Departure

A young man waiting for a train runs into someone who knows something he doesn't. Can you figure out what's going on?

I was sitting on a bench in a spotlessly clean train station, waiting for my train to arrive. Sitting still was a difficulty for me; my lower back was really giving me trouble, and no amount of adjustment provided relief. I must have slept in an odd position or something. I stood up and began rotating my torso around fruitlessly for a few moments before I heard it.

“KEVIN ARMANDO REYNOLDS!” I jumped. I only divulged my horrendous middle name to my closest friends; certainly not anyone I would run into here. I turned around, and saw an unfamiliar girl walk over and sit down on the bench beside me. Nobody else seemed to notice her, and she had eyes only for me.
“Listen, I don’t mean to be rude,” I said. Before I could add “But I don’t seem to know who you are at all,” her eyes widened.
“Oh my god, you answered me!” This perplexed me.
“Uh, yeah. I did.”
“Holy hell. I can’t believe this. This is unbelievable. I guess I said that already.” She was talking very fast, seemingly to herself, and I was left to stare with one eyebrow raised.
“I... I don’t understand.”
“Of course you don’t. The old man told me that might happen. I guess we’ll have to start from the beginning. We don’t have much time.” I disregarded this and started simple.
“Could you just tell me who you are?” I was a little annoyed. I had a very important train to catch, and this odd meeting was already getting on my nerves. However, this strange girl knew my middle name, and it seemed prudent to at least find out who she was.
“That’s rather sad,” she said genuinely. “I hoped you might remember my voice. I guess we have a long way to go.” I sat, trying to decipher what this meant. I was unable to form a response before she continued.
“It’s Francine. Ring any bells?” The weird thing was, it actually did. I had the vaguest memory of a pair of shoes, with the laces tied together, flying upward through the air. I couldn’t connect the memory to the name, but words began to escape me involuntarily.
“Did you ever get your shoes back?” I had no reason to think the shoes belonged to her, or if the shoes and the tree were even a real memory. Wait, a tree? Where did that come from?
“You do remember! Oh, that’s fantastic! That’s a good start. A great start, even. This might work after all.”
“What are you talking about, Francine? What might work?”
“Just trust me. How much did you remember just now?”

“A pair of shoes, and that’s--” The flood of memory was so sudden and vivid that I felt as though I were living it for the first time.

I was at the foot of the tree, looking almost straight upwards at the top, where a pair of converse sneakers was dangling by its connected shoelaces. A girl was standing a few feet away, with one hand on her hip and the other shielding her eyes from the sun. “D****t. That was my last pair of shoes,” grumbled Francine. Somebody laughed behind me. I wanted to turn around to look, but I had no control over my body. This bothered me immensely, but I couldn’t say why. I heard bicycles chains, and guessed there were three or four boys riding away. We faced the tree, which stood solitary in the middle of an expanse of grassy hills and exposed rocks.
The girl turned to face me, looking more exhausted than anything. She was definitely the same girl from the train station; her red hair and freckles were identical. I sensed that we had been friends a long time before that moment.

It was as though I awoke from a dream. My eyes snapped open again and I was back at the train station.

“What the hell is going on?” I said waveringly.
“What did you see?” She bounced up and down on the bench. She was smiling excitedly, her eyes alight.
“We were standing in front of a tree, in a field, and some boys were riding their bikes away. You looked at me, and then I sort of woke up. Seriously, Francine, what is going on? How do I know you? How am I seeing all this?”
“Just be patient, we’re making progress. What comes next? It might help if you close your eyes. Can you do that? Are you capable? I mean... do you even have those? Eyes?”

“Of course I have eyes!”

“Then do it already!”

Shaking my head in exasperation, I allowed my eyelids to close, imagining the dangling shoes, and when I opened them, I was back in the field. “Those jerks.” I heard myself say. I must have said it in the past; I was simply an observer now. Even though I had no control over my movements, I could still feel the chill breeze beneath my shirt and the tall grass tickling my ankles. “They didn’t need to do that. No provocation.” I was mumbling, more to myself than Francine, but she nodded.
“It’s okay, I don’t live far from here anyway.” She sounded tired, as though this was hardly the first time she had been harassed by the boys. “My mom is going to flip when she finds out I need new shoes again, though.” I felt very bad for Francine, and a crazy idea formed in my head, completely without my input.
“I’ll go up and get them for you,” I said reassuringly, and she broke out in a huge grin, the same one I had seen just moments before on the bench.
“Will you really?” She seemed truly overjoyed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. I nodded. “Just don’t hurt yourself, okay?”
“Don’t worry, I climb trees all the time.” I approached the hulking mass of bark and jumped to reach the lowest branch. I pulled myself up and stood on it, already surrounded by the leaves, aflame with the changing season. After that, the branches were so dense I practically climbed them like a ladder. I had no control over my ascent; my body moved without my command, but I could feel the bark beneath my palms and the leaves drag across my face and arms.

