Three Sorries

You hurry down your school’s hallway eager to get home. There will be a party tonight and everyone is going. You want to go home and get ready for it. You wave and smile as you walk past one of your many friends. She smiles back, but you can feel her eyes on your back. She has this weird theory that before a person dies, they are loved the most. You can tell she has been observing you. Just because you’re popular this year doesn’t mean you’re going to die before graduation. After all, this is senior year- your year. You will show her that you will live past graduation. She has always had weird superstitions.

You shake off her gaze and continue walking with new determination. As you turn the corner, you nearly run into a new student. You mumble an apology as you get a good look of him. You start to blush when you decide he looks cute. You walk past him and head to the front doors of the school not noticing he is following you. You wave to another friend as you push open the doors. You begin to walk to your car when you hear footsteps behind you. You throw a glance behind you, just long enough to get a good glimpse of the guy you bumped into following you, stalking you. Your footsteps speed up self consciously.

His does, too.

You get to a stop sign, and while you impatiently wait to get across, he catches up. Your car is just over the walkway, so close…

You decide to be nice and turn to smile at him. As you do, your eyes lock with his, and you are no longer yourself. He begins to walk down the other way you came towards the woods behind your school. The people behind you protest when you start to follow him, because they thought you didn’t like him. You ignore them and follow him.

As you walk into the woods, you throw down your bag next to his and walk to him. He smiles a full smile showing a row of perfect sharp teeth. His smile broadens and empty veins come to the surface. You tilt your head back unknowingly. As he leans forward he says, “Sorry.”

His teeth cut into your skin. It feels like one thousand needles giving you a shot at the same time. The pain numbs as you lose blood. You fall faintly into him expecting him to catch you when he doesn’t you sink to your knees with weakness. When he finishes, you’re nothing but a corpse on the ground. In your dying breath, you watch him walk away and grab his bag to leave. Your soul leaps up just in time to hear him say “sorry” as he walks away.

    Unsure what to do, you decide to follow what you used to call the “sun” in the human world. But mid way, you look back.

What will happen to the guy? Will he take another life?

Revenge and justice swell up in you. But what will you do? Go to a policeman and tell him? You’re a soul! He can’t see you! You decide to move on after a quick debate with yourself.  After all in a month or two, your corpse will be found and justice will be served.

Your gaze slides over to your body. For a mere human, it will look nothing more than an animal mauling. Frustrated, you continue forward. An eternal life feeling exasperation doesn’t sound too appealing, so you go back down to the school to wander the halls. What do you have to lose? You have forty days to burn.

Some students are at their lockers. The students who you thought were weird can see you. You realize they are not weird just misunderstood. Each time you see one of them, they wrote down their address.

You choose to keep wandering; eventually, you run into your murderer. Shock spreads out across his face and you realize he can see you, you motion with a pale finger to follow you, and this time you are the seducer: using his shock to bend him to your will. You end up in the same place where you died. He drops his bag in the same place as last time and collapses to his knees in the same place as you did.

“Sorry,” he says. Your expression softens, and a helpful hand reaches out to him. He automatically reaches for it but goes through. Impatiently, you offer it again with an exasperated body language. This time a different pale hand reaches for it and steps out of the murderer’s body. You pull him up and let go of the pale hand. The body of your murder falls next to your corpse. The sudden movement caused your corpse to fall into the other body. The result ended up looking like two lovers dying in each other’s arms.    

Satisfied, you turn to the soul next to you and smile. You offer a hand for the third time. He hesitates and looks down at his body, longingly. You smile encouragingly, and he takes your hand. Together you walk towards the sun waiting for the end of the forty days you have left on Earth.