The Darkness of Forever

Chapter 4

“He was painting the outside of his house with his daughter, when the ladder they were standing on fell down. Both the father and daughter fell off it. The daughter became unconscious as soon as she touched the ground, but the father was conscious. He called out for help, and his wife ran outside and called 911, tears in her eyes. Then I- um he, passed out. He woke up in the emergency room, and saw his daughter so badly hurt that the doctors didn’t think she’d live.

So, he whispered, “Please just let me die, and my daughter live. That’s all I want. Please…” and then he passed out again. He died in surgery, when one of the doctors hit something in his neck that caused his death. To this day, they still don’t know what that is. His daughter ended up with a bad concussion, and a broken leg, but she lived.” I grabbed my dad’s hand, and squeezed it. He softly squeezed back.

“Thank you daddy… I love you.” I whispered. 

He smiled and said, “I love you too sweetie.” Annie blinked back tears, and hugged me again. 

“So that’s how you got all those injuries.” She whispered in my ear. I chuckled a little, then sat softly on my mom’s hospital bed. 

“So do we get to take my mom home tonight?” I asked the doctor. He thought about it for a moment before answering. 

“Well, we still have to do another test, but most likely tomorrow.” I nodded slowly, and after a while, visiting hours were over.

After we dropped Annie off at her house, we flew upward to the gates of heaven. “Dad, we can’t forget to get our bracelets checked… We don’t want them to mess up while we’re with friends.” I said. My dad just nodded and kept going up. 

When we got to the gates, they let us in with a small nod of their head. I looked up to see if I could see their angelic faces, but couldn’t.  My dad looked at me, then held out his hand for me to hold. I grabbed it, then pulled him up the steps to the Court.

“Um… Jason? It- it’s Nicky… And um… my dad… Are you… um… here?” I asked quietly. I heard a noise like thunder, than the whole Angel Court appeared in front of me. And the weird bracelet guy appeared too. 

“What?!” asked Jason, annoyance in his voice. “This better be important!” I sighed as I looked around the Court, with its high golden walls and cloud like floors. 

“I don’t know if this is important to you… but it’s incredibly important to us.” I whispered, my voice shaking. 

Jason rolled his eyes, but paid strict attention when I told him about my mom, his eyes going wide when I kept on going. “Is she… Is she going to be alright? I mean… she doesn’t remember anything about my dad dying… and it’s just… we’re really scared, and so our first instinct was to go to you.” I whispered, feeling wetness in my eyes. Jason was quiet, and I burst into tears. 

“Why are you crying? I’m thinking! Goodness, me being quiet doesn’t mean anything bad! Whenever I stop to think about something, people start crying! It gets kind of annoying after what, the millionth time!” he said angrily, face turning red. 

I immediately calmed down and asked again, “So, will she be okay? Will her memory come back?” 

Jason sighed, looked at the rest of the Angel Court, than answered. “We think she will, but only if she stays with us for about a week. We’ll try our hardest to get her memory back, but she may have to stay up here longer, if our methods don’t work.” 

I nodded happily, then turned to my dad, about to leave. “Wait sweetie.  We have to get our bracelets checked. Remember?” he asked. I smiled then turned to face the Angel Court, only to realize that they were gone. “Never mind then…” my dad whispered with a roll of his eyes. I laughed and held my dad’s hand, closing my eyes and visualizing my room. When I opened them, we were home. 

“I’m tired! How am I tired? I’m dead! How do I cry? I’m not solid! I can walk through walls! Daddy, I don’t like this being dead thing! It’s way too complicated!” I sobbed out, feeling tears gushing out of my eyes. My dad gathered me into a hug and laughed.

“Where did this nervous brake down come from?! Never mind, it doesn’t matter. Now, honey, why don’t you tell me about that visit to the future? You were gone late, so I’m assuming that it was fun?” I smiled under my fountain of tears, and told him all about it, including how I was going back tomorrow to see my future selves again. 

“Oh, and I’m not just going to see my future self, I’m going to get the magic potion that’ll bring us back alive! Oh, and there was the hot- I mean coolest, boy there! He’s from a time near ours! Isn’t that so awesome! He was great…” I exclaimed, my smile getting big just thinking about him. Because of all this talk, my nervous brake down was forgotten. 

“Okay, okay! Enough about boys! Go to sleep sweetie, or you won’t have the energy you’ll need to time travel.” My dad said, and kissed the top of my head. I yawned, and smiled tiredly. 

“Good night dad…” I whispered. 

“Good night Nicky…” he whispered back. I went to my bed and slid under the covers, falling asleep almost instantly. I dreamt of nothing and everything, until that completely changed. “Help me!” a voice said, slithery like a snake. “Nicky! Nicky! Help-p-p-p!!!!” the voice screeched out. I woke up, sweating and alone. I wanted to scream, but my voice was gone. I closed my eyes, but could not get back to sleep.