Among the Fallen: Resurrection (6 page)

Suddenly, a second figure then ran past the car, a smaller person shrouded in shadows, quick, nimble and aggressive. The small one looked back towards the car for a moment and tilted its head queerly, its big glass like eyes flashing in the light of headlights. The larger man said something and the two dark figures began fighting with frightening ferocity, bone crunching blows and great lumps of dark red blood falling to the ground and washing away in the flood. Lightening suddenly lit the skies and thunder boomed over the horizon, Alex suddenly turned to Sarah frantically…

“SARAH! SARAH! WAKE UP! WE GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!” she sobbed. Sarah silently woke, her face bruised, her head caked in blood. “Come on Baby we gotta leave!” Alex said snivelling in panic.

“What’s going on?” Sarah bawled, sobbing with fear.

“Come on Baby we gotta go!” she whispered as the two figures waged war on each other. Trees came crashing down and the floor rumbled, bones crunched, limbs snapped and the ground heaved.

Alex pulled Sarah from the car, both caked in blood, dirt and tears. She stumbled with Sarah behind the car and paused. She spat the rain and blood from her mouth and rubbed her eyes, striving to focus and gazing around desperately, seeing nothing but miles of darkness and bitter forests all around them. As Alex scrambled around the car to get a better view, Sarah clung to her sister’s hand terrified; the two shadows slugging it out as the rain poured continuously. The downpour soaked them both to the skin and darkness engulfed the road, the ruined car creaking on its roof as the sisters hid in the shadows. Alex suddenly forced Sarah into a hiding position behind the wreckage and knelt down holding her tight, Sarah trembling in fear as the two girls held each other forcefully and desperately as the madness around them continued.

“Close your eyes, Baby!” Alex cried into Sarah’s ear as she clasped her little sister, weeping and pleading for the two men to just disappear into the night. As Alex grew more and more terrified for them both, she glared over towards the trunk of her car; its lid ripped off and lost in the chaos.

“Sarah…” she snivelled as she peeled her sister away from her. Sarah looked up at Alex sobbing in fear and lament, awaiting Alex’s words as her eyes fought against the torrent. “Wait here, yeah! I’ll just be over there; I promise I’m not leaving you, I need to get to the trunk!” she gasped as Sarah lunged forward hugging her sister in desperation.

“Please don’t leave me, Sis, please…” Sarah cried. Alex clasped her tight and ran her hand through Sarah’s waterlogged hair; staring up into the night choking in fear as her lips quivered in panic and anguish, her love for Sarah almost crippling her.

“Sarah, Sarah; Listen to me, Baby!” Alex whispered to her. Sarah looked back up at her as the pair crouched behind the ruined car, her eyes full of tears and dirt; the two sisters simply staring into each other’s eyes lovingly for a few seconds. Alex suddenly clasped her sister’s hands.

“I will never EVER leave you, Baby! I swear on my life and I promise you, we will be together forever!” Alex said before giving her a hug as the road leaved around her. Alex leant into the car and pulled out a stuffed toy and gave it to Sarah. “He’s scared, Baby. Keep down and protect him, I’ll be as quick as I can!” Alex smiled, clearly masking her fear. Sarah clutched the teddy and curled up against the car as the rain furiously battered her tiny body. Alex peered over the wrecked car and watched for a few moments as the two shadows battled and fought just a few feet away. Alex stroked Sarah’s trembling body then clambered to the trunk reaching in and feeling blindly around inside, her eyes slammed tight as the rain hammered down all around her; her ears ringing and her head spinning, until suddenly, there was a dark and blinding silence.

“I’ve been searching for you… where have you been? I’ve missed you…” the creepy whisper in her head said over and over. All Alex could do was listen as the eerie whisper chanted in her mind, a familiar voice but strangely, it couldn’t be more of a stranger, tormenting her dreams it continued; until suddenly…

“GAAAUGE!” Sarah suddenly screamed in panic. Alex’s eyes flashed open and she stood up desperately as she watched her sister run towards the unholy pair angrily. Alex ran after her trying to scream her name but no words came out, stolen by fear and silenced by terror as the larger stranger grabbed Sarah by the throat and plucked her from the ground like a doll. Alex froze and dropped to her knees instantly, her hands clasped into a prayer as Sarah struggled and whined, desperately trying to breathe as the man tightened his grip.

