Where it All Began

Where it All Started

 It was Saturday, Mariella Andrews was walking back from her part time job. She helped out at the local florist in the inconspicuous, seaside town, Brielle New Jersey. It wasn't exactly a big town, but it wasn't a tiny town either. There was nothing special about it. It had its beaches and the sea, and that was it.

 Mariella Andrews was a junior in high school, upcoming senior in a few months. Her father had died three years ago in a car crash and her mother was always busy working as a lawyer at the firm. She was an independent person. One that always had the best grades and excelled in anything she did. She cooked, she cleaned, she worked at her job and did her school work. She was a model student that the teachers bragged about. 

 Mariella was driving, it was around four in the afternoon, and she was contemplating on what to eat for dinner. Mom wouldn't be home in time to eat, so she was thinking of something simple. She turned onto a street, distracted until she saw a little kid dart out of nowhere. She stomped on the breaks and tried to swerve out of the way. Everything blurred and then she had one of those out-of-body experiences.

 She was an onlooker, but she was also a part of the wreck. Her car had flipped over in a ditch. She saw and felt herself hanging upside down, suspended by the seat belt and the airbag burning her. The windows looked like an intricate spiderweb. A drop of blood fell from Mariella's temple, and she felt the sting of the cut. She couldn't move, even if she tried. She had no control of her body now.

 There were screams and she looked over to see a small body lying in the middle of the road. She must have still clipped the little girl. She wasn't moving and if she could, Mariella would have paled. Blood pooled underneath the child on the rough asphalt and the cries of the ambulance and seagulls mixed together. Mariella was helpless as she watched the medics arrive.

 A woman -probably the child's mother was sobbing and screaming in the language of the living. It seemed that Mariella's spiritual ears couldn't understand living people anymore. Which meant she must be dead. But she could hear her own slow heartbeat. She was still alive. When the medics got t her, she felt them trying to get her down, heard them trying to get a response from her. Mariella's body was already dying, and her silver eyes were just staring at something in the distance.

 Her spirit walked side by side with her still breathing body to the ambulance. She had airbag burns up and down her arms, a long, deep cut on her face, and what looked to be a broken leg. Glass littered her golden hair, and many cuts were all over her porcelain skin. Mariella looked like a beat up doll that was about to be thrown away for being broken. She could only stand beside herself.

 In her mind, she knew she should be freaking out, should be screaming for some kind of explanations. All she could really manage to feel was acceptance. She wasn't really in to fantasy or spiritual books, or fiction in general. She thought it was just a waste of her time. That's how she thought that if she were freaking out, it would be a waste of her energy. Mariella could already predict that she was half dead, just waiting for the final blow.

 Did that little girl go through this? The question made Mariella want to be sick. She couldn't even think about hitting someone, much less running them over, even by accident. The thought that she did something like that was throwing her into shock.

 The inside of the ambulance was cold. People were putting IVs and a breathing mask on Mariella. There was a flurry of words that she couldn't understand as the medics just kept on working on her.

 This really put a downer on her day.

 It had taken forever, but Mariella's mother finally arrived and didn't seem to really react at the sight if her daughter in the emergency hospital room. Mariella's spirit just watched as she was talking to doctors. They both looked similar, same dark hair and green eyes but that's where it ended. Her mother had more of a rounder face while the other had a more oval shaped one. Mariella had a more defined face that stood out in a crowd, while her mother was different. Those were from her father.

 The room was small, her bed in the middle, the machines on one side, the computer on the other, and two sitting chairs near the door.

 But her mother did shed a tear, didn't look distraught or worried. In fact, she looked... composed. She wasn't near tears or anything. And then they came. It was the family of the little girl. They were the ones that were crying. The mother was tall, her posture drooping with stress and grief. Her hair was golden blonde but was quickly losing its luster and her hazel eyes were dying just like the daughter she had lost. Fresh wrinkles were forming on her face as Mariella's mother spoke to her.

 "I am so sorry for your loss," she said, Mariella surprise she could understand. "I'm sure that if my daughter was awake, she would apologize for her reckless driving."

 He'd words cut through Mariella like a knife. Her own mother was putting the blame all on her. She couldn't understand any more words after that, and she didn't really want to. Yes, she blamed herself, but to have her mother of all people say it out loud was like a slap to the face. She was her own family after all. She couldn't even spare her daughter a single tear but was placing a comforting arm around the woman who was the mother of the child Mariella had just run over.

 It made her sick. 

 Mariella's mother had become depressed when her husband had passed away. She wouldn't eat and just slept the days through. She didn't respond to Mariella's attempts at comforting her. And then suddenly she was better. She started going to work and eating, but she was distant. The conversations she had with her daughter were usually short and disinterested. She had poured everything she had into her work band left none to spare with the daughter she had that was waiting in the big, empty house at home.

 All she could really do was stand by her own sleeping form and wait for her to die.

