Life After Death

Chapter 11

"Relax," he said, "it's going to be okay," he said.

But would it? Would it really?

All my sixteen years on earth seemed like a waste. Like I was being pushed to a specific direction. Journalist or lawyer, depending on what my mother thought suited me best. But somehow, I always knew that I wanted to become a dancer. I never expected something like this - dying - to ruin everything.

Dying caused me to lose my family and friends.

It was his fault. He was Death. He took everything I knew and loved away from me. It was his fault.

Rage coursed through me. I wanted to punch something. I wanted to scream. The burning anger that pulsed through me reached its point.

I glared at Roman. "News flash, Bozo. Never tell a girl to relax. It only makes us madder."

I stormed to the front door. A darkness clouding my mind.

"It's not my fault, Meredith." Roman stopped me. "I didn't cause... all of this."

He read my mind. "Can you not invade my mind with your freaky power?"

He flinched.

I arched a brow. "Yeah, that's right. I know. You told me only ghosts can have powers. Ghosts are monsters. Evil, horrible things. You have powers. That makes you one, too." He let go of my arm. "Oh, did I hit a nerve? Well, too bad." My hair whipped against his face as I turned around sharply and left the lake house.

Roman didn't follow after me.

I waited for the guilt to settle in but it didn't. Only anger resided in me. I wanted to expel it. And the only way to do that is through payback. Revenge. I smiled at the thought of David getting what he deserved. Of Amy and Nathaniel, sneaking around; they deserved their douse of payback too.

They'd get what's coming to them.

***

Halfway down the secluded street and I realized that I was alone in an empty street, in the middle of the night, where ghosts would be lurking.

Maybe I didn't think about this thorough enough.

I turned off to the road that led to the abandoned dance studio, and began to run. I felt as though something was chasing me. I stuck to the streetlight beaming down on me. The sound of my sneakers slapping the tar road reverberated through the empty street. Owls booted in the distance. Everything felt eerie.

I came into town square and thanked whomever was up there that it was Christmas. In the middle of town was a big tree lit up with thousands of multicolored twinkling lights - red, green, yellow and repeat.

The sound of sleigh bells rang. A man dressed in a Santa Claus costume was standing on the pavement holding out a plastic container as pedestrians passed by handing him change.

There was too much people, too much light, to much life. No ghost would attack now, right?

I stopped running, looking around. The stars were tiny pinpoints in the sky, beaming down on me. The light from the lit tree glowed throughout town square. People were in a hustle and bustle as they hurried doing their last minute Christmas shopping.

I sat down on an empty bench and slumped. I remember when Mom dragged me to do last minute Christmas shopping with her last year...

"Grab a jacket and let's go, M." Mom had yelled from the front door. I had quickly grabbed the jacket on the hook, slipped it on and realised that it was Nathaniel's. But it was too late. Mom was dragging me toward the minivan.