The End Is Just The Beginning

Chapter 1

    I pick myself up carefully, I already know I could not possibly have survived that, I'm hoping this is just one big alcohol induced dream. Of course it's not, It can't be, because I look down and see myself lying on the pavement with my neck bent at a ninety degree angle. I instinctively reach for my neck and it seems to be intact, no fragments of bone poking obscenely out of my skin right where they should be, just a slight pain. So I guess you could say being dead is a bit of a pain in the neck, ha, now is not the time for jokes but what is it time for? I'm standing in the middle of a deserted road, in the middle of the night on the wrong side of town looking down at a dead body sprawled at the feet of my well worn chucks. This dead body also appears to be my dead body, if the powers that be have something to tell me I believe right now might be a good time.

    I stand there for what seems like an eternity, waiting for what? I don't know, maybe waiting for a marching band to come around the corner carrying a large yellow banner saying "THIS IS ALL A HORRIBLY TASTELESS JOKE." However, it doesn't seem like thats a probable at the moment so I drop down beside my body and shout into my face "WAKE UP". Yeah I know, not the best course of action but I just died, cut me a break okay. It quickly becomes obvious that my attempts are futile, so I stand back up and let myself fall back into my body, as if falling back onto a plush matress. For a second I think it worked, but then my foot moves a bit and I can see what looks like my transparent chucks surimposed over my body's material ones.

      I sigh in an exasperated kind of way and get back up. Suddenly I look up and I see headlights coming towards me, I almost thought it would be the mysterious hummer driving murderer coming back to see if I was breathing. It turned out to be a crappy Ford pickup blasting country music and probably full of underaged drunk rednecks from the farming town, Becksville just beside Bridgeton. Not exactly my ideal knight in shining armour but someone had to find my body before a coyote decided I looked like a tasty midnight snack.

    Deciding to take a risk, I jog away from where my body is laid out on the side of the road and right into the path of the Ford. At first i'm sure they don't see me but just as I'm mentally preparing myself to be hit for the second time that night (Iucky me), they swerve sharply to the left in a cacaphony of screeching tires and swearing. The driver gets out of the car, he's a short stocky guy with dirty blonde hair and a John Deere hat sitting askew on his head. He's also swearing like a truck driver's wife after she finds him in bed with her sister. I recognize him as Jason Hughes, we used to be best buds back in elementary school, I even had my awkward preteen first kiss with him . We barely talked when we reached highschool but I still feel a pang of sympathy in my chest, he shouldn't have to find me, he shouldn't have to see me like this.

       "What the fucking hell was that, shit I think I almost hit a coon again bro, third time this week." he shouts back to his friends in the car, laughing as if hitting innocent racoons is a certified sport and he's the best player in the league. He turns to get back into the truck when my body catches his eye. "Damnit boys, looks like some girls passed out over on the side of the road, wait....". His eyes bulge out of his face and he pales rapidly as he gets closer and takes in the grisly scene. "Oh my God call the fucking police oh my God, Oh my God it's Nat, I-I think she's dead", He drops to his knees beside me and starts to sob. I turn away, I can't watch him fall apart, things were never supposed to be like this.

    I start walking towards town because I just can't bear to stay and watch my broken body zipped up into the impersonal black body bag while Jason watches, sobs racking his thick frame. I don't want to think about it so i force myself to put one foot in front of the other and think of something else. A single burning question fills my mind as I walk along the dimly lit back road, "Why?"