Another Life, JenniferNewman [short story to read .TXT] 📗

what was going on and I could feel my eyes becoming their innocent round bewildered look that I hadn’t got since my father had died. Nothing seemed to be the same anymore. Things were changing. Changing and changing again. Unfolding and refolding themselves until I could pretty much not even recognize my own life.
I closed my eyes again and breathed in before opening them and spotting a sort of mist like thing coming at me from the other side of the park. I squinted my eyes so I could see better with the light of the sun still bearing down on me. It was getting bigger and bigger by the second until a figure came out of the covered ground and the mist disappeared.
I stood there staring. Pretty much like my friends had before I realized they weren’t moving. The figure was coming closer and closer while the voice continued to ring and ring. Round and round I could hear it again and again. Like a parrot repeating your words over and over in different tones. Not just different tones but what sounded like different peoples voice all together. Well this just gets better.
To sum this up I was basically standing in the middle of the park next to the café were moments ago I had been with my friends. There was a strange figure walking towards me from the opposite side of the park and oh wait don’t forget that me and this other person are now the only other people in this place. Not even going to start about this voice. Because this situation is so normal.
I closed my eyes and just waited for the person who was walking or gliding .Whatever. towards me ever so slowly to get to me already.
What felt like five minutes passed and I finally opened my eyes to what I realized was no longer the sun shining pleasantly down on me but the moon with its many followers of stars.
I looked down from the sky and into the face of a boy. A boy who looked about the same age as me. Light brown hair bushy eye brows. He somehow reminded me of a bear since he was very muscular with tight fitting clothes that I swear were at least two sizes too small. Why was I even thinking about what he looked like I mean I have just seen this boy come out of the ground after the world basically froze and time had pasted way too quickly. I blinked a couple of times just hoping that the view would change and I would once again be standing with my friends and boyfriend.
A feeling of dread was starting to seep through my body as I continued to look at the boy standing in front of me. Who was he? Why was I here? Why was he here? Why did he look familiar to me?
Too many questions that I didn’t know the answers to.
Too many answers that I didn’t know the questions to.
The silence carried on until I could swear it felt like the air around me was closing in and making the moment more awkward. A smile was playing around the boys mouth. A amused smile. I thought of Parker and the way he always looked at me like I was somehow amusing him greatly.
It looked the same.
Same curve of the mouth. Same gap between the teeth as he opened him mouth making an even wider smile.
Cody. Oh crap…….
I could have sworn I had not said that out loud but Cody burst into laughter and almost yelled,
“Good guess! You’re not as stupid as you look. What a shame.” Encouraging.
The feeling of dread was now sending little electric shocks through my body making me move alert. How had he done this?
I was dreaming that’s all. Nothing else. Nothing to be worried about. Nothing. Nothing.
I closed my eyes in a attempt at calming myself but only left myself with an even worse image of how I was going to die. Well like that’s not at all a depressing subject to think about when you are trying to think calming thoughts.
Cody and a millions others voices were still echoing around my head from where he had spoken again. I cringed away from the voices still swirling around my head and the now cackling laughter emitting from Cody’s over sized mouth. I opened my eyes to face Cody again only to find that the wind had picked up and the dry dirt at my feet was whizzing around my head in a circular pattern.
I could just about make out the figure of Cody before everything went black. I heard the words before I passed out,
“Next time it is.” Promising…..

