epilogue: nothing dead smells of roses

after saving Richards life Rebeca Jane finds herself in a rather peculiar predicament that usually results in her death not her coming back from it

My body ached horribly and there was a pounding in my head. I slowly opened my eyes only to see nothing, an endless void of darkness. I willed my limbs to move, trying to get a feel for my surroundings. I was in a coffin, again. I pressed on the lid to see if it would open; it wouldn’t budge. I had come to the conclusion that I was most definitely six feet under. I searched the coffin for something of use, a weapon maybe, but my search came up empty handed. You would figure after all the times this had happened they would have at least left me something. I laid there resigned to my fate and rolled on to my side and began to weep, as I did so my stilettos clacked together. My stilettos! I was over joyed to hear that annoying clack in this claustrophobic confine. I slipped them off of my feet and worked them up to my hands, from there all I needed was enough force to break through the coffin. It took a few tries but soon I had a small hole made, and began to tear at it with my hands. As the hole got bigger more dirt filled my coffin; I had to focus on keeping my breathing slowed. As soon as the hole got big enough for my body I slipped though and started to dig my way to the surface. I thought I was going to die, it felt like my lungs were being crushed and the task impossible.

When I made it to the surface I took several great inhales of fresh air. I was never so happy to feel rain on my face nor see the moon high in the night sky. I laid there on the ground laughing with hysteria. I was alive! I sighed and ran my muddy hands through my matted hair, I couldn’t believe I was alive. After everything I had been through this year, and then to end it with the train hitting me, I was over joyed to still have a heartbeat.

I started to walk towards the front gate of the cemetery when I noticed familiar names on a few of the grave stones; Richard Lambert, David Norstom, Vinnie Voss. I was in Milford cemetery. I had to fight a smile at the fact that I had been buried next to my love and not far from my old grave from the previous life. I was not far from home, a few miles at the most. The rain had washed most of the mud off me and my white cotton dress. I started to run when I saw my mother’s house and even more so excitedly when I saw that the lights in the living room were on. I hoped and prayed that the doors were unlocked, that everyone was awake, that they had not given up on me to return to them. I jogged up the steps to the porch and reached for the door, but before I could turn the knob the door flew inward. There in the door was my mother Starr, she looked at me in disbelief and began to cry.

“Rebeca,” her mother asked. As she reached towards me I closed the gap between us and took hold of my mother’s hand and rested my face on it. She pulled me into a hug, not worrying about the mud or rain soaked dress, she was just relieved to be able to hold me in her arms again.

“I’m home mom. I’m home!” my own voice cracked as I too began to cry. I had never, in all my years, been so happy to be at home with my mother, let alone be there in her arms. It was a luxury that I had put very little value on. I rested my head on my mother’s shoulder as she held me, like I once did when I was child, and let the tears stream down my face. “I’m home.”

I walked in to the house and turned to the living room. There, with shocked looks of disbelief, sat my two best friends (Janell and Christabella), their boyfriends (Vinnie and David, my two brothers (Jimmy and Abbadon), and my two sisters (Willa and Hellena). They all stared at me for a moment before David broke the silence.

“Oh come on, that’s not fair.” I started to laugh, and that broke the ice. As everyone started to laugh and smile along with me, my brother ran up and picked me up and hugged me. Everyone crowed around me, asking so many questions, it was disorientating. One by one they hugged me and welcomed me back to the land of the living. My mother soon shoed them away and walked me to the kitchen. I yawned and sat down at the dinner table. She took a wet wash cloth and began to clean away the rest of the mud. When she reached my hands she noticed that I had several abrasions on my fingers and knuckles and several of my nails were split. She went upstairs and retrieved the peroxide and a fresh set of clothes for me.

“You can take a shower in the morning before we redo these bandaged” my mother stated as I sat there with my one hand in a bowl of peroxide while she wrapped the other one in gauze. After my hands were all bandaged up she gave me a small bowl of oatmeal so I at least had something in my stomach.

After I was done eating I wished my friends and family good night and walked up stairs to my room. I debated about going to Richard’s room and telling him I was back, but after hearing the shower on I decided against bothering him tonight, it could just wait until morning. I wondered down to the far end of the hall way to my room, it was just as I had left it. There was a full six-and-a-half-foot bookshelf chalked full, posters plastered my walls, my desk still had papers covered in my drawings and designs scattered a crossed it, my bed was still mess and unmade. It was like I was never gone at all. I curled up under my covers and sighed as I drifted off to sleep.

