Guardian

chapter three

I stared at the boy in front of me for a moment before cracking a smile. This had to be a joke. However, the boy didn’t seem to be laughing.

“Come with me,” he said, sighing and grabbing my arm. I blinked, and by the time I had opened my eyes again I was standing on the bottom of the lake, the surface far above my head. I looked at the boy with wide eyes. How had I gotten here? He simply pointed down. At my feet was the figure of a boy. No wait… not just any boy. It was… me.

Suddenly it all came back to me. Leaving the note for my brother, coming to the dock before the sun had even risen with a backpack full of rocks. It had worked? The next thing I knew I was back on the beach, hyperventilating.

“Vic, Vic, calm down. Breathe okay? It’s going to be okay, I promise. Shhh, shh.” The boy was sitting beside me with his arm around my shoulders.

The first thing I choked out when I could breathe again was: “How do you know my name?”

The boy laughed so hard tears sprang to his eyes. “You just found out that you’re dead, in the afterlife, because you killed yourself, and you want to know how I know your name?” I raised my eyebrows at him. “Right, right, sorry, I’ll explain. I’ve seen you around before. I mostly hang out on this beach. You used to come here a lot and stare down at the water. Guess I know what was on your mind now… I’m Jaime, by the way.”

“So… what is this place? And why am I here?”

“This is your purgatory. As far as I can tell, you wander around alone here and feel miserable until whatever greater power there is, whether it’s a god or something else, decides that you’ve done your time.”

“If I’m supposed to be alone, why can I see you?” I inquired.

“I think if you see someone die, you also see their soul once they’re dead. I saw you drown and then I pulled your soul out onto the beach. Thought it might be a bit more relaxing for you.”

“Oh… um, thanks Jaime.” I said awkwardly. “I just… I think I need some time to think…”

“Yeah, sure. I’ll give you some space.”

Once Jaime was gone, I wandered around the beach for a while, trying to recollect my thoughts. Had this really been the right choice? I had been miserable before but now I was beginning to doubt that this was any better. Before I had merely felt invisible on earth, now I literally was. Not to mention that Mike, my younger brother, would be devastated. He knew that I’ve been feeling this way for a while now, and I really couldn’t bear the thought of him blaming himself.

I was completely lost in thought about how my family would react when suddenly I was standing in front of my house.

I really need to figure out how this transportation thing works, I thought to myself. I walked up the front steps and reached out to open the door before realizing that I could just walk through it. I could hear my parents having a hushed conversation in the kitchen, which probably meant that Mikey was still asleep.

“Are you sure he was here last night?” asked my mother worriedly.

“Yes, I saw hi-” my dad’s voice was cut off by a gasp. A sick feeling settled into the bottom of my stomach. They had seen the brief note I left them, or so I assumed. I’m sorry. You’ll find my body at the bottom of the lake. Mikey had gotten a longer letter explaining why I had to do it, since he was the only person who ever really cared. Suddenly, I didn’t want to be here anymore, not as the people who had raised me found out what I had done. I closed my eyes as the tears began to fall. Just like last time, when I opened them again I was in a completely different place. The exact place I had been thinking of. I let myself dissolve into tears as I sat down on the dock. The memories hit me and I imagined the pain in both my parents’ and Mike’s eyes when they came to terms with what had happened to me.