I walked into the house my head hanging and my eyes concentrated on my feet. I did not want to be here. I wasn’t supposed to be here. Not now. Not this soon. Our house was changes into and unrecognizable place, a place of death. And no one here should be dead. But someone was. And that person was my brother. His name was James Alexander Monroe, and he killed himself. He was my twin brother and my best friend and he killed himself. Nobody knows why. Not even me. I wished I did because then maybe I wouldn’t be so angry at him, I couldn’t believe that he would leave me like this. I still thought that it was just some big prank that everyone but me was in on. If it was, my parents were acting with excellence. How could James do this to me, to our parents?
My parents were irritating me to no end at this point. They couldn’t let their reputations fall just for one minute. They were all smiles to their friends who seemed much more upset then they were. For god sakes! Their son killed himself and all they care about is not cracking or looking bad in front of their guests and clients. It wasn’t until my grandmother Jane, came up to me that I realized I was looking at my mother with the most hostile expression on my face.
“Jane, dear, you’re going to scare your poor mother.”
“I don’t care!” I shouted. Within half a second everyone in the room was staring at me. I rolled my eyes and ran upstairs. I went into James’ room and looked at everything he had left behind. I looked at his bookshelf, full of different types of books, from manga to thousand page novels. There was one laying on his bed I picked it up and smiled looking at the title. Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. That was a favorite we both shared. He had been reading it that day, laying on his bed listening to that stuff he liked to call music. I called it garbage though.
“James…I can’t believe you’re gone. Where did you go?”
“Right here, sis. I’m not going anywhere” a familiar voice replied as I whirled around quickly disbelieving my ears.
“I knew it was a joke! You’re not dead! I knew it!” I said tears of joy running down my face. I ran past him to the stairs.
“Mom! Dad! Grandma! It’s a Joke! He’s not dead! He’s upstairs! Come on!” I screamed standing at the foot of the stairs beckoning them to follow me. “Come on!” I said as the three of them reassured the other guests to wait, that they would be back. When they started following me I turned and guided them to the place I had just seen my brother.
“See? He’s right he-“ He was right nowhere. He was gone. But I know I didn’t just hallucinate that. It was very real. I had been hallucinating and dreaming his death had been a ruse since the day it happened, this was completely different.
“James! Come back out! No one will be mad! It’s okay” I said waiting for him to appear, but he didn’t. Grandma patted me on the back, and dad enveloped me in a hug as new tears of anguish filled my eyes.
James-Tuesday
Where am i? Did it work? I screamed inside my head.
"Where the fuck am i?" I said out loud looking around. That's when I heard the footsteps, and the mumbling coming from my sister. She was walking towards my room. Maybe I Wasn't dead. When she walked through the door to my room i hid behind the door and watched her for a second. She picked up my old battered of version of Catcher in The Rye and smiled, i guessed remembering that it was a favorite we shared. I smiled too. She put it back down though and started crying.
"James....I can't believe you're gone. Where did you go?"
"Right here sis, I'm not going anywhere." I said smiling nervously, not knowing what to expect. She turned around and that's when i knew it for sure. It had worked and before i had a change to explain she ran out the door and down the stairs yelling that i was alive.
"shit." i said running into the closet, listening for the return of my family. I felt horribly disappearing on Jane, but if she had seen me, I couldn't let anyone else see me/ I didn't know what was going on, and i didn't know if doing that was okay.
Jane returned shortly with our mom,dad,and grandmother. And when she saw that i had fled she was heartbroken. It broke my nonexistent heart to see her like that. She was my twin and I felt her pain, I knew how it felt to loose someone. I just lost my twin too. After everyone left Jane threw herself on the floor and started crying even harder. I couldn't bear it, I went to close the door, locked it and knelt beside her.
"Jane?" I whispered.
"Go away, You're not real, It's just a hallucination." she said bawling.
"No, Jane, It's me. I promise. It was me before too" I said stroking her hair. She looked up at me with fear in her eyes.
"Is it really you?" she whispered.
"I swear on Catcher." She smiled at this, it was our version of a pinky swear, you couldn't go back on a catcher swear.
"James..." She said crying harder.
"Why are you still crying? I'm still here."
"YOU'RE DEAD! You're not supposed to be sitting here with me like everything is cool beans! It's not!"
"I....I...don't even know what's going on, I can't explain it to you, I've only been like this for like 15 minutes."
"James, what are you talking about? This is you're funeral. You've been dead for a week."
"Are you serious?!"
"Yes. Where have you been?"
"I don't know all i remember is just darkness. And pain, pain like i've never felt before."
"...How could you do this to me? To yourself?"
"I'm sorry."
"I'm so mad at you" she said angrily, her tears dried, her eyes red and hostile.
"You have every right."
"You have to tell me why you would leave me like you did. How could you? You know I need you!"
"You'll be okay."
"No I wont!"
"You will, After I figure out why I'm still here and how long I can stay I'll be here with you as much as I can be."
"Maybe I don't want you here!"
"Fine." I said hurt walking through the wall. She didn't call after me, so I left. I didn't know where I was going. I was just walking. And I ended up in front of this huge like building with golden gates.