.”Please don’t hurt her; please; please; please; please…” Alex pleaded and begged, her heart sinking with panic and stomach churning sickness. The giant glared down at her, his features a blur but his eyes glowing mysteriously in the beams from her faltering headlights. Alex trembled as the man looked away, dragging Sarah along as she whined and struggled, ruthlessly kicking the smaller man as he curled up in pain. “Please, let her go! You’re hurting her! I’ll do anything, just let my baby go!”

Alex cried. The giant looked back at her silently, lifting Sarah’s tiny body as his hand tightened on her throat. The smaller figure suddenly rolled over, its features concealed, dirt and blood hiding its face callously as it groaned; blood pouring from its face and eyes, gushing to the ground as it was snatched away by the rain. Suddenly, with one swift motion there was a snapping sound and Alex gasped, covering her mouth as a swift nausea fell upon her heart, Sarah’s neck crunching and her lifeless dropped to the ground like trash.

Alex screamed in heartbreak, scuttling along the floor begging, scooping up Sarah’s unmoving body into her arms; her world falling apart within an instant as she sobbed and broke down in tears, merely hugging her baby sister as the rain pelted down around her. She froze as her pain for Sarah swallowed her heart and rushed around her body, her limbs suddenly heavy and her tears and sobs washed away in the darkness. As she fell further and further into a pit of grief, the night fell over vision and her own safety now now pointless and unimportant. She just sobbed, hugging Sarah’s tiny warm body, clutching and cuddling her as if she were still alive. Time stood mercilessly still and life around her suddenly became distant; dark and pointless.

The larger shadow suddenly ran off into the darkness as the smaller one clambered to its feet, its run stumbling into a fall, its wounds crippling him and its energy exhausted. Alex just rocked backwards and forwards, cradling Sarah’s body mumbling in shock, the strange men now meaning nothing to her; not even gracing them with a passing glance.

“It’s okay, Baby, I’ll get you a Doctor, we’ll get you to Hospital” she sobbed heartbroken and beleaguered. “We’ll get you better, Baby, then we’ll go to the fair…” she mumbled insanely as the small man arose invisibly behind her, holding it’s blinded eyes and stumbling erratically. “you like the fair don’t you, we’ll get candy-floss and go on your favourite rides, hold on Baby, everything is going to be okay, you’re going to be fine” she cried as Sarah’s dead face glared up into her eyes blankly. “Please don’t leave me, Baby. Please don’t leave alone… Sarah?”

Suddenly, Alex was knocked to the ground and Sarah’s body fell to the road twisted and pitiless as the strange and powerful, almost ghost like man grabbed Alex’s ankle and dragged her back to the wrecked car. Alex lashed out and screamed, calling out to her silent sister as she clawed at the tarmac frantically. Her nails and fingers broke and blood poured from her wounds as the unseen man dragged her through the muddy wet road, until suddenly, her head was smashed onto the side of the wrecked vehicle. As Alex fought against her failing consciousness and sobbed Sarah’s name, the ruthless shape grabbing her by the neck and all she could feel was the agonizing pain as crushing strikes rained down upon her. As her bones smashed, she felt her body heave and violently seize, her mouth filling with sick and blood as her vision slowly slipped away abandoning her in darkness.

The world was just a blur as her head was thrown one way and then smashed to the next, deafening sounds of battering and smashing against metal plagued her ears until eventually all her senses started to slip away mercifully. As the shadows and night swallowed everything around her, so too did a silence that was almost sleep like, but strangely, she felt awake and alert.

“Mum?” she heard herself say as the stepped into a conscious dream, her emotions slipping away one by one, fear; anxiety; pain, all slowly falling away from her, dropping into a void of memories.

Her cold and wet body suddenly turned warm, comfortable and peaceful, her mind starting to shut down as her soul floated over an abyss, waiting to fall, waiting for something to happen. Alex screamed a soundless scream, begging for someone to hear her, someone to help her, someone to pull her from the darkness, but the world was gone. As the last of her memories seemingly slipped away, she screams one final time as she is plunged into a realm of cold silence and embittered darkness, her physical body suddenly falling away from her soul.

Chapter Five: Unseen

What’s it like?

Being dead I mean?