“Rose?” I looked up to see Megan’s face looking at me as I pulled the phone sharply away from my ear. “Who was it?” Huh?
“No one.” I muttered looking down at the ground and then back up again at the faces of my friends and boyfriend. What?
I blinked several times before taking a deep breath and looking at Parker who no longer had an amused look on his face but one of worry. Well I could have sworn I was doing a pretty good job of hiding the fact that I was confused and you know just that little bit scared of what the hell had just happened.
Next time.
The words were still crowding my brain as we walked over to a table the boys had already set up. They had taken it upon themselves to order our drinks Brendon making it well known that he knew exactly what I liked. I couldn’t even bring it on myself to feel awkward. The feeling of being watched was still with me and I could still not shake the words ‘next time’ from my damned brain.
I sat down next to Parker and Kat and ‘listened’ to the other talk. I felt Parker’s hand pick up mine and start playing with my fingers as I drank my drink. Drank and drank. Just for something to do. It never seemed to end no matter how much I drank there always seemed to be more.
I blinked and found it hard to reopen my eyes. It felt like some builder had just come and decided to glue my eyes together with some special glue. In other words I was tired.
It had all just been a dream nothing to be freaked about. It was over now. I shook myself still trying to rid myself of the unseeing eyes all around but still the image of Cody emerging from the ground on the other side of the park filled my mind.
I tried to concentrate on the feel of Parker’s hand on mine but that quickly slipped away when I remembered how alike their amused smiles were. I could still picture every little details of what had happed. I could recall them more than I could recall the people in front of me. More than any other memory I had. And this freaked me out more than the death frets I had been ordered. More than the ghost haunting. Even more than the idea of my father killing not just himself but the life of yet another innocent soul along with him.
I felt Parker give up trying to get a response out of my hand and take his away only to place it over my shoulders and pulled me into his side burying my face in his shoulder and bring me back to the present with only the disappearing memory of the mysterious Cody.
Right horror movie much. I laid my cheek on Parker’s shoulder and started to pay more attention to what my friends were saying. Yet another attempt at killing me I am really hoping that this won’t become a pattern….. You know just another normal day for me….

Chapter Eight: Wednesday 1:23am
The omnibus mist was rolling in from the coast. Ice was fluttering around my legs and feet sending deep chills up my body.
I could feel the mysterious prickling of the wind coming in from the heart of the storm. The moon had positioned itself in the center of the mist covered sky leaving little room for the nonchalant stars.
Out there somewhere laid my boat. The boat that held my everything. Everything that had ever and would ever mean a thing to me.
Watching out for a sign, any sign at all. The soft whistling of wave against painted wood. The hum of an old engine far past its day.
This was my constant worry. I would stare hopelessly at this dreary nights sky and hope. Hope for everything everything and everything.
Once again here I stood standing in the same place I had everyday so far. Pebbles had moved over time leaving a cramped circle where I stood. Stood and stood.
I would watch as the known boats with the repellant driver’s road by. Leaving my hope and soul behind.
North, south, east and west. I could tell you straight away which dismal direction was which.
Joyous thoughts of the past flash by. Leaving gaping holes in their wake. Demons of the night drift e by. Smiles of the young. To young, to innocent and naive. Soft babies smiles and laughter that carries every waiting boat.
The winds determined blast sailed past again and again leaving surprising goose bumps along my arms.
Boat after boat passing me by but none with that wistful green and white pattern.
It felt as though that very picture was etched inside my skull forever to haunt me. Green and white, green and white. Again and again yet no matter how forceful I willed the image to life it never came.
Soon the mist would cover the sea completely like a deathly blanket awaiting its victims. The lost souls at sea with only one way of rescue. The light house.
As if the thought alone made the light flash over towards my solemn figure.
My father would be up there now over seeing the safety of boats from all over the great world. Carrying from every place imaginable. Such exquisite fruits and materials. Such talk of the world away from her. The sailors who have seen it all!
My soul was out there now. With my boat, with my everything. Changing my world and changing it again and again.
Foling and refolding once and twice again. Just like I would once again be doing. The dismal life I was now leading. I would never complain anywhere but my head. For that was the only place I still had of my own. Mine and mine alone.
I scooped up a ruff gravelly stone with my smooth glove and sent it heavily out in to the distance. Soon to become a distant memory like everything else.
I bowed my head to the moon as I heard splash of water nearby expressing that there was soon going to be yet another hopples soul at the mercy of the cold hearted sea.
Shaking lose the feeling of dread that had tangled itself in my mind for months now. Months that have pasts and months that are soon to pass. Drifting by like the chilling waves at my feet. Step after step I took. Pain as the jagged rocks smashed under my bare feet.
The weaving path I took back to the light house was a short one but that too for what felt like a life time to the mind’s eye.
Once again leaving my hope and heart behind at that spot for the next time. Only to go back