to the station.

They got in the cop's car instead of driving their own. They couldn't have, they were in too much shock. I climbed in after them, my legs brushing against theirs, but they didn't notice. Didn't even look up at their own daughter.

Clearly, that poor dead girl wasn't me. And obviously, my parents were too afraid to even notice I was next to them. These cruel officers were just convincing them that I was dead. And Marcus was confused, too. Maybe he had too much to drink at prom and its effects hadn't yet subsided. I couldn't be dead. I was right here.

Stepping out of the car Dad almost closed the door on me, but I managed to slip out before he could. I followed them into the station, the officers holding both doors on either side of my parents. My poor parents.

They took them to a room with a 'No Entry' sign pinned on the door. Wasn't that a sign to not go in, Mom?

And there I was; part of me at least. My head all by itself, not how it was supposed to be, wrapped up one of those plastic-police-bags.

Mom gasped. Dad shuttered. What else were they meant to do? There was a decapitated head all alone on a table in front of them.

The officers began to unwrap the head, careful to not touch it. To not touch me.

And there I was, my black hair still stuck to my face. The white in my dark eyes turned purple. My skin already experiencing rigor mortis.

What? No! That couldn't be me. I was right here. "Mom, Dad?" I yelled. "That's not me! Can't you see? Your daughter! Kam! I'm. Right. Here!"

But that was me. And my boyfriend Marcus was right. He did recognize that girl, because it was Kamaria Sterling. It was me, Kam. And my parents were wrong. Their daughter wasn't asleep in her bed, tired from her junior prom. Their daughter was right in front of them. The only part of her left- or the only part of her found.

But if I was dead, why was I here? When I woke up, I didn't wake up in heaven. I woke up in the body I had before I died. Because this isn't the afterlife. Whoever was in charge- God, the universe, whoever it was, kept me here not to torture me with seeing my own dead body. I'm not immortal, no. I'm here, a lifeless yet walking corpse, to finish my life.