Accidents Happen

Chapter One

Two Months Later

"Black. Black-brown. Blackish-brown. Brown. Blackest black. Seriously? They have no blue eyeliner?" I was standing in an aisle at the store, reading aloud the colours of the eyeliners. Alex and Jennifer stood behind me with bags full of goodies. I could tell they were bored but I had waited for them when they were looking for the right pair of shorts.Besides, I was the one who had almost drowned.

I had only gotten out of the hospital about a month-and-a-half ago. I did have secondary drowning, when your lungs are filled with water but your still alive, but lucky enough for me they got all the water out. I had to admit that I had been feeling strange that day but I wasn't expecting to almost die.

I searched through the last ones before giving up and leaving. I turned to face my friends when out of the corner of my eye I saw a young boy probably five or six standing there not moving. He was white- I don't mean pale-and ghostly like. A chill ran down my spine.

"Hi." I tried to sound calm and hopefully I did but the kid just stared straight ahead and didn't move. Alex and Jennifer looked at me strangely.

"Um, Carmen? Are you alright?" Alex said this slowly and carefully like talking to a bear that was about to eat her.

"I'm fine. Don't you guys see him? The little boy." By now I was slowly moving towards him.

"Okay, Caramel, your freaking me out." Caramel was Jennifer's nickname for me. She called me this because of my caramel skin colour and my name.

"You guys don't see him?" I looked back at them but instantly realized I shouldn't in case he got away. I admit I was scared too but was I the only one who saw him?

"Do you guys see this?" I carefully put a hair tie on his shoulder. They shook their heads.

"No. I saw it before though. Why did it disappear?" I picked it up and it re-appeared to them. They both jumped.

"I don't know." Now for the next test.

"Do you guys see me?" I gently placed my hand on his shoulder.

"Carmen? God, she's gone." I heard them panicking and removed my hand to see their faces had gone completely pale.

"It's alright. I'm here." They looked directly at me.

"Carmen? You're kinda... see through." They both looked like puppies about to be beaten.

"Whaa-?" I looked down at myself. They were right. I looked sort of like the boy, ghostly. I turned and looked at the boy. He actually looked at me this time and signaled with his finger for me to come towards him. I did as he said and was soon face to face with him. He opened his mouth to speak and his voice was raspy and quiet but I made out the words "become me".

I didn't understand what this meant but I slowly walked into him and suddenly the world changed. I was in a house filled with bad looking furniture and beaten up walls. I understood what the boy meant. He wanted me to see what had happened in his life, but why? I heard a sound and turned towards it. There was a man beating up someone who was most likely his wife. He seemed intoxicated because his movements were slow and messy, but he never missed. I felt sick and wanted out of this boys mind but the world suddenly changed and I saw the boy and the man. The mans wife lay a little ways away crying. The man grabbed the boys head and bashed it against almost all the furniture. Soon, the boy lay limp on the ground and the man sobered up, crying at wha the had just done. I realized this was how the boy died.

I tried to get out, pushing, thrashing, using my mind to will myself out but I was stuck. The boy started to move towards what seemed like a suns ray that escaped the clouds on a cloudy day. If I didn't get out of here I would be going with the boy towards the light and I could only imagine what that meant. The boy reached out his hand and touched the light and I felt joy and happiness, but I wasn't the one feeling this, he was. I pushed against nothing and was suddenly released just in time to see the boy disappear into the light.

"What just happened?" Alex and Jennifer stood in the middle of the aisle staring at me like a mutant. I guess I was.

"I need to stay in the washroom until this wears off." I pointed down at the rest of me, reminding them of the fact that I was still kinda invisible. The nodded slightly and went with me but constantly kept their distance. I felt like a loner and was constantly avoiding people and video cameras. Why me?

By the time we had finally left, the sun was setting, giving off an array of different colours like ice cream. It had taken about ten minutes for the affect to wear off and I felt bad for making Alex and Jen wait. As we got in the car I searched our surroundings, not really looking to find anything but found lots. There were ghosts everywhere I looked. Some were young, some were old. I had no plans on doing anything about them after the incident with the boy but I felt drawn to them and found myself half in the car half out.

"Carmen, sit down." Jennifer was driving and I had no reason not to obey her but I needed to go to them. She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the seat.

"Carmen? Did you see something?" Alex's face had gone pale and I had always felt the need to protect her like a little sister.

"No. No, I didn't see anything." I looked out the window and said nothing on the way home.

Alex

I know she had seen something, I could see it in her face, but I also knew what she had seen. A baby lying still beside the shopping carts, and old lady using her walker-but she wasn't moving-and a child with a teddy bear crying softly by an unknowing women putting her baby in the backseat. She suffered, I felt it, and it felt good.