Lessons Learned

Part 2

"Do I get privacy in this limbo world? Or am I stuck with you for the rest of eternity?" That came out a little harsher than I planned. Woops. Well, it was only to be expected. I mean, he couldn't even answer a simple question and I was getting tired off all this not knowing. I just wanted to be dead, as in none existent. This limbo world wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I took the razor to my body this morning.

"No privacy sorry, but you won't be with me the whole time. There are other people you have to meet."

"Wonderful," I got to my feet. "How many more until I'm out of here?"

"Well you can't meet them until I finish with you."

There he goes talking in circles again. "And how exactly do you 'finish' with me?"

"Once you learn my life lesson you get to move on."

"Enlighten me. What is this life lesson I so desperately need to learn in order to be dead?"

Zayn looked appalled, "Well I can't just tell you, can I? You have to figure it out on your own."

"What?" All this confusion was making my head hurt. If I knew dying would be so difficult, I might have thought it through a bit more. "And doesn't this seem like a bit of an oxymoron to you? A life lesson so I can pass on to death?"

"You weren't supposed to die Annabelle. That's why you are here in the limbo. If it was your time you would have passed safely through to the afterlife."

"But I want to be dead." This was more confusing than calculus. Why couldn't I just be dead?

"Well someone out there," Zayn waved his arms around in exaggerated circles, "doesn't want you to be dead. And unfortunately for you, they have the power."

"So no matter what happens here in this limbo, I will wake up alive?"

Zayn sighed and ran a hair through his spiky black hair. "Look it's complicated all right? You might end up alive, you might end up dead. It's not up to me."

"I didn't realize dying would be so much of a hassle," I laughed uncomfortably. "I thought it would be the easy way out."

"Killing yourself is never the answer babe."

"Did you?"

Zayn looked taken aback at my question, "Did I what?"

My sad blue eyes met his magnetic brown ones, "Did you kill yourself?"

"No."

"Then why are you here?"

"I'm a guide. It's my job."

"You were alive once obviously." The memory told me as much. "So how come you ended up here when you died?"

"I'm not dead," Zayn rubbed his temples tiredly. "Look, do you really have to ask all these questions? I've done this hundreds of times before and I've never met anyone as nosey as you."

"Sorry," my sarcasm was not lost on him. "Next time I kill myself and end up in a crazy world with a random guy who tells me I have to learn a life lesson in order to either keep living or move on to the afterlife I will make sure not to ask any questions."

"Those kinds of questions are fine, even though I obviously can't answer them too well. I meant the questions about me. This isn't about me okay? It's about you. So who I am and why I'm here is irrelevant."

"What do you mean you aren't dead?" I had never been one for obeying instructions.

"I mean that I'm alive, back on earth. The memory of my former self lives here in the limbo. It's my job to help wayfaring strangers find their way to where they belong." Zayn reached into his pocket and pulled out a laminated card.

He handed it over to me and I quickly scanned it, reading the typed text out loud. "Zayn Malik, age 17, Nephilim."

I gave it back and he put it away, "What does that mean? Nephilim?"

"Religious people believe we are the offspring of an angel and a mortal being. They believe we are the sons and daughters of the fallen angels, those who were banned from heaven after the war. But really we are guides here, because like the limbo we are not quite reality or afterlife. We are a combination of the two. Just like this place."

"But you said you are alive. You know, on earth."

"I am. Everyone has the potential to be a Nephilim, the power lives inside all of us. Not everyone can tap into it properly though. When I was 17, I did. So here I am, trapped as a 17 year old in a limbo between life and death. My real self doesn't know I exist here. I'm just a piece, ripped off and preserved in order to help others learn what I learned when I was 17."

"The life lesson?"

"Yes," Zayn nodded.

"Wow this is confusing," I sat down and put my head in my hands. Nothing made sense.

"That's why I told you not to ask," Zayn crouched next to me and put a comforting arm around my shoulder. "It's easier if you don't try to understand."

"Yeah," I laughed drily. "Much easier."

"Come on," Zayn pulled me to my feet. "It's getting late."

"It gets late here in the limbo?" It sounded insane. This was madness.

"Well, right now you are in my version of the limbo. We are existing in the place where I learned the life lesson I need to teach you. And that day, it did get late. So here in my limbo, it gets late."

"If I make it out of this on the alive side of things, I am definitely telling everyone I know not to kill themselves. It's too much work." I had been 'dead' for about twenty minutes and here I was making jokes about it.

"You're the only one who has ever asked for an explanation about who I am," Zayn smiled at me. "You're different."

A cold shiver ran through my blood and I pulled away, "I know I'm freakin different. Why do you think I wanted to be dead in the first place?"

A look of horror crossed Zayn's face as he realized what he had done. I may have been acting like this was all a big joke, but I had just killed myself. There were reasons for doing it.

"I didn't mean it like that Annabelle. You're good different."

"Save it, I know I'm a freak." I took off at a run across the stage, my sneakers pounding on the wood. I could see an exit sign hanging just off stage and I aimed myself at it, ready to break through and leave Zayn and his judgments behind.

"No Annabelle don't!" Zayn was right on my heels, but I managed to reach the door before him. I pushed it open and was about to step out when an arm wrapped itself tightly around my waist. Another hand slammed the door shut, cutting off the blinding light that had been coming from behind it.

A/N

I DID NOT WRITE THIS STORY. PLEASE DO NOT GIVE ME ANY CREDIT.

A.x