Life's A long journey

The Beginning

I am walking on a path by myself and no matter how much I walk I can never reach the end. I try to leave the path but some invisible force pushes me right back. 
Just as I give up all hope of ever reaching the end where I see a light shining brightly, a shadow falls across the path and I look back to see a wave of darkness engulfing everything in its path. I try to run away but it catches up to me and just as it's about to engulf me, I wake up in my room.
I am panting and my body is covered in sweat. I look at the time and see that it's only three in the morning.

I lay in bed wondering why I have been having this dream so frequently. Does it mean something? Does it have any connection to my father's death? I remember that day like it was yesterday.......

My father was a journalist, not one of those news station journalists, no. He was a person of his own right, he liked to travel all around the world looking for special pieces of news to share with the world. And this required him to move from place to place. I never blamed him for it, I was way too fascinated by his stories and his experiences that they would make so much of the pain of his absence go away. It inspired me to want to travel the world too. But alas that's a dream for another day. It was all put to rest when that accident happened.

It was one of the rare days when dad was in town, so we planned to spend the whole day together, ending with a nice walk in the park.  It was a lot of fun!! We had gone to the movies, had an amazing lunch at the best place in town, and then we had come to the old park in our neighborhood for our walk. It was then that it happened. As we were walking, a man running away from someone just stumbled into my dad. He didn't even stop or apologize, he just stood up and went back to running. I was just about to ask dad if he was okay when I noticed his shocked expression. I wondered why he was shocked until I looked down. And then it was like my whole world shattered.

There, right there was a knife sticking out of dad's gut, as blood slowly spilled out, coloring his shirt a deep red. Dad fell to the floor, clutching the knife. He wanted to say something but I could see his strength was slowly leaving him. I- I- I tried to help, I wanted to help, I tried stopping the bleeding, pressing on the point but nothing worked, it only made it worse. I couldn't stop the tears that started spilling out as I was fumbling about.

"Help!", I said without looking up.

"HELP!", I screamed, "Someone help!!", I desperately wished someone would hear my cries and come to help. 

"Dad, it's gonna be okay Dad. Don't sleep, Dad. You can't sleep, it's gonna be just fine, Please stay awake", I couldn't hear his breathing anymore. I knew it was done, the moment had come but I didn't wanna accept it.

"DAD!!", someone finally came, they quickly called 9-1-1 and came to help but there was nothing to be done. They could tell he was gone. 

"Stop dear child, stop. It's okay now, you can let go." My hands stopped, my whole clothes stained with my dad's blood and then exhaustion took over me as I fell over, unconscious, onto my dad's now cold body.

That had been six years ago and I had been twelve. The man had taken me to a hospital and after that, I was left in the care of my uncle as my mother had died giving birth to me.
Now my life was back on track and I am gonna finish high school this year. I look at the time again and it is now showing six 'o'clock. I get out of the bed and into the bathroom where I first relieve myself and then take a bath. I came out refreshed and dress up.  As I go down, I hear the sound of cooking.

"Something smells good", I say as I walk into the kitchen.

" Good morning Jasper! Someone's up early", my aunt replied while putting the hot bacon onto a plate and serving it along with a glass of orange juice.

"Yeah,  well I couldn't sleep much last night and woke up early so I decided to go to school a bit earlier than I usually do. ", I say as I dig into the yummy food. My aunt is an amazing cook and tasting her food always calms me and I feel heavenly bliss.

" It's a good thing you woke up early but did you consider the fact that today is a Sunday? "

My hand stopped in mid-air as my mouth opened in shock. I couldn't believe I could have been so foolish. 

My aunt laughed at my pitiable state and said, "Even if it was by mistake, it was a good thing you got ready. Now help me with my chores. ".
Oh lord! why did I have to be stuck with chores?

She handed me a list of things to be bought from the store and gave me a look that warned me not to waste any time or there will be consequences.

I rode my bicycle all the way to the store and parked it outside. I went in and since it was early in the morning hardly anyone was there besides an old lady and the store clerk. I moved about and gathered all the items on the list and even added a few items of my own including a few cans of soda, some Twinkies, and some packets of chips to add to a stock of food that I store for emergencies (Midnight snacks count as emergencies!). I quickly moved to the cash counter and paid up. My aunt knew about my habit of adding to the stock and had generously provided more than enough money to cover everything.

 I decided to leave my bike there and walk back home as I would not have been able to carry all the bags on the bike. Also, the house wasn't that far.

On the way, I saw a car parked in the driveway of an empty house beside ours. The house had long been famous for being abandoned for so long, people started calling it haunted. I thought that someone might be buying the house or had bought it already. I wanted to see who was going to be our new neighbor but I had to go home first. I walked as fast as I could and stepped into the house.

"Is that you dear?", the voice of my aunt came from the laundry room.

"Yes, it's me! I kept the groceries on the counter and am going out for a minute. Someone's here at the empty house", I said as I kept the groceries on the counter carefully and ran out the door.

I caught my breath as I stood outside the door then slowly walked over and knocked on it. 

"Hello?! Anyone there?"

I heard footsteps walking over so I stood back and waited. A moment later the person appeared and opened the door. It was a young lady, about 20-22 years old with auburn hair and the eyes. The most catchy thing was the eyes. She had the most piercing blue eyes I had ever seen, and I have seen a few.

"Hello? How can I help you, she said as she looked me over.

"Hey, I am Jasper. I live just next door. I was just curious if someone was finally moving into the long-abandoned mystery house.", I say with a chuckle.

"Hey Jasper, I am Louisa. You are right, I will be moving into the house with my family soon. I didn't know there was such lore about the house, probably why we got it cheap. Why don't you come in, and have a cup of coffee? Don't mind the mess, it'll be a little while before it's all cleaned up."

"Sure, I would love to", I said as I took her invitation and follower her into what seemed like the only place that was decent for sitting, the kitchen.