RESURRECTION

Chapter 2

"Jenika!" Tim says louder as he starts to try and raise up.

"Hold up. You're not going anywhere?" Dena says as she gently pushes him back. "Jenika. Isn't that the married woman you were in bed with when you were shot by her husband?"

"Mom." Emily says quietly and shakes her head. Now wasn't the time to be scolding Tim for sleeping with a married woman.

"Jenika. Is she here? Was she ... Is she ..dead?" Tim asks as he looks from his mom to his sister.

"She was shot too, Tim. And the last account I heard she was also in a coma." Emily tells him.

"Can you check on her, please? She should be awake too now." Tim says as he tries to slow his rapid breathing. 

"Why would you think she'd be awake now, Honey?" Dena.

"Because we ..." Tim stops himself as he looks once again from his mom to his sister. Would they even understand, he thought to himself.

"Helloooo." An older nurse smiles as she brings in a tray. "I thought maybe you would like something to eat. It's much better than what we've been feeding you through these bags."

She raises his bed up slowly into a sitting position then slides the table around in front of him. The first thing that catches his eye is a glass of tea.

He grabs the glass and begins to drink it in big gulps.

"Well." The nurse laughs. "Guess I need to bring you some more tea."

Emily takes the top off the tray, uncovering a bowl of chicken broth, Jello and a Popsicle.

Tim looks down at his tray with a disappointed look.

"Is this it?" He asks as he looks up at the nurse. "Or is this just an appetizer."

Emily giggles and covers her mouth. She was glad to see her brother still had his sassiness.

"I'm afraid this is it." The nurse smiles. "You have to start out easy. Your stomach wouldn't be able to handle solid food just yet."

"Guess it's better than nothing." Tim mumbles as he picks up his spoon. "Oh, uh, Mam? Can you tell me about a patient named Jenika Marion?"

"Honey, I'm sorry. But I can't give out any information about a patient to a non-family member." The nurse says.

"So she is a patient? She's here?" Tim asks. 

"I can tell you that she is a patient here." The nurse answers.

"Am I allowed to leave my room?" Tim asks.

"One step at a time, Mr. Tim." The nurse smiles. "We'll have to see how you feel just getting out of bed for awhile and sitting. We have to make sure you don't get dizzy or get overly tired."

"Thank you." Tim says as he looks back at his dinner as the nurse leaves.

"Eat up, Big Brother." Emily smiles.

"D*mn, I was really hoping for a cheeseburger and fries." Tim says before taking a sip of his broth.

"In due time, Sweetie." Dena smiles as she rubs her son on the back of the head.

"That actually wasn't that bad." Tim says as he pushes the tray away. "That broth was pretty good but still a cheeseburger would have been better."

"So how are you feeling? Are you getting tired?" Dena asks.

"No, I'm okay." Tim answers with a slight nod.

"Just don't want you trying to overdo it on your first day." His mom smiles.

"Uh, can I talk to you guys about something? Tim asks as he pulls on a loose string on the blanket that covered him.

"Sure, Sweetheart." Dena says as she and Emily give him their full attention.

"Do you believe in 'out of body experiences'?" Tim asks.

"Well, I don't know of anyone personally that has experienced something like that but I've read articles about it. I really didn't know if I believed them or not." Dena answers. "It's really hard to say. Why do you ask?"

"Mom, when I got shot, my body might have been here but my spirit went somewhere else." Tim says before nervously looking at his mom and then to his sister. "Before you say it, it wasn't a dream or it wasn't because of the pain medicine or whatever. It was real."

"Honey..." Dena starts but Tim cuts her off by holding up his hand.

"Mom. I know what I experienced. And it was real. I know this is gonna sound crazy but it was a town and at first, I was the only one there. Three days later, Jenika shows up. Then as time goes by, more people showed up. Each had died an unexpected death." Tim says. 

"Tim, honey, we want to believe you. But that just sounds ...." Dena says as she shakes head.

"Crazy?" Tim asks.

"Tim? Who's Adam?" Emily asks.

"Adam?" Tim asks with a smile. "How do you know about Adam?"

"You whispered his name right when you were waking up." Emily says.

"He's the most beautiful man I've ever seen in my life." Tim smiles as his eyes fill with tears. "He was there. He had got shot during a hold-up at a quick-stop that he was at."

Seeing her son get so emotional over something made her want to believe him. She knew that Tim was Bi-sexual but he had never had a serious relationship with anyone. So whoever this Adam was, he had to be pretty special.

"So... so what happened?" Emily asks.

"There were these demons or demon dogs that came out at night looking for souls to drag to Hell. For some reason, we were safe as long as we were in the buildings. But the last couple of days, I felt as if something bad was fixing to happen. And it did. They came during the day and started searching the buildings for us."

"Oh, my God." Dena whispers as she covers her mouth.

"There was this portal at the edge of town. We had no idea what would happen to us if we stepped through it. But none of us wanted to be dragged to Hell by these creatures. So we took the chance and stepped through together. That's when I came out of the coma. Y'all said I was in a coma for three weeks. I was in Dead Town for years."

"Dead Town?" Emily asks.

"That was just a name I gave it. Cause we were all dead." Tim shrugs.

"But how can you prove any of this? I want to believe you, I do, but it's so hard to believe." Dena says as she takes him by the hand.

"I know, momma. But I swear on my life, I was there." Tim says. "I fell madly in love with Adam. It wasn't a dream, it was real. There was fourteen of us in Dead Town. If I woke up then maybe it's possible that they did too."

Tim looks at the faces of his mom and sister. He could tell that they actually wanted to believe him.

"Right now, the only way I can prove to you that I'm not crazy is if I can get to talk to Jenika. If she experienced the same thing, then you have to believe me." Tim says with pleading eyes.

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