𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐎𝐍 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐇 | J.H

NINE

Jasper walked Eleanor home that day. They stopped in the field of daisies in which they first spoke. It wasn't raining, but the sky was overcast with grumbling grey clouds casting a dull light across them as they lay in amongst the flowers. Their feet pointed in opposite directions, but their heads lay beside each others.

"You know you really do have talent."

Eleanor turned her head to face his with a quizzical look on her face - he even looked perfect upside down.

He smirked slightly as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"The piano - I mean."

"Oh. Yeah, the Royal Academy of Music think so too."

She had forgotten about her acceptance to the prestigious university. She had gotten the letter before the accident, opened it with her mother excitedly sat next to her. They had celebrated together - cried together even, she made sure Eleanor knew how proud of her she was.

"I don't think I want to go anymore, though."

"Why not?"

Eleanor's piano skill was her mother's pride and joy, she had made her play for her almost every night. It felt wrong to live out the dream her mother had designed for her when she was certain at this moment she was looking down ashamed at her daughter. She didn't voice this, however.

"I just don't think uni is right for me anymore."

"Well you strike me as the type of person that can do anything if you want it bad enough."

Eleanor hadn't sincerely smiled in a long time, but Jasper's faith in her caused her face to warp into a slight smile.

Jasper thought it looked good on her - happiness.

Suddenly the heaven's opened up above them, rain soaking their clothes and wetting their faces. Jasper jumped up, offering his hand to Eleanor.

Despite knowing her adoration for the wet weather, he didn't want her to catch a cold.

She slid her hand in to his and they hurried back to her house. Eleanor found herself oddly comfortable with Jasper, it was with him that her emotions flowed the most.

He bid her a goodnight in the gentlemanly way he spoke, making sure she entered the house safely before he sped off to his own home.

Eleanor spent a good chunk of her evening researching. It was something Bella said she'd help with, but she hadn't seen her since this morning, so she decided to start on her own.

When she was first released from the hospital, she had researched her condition briefly before losing motivation. It was hard to find a reason to work when you struggled to care about anything. But now, with her ghostly emotions and promise to Bella, she found some incentive.

During her short period of research, Eleanor had compiled a few notes, which she was referencing now. Although they weren't too helpful.

The most relevant information was the fact that the number four was linked with death in the Chinese culture. Which she decided was an omen considering she had been clinically dead for four minutes and forty four seconds.

Squeezed in at the bottom of the page in lazy handwriting was a name; Henry Martin.

She typed the name into google, finding a few articles at the bottom of the search page.

Skimming through the first article, she discovered an odd coincidence. He had died, in an almost identical accident, for exactly four minutes and forty four seconds before being revived. The rest of the article was mostly about the drunk driver and his jail time, apart from an edit at the end, made six months later.

Henry Martin was sadly found dead in his home six months after the accident, the cause of death unknown.

Eleanor re-read the article, making sure to read each and every detail. Logically, she concluded, this didn't mean anything about her own condition, but something settled in her stomach. Acceptance, perhaps.

Acceptance that there was a chance she was supposed to die in the crash, and that she'd end up with the same fate as Henry Martin.

Her processing was cut short as she heard the creek of the top step. She thought it was Bella, sneaking past Charlie as he slept on the sofa. But as she made her way down the few stairs leading to her room, she found her self face to face with a stranger with blood red eyes.

For a moment they simply stared at each other, weighing the other up.

Then Eleanor decided it would be a smart decision to speak, "Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing in my house?"

An eerie smile crept onto his face, before he moved with impossible speed, pushing her to the wall with his hand firmly around her throat.

"English, huh?"

He brought his head down to her neck as she struggled, attempting to push him away with her hands on his chest, but he stood with such strength he barely moved. His nose brushed against her jaw as Eleanor felt panic climb in her throat, something else rising up within her.

"Good thing I like Brits."

Eleanor saw a flash of fangs before something burst within her.

Power pushed from her palms, sending the stranger flying into Bella's room. It looked like smoke; inky and black as it clung to the air before dissipating.

He lay on the floor, unmoving as Eleanor surveyed what she had done, she could feel the energy still residing in her bones. The feeling was familiar, she had felt it before in the woods - the night Jasper found her.

Then she saw the dark silhouette that stalked her, hiding in the shadows of Bella's room watching her confusion. She could see it's skeletal hand, rotting as it reached out to her.

The stranger stirred, grabbing her attention, and when she looked back, the figure was gone.

Eleanor listened to her better judgement and hurried downstairs.

Charlie still lay on the sofa snoring, it was a miracle he was still asleep. She sat on floor, her back leaning against the sofa he slept on, her mind running wild.

Eleanor watched the stairs, praying that the intruder wouldn't try and finish what he started.

For once she was glad for her lack of emotions, she would be paralyzed with fear and drowning in confusion if she could feel. But her mind replayed the events, filtering through each moment rationally.

Then the door opened and Bella stepped through, not even noticing Eleanor and Charlie, starting upstairs before Eleanor grabbed her wrist.

"Something was here."