Afterwhere

Afterwhere 2

Chapter Two

I walked past the dead, trying my hardest to not look into their empty eyes, whose stares going straight through me, as if I was the ghost. My unsteady and slightly swaying gait leads me into a waiting room.  It was empty; no one had yet to die in the room.

I quickly mentally remarked at the slight joy it brought me to know no one died waiting for help. Setting my thighs down on a white plastic chair I shivered, the skin not covered by my blue fabric shorts covered the surface of the large chair and I pulled at the fat on them as usual.

I buried my face into my hands, I had to find someone. Someone who was awake. I laid myself into a mindless numb, the air around me was lighter than in the elevator and I hoped I wouldn’t ever have to leave the little room, besides what was there to do outside of it, wander more and more, searching for some people who probably didn't exist? 

What was I supposed to do? Quickly I felt a sense of dread. The numbness in my mind disappeared as I felt the quality of the air thicken. I looked up. A short boy stood in the hallway staring at me.  His long light brown hair lay in his eyes, sitting flat on his head.

Another shiver ran down my spine as I wondered how the poor boy died, he couldn’t have been older than 9, maybe 10. A leather shoulder bag hung on his shoulder, making him lean slightly to the left; his small green eyes are squinted, examining me from the distance.

He looked confused and I gave the same exact look back at him. We kept our gazes, not pulling away. He seemed to intent, his eyes to alive to be one of the ghosts. I stood up and took a step closer.

“Hello?” a word uttered from his mouth. I jumped a little, was he alive?

“Hello?” I asked back, my voice lilted with hope.

“Who are you?”  he returned with a question as he absentmindedly scratched his forearm, a large striped rugby sweater covered the skin, but he seemed unconcerned.

I just stared at the child. He seemed so calm and collected. My mind’s voices told me that of course this boy was like me, none of the ghosts could even see you, let alone try and converse with you.

“How did you get here? Where did you come from? Up north?” he asked, changing his question and adding more.

“I was -and you’re- but- …how?” I stuttered through my words, not knowing what to even say. What did he mean by up north? I didn’t even know what city I was currently in!

“Come with me” the boy turned and walked down the hall. I just continued to stare after him, I probably looked like a mental case with my thin lips slightly hanging open to from an ‘o’ shape.

            I wasn’t sure if I wanted to follow him. I thought he must be a part of my imagination. He turned a corner out of my sight for a moment. When I didn’t immediately follow him his head popped back out, “Are you coming?” he said, raising an eyebrow at me.

            I took a step forward, hesitating. I took another step, and another, I walked to him. He held out his hand to hold mine, he gave me a small warm smile.  I just stared at him, convinced in my head that underneath all of my red hair I was going insane. I guessed there had been one to many dye jobs; it must have been leaking into my cranium for a while.  

            He led me down the hall and back into the dreadful elevator. I groaned a little when the doors closed. The music still played and the uncomfortable sensations of the previous ride reinstated themselves onto my skin

“Sorry about the music, I know it sucks, but we can’t figure out how to turn it off in this building, we got most of the other ones done a long time ago,” said the kid, he leaned against the silver railing that ran around the circumference of the small lift, “Are you going to stay in Stepford for while? We haven’t had any wanderers in a while.”