Hope’s Shadow
I wait in the car, my anxiety rising as we turn into a parking lot full of mothers kissing their embarrassed children farewell. Eighth grade. We step out of Nathan’s van, waving goodbye to his sister.
″ Hey, Arlo.” My best friend nudges me on the arm. We walk towards the building, It’s four-story, and steeple rising high above us. ” It’s gonna be okay. I’ll be there the whole time.” Nathan can’t help but smile at my facial expression.
″ It’s fine, I’m only moving to a new school, from the school I’ve known for my whole life, going with a bunch of new people in the middle of the year. I’ll be a-okay.” I say sarcastically. I tug on a section of my hair, a charcoal brown with streaks of a pastel mint-green.
″ Hey, at least we have the same classes.” He points out as we walk into the building. People whisper as I walk with Nathan up the stairs.
″ So, I’m hanging out with your friends...what are they like?” I ask curiously. I’ve only met one of his friends, Elijah, and he seemed chill. ” Will they like me?”
He snorted, checking his watch. ” Their gonna turn into simps once they meet you. Congrats, you’re about to meet one of your slaves.” He shouted something I didn’t fully hear, and a couple of boys waved, their hair annoyingly messy, but in a cute sort of way.
″ Hey, Nathan.” One of them is Eli and the other I don’t know. He nods at me, and we trade a handshake. The other stares at me, and I nod.
″ Sup’ Arlo.” Eli’s friend nods back. ” Arlo, this is Chris. Chris, Harlowi, but she goes by Arlo.”
″ Yo.” I give a determined smile. He looks approvingly and compliments me on my hair. Nathan winks at me as he pushes me into the seat next to another boy, who is so immersed in a notebook he doesn’t notice me until my chair squeaks against the tile. He jumps, and I feel my face grow hot.
″ Nathan, this our new recruit?” he smirks playfully. Nathan nods and sits on the other side. ” That’s Arlo. Arlo, this is Xander, the stupid one.” He winces as I stomp my thick-heeled boot on his foot. I stick my tongue out.
The boys laugh, and I remember what Nathan said as they all offer to put my bag away. The quartet has become a fivesome.
After the class begins, a boring lecture in math, I notice a wisp behind the teacher. I poke Nathan with my pencil.
″ We got a wisp,” I mutter under my breath. I wince as Xander hears me. ” Wait, you see it?” He narrows his eyes. Nathan rolls his eyes. ” She’s one of us, stupid.”
" Wow, a female Elysium." An Elysium was a kid born under the Gemini zodiac and had the ability to see ghosts. I had a rare case where I could talk and control them within my limits.
Elijah and Chris grinned. " I can talk and control them too, I'd just need my Ghost Box 21BC ..." I felt shy as they all stared at me. I stealthily grabbed my Ghost Box from my pocket, and hid it under the desk. I cooed at the wisp. It flickered, and came right next to me. We all shivered as the air around us got colder.
I turned on the box, and we all winced as it made a crackling noise that thankfully Chris covered with a fake cough.
" Hello," I whispered, holding out the device. " What's your name?"
The device's light blinked three times, then a word popped on the screen.
Hope.
"Its name is Hope," I whispered excitedly. Xander asked another question.
" Did you die here?" he asked. The wisp seemed to brighten.
Three blinks. Attic.
My heart stopped. " Did you die in the attic?" I asked, chills running down my spine. Nathan craned his head, and he and Eli covered us. The device blinked again, and three words popped up.
Fall. Wet. Accident.
My heart dropped. Poor thing.
" I'm sorry you died, Hope. Do you know why your still here?"
Blink. Blink. Blink.
Protect. Harlow.
My heart stopped. " What?" Xander demanded.
" Hope, what are you trying to protect me from?"
The three blinks were agonizingly slow. We gasped as a whole string of words popped up on the dim screen.
Three hours. Come. Violet. Save. Today. Plane.
" What?" we all tried asking the wisp more questions, but it disappeared. I wrote the words on my notepad and safely tucked the Ghost Box away. I didn't write plane. I had a suspicion, but I kept my thoughts to myself.
