Fly ∆way Girl

|2|

|∆ L∆CK OF COLOR|

The darkness is too scary. I can't stand for it to surround me, not even for a few seconds.

That's why I'm at my old school today. I find it ironic that I spend my "time" there. I mean, I probably hated school when I was alive. Most kids do, right? I guess it could have been fun for me... I'll never know.

The library is a good place to go. I seem to enjoy looking over people's shoulders into books. Wordless books. That's strange to me; books are supposed to have words, but none of them here do. Luckily, some have pictures that I can look at.

Today a girl looked through a geography magazine, perhaps she had a report due, or maybe she just likes the scenery? It doesn't really matter to me, so long as I get to see.

The pictures featured trees. Many trees. Some orange, some red, some yellow, very few were still green in these pictures. Oh what a beautiful forest that is. Certainly I will get to see those colorful trees again...

After spending a good amount of time in the library, I moved on into the hall. It was a long hall and I'm not even sure where either direction led. This obviously wasn't included with my memory package. To the left was a shaded end that seemed to branch off twice more, into a darker area. To the right was a double glass door with light so bright, I couldn't even make out what was on the outside.

I decided to go straight, and continue on the same path that led to an intersection of sorts. All the halls of the school met here, four main halls in total.

I noticed something profound against the far wall. Something bright and colorful. ACtually, many somethings.

Yes, I did what I stupid moth would do; I moved closer. Flowers, lots of them covered the wall and surrounding floor. They formed a frame around a center photo. The photo had a girl in it, a beautiful girl. The girl had blonde flowing hair and blue eyes. She smiled happily in the picture. The things that lay on the floor were quite interesting. Unburned candles sat among flowers, cheerleader pom poms, a graduation cap... Oh wow, that must be me in that picture. Surely it is. People miss me after all. They even made me a memorial in the school. I can't believe it! I was pretty and a cheerleader. Wow! So much ahead of me...

People came out now, everywhere. They flowed through the hall like a lake of bodies, none stopping to look at the memorial. Most walked straight through me. I walked with them down the hall, pretending to be a part of the crowd. Oh how normal it makes me feel. Normal is a luxury I don't get anymore.

The hallway was white, too white. Boring even. No wonder kids hate school, there is no color to spice up their day.

The crowd began to split into two, and I filed in with the left group. It seems that I spoke too soon because this hallway was painted red. Really red.

Then, they were gone. Every one of them filed into various classrooms and doors, leaving me alone in the red hall once more.

Then I heard a noise, no, a voice. Was it directed at me? Unlikely. Then it sounded again, even clearer than the first time. The word it spoke was distinguishable this time.

"Harley." It said. Not in a questioning tone, no, in a tone that implied that the owner knew me and desired my attention. I turned around, so fast I forgot to make it look normal like a human. Ah, it doesn't matter anyway, people don't see me.

This person did though and he wasn't happy about it, almost like he was hoping it wasn't me.

I stood facing the boy, unsure of what to do next. He wore khaki skinny jeans and a brown knitted pull over. That's as much as I could gather before he spoke again.

"Hello Harley." He said, moving closer. I wasn't afraid of him, in fact, I wanted to be close to him; a strange feeling it was. Perhaps I just craved contact with anyone.

"Hello?" I tried, testing my voice. I haven't used it in a while since no one hears it.
"Do I know you from my past?" That was the only thing I could think of. I surely don't know this person now.

"No, you don't know me, Harley, but I knew of you." He said it with an eerie smile, like his words had a darker meaning.

He was an arms length away now, and he closed the gap with an offered hand.

"Who are you?" I asked him. I was curious now, but reluctant to take his hand.

"I'm Josiah." He said with a bright smile. His eyes were brown and warm, the kind that you want to look into and tell the owner all your secrets. Too bad, I don't have many to share. I took the hand, the cozy hand, how wonderful it was to hold something in my hand.

"It's nice to finally meet you in person." Josiah said from beneath the honey colored curls that framed his face. "I've been looking for you for a while now. You slipped through the cracks."

Why me? What cracks? "Yes... it's nice to speak with someone..." Though at this point, anyone would suffice so long as they could see and hear me. "How are you here?"

His face was humble and he never took his warm eyes away from me. "I just...am."
That's all he said, but I guess that answer's as good as mine..

"Do you know how you died?" I asked him, surprised it took me this long to think of that question.

His brow knotted up, almost in anger, but they unraveled just as quickly. "I didn't. Not everyone here is dead, Harley."

The confirmation of my death stung my eyes, but I focused on getting answers. "Then why are you here?"

"I came here for you, to help you.." His face was serious, but still managed to be kind.

Mine probably held a confused look that matched my feelings. "Help me how?"

"You ask the wrong questions... You are searching for something, right?"

"Yes. I'm searching for answers. I need to know what happened to me," I said. I could tell this guy was someone you could spill your guts to and he would listen. But, I couldn't tell if he was someone I should tell my secrets to or not.

"Well, then I will help you." He said with his unusually wonderful smile. His entire look was earthy, natural for a better word... Maybe it was his tan skin and messy long hair, I don't know but it was nice.

"Come see." I said, leading him to my memorial. He followed me willingly.

Even more flowers littered the area around it. Who put them there while I was gone?

We both stopped in front of the large photo to admire it.
"That's me I think," I said after a while. "I was so pretty. I had so much left to do in life..."

"You were very beautiful." Josiah said, though he wasn't looking at the photo, his gaze was on me. "You did have much in front of you, you were so young...it's a shame you left that world at such a young age..." He said that part almost to himself.

"18 exactly. That's definitely too early to leave life behind."

"We'd all like a little longer I believe, a second chance."

"Yes, a second chance would be nice." I answered as I stared at the girl in the picture. She wasn't through with life yet, but apparently it was through with her.

Josiah looked over at me. "Would you go back if you could?"

It took me a small moment to think up my answer. "Yeah, I'd like to think I would."

He seemed surprised, but smiled a little smile. "Can I take you somewhere to talk?" He asked me.

"Yes, I guess that would be okay..." I said. In the human world, this would be a dumb decision. You can't just go off with people that you just met, but this isn't the human world. I'm already dead, what else could go wrong?

I took his hand, and we were gone.