Afterlife pt 3 edited
All the T's and C's apply
Just like that we were outside my old bedroom window, looking in. My parents we sitting on my bed and my dad was holding my mom in his arms. Rubbing her shoulder and both were looking down at a picture. Then I noticed the TV was on. The video that I made of that scavenger hunt we did was playing in the background.
I walked through the wall and noticed Ethan was nowhere to be found. He understood I needed a moment alone. I sat down right next to them and was just looking down at the picture. It was one of the many trips that my family and I had gone on. This just happened to be the one of us going to the snow. I remembered that moment clear as day.
It was right around my Christmas break and my dad got home from one of his business trips. He surprised us with a trip to the Rockies in Colorado. We went on a ski trip. The picture was from the lodge. All three of us were sitting on the couch and gentlemen dressed in white walked by and asked if we wanted to take a picture. We told him yes and handed him our camera. He inspected the camera and then aimed the lens at us.
We all had a cup of hot chocolate with us so we raised our glass just as he snapped the first picture and then he took a couple more just to make sure he got a good shot. Then he handed us back the camera and took off on his way. There was just something about him that I could not put my finger on. He just seemed to be there at the right moment to capture us at the happiest point of the entire trip then just vanished like a ghost.
My mind went back to where I was when I heard some muffled crying coming from my mom. I tried to put my hand on her back to comfort her but it just went straight through her body. I got up from where I sat and stood in front of them. Not a word was spoken up until this moment. My dad said, "Let it out and do not hold anything back. He was a great kid and none of this was your fault. We raised him with a good heart and he helped those in need."
"I just miss him so much. I wish he was still with us," my mom said. A couple more tears came rolling down her cheek and landing on the floor. With every drop, I felt my heart string vibrate. It hurt a like a thousand knives cutting me up deep inside. The pain echoed through my being then I heard it. It was faint and if you were not paying attention you would have missed it. It was a very shallow but painful heart beat from inside my chest. It brought me down to my knees. I grabbed my chest
Right before Ethan reappeared in front of me, my dad said something that confused me. He said to me mom, "Let's go visit him. I am sure he would like to see us." At first I thought they meant my grave site but then I started thinking that maybe they meant someone else. It could have been Damien's dad. I pushed that to back of my mind as Ethan was now with me inside my room. My parents left.
Ethan spoke," I remember my room and my family. It was interesting that the people we really care about can bring us back to life. Did you feel it?"
"Yeah, I felt it, how did that happen?" I asked him.
"That is the power of Love. It knows no boundaries and has no limits from time and space. True love is a powerful and mystical thing that even the greatest minds can never figure out completely," Ethan told me. "It just shows that you are and still loved and that your heart still beats for the ones you love."
"True love, huh? Then that is what people mean by unconditional love. A love that stretches beyond time itself like Romeo and Juliet's love in Shakespeare's famous play," I told him with a sense of completeness.
"Yes but you and Damien's love is on that same level," Ethan told me as we started leaving my room. "We have met before. I meet all my friends before I meet them in the afterlife. It is just to see what is truly inside them."
I paused for a moment and then it hit me. He was the guy in white from the ski lodge that weekend. "You were the guy who took our picture, I think."
Ethan did not say a word but he did have a grin on his face. We reached the next entranceway. There was not a door just a mirror it was in a room with no exits. I looked around and Ethan did his famous disappearing act. I walked up to the mirror and looked inside. Strangely enough, my reflection was not looking back at me. There was a room that looked exactly the same reflecting back. Someone was looking around and then the person noticed me looking through the mirror.
The other person came running straight towards the mirror. He was going to slam into the mirror. He dove right into the mirror. I shielded my eyes just in case he shattered my mirror as well. The mirror did shatter around me and I felt one or two pieces pierce my skin a little. Then I was tackled by the person that came through the mirror.
We both crashed down to the floor. He landed right on top of me but he was in a blind fury. He started punching me. One to the ribs and one to cheek, then I heard his voice yelling, "Why did you do this to us? You could have ran away?"
"What?" I said finally being able to get my breath and my arms were not protecting myself. He slowly started to stop punching me and then I felt a couple of tears land on my face since he was now staring back at me. It was my reflection looking back at me.
My legs finally got a good enough grip on him and flipped him so I was now on top. "What, you would not want me to run away from my lover? You would have done the same thing that I did." I was not going to leave him there."
"What about our life? Was it worth just throwing away everything that we have done to this point?" my reflection asked me. I started feeling his anger start to subside but replaced with fear.
"I did not care about my life. I was going to protect the ones that I love to the end of time and I did just that," I said back to him.
I did not notice that his feet were in position to flip me and soon I was now flipped onto my back. "You had it all, friends and family that supported you. You could have found another lover," he said to me.
"There was no other lover for me. Damien was my everything and I was going to risk it all for that love that we had. Yes it might have ended in tragedy but I know deep down in my heart that I was there for him till the very end!" I screamed back at him.
"Good, it was worth it then. I saw everything but I still have one more question for you," he told me.
