You have to be kidding, he's kidding right? This is definitely a dream, I mean I remember when one of my friends told us when she was legally dead for like 7 minutes and she said it felt like nothing. This doesn't feel like nothing and this doesn't exactly look like heaven to me. So far the after life completely sucked.
He was really cautious with his words as he spoke to me.
"My names Vic Fuentes, I died and when I woke up I was in that motel room." he pointed towards the rooms on the second floor toward the one where I first saw him.
"I don't remember how long I've been here, but it feels like I've been here a while, you've been the first person I've seen so far." he said.
"Do you know how you died?" I asked.
He then turned his head and moved his hair around to reveal a bullet wound on the side of his head.
"I figured I died from a gun shot" he said after showing me. "I'm guessing you did too, do you remember anything?" he asked paying more attention to my shirt. I shook my head,
"No, no I don't, not at all." I admitted.
"Well, why can't we go to the hospital?" I asked.
He looked as of he didn't want to tell me he just looked down to the ground, I was going to ask him again until I saw the fog, my dear old friend.
"Oh look!" I pointed in the fog's direction, "that thing showed me where you were, lets follow it." I said latching onto his wrist, I made a mental note to remember to bring up the whole hospital thing later.
He reluctantly began to follow me and the fog since he had no other choice but to.
"Have you ever seen this fog before?"
I asked.
"Yes, I've never followed it though." he told me.
"Well, why not?" I asked curiously.
"I was afraid of where it would take me." he said.
We were quiet after that, but my thoughts weren't quiet at all. Obviously if this was really the after life there would be more people, maybe both me and Vic have like unfinished business like in the movies and once we figure that out and do what we need to, we both will be able to move on and move on to a 'better' place.
This does explain a lot though, like why everyone is gone and why everything seemed to be so eerie and quiet and what I feel when I enter places like my house or the gas station. That was my mother crying wasn't it? And she was probably crying over me. No way I can be dead.
"Why can't I remember anything" I asked doubting that Vic had an answer.
"I don't know." I answered.
"This is a dream isn't it?" I asked.
"Sadly, no." he said.
"How do you know?" I said. He stopped walking and stopped me too. He pulled us towards a bench and we both sat on it together and we watched the fog pass us until we could no longer see it. I looked over at him, the light of the street lamp lit his face and I waited for him to answer my question.
" Have you ever seen me before? Anywhere?" he asked me, I wish I could say yes because inside I felt as of I have but, I I didn't, I shook my head.
"Right, well I've never seen you before either." he said. I wasn't sure exactly what his point was but, he continued on.
"In dreams, your brain can't make up people, every person in your dreams you've seen before. That's why I don't think this is just all one big dream but, there is a possibility that you have seen me but, just can't remember. I know I haven't seen you before though." he said, I understood his explanation and it does make sense.
"Where are we?" I asked, even though he didn't answer most of my questions, I felt like, Vic knew a lot.
"Probably some kind of purgatory, a place between heaven and hell, either people just need to pray enough for us to get into heaven or we just need to figure out what we need to do to move on together" he said.
"Together?" I repeated his last word.
"Oh um, I didn't mean to-" he stuttered.
I held onto his hand in a comforting way, hopefully not freaking him out. There's no way I want to walk around this place alone and I found comfort in having Vic with me.
"No, no, it's ok. I would really appreciate it if we stayed together " I said nodding, he had the same theory as me. He looked down at our hands then back at me then smiled.
"I think if we stay together, we could slowly start remembering what happened to us." he said. I'm glad I had someone with me.
"What do we do now?" I asked. Vic just shrugged and looked up to the sky and so did I. We both sat together on the bench looking at the stars from the cloudless sky above us, being dead I don't really sleep so we could be here forever and I would never be tired. I wonder if it would always be dark out, or my town is as far as I can go, maybe I could never leave. When I asked Vic about it he said that if our bodies are in the town were tied to them. We can only travel through out the town but not too far from our bodies. I wonder how long it's been since I've been dead. Am I missing? Had there been a funeral? I'm not sure how my family is, I couldn't imagine what they were going through.