" Do you know what it could mean?" I asked as we packed up for the next class. We all walked up the stairs, defeated, but determined to figure out the mystery.
" Three hours. Let's start there." Me, Chris, and Xander all walked to one class while Nathan and Eli walked to their other class.
" She also said today, so it could mean she needs me to be there in three hours, wherever she meant," I commented, writing it down.
" Well, lunch is in three hours, so that means we can explore then," Chris suggested, looking at our schedule. We all sat down in the corner table and pretended our life depended on the theory of gravity.
" She also said Violet, so I'm not sure what Hope meant." I slumped in my seat. Xander hadn't said anything but was staring intently at my schedule.
" That's it!" Xander began rummaging in my bag. We both stared at him like he was crazy. He pulled out a map of the campus. " Look, the classroom right below the attic is the biology lab, and the teacher is V. Atticus. I can bet you her first name is Violet. That is where Hope wants to meet us!" We gaped as his theory made sense.
" Perfect, Xander." I was so happy I gave him and Chris a hug. We all anxiously waited for the bell to rang, then ran down the stairs to look for Nathan and Eli.
When we caught up to them, after being scolded for running in the halls, all rapidly told them our theory. They both gave us excited grins, and we all rushed up in pairs, me and Xander waiting so it wouldn't look too suspicious, and waited for Nathan to text me.
We pretended we were waiting for a teacher and sat on the floor next to a door. We both were silent, and then I noticed a small strand of Xander's hair dyed blonde.
" I like the streak." I offered, pointing. He smiled softly.
" My sister did it. Before she passed away. " I felt my face grow hot with embarrassment.
" I'm so sorry." Usually, I'm not a very soft-hearted and compassionate person, but I felt my heart go out to him. So I did it.
I grabbed his hand and squeezed it.
He looked for a moment, and squeezed back. So we stayed like that, our fingers barely linked, just a peaceful moment between two people who had only met today.
Then, my phone dinged. We were ready.
We ran up the stairs, and joined them in Ms. Atticus's room. The lights were on and the windows let in light. Ghosts aren't stronger t night. It's a common myth.
We locked the door, and we all sat at the desk, setting up my Ghost Box and a Voice Transmitter, that let Hope speak if she could harness the energy from it.
" Hope?" I immediately felt the room grow colder but in a comforting sort of way. We all saw a wisp appear in front of the window. We all waved hello. I held out the two devices.
" Hope, can you try speaking in this?" The wisp flickered a couple of times, then a message popped on the Ghost Box.
Sorry. Not. Strong.
" That's okay. Now, what are you trying to protect me from?" I asked, all of us holding our breaths.
Shadow. Memory. Flight. Down. Twelve.
"What the heck?" Nathan asked. I felt sick. I knew what she was talking about.
" Hope, north or south?" I demanded. My friends looked scared as the lights flickered.
South. Careful.
I looked at the clock. The minute struck the fifty.
" Guys, no time to explain. When I say go, we're gonna jump."
I opened the window. The wisp disappeared with one final word beeping.
Steady. Steady. Steady. Steady. Steady. Steady.
My friends looked at me as if I was insane. Then Xander grabbed my hand.
" Ready when you are." I waited and heard a loud buzzing noise from outside. I heard the alarms go off. My friends linked arms.
The minute clock struck the twelve. We jumped.
" Hope! Now!" I screamed. I concentrated on the ground above us. We all screamed as the building seemed to rip in half. Debris hit us, and then everything went dark.
******
When we woke up, we were all dazed, laying on the floor. Strangely, none of us were harmed except me. I had a cut on my forehead dripping blood in my eye.
" Why...how?" Nathan stumbled to his feet. We were tangled in a huge sheet of black.
It was a huge black parachute that had broken our fall.
Shadow Flights was written on the small, classroom-sized commercial jet that had crashed into the school.
