Still Life

How it all began...

When the car hits me, it sends me flying over the bonnet, then rolling off again and landing with a less than graceful thud by the front tires.

I'm shaken, but surprisingly unhurt as I get to my feet.

"Hey, you fucking moron, you could have killed me!" I try to get the drivers attention as he rushes out of his car, but he brushes right past me, going over to the growing number of other people who are rushing over from outside of shops and buildings, gathering at the front of his car.

"Seriously? You're all more bothered about the damage to the car than whether I'm alright or not!" I storm over to the crowd who are all chattering anxiously amongst themselves.

"Has anybody called an ambulance?" one woman asks, taking out her phone.

The guy in the car must have hit someone else as well. Slightly curious, I try to push through the crowd to see what's going on, but my body doesn't push against anything, instead I seem to float right through everyone.

Looking down, I see my own body on the floor, broken and bloody, and the shock brings me to my knees.

This isn't real. This can't be real. It's like a dream, no, a nightmare! The plot of a movie... a movie I'm pretty sure I've seen already actually.

"You think you're dreaming, right?"

I whip around to see a boy standing a little behind me, dressed all in white, and judging by the fact that nobody else is reacting to his strange appearance, I'd hazard a guess that he's just as invisible as I currently seem to be.

"No. I think someone spiked my water." I close my eyes, hitting the side of my head with the ball of my palm to try and wake myself up, but when I open my eyes again, the boy is still stood watching me, only now he looks mildly amused.

"I'm pretty sure your physical body has got enough of a concussion for now. Do you really think that hitting yourself in the head is a good idea?"

"What is happening? Who the hell are you? And why am I standing here totally fine, but also laying down over there looking like a barbie doll that someone's run over seven times with a tractor!"

"Ah, yes! Introductions, I almost forgot." the boy takes a step towards me, and, despite everything else that's going on around us, I find myself noticing how his cheekbones send a shadow over the rest of his pale face in the dying sunlight. He looks about the same age as me, seventeen, but his eyes... they stare at me so intensely, like he knows every secret that the world has to offer. He holds a hand out to me "My name is Albert. I've been sent here to guide you through what's about to happen and help you to try and reach the desired outcome."

"Speak English, will you?" I snap "What do you mean you've been 'sent' here? To guide me through what exactly?"

"Today, at... hold on a minute..." he takes out a pocket watch and checks it "At eight thirty-three, you, Lila Marie Fort, died from internal bleeding after being hit by a black Ford Focus. It was a mistake though. There was a mix up in the next world, where I'm from. Some papers got lost or mixed up or whatever, I don't know, the point is, you shouldn't have died and I'm here to give you the chance to live again."

He says it like he's giving me some great gift, but my brain is so frazzled that I can barely take anything in.

Albert nods over to where somebody is now giving my body CPR.

"They'll stop in two hundred and forty-five seconds when the paramedics arrive." he says "If you haven't made your decision by then, it'll be too late."

"Wait, so right now I'm dead?" I'm hoping that vocalising my confusion will somehow help me to level it all out "And you're... you're... What are you?"

"In your world we're usually referred to as Guardian Angels." Albert says as though it's the most obvious thing in the world "Sent down to help people through difficult periods in their lives."

"Okay, sure." I'm so beyond arguing now that I'd probably have accepted it if he'd told me that he was an alien from Mars "So you're an angel. What do I have to do to live again? Just say yes? Because I wasn't planning on dying tonight."

"Well, that's where things get a little complex." Albert sighs "You see... you haven't exactly lived your life so far in a way that, in my world, is looked upon as acceptable. You've bullied people. You've lied. You've stolen. You've basically taken great pleasure in causing other people pain, and so because of that, to live again you'll have to do something to prove that you're willing to change your ways."

"For the love of-" I snort, but Albert just keeps staring at me steadily "You're serious? Because I teased a couple of people, all of a sudden I have to repent?"

"You don't have to."

"But it's either that or die?"

"Basically."

I close my eyes for a second, taking a deep breath in and trying to focus my energy on not punching the living daylights out of this total loon, then I turn to him again.

"What do I need to do?"

"Another girl died tonight due to an error on our people's part." Albert says "Her spirit was pure and because of that she had already passed on to the next world before we'd had chance to realise our mistake."

"Make a habit of killing random teenagers, do you?" I ask "A bit of a hobby for you, is it?"

Albert ignores me.

"For things to play out as they were always meant to, that girl, Hope, must live for another two months, and that's where our proposition to you comes into effect. If you are willing to live in Hope's body for sixty-one days, from now until New Year's Day, successfully completing eight trails that will come your way to prove that you're worthy of a second chance, then you will wake up as yourself again and it'll be like nothing ever happened. It's quite simple really."

"You're off your face." I shake my head "Is this all just a part of some elaborate prank? Is somebody going to jump out of the bushes over there with a camera in a minute? Because if that's the case I want you to know that I have a boyfriend and I'll be sending him over to rearrange your face for putting me through this."

I can hear sirens approaching now, and Albert looks down at his pocket watch again.

"You have thirty seconds to make your final decision. Think carefully."

"What-" I turn away, running a hand through my hair, beyond confused and frustrated. What the hell am I meant to believe in this situation? You can't die in dreams, but if this isn't a dream and I don't accept Albert's offer...

"Three, two, one, ze-"

"I'll do it." the words escape from my mouth without me even really meaning for them to, and then everything around me disappears, and all I can see is white...