Echoes of Life

6

I'm not afraid of death; I just don't want to be there when it happens."- Woody Allen

There was no sound as we walked into the house and made our way to the bedroom. Twelve lay in bed looking up at the ceiling.

Ten walked to the bed and asked if he would talk to us.

Silence.

Eleven looked at me and I grew worried. I knew how bad the headspace was I was in at the time that car accident happened, the radio talking about depression increase and the need to seek help. Maybe I should have reached out for more help long before this.

I walked forward and sat next to him on the bed.

"Hi Twelve, I'm Thirteen. I know what is going through your head right now. I know how hard this is. What can we do to help?" I said gently.

He sprang to a sitting position. He started laughing. The sort of laugh you hear in a movie from a psychiatric ward.

As soon as the laughing started, it stopped. He looked me dead in the eye and said "Do you? Do you know how hard it was for me to be flung partway from the car with my body cut in 2 from the windshield? Alive but wanting to die, bleeding out and numb from the waist down with no one there with you in your final minutes?"

Silence engulfed the room.

"He may not but I do," came from Ten. "While we are sulking on this, did you get to hear your friends scream until they turned to cries and then calm. Did you kill your friends? Is anyone's blood on your hands, buttercup?" He was upset. Anger mixed with sympathy. "I know how hard it is. I know! You have us to guide you through this time, but you won't let us in."

"Get out." Twelve said solemnly to all of us.

We turned to leave and at the same time we all looked over our shoulder at Twelve as he lay back down on the bed. We left without another word.

***

Over the course of the next few days Ten, Eleven, and I spent time together. At night every version of Sigmond, besides Twelve, slept on the floor at One's house.

It helped to sleep together, making us feel less lonely. We felt safer, regarding our dreams, there united.

About a week after we had walked into Twelve's house, we saw him come out of his house. Eleven, Ten, and I walked towards his direction as he made his way onto the road.

When we reached him, he looked at us with sorrow in his eyes and apologized to all of us and gave Ten his own separate apology. He then asked Ten to give him the tour and rundown.

***

I had many days I spent thinking about what would come of us when the final, the actual, Sigmond died. I had no ideas really besides the whole Heaven and Hell theory, which led to other questions. Would we become one? Did we all go? Did we split up based on our timeline? There was no way One should be judged the same as Seven up to me.

I was bored and felt an itch. I stood in front of my parents' room at One's house. I thought of the shock that had gone through my entire body as I touched the knob the first time I saw it. Could I push through that?

"What are you doing?" Asked Ten, startling me to a jump.

As I calmed myself, I explained to him that I wondered what would happen if we pushed through the pain of the shock and opened the door.

Ten just gave a shrug and told me to try it.

As much as I wanted to see my parents, there was someone I needed to see more. I moved to position myself in front of Emilia's door. I took a deep breath in and reached for the knob.