Misguided Ghosts

Chapter Three

PIC OF TAY ON THE SIDE --->

Three – Ed

I was waiting for her when I heard the screams. A young woman ran into the library, her face pale, screaming to high heaven.

“Someone’s been hit by a car!”

My head spun as I leapt up. This was too like what had happened to Tay. I had been sat in that very library when I heard about the crash. No, no, no. This can’t be happening again.

I ran outside, and saw her broken body lying on the floor. A shard of glass protruded from her neck. Blood was everywhere. It was highly unlikely that she would survive. Then my breath caught in my throat. The girl lying on the floor was Emilie.

What would happen to her? Would she become like me, accursed and damned? Or would she pass, drifting through the ether contently, while I was stuck here on Earth? I closed my eyes before I fainted.

Then I ran forward, my hands acting of their own accord. They pushed her hair from her face, and began to pump up and down on her chest. The advert I’d seen the other night flashed through my mind. The perfect beat for CPR.  Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive .stayin' alive .ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.  Oh, the irony of those words. She was already dead. Why was I trying to save this girl? Because Tay would have wanted me to save her. Her eyelids flickered. Was there still hope?

“Talk to me,” I urged. “What’s your name?”

“Emilie,” she managed, choking on her own blood as she spat it onto the ground.

“Emilie, my name’s Ed. An ambulance should be here soon.” I told her, grabbing at her hands.

Flashing blue lights appeared around the corner. The ambulance was here and Emilie would soon be on her way to hospital. I wished that she would live. I had spoken to her, weeks of wishing made true by a cruel twist of fate.

The paramedics scooped her body from the ground, tearing her hands away from mine.

“Ed!” She wailed thinly. “Ed!”

My heart felt like it was going to explode.

I dashed after the paramedics, determined to get in that ambulance with her. I was pushed back, but I fought, struggling to get in the back of the luminous van. I was going to go with her, no matter what the cost was.

“Sir, you need to back away,” a female voice told me.

“No!” I shouted. “I’m going with her!”

“Kirsten, just let the boy come with us,” a tired male voice said. “He’s obviously distraught.”

And so I was loaded into the back of the ambulance with Emilie. She grasped at my hands while various tubes and needles were shoved inside of her, all while the vehicle was moving. She cried out in pain with every jolt of the ambulance, and it tore my heart into pieces.  Her blue eyes stayed fixed on my face, as if I was the face that would keep her alive. How wrong she was. I was the face of death. After all, I had died two years ago.

Soon after we got into the ambulance, they were unloading us at the hospital. Emilie held onto me for as long as she could. Then they tore her hand away from mine.

I chased her gurney inside the hospital, straight up to A&E. The words of the paramedics rang in my ears, just like they did on the night that Tay was almost killed.

“Seventeen year old female, hit by a car, possible broken legs, puncture to the neck by a shard of glass,”

Then they wheeled her inside a room, and a young nurse stepped in front of me, pushing me back. “Sorry sir, but you can’t go in there. You’re welcome to wait here though.” She pointed at one of the plastic chairs in the waiting room, then left.