If Vic and I are going to stick together we might as well get to know each other right? I remember exactly who Ian, I just don't remember when, how or why I died.
"Who are you?" I asked failing to ask a more clearer question.
"What?" Vic chuckled.
"I meant, who were you before you died"? I asked.
"Will you tell me who you were too?" he asked, I nodded my head quickly waiting for him to tell me all about himself.
"Well, I was a college student in my freshman year in college and I lived on campus. I lived a pretty boring and normal life, my parents and brother are normal and I was really close to them they were also fully accepting when I told them I was gay"
well would you look at that, "I died at 20 years and my friends always called me grandpa" he chuckled "I was only older than them by a year maybe two probably because I was more of a leader and mature. I wasn't really interesting at all" he finished, he was right about that.
"Ok, so what about you?" he asked.
"Alright, I died at 18, a senior in high school just about to graduate, I'm an only child and I had pretty great and loving parents. I'm also gay, I didn't even really need to come out to my parents they already knew. I think I died by Fuller and Franklin like, just outside the bus stop and gas station." I paused as I said that because another memory came back, it was just an SUV driving towards me, that's it, that's all I saw. That SUV meant something didn't it?
"Kellin?" Vic asked placing his hand on my knee trying to gain my attention.
I was probably starring into space for a few seconds like I got some sort of vision.
"Oh yeah sorry. I think I keep remembering things that happened before I died, does that happen to you?" I asked. Vic shook his head, I guess spending time with him really was helping me remember. When I finally snapped out of my thoughts I carried on with the conversation. I found out that Vic has lived here all his life, I've only moved to San Diego four years ago in my freshman year. He didn't go to my high school he went to Clairemont High and I went to Saint Augustine, we both sing and really love music, Vic not only sings and plays guitar he told me he use to be in a band in high school but, the whole college thing and graduating split up the band, what a shame.
We looked at each other for a few minutes just laughing at all the stupid jokes we made. Then I noticed the fog coming back, "do you want to follow it?" I asked.
"Only if you want to" he said.
I nodded and got up from the bench and so did Vic. We walked towards the gas station where I woke up at and headed towards the neighborhoods near by. I remember hearing that a guy around here got shot, it was usually a safe neighborhood but, recently there has been a lot of gang related activity. I wasn't sure when the shooting happened it was either last month or last week, it was on the news all the time. The fog was guiding us toward my local park it was 4 blocks away from my house, when we got to the fountain the fog began to fade and lower back into the ground beneath our feet.
"King Park" Vic murmered with a slight smile on his face. He was looking towards the trees around us, enjoying the view. "I love this park, I spent almost every day here as a kid with my friends" I said reminiscing the memories of my past life. Vic pointed towards one of the trees towards the side of the park, it was one of those trees that their branches drooped until they touched the ground like some kind of jungle cave "I use to sit under that tree everyday after school when I was a kid" he said. So did I. "I did too, that's my favorite place in the whole park" I said. "Really?" he asked. "Yeah, it was a kind of sanctuary to me" I admitted. I guess this place worked like normal day because I started to see the sun rising into the sky, I wonder what time it is. "C'mon" Vic said, gabbing my hand and pulling me towards the tree, we sat underneath it and looked out towards the sun watching it rise. Vic began to speak again, his voice was quiet and soothing, "I use to come here every time I was upset, or when I just wanted to be left alone. It's my favorite place in the world, no one ever looked for me here, no one ever knew this is where I went when I would run away. It was my sanctuary too" Vic said, from the look in his eyes I could tell how much he loved this place. He smiled and trailed his hand over the bark, "I carved my name right here" he trailed his hand down the trees trunk to a small carving that said 'VIC F'. I haven't been to King Park in years but, I did remember seeing that carving and wondering who Vic was, I could be Victor or Victoria but, I never really thought much about it.
I looked at the sun as it rose up, it was a start of a new day. I could see from the corner of my eye that Vic was looking at me. When I looked directly at him, he didn't look away and I smiled back at him. I was lucky not to be alone in this, I was always alone in things. Sure I have friends but almost all my life I had to do things alone, and I'm glad I have Vic to help me move on to a better place.