Send ✔️

18 ~ Not Anymore You're Not

Sadie and I uploaded a video to my channel of us talking about how we found each other, leaving out the dream parts and her abilities. We discussed things we wanted to do together since we missed playing with dolls and going to the park together and little kid things. We ended up making a bucket list of things we want to do together. We edited and posted it.

After that, Paige made everyone dinner and took us out for ice cream. When we got back, Sadie and I were both really tired from our adventurous day, so we went right to bed. Did we expect another visit from the afterlife? Nope. But did we get one? Yep.

I opened my eyes. Everything around me was white nothingness, different from the night before. Sadie was to my right. We shared a small smile.

"Why are we here?" I asked.

"Annie brought us. Last time, Caleb did."

"Oh."

My clothes were the weird color again. Sadie's were red.

Annie came up to us out of thin air.

"Hey, I'm so glad you could make it," she said, hugging Sadie and I.

"Why are we here again?" Sadie asked.

"But this isn't the same place," I said.

"She means why you're with me, in a void, again, to which I'll explain when we get to where I want to go," Annie clarified.

"Ah."

"Let's walk."

Annie started off in a direction, which I subconsciously knew was sideways. Not sure how. After a while, we came upon a hallway. There were four doors, two brown and two black.

"Hmm, we can't go in any of these," Annie frowned.

"Why not?" I asked.

"They're bad," Annie explained, just as a light gray staircase appeared. She took us up the stairs. We were greeted with a painting of my mom.

"She's here?" Annie asked herself, mumbling.

We heard footsteps approaching from behind. I turned around to see mom.

"Sadie? Annie? Hayley? What's going on?"

"Mom? How are you here?" I asked.

"Long story short, I just got robbed and killed in a motel. I knew I should have just shelled out the extra cash for a hotel," she explained, muttering the last part to herself.

"But Hayley and I are alive," Sadie said.

"Not anymore you're not," I heard a masculine voice behind me.

My body jolted awake just as I heard the beginning of a gunshot. Sadie did as well. We were both hyperventilating.

"Caleb?" I questioned.

Sadie nodded her head.

"We can't go back to sleep," I said, then glanced at the clock, seeing that it wasn't even midnight yet. Ugh. "I want answers."

"There are none." Sadie simply said, almost whispering.

"What?"

"Nobody can intrude dreams like that. Not live humans, not souls. It's never been done."

"How do you know?" I cocked my head.

"Adam told me."

<<>>

"My tenth birthday. The night before, I had a seizure due to a fever and went into a coma for three hours. I was in a place much like the one in that nightmare we just had, except I never came upon any structures, like the hallway. A man named Adam came up to me. I asked him why I was there. He told me that people like us have to find each other, and when I didn't know what he meant, he just said that there'd be a time when I knew that I'd have to find someone specific, and I needed to get to them as soon as possible. He looked me dead in the eyes at one point and gripped my shoulders very tightly and told me, 'If the man in white ever appears, which it's never happened to anyone before, avoid him at all costs. He would be awakened by an action in the one you'll save's life.' I asked him about the one I'd save, and he said it's the person I knew I needed to get to. It's you, Hayley."

I blinked. "But who's the man in white, and what did I do?"

"The man in white is Caleb. The nothingness appeared white."

"It was black when I first saw him."

"It was a disguise, but I didn't know that was possible."

"What did I do to make him angry?" I asked, but I realized what it was as soon as I said it.

"I don't know."

"I pressed Send." I said quietly.

"What?"

"I pressed the Send button. I told Annie she could let go, and Caleb was obviously mad about it because he didn't get to live long."

"She didn't die from jumping though."

My phone pinged, so I picked it up. It was a text my dad had sent me. I read it out loud. "Annie died from a pulmonary embolism, which is a large blood clot. Just got the call from the hospital." I remembered reading somewhere that the first symptom is death for 25% of cases.

"The clot could have been a result of the jump or something," she said.

"Oh."

"I need to talk to Adam," she said, laying back down.

"You're not going back to sleep, are you?" I asked. "Don't leave me alone."

"No, you're coming with me. I know how to get to him. Lay down and hold my hand," she said.

I did what she asked and in a few seconds, we appeared in white, and a blond young adult was standing in front of us.

"Sadie? What's going on? I said to come only in an emergency. And how did you manage to bring someone with you?" He asked.

She explained the dreams we've been having the one we just had. "Is it even possible to meet the man in white without the white?" Sadie asked. Adam's face went pale.

"That's no Man in White. That's the literal--"

He was cut off by a bullet shooting through his chest, somehow in slow motion. My sister and I turned around.

"--devil," Caleb finished.