Afterlife

'Significant Other'

"Um...Carol? Are you okay?"

It was Leo. After Evan had driven us to Leo's little tree house, his upheld home within the trees, I jumped out and hurriedly climbed up the built-in ladder on the tree. I threw open the unlocked hatched, startling a sleeping Leo, went to the room I've been living in, locked the door and hid under the covers of the bed.

I kept thinking one thing; home. Home, home, home, home, home...

But I was still here, still...'dead'. My head was hurting and throbbing and aching and it was getting harder to see with a black edge in my vision. Probably from the pounding in my head or the stress.

"Yeah, I just...want to be alone right now." I tried to keep my voice light to convey the 'alright' I felt. Evan hadn't come by (the door of course) to check on me; either he knew full well of what was going on in my mind, or he just couldn't care any less. Classic Evan, not like I expected any less; at least Leo had at showed some care.

There was a minute of silence before I heard him go away and leave the door. I got out from under the covers and leaned my head on the back of headboard from the bed; I was looking out the cut-out window, it still being the middle of the day and the leaves around the window glowing with a yellow-green color. My head was still throbbing, and my vision was still slowly failing.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on my breathing; breathe in...breathe out...breathe in...breathe out...calm...calm...you're okay, you're okay, it'll be alright...it'll be alright...

I repeated each phrase a couple of times, as well as more reassuring words to myself. I counted down from five before opening my eyes; my vision was worse, now most parts distorted and the golden leaves lost their color, looking unsaturated and dull.

I tightly shut my eyes again and held my head between my hands, biting the inside of my cheek started doing those breathing exercises again. I counted down from fifteen this time, going slower as each number reached to one; it took longer than a usual fifteen seconds. Breathe in through the nose, and out through the mouth...

When I opened my eyes this time however, it was all dark.

What the heck is this? Is this that..limbo place I was before? It...seems like it; I was slowly losing the sense of touch, barely feeling the headboard as well as the blanket on my legs. I also didn't hear any sort of noise; no beeping, no rustling of leaves, just absolute silence. I tried to take another deep breath, although I couldn't feel the air enter my lungs or the expansion of my chest from the action; afterward, I started counting down again this time from twenty down. I wasn't sure if I closed my eyes, since I couldn't feel tighten over my eyes and also since it was just a pitch, colorless black.

As I was slowly closing in on a ten, then nine, and so on, the faint sound of that mechanical hospital beeping had slowly became louder and as I was ending with a slow deliberate one, I heard one person breathing. Well...apparently it seemed I was able to come here by myself; I was sure to keep in mind the process I did ( five, fifteen, twenty). Just the thought of it calmed me slightly.

It was a while before I realized that the person was not speaking, nor made the sound of any tears or hiccups; I began to think it wasn't my mother who was here with me.

There was a muffled sound that was right next to my ear, but it was light you could hardly hear it; after a few moments of this ruffled sound, there was another noise, but it was more of someone...smelling? Was...someone smelling me?! I couldn't feel anything, but the way each noise sounded so close to my ears, I thought this person was touching and smelling my hair. That or this person was just weirdly flicking and purposefully sniffing my ears.