Second Chances(A Mass Effect Fan fiction)

Survivor's Guilt

Shelby woke up, sat up and looked down. She was on a bed. HER bed; she was home again. She looked around the room. 'Had it really all been a dream?' She thought as everything was exactly as it had been.

Her horse show ribbons were still hung, pictures in their frames still on the wall, a peaceful silence blanketing the room. It was the environment that Shelby grew up in, where she felt safe. Something compelled Shelby to get up but she quickly found that she was frozen to the bed. Then, the door opened and a little hand wrapped around it. Shelby sat in silence and looked forward. A little sandy blonde head popped around the door. It was Dan.

'Dan! You're alive!' Shelby tried to exclaim but it couldn't leave her mind. Dan was ten now, but he used to have trouble pronouncing his b's and p's so he had always called Shelby "Shelly".

"Shelly?" Dan said in a whimpering tone. His light blue eyes looked terrified.

'Dan, what's wrong?' Shelby thought.

Dan quickly shot a look behind him and paused. The door came open, leaving Dan standing in the doorway, and Shelby could see that Dan's light blue clothes were soaked and looked like a dark purple.

'DAN!' Shelby tried with all her might to scream, get up, something useful.

Dan collapsed onto the floor, bleeding out in front of Shelby's eyes. It didn't take long before he was laying completely motionless in Shelby's bedroom doorway.

'NO! GOD DAMN...' Shelby screamed. At least now, she could talk.

Shelby's mom and dad walked over to her door in a creepily perfect synchronization, and looked down at Dan. Shelby's mom had a big red spot all over the front of her white sleep shirt. Her dad's shirt was gray but was now, soaked to a deep black. Blood covered their arms and was scattered on their faces and pants, looking the same way they did when Shelby found them on her front porch. They had a cold, zombified stare directed right at her.

Shelby's parents slowly looked up and raised one arm each and pointed a finger at Shelby. They spoke at the same time with an unnaturally gravely and hoarse voice. "This is your fault. You failed to defend your family. You will never be a soldier."

"No! No, its not my fault! I'll be the best there is!" Shelby yelled back at her parents and her eyes grew hot as they filled with tears.

Shelby just couldn't make any sense of this. As if it couldn't get worse, Ellie appeared out of the corner of her eye. Except Ellie looked normal, at peace. She walked around to the front of Shelby's bed and raised her hand. She was clothed in a long, elegant, white gown with long medieval type sleeves.

"Leave now. This girl has done you no harm." Ellie's voice was peaceful, graceful, and calm. There was a bright light in front of Ellie that shined bright and the room flooded with bright white light. Shelby saw Ellie turn around. She raised her hand again and wiped it across the air in front of Shelby, allowing Shelby to move at her own will again.

"Ellie? Is that really you?"

"As me as I can be." Ellie started with a friendly smile and sat on the bed with Shelby. "None of this is your fault, Shelby. And that wasn't your family, they were demonic interpretations with intensions to make you feel guilty. They're created by your subconscious due to guilt that's already present. They strive and survive from the guilt you feel; guilt that is ill placed. You must forgive yourself and move on from this. Trust me, your real parents are safe. They're happy again and they want the same happiness for you." Ellie put her hand over her heart. "We all do. You can't live in the past. It's called the past for a good reason." Ellie tried to console Shelby and dropped her hand back into her lap.