Living In Limbo

Dying

"What I'm saying is we both saw it. We both felt it," Emmett is frantically trying. to convince me over the phone that I wasn't imagining things. "It's impossible. What was it, a ghost? Don't be stupid, Emmett." I reason.

"Ok, ok. Come back to my house, we can go back to the boathouse and see if it's,  he's still there. Then we can meet Regahn on the beach later," Emmett suggests and I reluctantly agree. Apparently we both feel Regahn isn't meant to be a part of this.

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"So uh what do we do now?" I ask nervously as I pace the length of Emmett's boathouse.

"S-Sebastian? Is anybody there?" Emmett looks like a complete idiot talking to nothing. I scrunch up my nose as an intense smell of gunpowder fills the room and makes my eyes water.

A strange sort of grin fills Emmett's face and he's looking past me, near the mirror.  "Sebastian," he states.

I whirl around and see a very faint looking boy, with a slight shimmer around him. "W-who are you?" Emmett asks and the boy disappears. My heart sinks but he reappears a moment later, between us.

I start as a voice fills the room. It is not in the room though, I somehow know it's in my head and Emmett can hear it too. The voice is that of a young man's and it matches Percy's... appearance yet it has a sort of shimmer to it.

"Can you hear me?" His lips aren't moving but I know who's talking. Emmett and I nod nervously. "Call me Seb please. I'm an Inbetweener. I'm dead but not quite gone. I still have a purpose and I need your help. I will explain further later," I shiver.

For the first time, I look at Sebastian... Seb properly. He is tall and slim with golden blond hair and deep blue eyes. There is a scar running down the left side of his face and his cheeks look sort of... hollow. I had never noticed the dark, dirty rags hanging off his skinny body.

"How did you die?" I know this is rude and I'm shocked at my own words. Seb laughs a twinkly laugh and says 'I'll show you,"

My world goes black for a moment and a new world slowly comes into focus. I am a boy of about 13, in 1662. I am very poor and live on the streets. My stomach grumbles and I remember I haven't eaten for days. I creep around the back of a small bakery and the smell of fresh baked bread fills my nostrils. It's  nearly closing time, nearly dark. I find an old, crusty loaf sitting in a tin rubbish drum. I glance up and see fresher bread, just inside the back door. I decide to chance it, not knowing when my next meal will be or if I will even eat again.  I ease the door open but it creaks and the Baker sees me. "Go! Attack!" He yells and his mutt runs towards me, mouth foaming. I turn to run but I trip on the crusty bread I dropped earlier. The dog catches my face with it's razor sharp claws and tears the left side of my face open. Blood trickles down my neck as I scramble up. I twist around in time to see a gun pointed right at my head. In that moment I know I' m dead even before the bullet leaves the gun. The bullet misfires and slices clean through my throat,  from one side to the other. The acrid smell of gun powder poisons the air as I lay in the dirt. I see a large owl take flight and, in my last moment, notice it's piercing emerald eyes.  I am floating now and I watch as the boy's body twitches violently with the last spasms of life leaving him. The peacefulness on his face bothers me. He knew he was meant to die.

Again, my world darkens and I come back into reality in a rush. "Did it work?" Seb questions and I nod slowly,  glancing at Emmett.

A wave of utter depression passes over me. I was there. I lived in that time and I died. It felt so real and yet I know that it is Seb's story and not mine.

"Well shoot," Emmett stands there and his look of shock matches how I feel. "It's alright. I just want to be left to rest. All these years since I died, I have sort of half existed in a world that is inbetween life and death. It is a place that is everywhere and nowhere all at once. But I'm not the only one," Seb smiles slightly.

I'm shocked. How many more could there be? "What do you mean you're not the only one?" I ask in disbelief.

"There's others in this world of ours, other Inbetweeners. We all need to complete something before we can rest and none of us know what. You are the first two that can see us,  that can help us," Emmett's jaw drops even lower at Seb's words.

"Can we meet more of them?" We seem to ask in unison. "Not many of them like to communicate with, um, humans," Seb says slowly.  "But I could try to persuade someone," he quickly adds and, with a small smile, completely fades away.

"What the-" Emmett starts but is stopped when I have to sit down from the instense smell of gun powder returning along with a slightly weaker chemical smell.

"Here we go again," I groan as two figures appear before us.