No. No. No.
This is not happening. No this is just another dream, like in those movies where there are dreams inside dreams. Wake up. I tell myself over and over again, but I never do. I just stand there and watch terrified as my bestfriends blood drips off of her still body and onto the white carpet of the basement.
No. No. No!
I dash out of the room. I know what you're thinking; why would you leave the room that your bestfriend is laying with a demon and a ghost still in there!? But my fight or flight instincts kicked in and I fled. I decide to run upstairs and grab my phone. I dial Aiden and hope for the best that he will pick up. Even if he does I won't be able to talk to him for long because he will use all the energy in the phone. Plus how is he going to help? He is still in Aiden's body he can't like use his ghost powers in Aiden's body can he?
Just as I get Aiden's voicemail, I see car healights in Claire's driveway. Who the hell could that be? I look out the window and see Aiden's sleek black Audi. Unusual but perfect timing. I run down the stairs as quietly as I can, which isn't that quiet.
I quickly open the door and run out to his car without shutting the house door. I see Luscious sitting inside and unbuckling his seat belt. I open the door and he jumps out and I just hug him. I start to cry a little and into his shirt I ask, "Why are you here?" I pull away and look up at him.
"I could tell you were scared. It's this thing and I could like sense your fear." He says and I tilt my head. He just shakes his head and pulls me inside the house.
"What's going on?" He asks concern flanking his voice.
"Semiazas and Collin are in the basement and they have Claire. I- I th-hink sh-he-" I start to stutter trying not to cry as I think of my bleeding friend in the basement.
"Calm down, Collin probably is getting it under control." He says reassuring me. I just stare at him, not knowing how to tell him that Collin is working with Semiazas. For all I know Collin helped Semiazas kill Luscious.
"Luscious-" I begin but he is looking behind me, his eyes wide. I turn around and fall to the ground and sob. Claire is standing there, slightly transparent and wavering with the energy waves in the room. She looks confused, so confused. But I can't focus on anything. My mind goes blank thinking of what torture Claire must have gone through to die. All I see when I close my eyes is Claire's bloodied body. I watch as Luscious talks to Claire and she starts to freak out, I can't hear what they are saying. I can't hear anything.
Claire is dead. This is my fault. I killed Claire. She is dead because of me. No, this is just a dream. Wake up. Wake up! I beg myself as I pinch my arm so hard that it starts to bleed. I sob and sob until I feel Luscious pulling me up. I stare up at him, he has his arms around me. And as if someone had pressed play on a movie, I can hear again. Luscious is saying something to me.
"You need to do this for Claire. Don't make her suffer." He says.
"W-what?" I ask looking at him then at Claire, who is surprisingly smiling? Why would you be smiling if you just died? She does know she is dead right?
"Cross her over." He says.
"I can't do that." I say looking at him like he is crazy. Does he think I am God or something? Is he going insane? Am I going insane?
"Yes you can. A matter of fact, anyone can if they really really try. But you can see ghosts, you have ghost abilities. You can do this. Do this for her. But you have to do it now." He says staring me in the eyes, pleading me to do this.
I look at her and she nods.
"Claire. I am so sorry. I didn't mean for Semiazas to do this to you." I say as I sob.
"It's okay, atleast now people will remember me. I'll be pretty famous. Plus I never finished my Trig homework, or started my college applications." She says with a laugh and I laugh with her. Of course she would be glad to die because she didn't finish her homework.
"I am going to miss you so much." I tell her.
"I'm going to miss you too." She says. And I want to say something else, but I have so much to say that
I don't know where to begin.
"Do you have anything you want to say, like to your parents?" I ask running my hand through my hair.
"Tell them I loved them, and that I am sorry I had to leave so soon. Oh and tell Aiden that I really did like him a lot." She says and I nod.
"I wish I could hug you, I wish I could fix this. I am so sorry." I say tears running down my face and dripping onto the floor. You never really expect to see your bestfriend die, or to be that cause of her death. You always expect you'll grow old together, buy an apartment together. Go to the same college. Then fade away into your families, not having to deal with eachother's deaths until the ripe old age of 100. But I guess God has a different plan for us, or maybe Semiazas does.
"How do I do this?" I ask Luscious with another sob.
