I Am Forever (Michael Jackson)

Chapter Twenty - Two

Chapter Twenty - Two

Where am I? It's white, and white is everywhere. No sign of life, and I'm alone. I don't know how I got here. The whiteness looks like it could go on for miles. When I tried to get up earlier, I was stopped by this invisible wall, keeping me in this invisible box. I'm really scared, but for some reason, I'm still calm. How? I'm still trying to figure out where I am.

"This way! This way!"

I turned around to find the person who made that sound. I looked all around me, but there was nobody. It was a little girl. She was laughing as she talked, and was leading someone somewhere. I looked again, and did a double take when I finally saw the girl.

The girl was me.

What the hell...am I time traveling? Instead of trying to call her -- or my attention, I watched what she was doing. She kept calling, who ever she was speaking to, over to where she was. She waited on a random bench that popped out of nowhere after I blinked. She was sitting on the bench, plucking a daisy's petals off. I remember doing that; it's that old, "He loves me ... he loves me not" game. After a good minute, she jumped off the bench, and hugged the little boy that finally showed up.

The little boy happened to be Michael.

"Bonnie, why do you run everywhere we go?" he asked, almost out of breath.

"Because!" she flailed her arms around, "We get places faster that way."

He made a blah noise, then rolled his eyes, "You know I hate running."

She smiled anyway, "C'mon, we have to play as much as we can before Joseph gets home!" I grabbed his hand and ran around in circles, Michael in tow. Poor baby, he looks so afraid of me. I laughed, thinking about how much of a weird relationship we had back then. But I knew he still liked being my friend ... he did follow me everywhere.

"Bonnie!" he yelled.

"What? What's wrong?" she asked, scared.

"My dad's car is coming down the street!"

"Run! Michael, run!" After they screamed, they ran so fast to their own homes. I smiled, hoping we wouldn't get caught, even though I knew that we weren't going to.

Suddenly, the flashback setting was gone, and it was all white again. Damn it. Knowing that the box was still enclosing me here, I sat crossing my legs, hoping that everything would be alright.

Just then, I heard laughter, and screams of joy and competition. I can pin-point those screams a mile away. And just as I opened my eyes after blinking, there we were -- running or racing to wherever it was we were going. We were young ... early twenties, maybe. He smiled a lot back then. Before Stella ruined his life ... but if I think about it, I could be the reason too.

Michael finally made it to this big tree that we had been racing to. I remember this day like it was yesterday. Sounds cliché, but I do remember it clearly.

"You cheater!" The other me yelled as best I could, as I was out of breath.

"How am I a cheater?" he laughed, as he was out of breath as well. "It's not my fault I'm faster than you!"

"Yeah, you can go pretty fast when you push your competitor out of the way!"

"I did not push you!" he smiled.

"It's cool. Lie to yourself about that. I won't be mad," I joked. I took in a deep breath, then allowed myself to drop onto the cold green grass. It hadn't been trimmed yet, so it wasn't that bad a fall.