Post by wwemaniak on Jun 18, 2010 8:44:57 GMT 3
PROLOGUE
The red lights flashed brightly in the dark night while the sirens shrieked through the cold air. The ambulances and police were all over the place.
People gathered around to see what was happening. Some of them were questioned by the cops.
The air was filled with the stench of death. The body was already inside the ambulance. The corpse was bloody, especially around the head.
Only a few minutes ago, Jack Salling was driving in his car, enjoying the sight of the busy streets of New York.
Music was playing lightly in the background from the radio. Jack couldn't help but sing along loudly. He smelled in the the cold, wonderful smell of the city.
He enjoyed it all.
He was the happiest he had been for a while. Getting a promotion at work may not be the best thing in the world for some people, but for Jack, it was the best news he had received for a while.
But unfortunately, he could only savor the feeling for only a few hours.
It was when he thought about how happy his parents would be when he told them about the promotion—it was at that exact moment—that it happened.
The body was lifeless now. The eyes closed, no longer allowed to enjoy the sight of New York City. The mouth no longer able to open and sing with joy.
There were a couple of eyewitnesses. Everyone described the event almost exactly the same.
Jack was driving carefully. He was a cautious driver. He was about to pass an intersection when a car came at him from the side. It slammed the front side of the car and Jack was severely injured.
The family soon arrived. His brother arrived first. He couldn't believe it. He was in shock. He couldn't say a word, he couldn't do anything.
Then the girlfriend arrived. She started to weep the moment she saw the lifeless body.
They couldn't understand what happened. It took them a while.
But sooner or later, they had to accept it. They had to move on.
He was dead and there was nothing they could do about it.
CHAPTER 1
Hi, I'm Jack Salling, and I'm dead. It happened a week ago.
It took me a while to accept it. I mean, for once, I felt things were moving in the right direction. Everything seemed to be going great. And all of it was taken away from me.
Maybe it was for the better. Maybe my death saved me a lot more grief to come. Maybe, my life was supposed to turn around and be good to me.
I'll never know.
It took me a week to let go. It took me a week to stop moaning to other souls about why I was taken away.
Right now, I'm neither in heaven or hell. I haven't met God or Satan yet. I'm not really sure which one of them I'm going to meet.
But right now, I'm still here on earth. I'm looking at everyone, and everything. I'm not alone. There are others with me.
Some who died happy, and some who were like me, who didn't want to leave yet.
One of them told me that it was my time to reflect. This was the time to think about everything I've done, before I moved on. This wouldn't change where I was headed to. This wouldn't change the man I was when I lived.
I mentioned before that it was a week. When I said a week, I meant that a week had passed on earth.
Truth be told, time doesn't matter here. We can't feel it. It doesn't feel like a week, or a day. It doesn't feel too long or too short. It's like there's no time once you're dead. It could feel like a year if I wanted to.
We're all here, until we're ready to move on. No one can stay in this state forever. Everyone moves on sometime. They go where they were destined to go. You can't change it when you're dead. You can't change the life that you've had.
Now some of you readers might be wondering, how am I narrating when I'm dead?
Well, since I'm on earth, I found this writer. He was struggling with a book. He was suffering from a horrible, unfortunate case of writer's block.
He's a good person. Right now he's very happy. He thinks he's so smart now that he has a story to work with.
In reality, I talk to him, and he thinks it's coming from his mind.
t's just like when people have a hunch. As silly as it sounds, the dead talk to people. My fellow 'soul-mate' Ashley showed me this.
I know what you're thinking, and the answer is yes, we are allowed to interact with living people when we're in this state.
No one's gonna know what's really going on. They all think they're too smart to believe in things like this. I was at that point once. But now I realize.
At first, I thought she was bluffing, but then I realized, it helped me understand a lot of situations in my life.
I realized, I wanted to get my story out, and the story that still kept going after I died.
A lot of folks have done it, so I figured, why not me?
Look at him, smiling. He has no idea where all these words are coming from. But he'll find out when he dies. You all will.
Everyone dies. Everyone has their own stories. They're all unique and different. At the same time, they're all similar.
I've had the ups and downs, the comedy, the fun, the tears, the joy, the tragedies, just as much as the other guy's life.
Everyone experiences these at one time or another.
So I guess it's time to start my story. I don't know what you'll get out of it, but it's very relieving for my soul to let this out to a living person. At least if I'm going to meet the Devil himself, I'll be going free of all other burdens and regrets.
Oh, and before I start, I have to let you all know, death is not quite scary as everyone makes it out to be. Sure there's the initial pain at first right before you die, if you're run over by a car. But the moment after you die, you have this pleasing feeling. It's very soothing. You get to see your body on earth, while you're looking from above. But it's quite comfortable.
Now that I've gotten that out of the way, on with the story...