Luscious begins to lead me through the steps to open a portal to the afterlife. He tells me to calm down, which is considerably hard considering I am opening this portal to send my bestfriend to the afterlife. But soon I calm down enough to go to the blank spot in my mind where I am thinking of absolutely nothing.
"Now you have to re-site this prayer, it is a prayer priests use to send spirits into the afterlife as well. This is just a sure thing that she will crossover." I nod my head, okay good atleast I know she will actually crossover.
"Repeat after me;
God our Father,
Your power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by Your command we return to dust.
Those who die still live in Your presence,
their lives change but do not end.
I pray for this lost spirit,
and for all the dead known to You alone.
In company with greater forces,
Who died and now lives,
may they rejoice in your kingdom,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Eternal rest grant unto them, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."
I look straight at Claire and I repeat the prayer. The whole time thinking of how God may not even exist. If he doesn't exsist where am I sending her?
"God our Father,
Your power brings us to birth,
Your providence guides our lives,
and by Your command we return to dust."
I begin the prayer and watch as a yellowish glow grows on the kitchen wall
"Those who die still live in Your presence,
their lives change but do not end.
I pray for this lost spirit,
and for all the dead known to You alone.
In company with greater forces,
Who died and now lives,
may they rejoice in your kingdom,
where all our tears are wiped away.
Eternal rest grant unto them, and let perpetual light shine upon them.
May the souls of the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace."
I finish the prayer and see the wall shining almost blindingly bright.
"Good job." Luscious praises and I look at Claire.
"I guess that is my cue to go." She says smiling at me. "I am really going to miss this place. But now I am just going to have a better view right?" She adds looking around the room.
"Thank you for doing this for me, I know it's hard. But you can keep all my clothes." She says winking and I nod and smile at her. Although it is very forced I'm happy that she is crossing over and not suffering.
"Now go before I trap you here to hang out with me 24/7." I say with a hiccup.
"I love you Miranda."
"I love you Claire."
"See ya later aligator." She says almost making me laugh. We used to say that all the time to each other when we were younger.
"In a while crocidile." I say smiling as she walks right into the bright wall and then the kitchen goes completly black as the portal closes and she is gone.
I fall down to the floor and sob uncontrollably. Why? Why did this have to happen? Why couldn't I have died!? I would have gladly died in her place. This wasn't supposed to happen. I was supposed to come here to be safe. Not to put my best friend in danger of a demon killing her!
I just lay on the kitchen floor with my knees pulled into my chest and I cry. Luscious pulls me into his lap and strokes my hair. He says soothing things like; "It was the right thing to do." "She is in a better place," etc. But I don't care, I would do anything to get her back. I would die in place of her, anything! This is not fair. She. Does. Not. Deserve. This.
Suddenly Luscious gets up and leaves me on the floor. I don't ask him where he is going or what he is doing. I just cry. I cry for Claire. I cry for her having to die like that. I cry for myself not getting to her fast enough. I cry for not being able to revive her or something, although that is crazy and could never happen, I wish there was a way I could have done that. I cry for her parents, who will have to go through this, not knowing why she really died. I cry for her other friends other than me. I cry for everything.
Soon Luscious comes back and pulls me up and takes me to the stairs.
"No" I croak.
"I can't go into her room." I tell him and he nods and takes me to the living room couch.
"I went into the basement..." Luscious trails off. I just stare at him.
"To see if Semiazas and Collin were there. They weren't. They left." He says looking down at the ground. So there intention was to kill Claire. Why would they do that. I would understand if they had come here to get me and then somehow got me mixed up with Claire. But now it was clear, they had come for Claire. They had done what they wanted, then left. But why would they want to kill Claire? Was it a warning of some sort? Were they trying to psych me? Scare me? Kill me?
"They should have just killed me." I mumble into the couch cushion.
"Don't say that." Luscious says putting his hand on my thigh.
"She didn't deserve this." I say.
"I know." He says.
"I wish they had killed me." I say.
Luscious says nothing.
"Then atleast I could be with you." I say sobbing some more.
Suddenly though we are not the only two in the room.
"Miranda? Claire?" I hear Claire's Dad walk into the kitchen.
"Oh no." I say my hand flying to my face.