I emerged once more into reality. The stark, sterile surfaces of the platform replaced the rolling waves of heather, and it took me a moment or two to clear my head. “Francine, what’s happening to me?”

“I know, I know, this must be crazy for you.”

“Just a little bit,” I spat. “Now tell me what just happened.” It was a demand.

“I can’t, I’m sorry. Just try one more time, I can tell we’re close. I think you moved just now.” She was getting excited again.

“What?” I nearly shouted in disbelief. This made no sense at all. “I refuse. I won’t do anything more until you tell me what the hell is happening.”

“No, Kevin. I can’t. I wish I could. You’re just wasting time. Don’t you ever want to come back?” I froze. Of all the strange things I had heard while sitting on that bench, this was the most unsettling.

“What are you talking about? Come back to where?”

“I’ll say this one last time:” She stood up and emphasized the next four syllables. “I. CAN’T. TELL. YOU. Just close your eyes again, it’s almost over.” She began to pace impatiently. I realized that continuing to deny her was a losing battle, so I squeezed my eyes shut for what I hoped would be the last time.

The air was colder than when I started, but I was nearly to the top of the tree. I could see the fading light splashing across the shoes as they swayed above me. The branches were getting narrower, and as I felt myself climb upwards, the branches bent alarmingly. “Please, it’s not worth it, just come down.” Francine called nervously. “They’re just shoes! Please, don’t try to get them. Come back down where it’s safe.” I was so very close to retrieving them, and turning back now would just be a waste. I wanted to explain this to her, but my surroundings were so delicate that I imagined even shouting back would cause the wood beneath me to collapse.

I was within inches of the sneakers by that point. I outstretched my hand, wrapped my fingers around the nearest one. I tugged stubbornly until they broke free of the feeble twigs. I laughed triumphantly and held them above my head for Francine to see. “Okay, you got them. Now come down! You’re scaring me, Kevin!” She didn’t seem nearly as satisfied as I was by my success. I threw the shoes as hard as I could, and they landed next to Francine with a loud thud. The force of my throw caused my branch to sway precariously. I giggled nervously, adrenaline shooting through me. She didn’t even look at the sneakers as I wobbled. “Come down!” She repeated desperately. Normally I would have remained up high to take in the view, but she sounded upset, so I began my descent.. When the train station returned to my vision again, I still held my hands out as though I were gripping the tree. I lowered them slowly, this rapid change of realities leaving me shaken. I turned to Francine.

“Okay, I did it. Now what?”

“If you don’t know, you’re not done.”

“No, you’re going to tell me right now! I don’t care if you ‘can’t!’” My curiosity, which had kept me playing along until that point, was outweighed by my frustration.

“You’ll find out! Just be patient! You’re so close! But you need to hurry!” She was raising her voice, but I refused to be dragged through this any further without any explanation.

“I’ve been patient, Francine!”

“JUST DO IT!” Francine’s eyes bulged, and her half-desperate, half-furious outburst forced me to give up on arguing. I closed my eyes.

I was slowly, slowly descending. The ground grew closer, inch by inch, as I lowered myself with reluctantly tired limbs. It was after dark now, and whatever path I had used to climb up was impossible to discern. I had forgotten how much harder it is to go down. I should have listened to Francine. This was terribly dangerous. This was especially true when II found myself at a spot where I could not reach the next branch below, even when I was hanging from my fingertips. My mind raced and my eyes darted, trying to find another route but there was none. After a deep, bracing breath, I let go

My stomach churned as I dropped about a foot onto the branch below. It lurched horribly, but didn’t break as I had feared. The real problem was that I had landed with my hips too far back, and I lost my balance. I waved my arms frantically, reaching in all directions, any direction that might provide a godsend handhold. There were none.

I plummeted with a yell, and my back collided with a solid branch. Hard. I bent backwards at a nauseating angle, and I heard my spine crack before I felt it. The pain was unbearable, and I was forced to relive it in full. I howled pathetically and there was fire in my limbs. “Kevin!” Francine cried, but my misfortune didn’t end there.

