Once and Forever

Chapter 1; After Life

I would have been eighteen in two weeks, but now I'm dead. Lying in that burning barn, alone waiting for somebody to get me out.

I watch the fire around my body, dancing and growing bigger. Suddenly a spark in a form of a new-born bird escapes the fire and flaps his tiny wings as hard as he can. The cute cubby bird was still learning to use his little wings. Not being able to keep himself steady, he swayed a bit in the air. Even thou he is born from the read spark made by the majestic fire, he has a beautiful aquamarine colour and a light following his every move. His little wings could not carry him any further, so he lets himself fall right into the heart of my body. Sadly the blue light vanishes with his existence.

After a few seconds my body starts to glow the bright blue colour having absorbed the little birds spirit and letting him live in my spirit. I see how the blue glow of my body separates itself from it, like lifting a foulard pinched in the middle. As soon as it disengages itself, the light glow gathers itself into an orb. It has a faint pulse that quickens fast. Suddenly it exploded and out of it arises a phoenix. His wings spread out, burning blue. Flapping his wings he flew around in high speed. Struck by his beauty I cannot take my eyes of this beautiful spirit.

Is this me? Am I the phoenix? It makes no sense. I have never researched this species nor have I ever had an interest in it. Why would it be me?

His burning body does not cease to burn making it an infinite aquamarine-blue fire. At the sight of the powerful majestic bird encircling me I gasped. I feel how slowly two wonderful shaped burning wings start to grow on my back. They look just like the Phoenix's and burn without turning to ashes. I'm walking to my body with my fire wings spread out and said goodbye to my old life.

I feel relieve. Dying in cause of saving my best friends was a good reason to move on.

With that realisation my wings start to beat and I fly through the fire and the roof, high up into the dark blue sky. I see the fire trucks coming in the distant and my friends in front of the barn screaming and trying to find a way to get me out.

Seeing them slowed me down. How could I leave them behind? They need me. I let my wings guide me down to earth. I stumble around at first, till my wings get my weight right and I can walk around like a normal human being. Hopefully I get better with my landings. I fold in my wings and they vanish in my back without hurting me.

The fire trucks finally arrive and ten firefighters rush with water hose and gas masks to the barn. First they quench the fire and then five men enter. Their search for me takes a lot of time. When they finally find me, buried under wood and ash they dig me up and carry my body outside. Everybody knows that I'm dead, but my friends didn't want to believe it. They run to my body and try to wake me with no success. I walk to them and put my hand on each' back and cry with them. I'm going to miss them so much.

"I'm staying here, don't worry. You didn't loose me." I say to them even tough I know they can't hear me. The paramedics separate my body and my best friends by putting us into different ambulances. I follow them and sit next to them. It's sad that they can't see me. That they can't hear me. If only I could tell them that they did not lose me.

Days have passed I'm still here, watching over them. It gets a bit lonely sometimes. And sometimes I even forget that they can't hear me. I try to sooth them. I don't like seeing my best friends unhappy. We always made each other smile when we noticed someone wasn't feeling well. We supported each other. It was our Mantra. We survived so that meant we should live. We should live at the fullest and that's what we did. Only now they seem to have forgotten our promise to each other. They have forgotten our Mantra.

It's true what they say. Time does help. Weeks have passed and so did my funeral. I never thought the dead could attend their own funeral. It was a heart warming and heart breaking ceremony at the same time. My friends and I talked a lot about death and what would come after it. Having seen your parents murdered in cold blood makes you see the world differently. We did not avoid the topic nor did we fear it. We knew we would be reunited with our parents when we died. And because of that we talked about how we would like to be buried and other serious topics. I like that my best friends kept their word and made it exactly how I like it.

There aren't many people present, making it more intimate. With only eight people attending everyone stood around the now filled hole. The ceremony is almost finished and the people started to seep out. There are only two left. They both are dressed in black dresses and black tights. The one to the right has blonde hair which is tied up at the moment into a beautiful hairdo. Her name is Caroline. The one to the left has left her black hair free. They almost reach her bottom. That's Florence. They both hold a white lily in their hand, ready to put onto my grave. Caroline's green eyes could not stop crying whereas Florence has not shed a single tear the whole morning. They are like night and day and that's what I love about them. They are my anchor to this world, they are the whole reason why I stayed.