 It wasn't really anything she was sad about. Her life held no meaning or worth. Mariella had never done anything that was worth something to her. Academics, clubs, classmates were mall empty. She never had any real friends to hang out with, an empty house where no one ever entered. Mariella Andrews was an empty person that didn't ever feel anything. Going throughout the days as a distant, unapproachable person.

 So she didn't really mourn life but welcomed her death.

 But it never came.   

 Harrison couldn't believe it. He just couldn't believe that his little sister was dead. She was just fine when he left this morning. She had been smiling and waving at him. When he got the call on his cellphone from his mom, he drove to the hospital as fast as he could and ran through the white sterile halls. His heart was beating double time, as if it could beat for him and his sister.

 His mother was sitting in a chair next to a lady in a business suit that was comforting her. She seemed to have been crying before and started to calm down but when she laid eyes on her son, she burst into more tears and got up to hug him. He felt his own eyes well up with tears that wouldn't spill. Not in front of his mom, but he returned her hug for all it was worth.

 The lady that had been comforting her just sat there and watched the scene take place. She was in a black business suit, her dark hair clipped in a professional bun and glasses that hid her light green eyes. Her heels were off her feet and stood by the chair. Who was she?

 "Harrison, this is Ms. Andrews. Her daughter was the one that was driving when..." she sobbed and he rocked her, trying to soothe his mother.

 He looked over he shoulder and asked, "Is your daughter alright?"

 The woman nodded and gestured inside the hospital room where he could only see the edge of the bed from where he stood. "She's fine. She's been unconscious since the wreck."

 Harrison didn't see how that was "fine" but he let go of his mother to peeked inside the room. It shocked him to see Mariella Andrews laying in the hospital bed. She had bandages all over her face and IVs coming out of her arms, but he could tell who it was. Mariella went to his school and of course he knew her. She was all the teachers ever talked about in his classes. She was the one that everyone asked for help when they needed it. She was the one that was perfect at everything she did.

 She was the one that Harrison has had a crush on ever since his eyes met hers.

 She's the one that had ran over his baby sister.

 And she was not waking up.

 They stayed at the hospital to file out paperwork and Ms. Andrews stayed to see if her daughter would wake up. The doctor said that everything looked fine, but they still had to wait and see for any head trauma. Eventually, her phone rang and she had to leave for her job.

 Harrison found it kind of cold hearted to leave her daughter after what had just happened, but it wasn't any if his business. He filled out everything he could for his mother because she looked like she was dead on here feet. She ended up passing out at some point from all the stress and even she herself had to be admitted into the hospital. 

 He couldn't believe it. In less than twenty-four hours, his life had completely changed. His little sister was dead.

 His little sister was dead.

 His little sister was dead.

 No matter how many times he repeated it in his head, he denied it. Ashley was like the sun, full of life and always shining. The sun was always there, even hidden underneath the clouds. The sun couldn't just die. Just yesterday, she was asking Harrison if he was taking her to the playground tomorrow. They should be playing at the playground together right now.

 Harrison felt the sting of tears gathering up, and yet, he still didn't let them fall.

 He didn't known what to do. His mother had to be sedated to calm down and was now resting on a hospital bed and he didn't want to go home. Not where Ashley had been. So he went to Mariella's room.

 She was just as she was before. Lifeless, asleep, dead to the world. Harrison couldn't muster up the feelings to hate her. She never seemed mean at school, always doing what was asked of her and was a nice person. Underneath the mask she has for everyone at school, she looks sad. He knew that because he actually went to the flower shop where worked at. No one was there, and she was staring at some flowers, just a sad, lonely expression on her face. Then he walked in and she was as happy as always.

 Maybe that was why Harrison liked her. She was strong enough to put on that mask and fool everyone, but he just wanted to be the one that she went to when she took it off.

 As he was staring at her and thinking of all this, he saw something shimmer out of the corner of his eye. He turned his head and saw Mariella... standing next to unconscious Mariella. And she was looking at him.

 Harrison blinked and then she was gone. Until he saw her sitting next to him on other chair. She was staring at him, her bright green eyes expressionless and gave nothing away. He couldn't breathe,his heart stopping. He looked back over at the hospital bed and saw Mariella sleeping just like she was before.

 This Mariella didn't have any bandages or cuts on her face and she seemed lighter, like a ghost. Hell, maybe she was a ghost but he couldn't see through her.

 Just as the thought passes his head, he sees her reach out her small hand as if to touch him and he has a brief feeling of warmth before her hand quietly passes through his arm. Despite the warmth of her ghostly touch, he got goosebumps from the fear he felt at seeing a hallucination like this. He rubbed his arm to get them to go away. That's what it was. Grief induced hallucination. Harrison didn't count on the fact that hallucinations talked too.

 "Hmm... so it seems you really can see me," she said, methodically.

 Harrison was going crazy.