CHAPTER 2
Unfortunately, this story doesn't start with a 'Once Upon a Time' or 'It all started when...'
To be honest, I'm not even sure what this 'story' I keep referring to is about. Frankly, I'm just going to narrate my thoughts, my flashbacks, my memories and whatever else I feel like saying. Hopefully the people that I love and who love me will read all this someday and realize who the real me was. I think that's what I want out of this, for you all to know the real me.
Did I mention I'm also going to track down my murderer and tell you how that went as well? Yes, what looked like a car accident, was actually a murder attempt. And the result was obviously successful since I no longer have a body, just a soul.
How do I know this? I just know. Why else would whoever kill me, drive away? Why else would the guy in the car be wearing a mask?
I can probably go look at everyone's personal lives and find out who did it. But where's the fun in that? Not to mention that it's tiring. I can only follow one person's life at a time. And to follow the life of everyone I know until I found out who killed me is very exhausting. I can't even be sure that it is someone I know. Maybe it was some crazy person. Maybe someone who got the wrong guy.
I figured the best way to go was to follow the life of the guy following this case. None of the cops felt sure that it was murder rather than a car accident.
But this one detective, he had a 'hunch', if you know what I mean.
Detective Mark Andrews. That's his name. You'd think I'm following the life of the writer writing this, but I just 'report' back to him at the end of the day.
The first thing Mark did when he got on the case, was meet my girlfriend. Hayley Shaw. She's the best girlfriend anybody could ask for. I hated it, the fact that I was leaving her. I mean, it was the first time in my life a relationship went the right way.
Usually everything goes wrong when I'm with a girl.
Oh no, the flashbacks are coming. You see, when you're in this state, sitting between Heaven and Hell, you get these flashbacks and it can't be stopped. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. Sometimes it's about the biggest moments of my life, sometimes it's the smallest and most irrelevant things ever...or so I thought.
I'm hating the one that's flashing in front of my eyes right now. But this is my opportunity to tell you exactly what goes wrong when I'm with girl...
ooo
[Flashback]
The First Time
“Dude, come on, just go ask her out.”
“I will, just give me some time. I've never done this before.”
“Jack, just go on out there, man. Go”
“But M—“
“GO!”
I walked up to her nervously. She was talking to someone else. She was so pretty, and amazing. She was my first crush.
“Hey, Liz.”
“Jack! Hi!”
“I was wondering if you had any plans tonight.”
“No, not really. Why? What's up?”
“Nothing, I was just wondering, maybe we could hang out tonight, maybe go watch a movie. Whatever you feel like doing.”
“Oh Jack, I'd love to!”
“That's great. I'll pick you up at seven?”
“That would be awesome!”
“Cool. Alright, I'll see you then.”
“Bye, Jack.”
I forced myself to snap out of it.
“Dude, why are you still standing here? I said GO!”
In reality, this was what happened:
I walked up to her. She didn't see me coming. Or maybe she did. Because as soon as I walked to her, she walked away.
And then I walked back where I came from.
“You're hopeless Jack. Hopeless!”
You know, 8th grade was not really one of my greatest times of life anyway.
ooo
Back to reality...my reality anyway.
Okay, I admit, it was just one time. But that and many other incidents in 8th grade pretty much scarred me for life in dealing with girls. I mean the part that stung me the most was getting my hopes way high and then nothing goes like you thought it would.
Sure, I've had friends that are girls, but I never had the guts to have a girlfriend.
Looking back at that moment, I guess it wasn't really a big deal was it? I should've just ran after her. But I was a pessimist back then. I didn't really think it would work out.
Well it didn't matter anyhow because last year a girl named Hayley Shaw came into my life. And it worked out pretty well. She came to me actually, and she asked me out.
“Okay, tell me Ms. Shaw, how did you meet Mr. Salling?”
“We met at a store. We were waiting in line, and we just started talking. And then I asked him out. And we've been together since then.”
Hey, wait a second, that's not how we met. Why is she lying to Mark?
“And when was this, Ms. Shaw?”
“About 2 months ago. In December.”
At least she got that part right.
“And how has Jack been lately? Any signs of stress? Any reason why he would be stressed out?”
“Not really. Actually he was very happy these past few weeks. He also told me that he might get a promotion soon. He was pretty excited about that.”
What? These last few weeks has been anything but happy for me. And it was mostly because of her. And I didn't tell anyone about getting promoted.
There's no way she could be my killer. Could she?
“Did he have any enemies that you know of?”
Oh, the irony in that question.
“No, I don't think so. He was a real nice guy. I don't see why anyone would want to hurt him. Except for one person.”
“Who?”
“His former best friend.” She looked at Mark with a smirk on her face.
“Who is?” It was obvious he knew what the answer was going to be.
“You.”
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