"Aiden? What are you doing here?" Claire's father asks glaring at Aiden. I look up at the clock and see that it is almost 6 o'clock. Wow time flies when your crossing your friend over into the afterlife after a demon and supposedly Luscious's ghost friend kill her.
"I called him to come here." I say tears running down my face.
"Why? What's wrong. Where is Claire?" He asks looking around the room like maybe she is just in the bathroom or around the corner getting a shirt out of the laundry. And boy so I wish that was the circumstances.
"It's Cl-laire." I say crying harder than before.
"What about her?" Mr. Johnson asks swallowing as he starts to get nervous. I guess I would be nervous too if your daughters bestfriend was crying on your living room couch with a boy comforting her.
"She- she..." I start but then stop to catch my breath and calm down.
"She's dead." I say surprisingly calm.
"What do you mean? Is this some kind of prank?" He asks swallowing yet again.
"No it's not, I'm so sorry. I found her this morning in the basement." I say and just let it all out, I sob again for what feels like the millionth time this hour and Luscious just pulls me into his lap and starts to soothe me. Mr. Johnson in some state of shock just stares at us. We all stay in these positions for a while, until we hear sirens in the distance. I peek up out of Luscious's arms and look at Mr. Johnson. That's when I think it hits him, we weren't just playing a cruel prank, this is real life. His only daughter dead. And it's all my fault.
Soon Mrs. Johnson was up as well crying along with her husband, the cops were leaking into the house like a drippy faucet and my bestfriend was still dead.
*****
It was a lot different without Claire around to say the least. The police had said that someone had snuck into her house and murdered her, and that they would not stop searching until they found the culprit, but only Luscious and I knew that they would never find them. Claire had a funeral and everyone in town came. People cried and students and teachers were extra nice to me, when I was extra rude to them. My parents walked around me like I was glass and could break at any minute, they just didn't understand that I was already broken. Losing your bestfriend breaks you in a way that you thinking you can't go on.
I spent the next few days just laying in bed crying, refusing to get up unless to shower or brush my teeth because I couldn't stand my own scent any longer. I didn't eat, I didn't sleep, I did nothing but cry and stare at the wall, blaming myself for Claire's premature death. Losing your bestfriend and having it be your own fault is the hardest thing to deal with in the world. I almost decided not to deal with it. But then I figuired it would be extremely stupid to kill myself, Semiazas will do that for me soon enough anyways.
On the third or fourth day, I'm not quite sure, I got up and went out to my car. I drove all the way to Claire's house and just idled outside it for a while before cutting the engine and climbing out of my car. I didn't knock, because in the mental state I was in I didn't have enough manners nor patience to wait for someone to open the door for me. Instead I just opened there door, that was surprisly unlocked. I walked up to her bedroom and just layed on her bed for a while and cried.
Soon enough someone found me and prompted me to go home. I wasn't quite sure who it was, I had a feeling it was Mr. Johnson but I can't remeber. I don't remember how I got home either, but now I'm back in my bed crying.
Luscious showed up that night, he wasn't in Aiden's body though. He told me that Aiden was back to his normal self and that he wasn't borrowing Aiden's body anymore. I cried harder that night because I just wasted Luscious last days in Aiden's body crying in my room.
A couple weeks passed and not much happened. I went to school, came home, talked to Luscious for a while, showered, then went to bed. Every night was the same. No disruptions from Semiazas or Collin. I am not quite sure what that meant. Did they kill Claire just for the fun of it? Or was this part of their plan to try and kill me? The sad thing though, if it was their plan to kill me, I really didn't care.
----//----
AN: EXTREMELY ROUGH COPY. AND I KNOW IT'S LATE AND THIS IS SAD AND STUFF BUT YEAH THIS HAPPENED AND ITS EXAM
WEEK BEXT WEEK SO IM ALMOST DONE WITH SCHOOL.
SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO UPDATE.
I WILL BE EDITING THIS TOMORROW SO STAY TUNED?
YOU GUYS SHOULD LISTEN TO THESE TWO SONGS IF YOU HAVENT ALREADY AND THINK ABOUT THIS CHAPTER WHEN YOU ARE;
NOT ABOUT ANGELS - BIRDY
ALL I WANT - KODALINE
OKAY I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS PLOT TWIST. GOODNIGHT.
PEACE OUT DUCKLINGS! *insert peace sign here*