I slid from the branch and fell further still, hitting obstacles on all sides. My face, my stomach, arms and legs, all being pummeled by the brutal boughs. I finally came to rest on my back, flat on the ground, sobbing and thrashing and gasping for air. My spine screamed with pain, and colored spots flooded my vision. One of my teeth fell to the back of my throat and I had no choice but to swallow it. “Kevin! Kevin!” Francine ran over to me, and the last thing I saw was her, crying unashamedly, her tears falling on my face. Then there was nothing. Just blackness. When I came back to my senses, I was frozen with shock.

“Kevin, are you there?” She was waving her hand in front of my eyes impatiently.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. “Francine, NOW can you tell me what happened?”

“You have to tell me.” Her sympathetic tone was sincere. She had already known what was just dawning on me. “What happened, I mean.”

“I... I fell.” I remembered the whole thing clearly, all of a sudden. “I was unconscious for hours, until I woke up at the hospital. There were machines all around me, keeping me alive, and I couldn’t feel my body. I was broken. Paralyzed.” These revelations came to me as quickly as I recited them.

“And the next few days?” Her face was the image of pity, but tension was not absent from her features.

“I spent them being spoon-fed, staring at the same spot on the ceiling. Maybe it was weeks.” I hadn’t remembered any of this before now, but I knew that it was all true.

“What next? Please hurry, you’re almost out of time.”

“Then, after a few excruciating days, I just gave up.” A train was pulling up to the platform, and people at the surrounding benches stood up.

“What next, Kevin? Tell me right now, or it will be too late.” Her urgency was evident, so I obliged.

“Then I closed my eyes and... I never opened them.” I was nearly whispering. Without really meaning to, I got up and began to walk. “I died.” It was absolutely true. I never knew anything so certainly in my life. “I am dead.”

Suddenly, the train station melted around me. I seemed to sink through a silent, dark, serene fluid for a few moments. Without warning, I could feel again. Before I could even see or think, my back exploded with pain. I struggled to remember how to breathe. I realized my eyes were screwed shut, and I thrust them open. I was staring up at a haggard looking Francine, and a bearded old man. The dark room was painted with scarlet pentagrams and lit with flickering candles. I was mostly paralyzed. I could breathe, and look around with my eyes, but those were my boundaries of motion. I tried to speak, to cry out in pain, but it was no use. My limbs occasionally jerked weakly, but that was completely involuntary. “We did it! He’s revived! I had no idea this voodoo stuff could actually work!” Francine was positively giddy. She clenched one of my hands in between both of hers. I tried desperately to move my arms and legs, but it was as though I was bound with chains.

The old man shook his head, his face etched with despair. “No, no, it’s too late. He took too long to realize.” He said sadly.

“No! No, that’s not fair!” Francine looked away from me to plead imploringly with her bearded associate. “He figured it out! He figured it out for himself! I thought he would wake up if that happened. You told me--You--Isn’t there anything you can--” Francine began to choke up, unable to finish the sentence. She gave me one hopeless look and I wanted to stay alive, if only to prevent her from looking that way ever again.

“He is only given a second chance if he discovers his fate before he moves on. He was already halfway gone when he found the truth. I’m sorry, but it’s too late for him. He will stop breathing again at any moment.” His apologetic gaze shifted between Francine’s wet, puffy face and my rigid, sweaty one. Francine looked back down at me, tears dripping from her nose and chin. She was still for a moment, seeming indecisive, but then she donned a determined expression and grabbed me by the shoulders. She started shaking me violently, desperately; it was her last hope of waking me. The old man didn’t stop her, but he was right, and we all knew it. My eyes slowly drifted shut, despite my best efforts. She rested her head on my chest as it rose and fell for the very last time. There would be no more chances.

“This is all my fault, Kevin. I’m so sorry...” It was the last thing I heard. I floated in nothingness for an indeterminable amount of time as I was forced to die for the second time.

When I finally came to, I was seated on a train, heading to who-knows-where.   

Author's Note

Don't hold back on harsh comments, but please be helpful in the process. I really want this to become a great piece.

Reviews

[PyroKitty24]

Wow. This was really well written, I didn't find any mistakes. It kept me interested the whole time because I wanted to know what was happening. Right when everything seemed like it would work out, though, he died. How sad >.