It’s like being asleep, but being awake. It’s like being awake but being asleep. All I hear are my thoughts; all I see is darkness, the odd light, the random vision maybe. My thoughts come and go; I have no sense of being, no sense of time. It’s like I have been put away, in storage, or saved in an abyss; waiting to be collected.

I have no body, none that I can see nor feel. Imagine floating, with no air around you, no ground below your feet, no sky above your head; that’s what it feels like to be dead.

I see my life every now and then, I see grainy movies of my experiences, my moments; moments that I chose to forget or ignore. Moments that I took for granted in the faith that tomorrow, they would be replaced by more moments, but I was wrong.

Every now and then, I see my room; I walk the corridors of my home. I see the staff walking around doing their daily chores, their sad faces almost as sad as mine. I have tried saying something to them, pleading and telling them I am okay; but they just shudder, they don’t see me. To them I am just a creepy moment, a sudden chill down their spine; that feeling I used to get; when someone walks over my grave, when the hairs on the neck all stand up, that’s what I now do to the people around me.

I walk the halls of my father’s mansion without feet; I hear the mute conversations of the staff without ears. They feel me around them, some even call out to me, but I can’t understand their words, their moving lips are silent.

I watch them as they sleep at night; I watch their sad faces as they drift off into a dream world where they are the centre of their life, where their world is perfect, snuggled up in their sheets and quilts, cosy and warm, free of the worries of life. I watch as they dream, as they fly in the sky above the city, as they meet their perfect partners and fulfil fantasies they can only dream of. I reach out and touch their warm faces as they sleep, they jump suddenly, as if startled by something, and then they drift off, back into their perfect worlds.

My room has no colour, the floor boards no longer creak. My furniture is wrapped in plastic, covered in dust sheets, waiting for the day I might return; but everyone knows I never will.

What’s it like?

Being dead I mean?

Imagine being a spectator to your own past and dying present, a life where the future is no more. A life where every day your name is spoken less and less, a life where you one day see yourself as a two year old, then another you might be seven, or eight. You re-live the forgotten moments over and over, simple and the most mundane of moments again and again; but this time, as you observe from the darkness; you would give anything to be bored, to be sad, and to even cry; even the simplest and most negative of emotions you yearn to feel once more.

What do I see?

I see myself playing with Rosetta, a happy three year old, messing around with dolls and invisible food and drink. She looks at me as if I am her daughter, her eyes glowing with joy, her laughs are contagious chuckles that keep my younger self happy and entertained.

I see my first day of High School, nervous and excited; my expectations of the future high in the rafters and beyond the moon. Back then I remember I wanted to work at the Sea-Life Centre, I remember knowing that I needn’t work, I didn’t have to; but that’s all I wanted to do. I watch as I leave the first time, off to a school with a new adventure, a life changing event. I try to follow, but the door is locked, I can’t leave my house.

I try to open a window, but they too are locked, imprisoned in a twenty-one year timeline that continues to haunt me. I have watched thousands of past events as a spectator, viewed thousands of present ones as an overlooked intruder.

What’s it like?

Being dead I mean?

It’s like being ignored, not existing, being trapped as a figment of someone’s dying memory; being banished into someone’s past, so your death can’t upset them no more. People remember you, talk about you when reminiscing. But eventually they talk about other things, your name starts to dwindle, the sad faces start to smile again, and you become lost, just a wanderer of other people’s lives, other people’s events. You become a part of people’s private memory, a name rarely mentioned, and all you can do is watch and observe; watch your family and friends make the same mistakes you did.

I never guessed, nor even considered dying the way I did, it had never crossed my mind or anyone else’s. I think about Sarah all the time, how much I miss her pretty smiling face, her funny chuckle when I pulled faces. Her cuddles I never had to ask for when I was down or feeling ill, her silly face when she was forced to eat vegetables; I remember her as if it’s carved into my soul.

I try to think about my death, I know I was murdered by a man, we both were; I see Sarah’s twisted body every time I start to think. But I know I saw more than I remember, my memories are gone, censored maybe; or even stolen.

That’s how it feels being dead, it’s a life of loneliness, an existence of solitude; forever ignored and eternally blind. I await the bright light, so that I can enter and be free, but it never comes. I feel like I am being held against the rules, bound in a prison with an untold purpose, I don’t want to be dead any more, I don’t want to be alive either; I just want to pass on.