Fly ∆way Girl

|4|

|E∆SY YOKE|

"Harley, wait!" He yelled after me. I was running through the daisies at full speed. "Where are you going?!"

"I'm going to find out what happened to me!" I yelled back. I tried to imagine the place I wanted to go next before he caught up to me.

I was outside the cemetery gate within seconds.

"Are you sure you want to be here?" Josiah asked.

I screamed at the sound of his voice behind me. How did he find me so quickly? Was he holding on to me when I left?

"Yes. There are answers in there..." I said after recovering from my startled outburst. It's probably not wise to share with him my plans, especially since he just told me he had something to do with my death, but I still wanted his friendship as odd as that sounds. Besides, what worse can he do? Maybe he'll even come in handy.

He scrunched his lips, surrendering for now.

I didn't even bother trying to open the gate, I just stepped right through it. Josiah must have used it though; I heard its metal latch clamp shut. I didn't bother to question; my eyes were fixed on the wide open scene in front of me.

A lake of tombstones flowed before us like water, yet they were unmoving. This place is the last stop in the physical world. I could find out this very day what happened to me.

I first noticed three tents with fresh flowers underneath; fresh bodies...
"I have to be under one of those." I said. "That is, if my calculations of my time of death are correct.." I added.

"It's hard to be sure when your time of death was.. Things are different here, Harley." Josiah said. His words were heavy with a different meaning, one that I don't have the time to figure out.

I started to "walk" down the path to the nearest tent. Josiah hesitated, and stopped to look at one of the older stones. I decided to leave him behind; I was too excited for site seeing.

The flowers beneath the nearest tent were bright, and I felt like I should be able to smell them, but I couldn't. I do, however, remember their fragrance; I know how they should smell.

The tombstone they surrounded was creepy; it was small and rounded at the top. That's not why it was creepy though; it was creepy because it was absolutely blank. Not a single scratch or hole, just blank, the smoothest piece of stone I've ever laid eyes on.

That's impossible. Who puts out a blank tombstone?

I quickly moved on to the stone beside the fresh grave. It was as blank as the last. I stopped at the next, finding the same outcome. I began to frantically run, stopping at every stone I passed to briefly search over its blank surface. I thought I could feel a heart pounding in my chest, but that had to be a memory.

Then, I collapsed to the ground and curled into a ball. If I could cry, I would have, and I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but I knew no one would hear. Well Josiah would, but I didn't want him to come over here.

Suddenly, a hand was on my knee, and a silky whisper was in my ear. "What's wrong?" It asked.

I froze up from his sudden appearance.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you, I just...noticed you were upset." A blue eyed boy kneeled beside me with one arm snaked around my back.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

He seemed a bit flustered. "I apologize, my name is Larson." A white stick bobbed from his mouth as he spoke. I soon realized that it was a bright red lollipop. Where the heck did he find candy in a place like this? "Are you okay?" He removed a dark, almost black lock of hair from his face with one flick of his head.