Life After Life

Prologue: The End of the Begining

I'm hoping someone will read this and understand. I need help. I've been trapped here for so long. I don't know how long it's been. I couldn't even tell you what year it was when it all started. The worst part is, I'm not alone. I wish I were. Most people fear loneliness. I long for it. I'm getting ahead of myself. I need to go back and explain, from the beginning.

Like I said before, I couldn't tell you what year it was any more than I could tell you what year it is now. I do know it was a long time ago. We were coming back from a day at the lake shore. My parents were the best. I can still remember them to this day. My mother was a beautiful woman with the warmest smiles and the best hugs. She loved to show me how to cook and sew and all the things I was supposed to do. My father liked to tell stories to me after dinner every night. Sometimes they would be from the local paper, and others he would just make up right there. Those were the best. I also remember he always smelled a little of pipe tobacco.

The night this all started, we were coming back from the lake. Mother and I were talking about all the different things we had seen. My favorite were the seagulls. They seemed to simply float in the air like kites without strings. Father was up front driving. The night air was a little cold. So, mother had wrapped me in a blanket to keep me warm. Mother was telling me about the first time she had seen the lake shore when we started across the bridge. Out of nowhere, came another carriage and horse team. The rest became a blur. All there was were sounds. Sounds like my mother screaming then the horses screaming then the cracking and splintering of wood. I don't even remember falling. My mother had wrapped me in her arms as we bounced and tumbled. The next sensation was the cold rush of water as it came in to swallow us up. I blacked out.

My next memory was a police officer with a pointy mustache was carrying me. When I tried to ask him where my mother and father were, I could only cough. My lungs hurt a lot. The policeman looked down at me with the saddest eyes and told me to rest, and that everything was going to be okay. I must have went back to sleep. The next thing I remember was waking up in a hospital bed. When I woke I could see my uncle standing there talking to some man in a white coat. The man with the coat left and my uncle looked at me. I can still feel the chill of his words now. "Your parents are dead," he told me. "You will be coming to live with me." He didn't seem to care one way or another.

There must have been something wrong with me because I didn't cry. I simply nodded and went back to sleep. There were several times I woke up to different people all in white coming to check in on me. After what must have been a week or so, my uncle came to get me. I wanted to ask about mother and father, but I didn't feel like he would want that. He always scared me. He was mother's brother. He was a big and scary man that owned the local coal plant where father worked for him.

He took me to his home. It was a large home on a sprawling green lawn. There were trees and a pond in the back. When we arrived, he handed me off to one of his servants who grabbed me by the arm and nearly carried me upstairs to my room. She nearly flung me in there. Once she closed the door I could only cry. I was alone in a large place with no one that loved me. The tears stung and did nothing to help me. I only cried harder. Eventually I could hear someone open the door and tell me dinner was ready. I knew I should go down to eat, but I was scared of my uncle. I politley told the servant that I wasn't hungry. I decided I would go to bed and sleep for as long as I could.

It wasn't long after that thundering footsteps could be heard coming down the hall. The door slammed open. "You will go downstairs and eat," my uncle raged. "I promised your mother that I would take care of you, and I always keep a promise." The scary man cleared the distance from the door to me in only two long strides. He grabbed my arm and dragged me out of my room. I had to nearly run to try and keep up. His grip hurt my arm too. He sat me roughly at a table with greasy meats and vegetables sitting on a plate in front of me. He had already started his dinner. I remember eating only a little, but my stomach wasn't feeling good. I asked to be excused after finishing about half of my plate. He glared at me and nodded.

I found my way back to my room and just laid in bed crying. I didn't miss anymore meals, my bruised arm healed. He never said a word to me until the day of the funeral. "I will not stand there and listen to a bawling child," he told me. "Do you understand me?" I had agreed and kept my word. There wasn't much to cry over. They were only long wooden boxes. Everyone thought my parents were in there, but they couldn't be. They were still out there somewhere. I just knew they were.

We went back to his house that day in the rain. I was still nervous about being in a carriage, but I kept my mouth shut and did as I was told. The dinner was more grease and watery vegetables. I didn't want to offend him, so I ate a little. I excused myself and went to my room. From there I could see the back lawn. The hills seemed to stretch out all the way to the coal plant my uncle owned. Black smoke always filled the sky from there. I went to sleep thinking of father and the pipe he used to smoke.

I woke up feeling really hot and not able to breathe. There was an orange glow coming from under my door. I went to the door and tried to open it, but the handled burned me. I tried opening the door again this time holding a dress in my hand. As soon as the door opened black smoke came billowing in and the flames rushed forward. I covered my face the best I could. It was hard to breathe and so hot.

I never woke after that. What did happen though was what started it all. I felt lighter than air and I was surrounded by an incredible light. I thought I heard my mother calling my name. Everything felt so light and pure. Then, something grabbed my foot and pulled me hard. I was back in the burning house, but I could see myself lying there on the floor. I looked around tosee what had happened. I had heard my mother calling me! Then I saw the most terrifying thing. I saw my uncle. He was wreathed in writhing blackness from head to foot. His cold eyes stared right through me as he started laughing. I remember him saying, "I'm not staying here alone."