Chapter Two

Rebecca finds Jay.

 

          Striding down the road, I felt the thump of my hair as it bounced on my back. Frowning, I ran my left hand through the curls. A few people looked at me, amazed at how tan my skin had gotten during Florida. Smiling, I flipped a few curls over, so they lay on my shoulder; Let the people have their amusement.

            Half of them will die today, anyway. I thought, scanning the sidewalks with my eyes. Of course, I didn’t look above one head to check, to see if I was right. That would be horrible, to want death so much, that I checked everyone who admired me on the road.

            All of my family had returned to their normal lives, except Mom. Over the past week, she had sobbed and stayed locked in her room, though not as bad as what had happened at first. Currently, Bill still had to sleep on the couch; Mom refused to let anyone in, not even her children or husband.

            Not that it bothered me, much. Most of my time was spent gliding through the streets, bored and too lazy to go for a road trip, or some other fun experience. Today, however, I had an errand Kara had forced me to run for her. Literally, she had forced me.

            So, I walked calmly down the road, in the too-tight jeans that Kara insisted I wear when I do her errands. Why, I don’t know. It’s some kind of uniform; She enjoys seeing me in ‘girl clothes’ so much, she runs me out on certain conditions of what I wear.

            In fact, when I go home, I get to change into my normal, baggy jeans and sweater. The thought made me smile, blacking out deep into my own thoughts. I could almost feel the fabric of soft knit against my body, warm and smooth.

            In my mind, I planned out what sweater I should wear, to irk Kara. Maybe my blue one, the very favorite of my sweaters. Or, perhaps the purplish one. Yes, the purplish one, that would drive her crazy. The purplish sweater, with worn jeans, that were too big for my scrawny legs.

            Just the image in my head pushed my smile wider, now sprawling across my face untamed. Her tiny mouth a wide O, or as wide as it would get. Her nose wrinkled up in disgust, at my choice of clothes. Even then, though, even in my imagination, she looked wonderful.

            Only being a ‘freshman’ in modeling school, she had already won three contests. Unlike her, I couldn’t even picture myself on anything, not even just a normal picture in a frame. Other people had always thought I was model material, but I couldn’t see it; My eyes are much to large and black, my hair too curly and light.

            As I walked, more people looked at me. A few little kids pointed at me, and giggled; They probably thought my tan was funny looking, most likely growing up in Tennessee all their lives. Not that all Tennessee is almost completely deprived of light, only our town. Well, more of a city.

            Shooting an overly-angry glance at the kids, I saw they had more then thirty years each of continued life. Turning my head back, I smashed into another kid on a bike. Toppling over, the kid started to cry. “Ow!” He sobbed, lifting one hand to point at me. “She pushed me! She pushed me!” His chants followed by a woman’s angry scold at me, and the boy getting picked up into his mothers arms.

            “Sorry…” I muttered, and continued on my way. A few people laughed at me, but most of the city residents continued on their way. Suddenly, I was boring again, and this made me happy.

            A loud screech sped through my ears, bursting my eardrums, only I could still hear. Another screech, and I knew what it was; Tires. At that second, a black SUV twirled down the road, out of control.

            One thing caught my complete and utter attention; A boy, standing petrified in the middle of the road. The SUV was hurtling straight towards him. Looking above him, the numbers changed, clicking down as every second passed.

            My mind thumped through the possibility of this strangers dying, almost exactly the same way I should have. I knew immediately what was happening; Fate was showing me who had to take my death, what my living had done to this innocent boy. It had killed him, and I couldn’t let that happen.

            Even if it was just the world, I couldn’t let this stranger die. Of course, he’d die once anyway, but I couldn’t let the horrible fate of my death take him. I couldn’t. I wouldn’t. Even if I wasted my life, which was highly impossible, I wasn’t about to let this boy waste his. Any normal time, I would have walked quietly past the crash sight, ignore the scream and wet sloshing sound of flattened skin.

            But now, with me being the cause, I couldn’t do that. “No!” I screamed, and watched as people turned to look at me. In my thoughts, the car was only several yards away from the boy, now; I sped out into the road, shoving him out of the way, and following him into the warm tar.