" Thank you Hope," I whispered as the wisp flickered next to me. I heard a tinkling laugh, and it disappeared. Later, we never saw it again. I hadn't told them that I kept having dreams of a plane crash. But maybe that would be for later.
It was cool to save the day for once. It was nice holding hands with Xander as we walked to the police cars entering the campus. It was even better to give Nathan a big hug.
Maybe, I thought as the principal announced that the school would continue at the learning center down the street, eighth grade won't be so bad.
Death
How long had He walked the Earth?
Aeons? He didn't know anymore.
Nature never minded His presence. After all, He was part of the Circle of Life. Mankind, however, detested him. They tried everything to evade him, to no avail. Some called Him an Angel, some called Him the Grim Reaper.
How foolish to think that a being like Him would bear any semblance to man.
He wasn't the darkness mankind portrayed him to be, neither was he the bright light the dying claimed to see. He was incorporeal.
He mourned for every being he took from and bore the burden of guilt and sorrow.
He was the first being to walk the earth, and the last.
Now, He lay at the base of the Tree of Life and took his time to appreciate the tranquillity and beauty of the moment.
He admired the majestic stars that dotted the night sky, the pearlescent moon that now seemed so close and savoured the feeling of the soft, damp earth around him for the last time. He bid the celestial bodies goodbye and slept.
His life of loneliness, grief and yearning had come to an end. He was finally released from his grievous task.
one of us has to die
One of us has to die. That's what he said on the phone. If we wanted our children back, one of us would have to kill the other.
It was my fault for meddling in his life and calling him out on his grave mistake. It was my fault for naming him a criminal and threatening to take this to the police. It was my fault for following up on my threat. And now, it was my fault for putting my family in danger.
I bury my head into my hands. It was my fault. It was my fault. It was my fault. No matter what happens, someone in this family is going to die tonight, whether it was my husband, my children, or me.
I pick up the gun he left for us and shoved it in my husband's hand, forcefully wrapping his finger around the trigger. I point the gun straight at my heart without hesitating.
"Shoot me."
Fear shines in his eyes, the sea-blue eyes I fell for years ago. I wasn't going to be able to see them anymore. His hand visibly trembles as he slowly pushes the trigger back.
He stops, a tear trickling down his cheek. "I can't do this, Kayla. I can't hurt you."
I take a deep breath, trying to ignore the pounding of my heart as my voice shivers on my next words. "Do you have any better idea?"
He purses his lips, the rosy lips I have kissed every day since we first started dating. I wasn't going to be able to do that anymore. His eyes widen, and somehow I know inside that neither of us is going to like his idea.
"Well," my husband stammers, "What if we...um...don't want our...um...children back?" He says it more like a question than a statement.
He doesn't believe in it. We have lived our years. Our children, aged 3 and 7, were so young. They have the entire world left to explore. They have so much time left to live. It isn't fair to take that away from them because of my mistake.
No. It has to be one of us. I think and think and think and make my final decision.
I grab the gun from my husband's hand and take it into my own, pointing it at his forehead. He looks shocked, a sliver of worry showing in his eyes.
"Honey, please listen to me," I say, trying to convince myself this was the right thing to do. "This mess is all my fault. We both know that. It is true one of us is going to die tonight, but it's going to be harder for the person who is alive.
They will have to go through the pain of knowing that they were the cause of their spouse's death. They will have to go through the pain of keeping this secret as our children grow. They will have to go through the pain of eventually telling our children this, knowing very well that our children could betray them. That is pain beyond death, and it is unfair for you to be the one facing this pain while I, who made the mistake in the first place, happily rest in heaven. I'm sorry, sweetie."
And I pull the trigger.
Adoption really does change lives.
You may say it was just my present parents who changed my life, but I say it was God. My biological parents didn't care for me. Hey, I didn't even care for me because I didn't know who I was. God helped my foster family find me. God guided me to them. I even got a few extra siblings through it. But most of all, I got myself. I knew who I was and I loved me. I knew who my parents were and I love(d) them. If I hadn't been adopted I wouldn't be alive today. God has been at work in my life. Thank you God.