"Um..." I murmured looking up, thinking i was hallucinating. Can ghosts hallucinate? I opened the gates and walked inside. There was a little office type thing inside and a waiting room, so I sat down and waited. Within about 5 minutes this young woman-she couldn't have been older that 25- walked up to me.
"Hello James! I'm Heather, and I bet you're wondering where you are and what you're doing here. Well worry no more! I'm your personal informative assistant for the day!"
"Okay...Where am I?"
"Well sweetie, You're In Limbo."
"Are you okay James?"
"No. I uh...I think I just hallucinated." I said looking around the strange room.
"ha ha ha" she laughed musically. But she stopped when she saw the expression on my face and saw that I was being completely serious.
"I'm sorry."
"No, It's okay. Um, please tell me again where I am? I need to get the hang of hearing this."
"Okay, You're in Limbo."
"I. Am. In. Limbo."
"Yes."
"Why am I here?"
"Well, James, Its because you're dead."
"Well, that much i know, but I though Limbo was where ghosts went when they were stuck on earth because they had "unfinished business" to deal with"
"Oh! No! That's just an urban myth."
"Limbo is where ghosts go! Well most anyways."
"What?"
"Oh, Come with me please" She said turning around perkily towards an office with a very plain door. She sat down behind the desk and motioned for me to sit on the other side.
"Now, James, let me explain all of this to you."
"Okay..." I said looking at her with curiosity burning in my eyes.
"Now, Limbo is the place where all ghosts or spirits of suicides go."
"Oh, so because i've committed suicide I end up here?"
"Yes. And you will stay here. Forever, or until you live your life out in Limbo the way you should have in the real world."
"Okay, but how can I do that if everything I left behind is in the real world"
"That's simple. It's not."
"What?"
"Well, you see, here in Limbo we have a sort of Police type system and when a new soul is to come here an officer or two go to that soul's old home and collect the things that we see they loved most."
"And where do they go?"
"They are taken to your new residence."
"What?"
"In Limbo we give the souls that have given up on life a chance to start over with a great chance at success. So that they can feel somewhat accomplished in the sort of half-life we've given them"
"That's pretty cool." I said almost smiling.
"Yes."
"So am I allowed to contact the people from my old life?"
"Well, Yes, we've noticed that you've contacted you're sister already. And yes that is allowed but there is a limit to how many people you are allowed to talk to outside of the world of Limbo."
"How many?"
"Three"
"Oh, that's fine with me."
"That's good. And those three people need to sign an oath that they will not tell anyone else about Limbo, or their life will be at stake as well as yours." she said gravely, lacing her fingers together.
"...What happens?" I said worried.
"It depends, If the person they tell doesn't believe them then everything is fine...But if the person they tell believes them and starts spreading it to other people then the person you told and the person they told will be either hurt or terminated. And its quite possible that you will be terminated, but it rarely ever happens." She said with a smile returning to her face.
"Okay, well i just have one more question."
"Ask Away."
"What benefits to my friends and family get? The ones that i inform that is."
"Well, they are allowed to stay at you're home, and vice versa but only if they live alone or it id at a time that a time that there is no way you will be find out. And with them you return to a human-like state. Everything they do, you can do as well."
"That's awesome!" I said enthused.
"Here are the keys to your home, your mailbox and your car" She said standing up and handing me a keychain with three keys attached.
"Ooh! A car?! Awesome! Thanks!" I said getting up.
"Your car is located outside right now, and you can go anywhere you'd like, just keep the rules in mind and don't be in too late!" She said in an overly maternal voice that made me sort of nostalgic for the times when my mother was like that. Before I turned to go I kissed heather lightly on the cheek.
"Thank you. For everything. You have no idea how much i appreciate it. Will I be seeing you again soon?" I asked hopefully, even though I had a girlfriend I liked Heather, She made me feel all warm inside. I hadn't felt like that for what seemed like a week.
"You'll be seeing a a lot of me, hon. I'm your "guide" I live in the same building as you, so I'll be seeing you when you get back." She said blushing.
"Oh! Cool! We can talk more then. And you can tell me more about Limbo. I'll see you later Heather!" I said walking out the door and jumping into my silver Hybrid Prius. I laughed when I got inside and noticed the tinted windows. I put the keys in the ignition and started to drive.
I was a few block from my house when a cell phone started ringing causing me to jump about 2 feet...which would have made me hit my head on the roof, but considering my current state of being didn't. I picked up the phone.
"H-hello?"
"Hi! It's Heather, I forgot to mention that there was a phone in here. You need to call your sister before you tell her you're coming, because if your parents are home you can't park anywhere near your home."
"Okay. But how did you know I was going there?"
"Well we have knowledge about your previous life so I figured since she's your twin you were going there."
"Oh. Okay. Thanks for the heads up. Talk to you later Heather!" I said hanging up and dialing my sister's cell.
"Hello?"
"Hey. Are mom and dad home?"
"No...James?"
"Yeah, I found out what's going on. I'm coming to the house."
"Okay...."
"Kay. You're going to be ecstatic!"
"I doubt it."
"I promise."
"Fine. See you in a sec."
"Love you!"
"Love you too James." She said hanging up as I walked up to the door.
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