Can You Hear Me?

Chapter 1

Her thoughts wandered into dangerous territory. She was only thirteen years old. Her small, pale body curled up in the warmth of her bed. Her brown eyes adjusted to the darkness of her bedroom. She was adapting; changing with all of the horrible things around her. Dressed in an over sized t-shirt given to her by her father before he left. It was blue, worn, and a little frayed around the collar from her unconscious habit of chewing on it. The old, plain, blue shirt was all she had left of him. Other than that, she wore black basketball shorts and socks that did not match.

"Katelynn," a young male's voice called after her. She lifted her head and stared at her closed door. The ends of her light brown hair dangled by the side of the bed.

"Katelynn!" the voice got louder, and more familiar. It sounded like Eddie. Eddie was her life long BFF, Edward. Their mothers were as good of friends as they were.

The doorknob on the entrance door moved. Katelynn held her breath in anticipation and with eyes pinned wide open. Slowly the door began to open and light flooded the messy room.

"Katelynn, why aren't you answering me?" her mother poked her head around the door. She stood tall and thin, as thin as her blonde hair that reached for her shoulders. She wore what used to be a white bathrobe, but now is as tattered as the shirt her daughter wore.

"Honey, is everything okay?" she questioned, really hoping for a response this time around. Katelynn rested her head on the cold pillow once again, without a word. Her mom entered the room with what appeared to Katelynn as caution. She sat at the foot of the twin-sized mattress, which was covered with a fitted gray sheet and not much more. As for the bedding, it layed on the carpet beside them. With loving eyes her mother checked her for any obvious concerns that should be attended to.

"I know it's a lot to take in, with you missing Eddie and all." In attempts to comfort her only daughter, she gently ran her hand through Katelynn's long hair.

Tears began to well in Katelynn's eyes. Just the thought of her best friend missing was too much for her to bare.

"We know there's an afterlife, right? You'll see him again soon. I promise." Katelynn didn't want to wait until the afterlife to see him again. She just wanted her best friend to come back home. She did not understand all of this talk about the afterlife. No one was even dead. They just left.

Eddie ran away, to be where only God knows. Her dad left for the greater good; at least that's what he told her. She imagines him to be helping people all over the world and that's why he doesn't call. He is simply too busy, doing things of greater importance.

Katelynn's mother, Elana, continued to stare at her like a puzzle. She gave Katelynn a soft pat on the leg before raising to her feet.

"I'm going to make you something to eat. I don't remember you coming down for dinner." she explained.

"And how about a little light?" she pulled the string on the lamp on her way out the door.

Katelynn buried her face back into the pillow as her mom descended the stairs. Crossing the living room and into the kitchen she went. There was not much to choose from but she knew her daughter enough to know that she will always eat a PB&J. She took the last two pieces of bread and scraped up the last bit of peanut butter in the jar with a plastic knife. She smoothed over the peanut butter then opened the jam.

        **KWH**

Katelynn felt someone sit at the foot of her bed. Her head shot up, heart beat discontinued, movement was to the minimum. That was not her mother at the other end of her bed. She refused to blink in fear of something happening too quickly for her to respond. All this adrenaline gave her senses a boost.

How did he get in here? She could have swore her window was closed. She didn't want to look away from him to check the window though. The boy at the foot of her bed was her age. Brown shaggy hair, a gray zip up, and some blue jeans. But the color of him was dull, distorted almost. He hardly looked real. His head was down and hair covered his eyes. He reminded her of an old friend.

"Ed-" she was interrupted abruptly

"Honey I have a sandwich for you!" Elana pushed the halfway opened door to fully opened.

Katelynn couldn't help but look over when she came in, but her eyes jumped immediately back to the spot on her bed. He was gone.

"Are you okay? What happen? You look as if you've seen a ghost!" The girl looked back to her mother again with horror. Her eyes scanned the room over and over again, searching for any sign of him, but there was none. In that moment she let out all the air in her lungs that she realized she was unconsciously holding.

Her mom slowly, and cautiously made her way to the bed and sat down, still with the paper plate and a sandwich on it. 

"How about you go back to school tomorrow? I think it'd be good for you to readjust, and get back into routine. Maybe it will help some." she reached to her daughter's head to sooth her but when she did Katelynn jumped. This started Elana. She gazed at her with wide eyes, not knowing who's kid she was looking at. 

Katelynn refused to make eye contact. She just continued to watch the details of her room, expecting something to change... but nothing did, because this is reality. Things don't just move by themselves. People don't just disappear and reappear. People don't do that. Real people can't do that. So what was he? 

All these things kept running through her head. Elana could see how busy her mind was, so she slid the plate onto her nightstand and walked out the room.