Guardian

chapter seventeen

I was walking towards a bright white light. Or maybe I was in the bright white light already... I couldn't tell. In fact, I had no idea how long I had been walking for. It could've been minutes or hours; it was all the same to me. As I struggled to remember how I had gotten here, things began taking shape. Were those... People? Where was I?

"Vic? Is that you?" I heard a familiar voice called from the distance. I wasn't sure how to answer that question... Was it me? "Wow, it's good to see you."

Finally, my eyes started to adjust to the brightness. Standing only a few feet in front of me was... Jaime? It had been so long since I'd seen him last, or at least, I think it had been.

"Jaime! Um, where are we?" I asked him.

He chuckled a bit then answered: "Call it what you want; heaven, the afterlife, doesn't really matter."

"So... We come here after purgatory? After we've left Earth?"

"Earth? Oh yeah, Earth. Haven't heard anyone talk about that place in a while," he said, mumbling the last part to himself. "But don't think about any of that stuff, you're here now. It's nice here- everyone's always happy and smiling. You can do whatever you want."

"Whatever I want? Are there guitars anywhere?" I questioned. I had so many questions for him, this was starting to sound like an interview. "Also, why is everyone so happy all the time? Isn't there any of that, um..." I trailed off, not being able to remember the word. What was the opposite of being happy? "And another thing... Why can't I remember what Earth was like or what happened? I have vague ideas, like I killed myself right? But I can't remember why or really any other details..." I trailed off again, thinking hard.

"Whoa, whoa, don't worry man. In answer to your first question, everything you could ever possibly want is here. And... just, don't think about Earth okay? Think positive. Bad things happen when you're upset. It brings everyone else down too, and we can't have that. If you can't remember it probably isn't that important right?"

I nodded slowly. Everything he was saying was making sense. I wasn't happy back when I was alive, so why should I try to remember what happened then? It couldn't be that important if it was just bringing me down. "Well, what do you say that we go find some of those guitars?" I suggested with a grin. Jaime seemed happy that I was happy so he nodded in agreement. We walked around aimlessly until a stack of all sorts of different guitars and amps appeared in front of us.

"This. Is. Awesome." I stated.

"Everything here is awesome," Jaime agreed. Suddenly, I didn't care about remembering anything like I did before. This was a place for being happy and enjoying yourself. This is what life should've been like all along. Just having fun with people you like. No one was mean here and the people who were mean didn't stay here. I wondered briefly where they went, then laughed at myself. Who cares? It wasn't my problem to worry about.

Me and Jaime fooled around with the guitars for a while, playing songs and writing new ones. He could sing pretty well which surprised me a little. He seemed more comfortable just letting me sing while he played and did back-up vocals though. I don't know how long we were just fooling around for; time didn't seem relevant in this place, wherever we were. I looked up from my guitar to see Jaime staring at me.

"What?" I giggled nervously. "Why are you looking at me?"

Instead of answering, Jaime just moved closer to me and pressed his lips to mine softly. "I was thinking about doing that," he whispered.

I studied him silently. "Didn't you say you loved me?"

He frowned a little and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know. I can't remember. What I do know is that I like kissing you," he answered cheekily, and brought his hands to my cheeks.

"Hmm," I murmured in response. "Kissing you isn't half bad either." He took that as an invitation and kissed me again, a little less softly this time. There was a thought in the back of my mind telling me that I shouldn't be doing this but I wasn't sure why. Someone... there was someone else that didn't want me to? Or I didn't want to because of that person? The name was on the tip of my tongue, but then Jaime's lips were, distracting me. Black hair and blue eyes filled my head and then I was remembering; it was-

"Victor! Is that you?" A strangers voice pulled me out of my thoughts, away from the boy, who's features I couldn't think of anymore.

"Grammy!" I said with a smile, looking at the woman walking towards me. Her wrinkled lips turned upwards. Everyone here was smiling, so I should too, right? Nothing else mattered, or at least thats what I kept telling myself. There was a nagging in the back of my head and the pit of my stomach though... I was worried about something or someone, even though I couldn't recall what it was.