            One of the wheels spun over my foot, crushing it all over. I cried out in pain, and bent forward to grasp it. The stranger-boy was on the black tar next to me, breathing heavy, eyes open. I pulled my head from my foot, which was surely broken, and looked over his head.

            I sighed; I knew this would happen. It wasn’t that knowing when people would die was a horrible, shouldn’t-be-wished-upon-your-worst-enemy thing, but if this boy was sensitive, he might not be able to deal with knowing how long until people die.

            Four large zeros floated over his head, lower then mine; They almost scraped his hair, which I now saw was black. Looking him down, I knew I might as well see what he looked like; It could take a while to explain about death scales, for I’d never done it before. There were many things that could get you a special place in a nut house, as I’d realized as an early age. Luckily, my parents said it was a ‘wild imagination’.

            He looked much older then five, so I assumed it wouldn’t go that way with him. Grabbing his arm, I stood up, winced at the pain of my foot, and pulled him off the ground. He tried to muffle a protest, but was too shocked to do so, and allowed himself to be pulled into an alley.

            “Look above my head.” I commanded, holding his arm fiercely. His eyes rolled to the top of my head, then widened with shock; He blinked once. “Good, you see them. Now, tell me your name.”

            “J-Jay…..” He stammered, looking me up and down now. His eyes rested on my face, and an accusing depth was added to them. “What do you want?”

            “Jay, you’re dead.” I blurted out, looking him seriously in the eye. Jay started to interrupt, so I glared at him, and he stopped. “Yes, dead. You’re not dead in the normal way, though. You can still feel pain, still grow, but never die. There is a time in your life, when you will stop growing. Not stop aging, but stay almost exactly the same looking.” I began again, motioning to the numbers above my head. “You can see ‘death scales’, as I call them. From what I know, you and I are the only ones who can. Don’t ask if I’m crazy, don’t jump off a building. Neither of them will change a thing.”

            Gasping in a breath, I looked at him still more seriously, daring him to question me. “I don’t believe you…” He finally muttered, squinting his eyes. I sighed, and slapped him once across the face.

            “You felt that, didn’t you?”

            “Yes, of course I felt it!” One of his hands shot up to the small, throbbing red mark my hand had left. “Why’d you slap me!?”

            “Sorry.” I told him, digging into one of my pockets. “Take this.” I handed him a small, already open pocket knife.  Looking at me like I was insane, he folded his hand behind his back. I rolled my eyes. “Fine.” Spinning the knife in my fingers, I got it into a comfortable spot, and positioned it directly over where his heart would be, if it were seeable. Quickly, I cut open his shirt, only a small hole where his heart was, and steadied the pocket knife, holding it a good foot above his heart. A little slower, so he didn’t freak out completely, I lowered it to the skin.

            “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!?” Jay cried, shooting a hand up in front of the blade. It ripped through the hand, making red drizzle across his palm. “OUCH!”

            “Move you hand!” I commanded, smacking it away. Before he could do anything, I shoved the blade into his skin. A tiny bit of blood oozed, as I pulled the knife out.

            “HELP!!!!” Jay screamed, clutching the cut. Again, I slapped away his hand, and bent his head down with the other, so he would watch. Slowly at first, the skin molded back together. Then quicker, until there was no trace of anything ever piercing it.

            “Feel it.” I told him, feeling it myself. Swapping my hand off him, he brushed his skin. The surprise on his face made me want to laugh, but it was a much to serious time for that. “Believe me now?”

            “No,” Jay said stubbornly, but his eyes told me otherwise. They were scared now, sad in a way, not accusing. “I don’t! I don’t believe you! That was a trick knife, it had to have been!”

            Still holding up the knife, I brought it down against his cheek. Blood poured down his face, drowning over the corner of his mouth. “Can you just believe me? I’m getting sick of abusing you.” I complained.

            Slowly, he lifted a hand, and patted the blood. A few drops stuck to his fingers, making little red strings as he brought the hand back down to look at it. “Is…. Is it true?” He asked in a tiny voice.

            I nodded, feeling quite pitiful for him. I could have let the truck smash him, crush him into the tar like many before, but I didn’t. At the time, I had thought it was the way he was dying. Now I knew, I was wrong. Of course, if he were to get mugged in this very alley, I might plunge the pocket knife into the persons heart, same as I had done Jay’s, though for revenge..

Author's Note

=DDDD