How to be Alone

Chapter Four: Almost Dead

I take a few steps into the baseball field and pause. Still, there's nothing. It's just black and white and dimly lit, everywhere. No voices, no animals: There is only the wind in the trees and my own foot steps in the grass.

"Am I... dead?" I ask aloud. "Is anybody here?"

I blink and for an instant see a scene, two people sitting, staring at me. I fall backwards and feel my breathing pick up. I blink again and see it, and catch a glimpse of some sound.

"At—"

A voice... A man's voice. I close my eyes once more, and this time I keep them closed.

"No, no," The man speaks. He's staring directly at me. "She's scared. She's watching us right now."

What? Who... what?

There's a woman besides him, clothed elegantly in a dress. They both appear to be apparitions, their bodies not completely visible or even present.

"She thinks she has died," The man continues. "She has not. She has lived."

"This was the girl whom you chose?" The woman asks. "She will be your vessel."

"She will," He says.

"What?" I ask. I clasp my hand over my mouth when I realize I'd spoken out loud. My eyes open and I glance around—nobody. I close them again.

Nobody is there.

The center of town is dead. Everywhere is just this same dead gray. It's starting to hurt my head. I walk down next to the winter sports shop and press my face against the glass. Nobody's inside, but the glass in front of my eyes quickly smokes up. I step back and the smoke follows me, sinking into my body. When I wave my arm back and forth there's a trail of smoke following it, but never remaining suspended for too long.

I go to whack a low hanging branch but the only the leaf moves, like there was a slight breeze brushing it. I swing even harder, being certain to strike the branch, but still, it doesn't move. The branch just goes through my hand.

I listen still, and still it is silent.

I finally step on my lawn. I peer through the door and see nobody. I can't generate traction with the door handle so I can't twist it. I don't even know if I would be able to pull it open regardless.

A cloud of darker gray, and dare I say a little green, comes down the road and stops in front of my house. After a moment of stillness, the smoke comes together into a car—Sheriff Terry's car. The door is open, then it disappears to smoke, and reappears when it's shut, but this whole time I don't see anybody. There is nobody—I don't even hear anyone walking. Still silent, always silent.

Before Sheriff Terry's car appeared I had been waiting for some twenty minutes. Is he here, but I just can't see him? Why can't I see him?

I blink and see him again, but this time it was just the man. I close my eyes and he's still there, so I wait. He doesn't say anything.

"How do I go back?" I ask.

"This is too early. You are too young," He says in a pensive tone.

Suddenly the color spills back in, like a black and white mask being sucked into my body. It's much darker, but there's light coming through the windows into the yard, and Sheriff Terry is standing in front of my door.

The door opens and my mom is stood on the other side.

"Um, hey Terry?" My mom says. She wasn't expecting him, clearly.