It was only a few hours before I woke up to someone sitting at the edge of my bed. My immediate thought was that someone was just coming to check on me and I ignored it. The next thing I knew that someone was trying to crawl into my bed with me. As soon as they felt that I was there they jumped up with alarming speed. I turned on my bed side lamp and looked up at the intruder. It was Richard, he was still sopping wet from the shower, and he had a horrified look on his face as he gazed down at me. I tried to reach out to him, to get him to calm down, but he only backed further away from me.

“you’re not real.” He said. He kept repeating himself over and over again as he backed into the adjacent wall and slid down to the floor. He sat there with his knees to his chest as he went on murmuring something to himself. I got up and started over towards him. I was only a foot or two from him when he snapped his head up and looked at me.

“I’m so sorry,” he said with wide frightened eyes “I tried to save you, I’m so sorry”. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and then it dawned on me. While I was gone he must have felt guilty for my death since I was trying to save him, Vinnie, and David when I died. He thought I was a ghost. I knelt down on the ground in front of him and reached out to him.

“I’m real, darling.” I said as I reached out and touched the side of his face and wiped away a tear. “I’m real, and I’m here.” He looked at me astonished and preceded to grab my face with both of his hands. I smiled at him and rested my face on one of his hands. He smiled back at me weakly and then pulled me closer before kissing me softly.

“You’re real.” He said as he rested his forehead on mine. “I thought I lost you, Beca.” I smiled and looked at him.

“It takes a lot more than that to get rid of me, darlin’.” He kissed me again, then picked me up and carried me back to the bed. He laid me down and settled in beside me as I rested my head on his chest and draped my arm over him. He noticed to gauze and gingerly picked up my hand.

“What happened?”

“I had to claw my way out of my own grave.” He made a hum sound like he meant to say that that seemed like a legitiment reason and kissed my injured hand.

“I love you, Rebeca Jane Smith.” He said as he pulled me close.

“And I love you too, Richard” I replied as I drifted off to sleep in the arms of the man I loved, in a place where I was surrounded by people who loved and cared about me.

Author's Note

yes i know its the ending why would i post the ending first just please bare with me i have the rest of the story done its just not ready to be put on here yet it will get here eventually

Reviews

[Nigel Newman]

Laura Hi. As you say, it's strange show the epilogue first. With that in mind, though, it seems to me that more things would be familiar and unquestioned. You did this with Rebeca's reappearance and the general lack of incredulity - surprise yes but not that this was impossible. So that worked OK. But the way you introduce the people in the room sounds more like a beginning - the first time we've met them. That seemed to jar.

The explanation with Richard about you 'dying' whilst saving others, similarly, doesn't feel quite right. It feels like the reader would know more of this already and that you could be more short-hand by this stage. After all, if it's someone she loves, a few words might be enough. And he would presumably know that people sometimes 'came back' from 'dying' because the folk downstairs seemed to know this.

Grammar glitch - 'Rebeca' her mother asked, should presumably be 'my' mother asked. It's the only time you slip into 3rd person for Rebeca's part.

Spelling - check overjoyed (might be one word), there's one coffine with an unnecessary e, I don't think 'inhale' is a noun

There are 3 or 4 places where you use commas when a full stop and new sentence would be more correct. This is slipping into common usage more and more, but isn't grammatically correct. The key really is whether the statements on either side of your comma would actually be spoken aloud like separate sentences. (Example ... rain soaked dress, she was just ...)

There are two 'resting my head in (someone's) hands' and another very similar phrase. OK, Rebeca has just fought her way out of a grave and is probably in a bit of a state, so the action is understandable - just try using different phrases to describe it each time.

Finally, of course, there's the mystery of how Beca ended up alive in a grave, obviously not for the first time. You mention claustrophobia, which is certainly how I would feel. I can't imagine anything worse than being a thinking feeling person encased in a coffin and unable to move. I think most human beings would feel sheer terror and potentially go off their heads, at least for a while. But Rebeca doesn't, and then claws her way out of the coffin - either she's superhuman (human at all???) and strong enough to get through solid wood, or the coffin is made of a softer substance. Stiletto heels and fingers wouldn't get through a wooden coffin lid. And WHO put her in there? Lots of mysterious things that the preceding chapters would help the reader to understand.

Final final - I really LOVE the title of the epilogue 'nothing dead smells of roses'. Such a good line, ideal for a song lyric methinks!

Obviously get back if you have any questions, comments, etc

Cheers
Nigel