Asleep or Dead(Gerard Way Romance)(Haunted)(Complete)

Chapter 6. The Gifts We Receive From Death

~~~

Over the next couple of weeks, Ellie had gotten pretty settled in. The house was coming along great, even if it was a little slow. Ellie had been pretty proud of the work she had gotten done. Even if it was emotionally draining for her. Being empathic was not only a gift, but also a curse. Ellie had been an empath all of her life.... well, ever since she died that is.

As with most modern children, Ellie was from a broken home, and had regular visitations with her father. Unfortunately, her father had gotten into a relationship with a young woman who harbored resentment toward Ellie's mother, and liked to take it out on Ellie. (Typical Evil Stepmother Deal Here.)

~Flashback~

Ellie's father had taken her, and her new stepmother Belinda, to a 'friends' house to do some 'business'. Ellie's father was a small time drug dealer in the small town he lived in, but was always unsuccessful, since he was also a big user, and mostly just hosted parties at his house.

A four year old Ellie was in the large swimming pool, splashing and having fun. Not yet knowing how to swim, Ellie liked to hang onto the side of the pool, and 'walk' herself all the way around the perimeter until she made it back into the shallow end. This is something she has always enjoyed doing, and had done many times before. 

 Today however, her stepmother had been sitting on the side of the deep end of the pool with her legs in the water, and when Ellie had made it over to her, she needed to reach over her stepmother's legs and move around her. When she had one hand on each side of Belinda, she looked up and smiled at the frowning woman. Instead of returning the smile, and without saying anything at all, Belinda took her right foot, placed in in the center of Ellie's chest, and pushed her off the wall, and into the middle of the deep end of the pool.

Suddenly finding herself in the middle of the pool, Ellie could not understand what had just happened. She half expected her stepmother to be playing some sort of game, and thought she would jump off the side to swim over, and get her, but as she looked over while trying to keep her head above water, and saw Belinda still sitting on the side with the slightest smile on her face. Ellie's panic hitched up a few notches when she realized she was on her own, and could not keep her head above water any longer. She turned to scream for her daddy, but looked around, and saw he was 'asleep' at the table he sat at, and that's when she got her first mouthful of water. Within a second she was under the water, and sinking towards the bottom of the pool even though she was kicking as hard and fast as she could.

You would think at this point someone's panic level would be at the highest, but in fact, when you are that close to dying, you relax. A sense of calm overcame Ellie as she looked up towards the top of the water. The scene started to change though, and as the water started to disappear, everything went dark.

(Ellie had never told anyone what she had seen that day, and it's possible she never will. But that's another story.)

When she woke up she was in a hospital bed, with nurses fussing over her. She called out for her daddy, and the nurse went out, and called him in. When he came in with Belinda trailing behind...  and she did not look happy.

Ellie's father went to sign some paperwork with the nurse, and Belinda stayed with Ellie in the room. She bent down and whispered in Ellie's ear.. "if you tell anyone what happened, I will kill your mother and grandma...got it?". Ellie nodded. For the first time in her short life, she actually understood what real fear, and hatred was.