"Yeah, what is that?" I asked back trying to get my composure back.
He finally got off me and his hand was extended to help me off the ground. I took his hand and he pulled me up. I dusted myself off and he did the same. "My question to you is this, do you feel the same way and willing to do it all over again if need be."
"Yes," I told him. I did not even hesitate to think of that answer.
"Then just remember to think of everyone and think things out the second time around. Remember it is not always about you, there are other people in this equation called life. No more rushing head first into things my friend. I will be watching you very closely next time you look in the mirror. We are one but on this side there are other things that need to happen before we left our respected worlds. Just remember that ok," he told me and started walking back towards the shattered mirror.
"Thanks and sorry for all the mess, hopefully that world of yours does not fall apart without you. I will make it right, I promise you that," I told him before he started stepping on the shattered mirror pieces.
"No need to thank me just think, See you when you come back to life," he said and then the shattered pieces started recreating the mirror. Within seconds the mirror was a whole again. I walked over to the mirror and saw that he was walking away towards a door that was directly behind me.
I turn around and did the same thing. I reached the wall and felt where a door handle would be. I heard a click when I pushed in the wall and soon the door start to slide away. Ethan was standing there with a smile on his face, like he knew I would pass this test too.
"You never did answer my question before I went into the challenge. Was that you at the ski lodge?" I asked again. He still did not say anything.
"You're not going to tell me are you," I asked him. He just nodded his head and I had my answer. "Does it matter if it was me or not?"
"I guess not really but it makes sense that I always thought I had some guardian angel or something like you watching over me," I told him.
"That is a great way of thinking about it. I do not believe in coincidences only inevitability," Ethan told me.
"Where are we going?" I asked curiously.
"Just for a little walk," he told me all mysteriously.
We walked for a few more moments in silence before we came across a crossroad path. "Is this my next choice?"
"Something like that, each path will lead you back to your life but from a different time line than the one you were walking. These three roads will be most likely close enough to the timeline you were on before you and Damien got killed. I must warn you though that there will be some changes in what has happened and you can only choose one path," he told me and waited for me to comprehend.
"Can I ask you what the differences are between the three?" I asked back.
"That is a great question; I see that your reflection knocked some sense into you. All paths you live and I can tell you that right now. One path will lead you back to fight and you survive with Damien and kill Logan with ease. That was the path most of us were hoping would happen. Another paths let's you pass the whole event and something else will happen down the road. The last one will be a path that changes your world as in the only path that Logan does not exist in.
"If Logan did not exist, then how would that change everything," I asked confused.
"I cannot tell you that one. It was a path that was not chosen but it did exist that you and Logan never dated. I cannot tell you were you ended up and how Damien and you met. If you choose that path you will find out what happens as you walk along that path. No matter which path you choose, the memoires of that Zach will be imprinted into your mind so once you reach the end of that path you will know everything that will go on," Ethan told me.
"Would I remember you and everything that happened in my past life," I asked back.
"Yes and no, you will not remember anything that happened after you died in this timeline. The memories of your past life will be nothing more than a distant dream or that is what people have told me when I see them again down the road," Ethan told me.
"Then how would I know who you are and all that stuff after you meet," I asked. I was now really confused. He was talking in circles or at least that is how I felt.
"It's just like you told me, how you felt like there was a guardian angel watching over you. That is how you will know and most likely I will appear in a dream or something like that," Ethan said and started walking away.
"Wait, you are not going with me. I have a lot more questions to ask," I said felling a little sorry that we only just met and now he had to go.
"I would love to but I need to go back to my own timeline and take care of things there. By the way, Zach, I met you in my timeline and trust me you're just as friendly and cute as you are in this one," Ethan told me and continued to walk on.
"How do I know which path leads to the one that I want," I yelled towards him.
"That is the thing about life, it will always lead you where you need to be. Just close your eyes and let your heart guide you to the path that you want," Ethan told me then vanished for the last time.
Meanwhile back in this timeline, we are brought back to a hospital room. We see my mom and dad and Damien's dad around a bed. There is a body of a young man just laying there. He is hooked up to some of the breathing machines and you can hear the beeps and whizzing of the machines as it helps the young man breath.
Damien's dad is holding the hand of the young adult and his head on the chest. My mom and dad where just talking to Damien's dad, it was more along the lines of consoling him. They were telling him that everything will be ok and that he will wake up soon.
Just then the young man's eyes finally opened after three days of being in a coma. He looked around and noticed no Zach. He opened his mouth to speak and ask, "Where's Zach?"
Hey guys, sorry for the shortness of this chapter. I believe I will be ending this arc here shortly and going back to the original story. I did have fun writing this story arc and it did something that I enjoyed. I connected my first book called "The Fallen" to this series and I might do that with my other series Connor here shortly.
Anyway, I want to hear from you guys. Let me know which path Zach should choose. Once I get enough of your guys email, I will conclude this arc and tell you which path was chosen. As always hit me up at joshmisses@yahoo.com or at my website samuelstories.wordpress.com