Dead Wings

Chapter 2

“Like as the sun moves towards the western shores,
so do our minutes hasten to their end.

These people here today are our friends and shall never be forgotten.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the lowering of the evening sun
and in the rising of the morning sun
we shall remember them!

This day of April 11th shall be recorded in our head. For ever we shall remember them; they are our friends, our teacher, our family, our peers.

You may hate Kris, or you may forgive Kris but don’t forget him. Don’t forget Mr. Thomas; everyone’s hardest English teacher ever. Don’t forget Peter, that quiet boy or Josh one of the best football players in the school. Don’t forget that day Kris came with that gun and Daemon actually tackled him and got shot in the leg to protect us! Or when Carlos and David cuffed him…

and don’t forget what happened to Kris… don’t forget!…don’t forget... that bullet in his… in his head.”

Michelle’s powerful words made me feel that day again.

Not the day that I got shot… but the night before, the night I called him:

******************************

“Kris?!? Pick up the phone!” I shouted into the phone as my message was being recorded. I heard something. “Kris?” I asked.
“Peter, uh...” Kris answered with a broken voice.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I looked at the clock which was blinking…
“I’m going to…Uh…oh…yeah… I’m okay…I don’t look okay… but I’m all drugged up with pain meds for tomorrow…”

“Tomorrow?” I asked. The phone grew silent. “Well I need to go back to sleep, Peter...”

“No! What’s tomorrow?” He didn't answer... "Night.” He said and I heard a click.
I lowered the phone and as I was tired too, I hung up the phone and thought nothing else of it…

**********************

“Hey, Peter! You okay?” I looked over to Mr. Thomas as he startled me from my thoughts. “Yeah… I’m all right.” He sighed and looked away from me. “So what do we do from here?” I asked him.

“Well… We exist, theres nothing here for us but the world we once lived upon.” He said to me as he also said it to all five of us.

We were all gathered there somewhere near our coffins, attending our own funeral... I was in the center standing right next to where my body lay. Mr. Thomas was right beside me to my right and he was next his body. Away from the group stood Kris but he was well... crying. To my left sat Jessica Mayes and beside her sat Josh... the reason we were all here. Kris and Josh both had their backs to us.

“That’s it!?! No God?” Jessica cried.

”Well I sure haven't seen him yet, so unless all bloody five of us missed that stairway…” Mr. Thomas said as he actually laughed...

“So you!” Josh shouted, “Shot us and were stuck here for ever!?!”

Josh finally turned towards the rest of us and began to walk towards Kris; balling up his fist ready to test how much power a ghost truly has. Kris didn’t say a word, he just sat there whimpering, crying at what he had done.

“Sit down!” I shouted at Josh. “He may have pulled the trigger but you pushed him to it! You made his life miserable. So… maybe you deserved it…” The words slipped out of my mouth and I didn’t really mean to say it… but Josh stood there still finally…
We all were still, but the funeral went on…

***********************************************

Michelle couldn’t stop looking at Rachel as she spoke. She knew of the pain her best friend was going through. She knew how much Rachel loved me. Before she left the podium she looked towards me... no she looked towards my body.

Again she looked at Rachel and she left the podium to join Rachel and her parents… who were sitting by my parents.

I watched Rachel, it scared me how much everyones life changed when I died. I studied her, searching for hope and I stopped as I was a bit startled as the whole group stood up; a wave of black reaching slightly upwards to the sky and they began to sing…

*************************************************

After the funeral I followed Rachel home. She went through her front door entrance and I walked through the door as it was closed on me. She softly climbed up the steps toward her room. Rachel went into her room and fell into her bed and curled up on it, crying.

Whenever I was near my parents they cried and whenever I was near Rachel she cried. There was no end to the tears it seemed. Perhaps my death hit them as hard as it hit me but they will go on… wont they?

***************************

My mom was worse everyday after the funeral and I was constantly checking on her. On May 6th things took the turn I was afraid of.

At first she tried to speak to me, “Peter! Why?... Why did you have to be there? Why were you his friend?... Why couldn’t you leave him alone?!?”

“Because Kris is my friend! He needed my help!” I knew she didn’t hear a word I had said but it was always worth trying.
“Peter… if you can hear me; I’m sorry but I can’t live anymore. Life has no meaning anymore…”

“No! Mom! Don’t!” I jumped at her trying to stop her but I went right through her. She took the whole bottle and swallowed the pills in one gulp. She turned away from me still completely unaware of my presence. “Peter… In a few hours I will join…” She stopped and I ran to her aid but couldn’t do a thing. I felt like a child trying to help my grandma stand...

“Mom!” I cried. She began to stumble but she held the corner of the wall to catch herself. She tried to walk over to the couch… she made it and started crying in either pain or sorrow. I held her hand the best a ghost could… and she actually looked directly at me. Then back down to her hands and smiled.

I stayed there with her for what seemed hours but must have only been thirty minutes. Dad got home and he looked cheerful, then he saw mom lying on the couch with a vomit like substance leaking out of her mouth. His face looked like he seen… well me. He quickly and clumsily dialed 911 and within a moment we were riding in the ambulance.

When we got to the hospital they kept assuring my dad that she was going to be fine. Going to be fine? What about next time? “I want to be with my son!” She yelled at the doctors. She yanked all of the stuff off of her and started to leave her room.

“We both want him back, but we still have each other!” My dad replied; trying to calm her. Using the words ‘each other’ as it always seemed to calm her when I was alive.

She looked at him with the worst face I had seen her bare. “Each other? No! We don’t have each other! He was all I ever had! He was what kept us together!” She screamed at him. My dad looked shocked, as did I. “But not anymore! I want to be with my son. My son is dead, and no parent should have to see the world without her son." She broke down in tears again.

"I don't want to live anymore. I can't do it. I just... cant.”
With those words the doctor signaled security and she was being restrained; as if she was crazy. I followed my mom as she was restrained to a bed, she was screaming and yelling. I ran after her as they dragged her down the hall; away from my father… I never knew how my mom felt. Without me… it seemed… my parents would be dragged apart.


Steve H.