Bring Me to Life

Chapter One

I looked up from my homework the instant I heard the front door open and slam shut. My mother, my only family, had just arrived home. Yippee. Personally, I would have preferred if she had stayed at work until after I had gone to bed, but my mother's schedule varied from day to day. I never liked being home when my mother was.

A few seconds later, my bedroom door violently swung open, revealing my mother standing in the doorway, her brown eyes blazing like fire. She began hatefully yelling at me, barely taking time to breath, and she glared at me through it all.

Completely used to her tirade, I merely nodded my head and said, "Yes, ma'am." She yelled at me everyday, usually for no reason other than she was in a bad mood. As strange as it seemed, my mother had no love for me. I was just a nuisance to her, and she blamed me for the fact that my father, her husband, was dead. He had died in a car wreck when I had been five. I admitted it was my fault, especially since my mother was never wrong and she blamed me for his death. She blamed everything on me... not that I could blame her. Most of the stuff she yelled at me for probably was my fault, whether or not I could see how that was possible.

As the minutes ticked by, her reasons for being angry at me became increasingly harder to understand. She quickly regressed to saying that I had caused one of her co-workers to pick on her, and that it was my fault her boss had said that "she needed to straighten up her act or prepare to be fired." Things quickly became worse when she ran out of reasons. Whenever that happened, she resorted to insulting me.

I waited for ten more minutes, calmly anticipating what was going to happen next. She didn't disappoint me. Fury twisting her face, she roughly grabbed my wrist and pulled me into a standing position, her grip so hard that I knew I would be bruised in the morning. A moment later, while yelling at me for being an idiot, she slapped me, putting enough strength behind the move to make me stagger.

"No wonder your father decided to die on us," she snarled at me. "You're a disappointment, a little stupid whore who doesn't know right from left. When you do finally die, God will send you to hell, and when you get there, Satan will only spit on you."

My blue eyes completely blank, I stared up at her. Many years ago, I had trapped all my emotions deep inside myself, locking them up and throwing away the key. Since then, I hadn't laughed, or smiled, or even yelled. I was about as robotic as a person could become, and that was the only reason I was still alive.

"Myra, get out of my house!" my mother screamed, throwing me across the room so I painfully collided with the wall. I hated things made of concrete. "Pack up and leave! I never want to see you again. You're eighteen, so you can live on your own!"

"Yes, ma'am." I nodded my head and immediately moved to do what she wanted. It didn't take me long to throw my few clothes items and other possessions into a suitcase. I shoved all my baby-sitting money into my pocket, pulled on my jacket, and walked past my mom to go outside.

The setting sun casting a red glow over my small car, I tossed the suitcase into the trunk and slid into the driver's seat. My mother hadn't bought the car for me; I had worked hard at my burger-flipping job to pay for it. All my savings from my job were in a bank downtown, and that was my first stop. It was time to withdraw everything.

My stop at the bank was quick and uneventful, even though the poor teller found it strange I was withdrawing all my savings, which amounted to quite a bit... over five thousand dollars. I had barely ever spent any of my earnings. I had always had bigger plans for my money, like college.

It didn't bother me that I was leaving the house. It had never been home, so I really didn't care. My mother had never loved me or even slightly cared about me, and I had no friends. I was the official freak of the school, and no one ever wanted anything to do with me. Of course, that had not mattered to me in the least. I wasn't big on socializing, and I disliked drawing attention to myself in any way, shape, or form.

I drove for three hours nonstop, finally ending up in a slightly larger town than the one I had lived in for eighteen years. Since it was past ten at night, no banks were open. I calmly found a cheap hotel and rented a room. The place was shabby, but I really didn't mind. It was better than my room at home. Anything was better than my old home.

In the morning around nine, I paid about fifty dollars for the room in cash, and then left for a bank. I found one downtown. It looked nice, and it was another branch of the bank that I had used in my old town.

I walked in, leaving a little bit of my money in my car, and stood in line for the teller. Within minutes, my patience paid off, and I was at the front of the line. I quickly set up an account, depositing the $5,000 I had brought in. I still had about a hundred dollars out in my vehicle. Right as I began to leave the bank, two men in ski masks walked in.

My eyes widening, I froze as the two masked men pulled out guns. One of them even fired into the ceiling. Then, they ordered us to hit the floor. I knelt down, bowing my head so my light brown hair covered my face.

The men approached the tellers, yelling at them to put all the money in a bag. They rushed to obey. The man who had shot off his gun earlier put the weapon away so he could grab the bag of money from a teller. Then, the other man gestured towards a little girl.

"Hey, sweetie. Would you please come here?" He beckoned to her, but she remained where she was, clinging to her mother. The man wanted a hostage, a human barrier, but she wasn't cooperating. She was too scared to move, and I couldn't blame her. I would have been beyond terrified at her age.

The man moved to grab the child, but I suddenly reacted, jumping up and grabbing the man's gun as he stood there in shock. I aimed the gun at the two men, expecting them to retaliate.

The man with the money set the bag on the ground as he pulled out his shot gun. "Safety's on," he informed me coolly as he pulled the trigger. A bullet went through my chest right when the cops arrived.

I saw four men in blue uniforms rush into the room as the robber fired another bullet at me, aiming at my head. Everything promptly became black.


I opened my eyes to find myself floating above my body. The police officers were arresting the robbers, and I could see people all around crying and in hysterics. I watched myself be put into a body bag. I was dead, and everyone knew it. They hadn't even had an EMT check me over. Hey, if someone had half his brain missing, I'd assume he was dead too.

Over to the side, I could see the little girl I had tried to protect. She seemed to be okay... shaken, but okay. I felt a little better knowing that she was alive. Then her mother came over and hugged her. The girl would most definitely be okay. She had a mother who cared about her.

The only question was, what was I supposed to do? I was dead--a spirit. Wasn't I supposed to go to heaven or hell? Hmmm... Interesting question. Considering that I was still floating around, I guessed that I didn't get to go to either place. My mother had been right. I wasn't welcome in either paradise or Hades. Go figure.

I left the scene, seeing no reason to stay there. I was dead, the girl was alive, and the robbers were going to prison. What more did I need to know? Oh yeah. I wanted to know what I was supposed to do for the rest of eternity.

"What do ghosts do?" I asked myself, flying high up into the sky so I could stare down at the city and the ant-sized people. I had always loved high places and imagining all the people were just tiny dolls.

"Oh goody. You already know you're dead," a cheerful voice commented.

I turned to see a girl on flying on an oar, dressed in a pink kimono. She had sky blue hair in a high ponytail and purple eyes. Definitely strange.

"The top of my head was blown off. That's kind of hard to miss," I replied neutrally, not really questioning how or why she could see me. For crying out loud, she was flying around on a wooden oar. You just don't question someone who can do that.

"Well, Myra Yurimo, I'm Botan," the peppy girl stated.

"Okay." I shrugged slightly, unsure about how she wanted me to react, not that I cared. I usually tried to do what people wanted, if only so I wouldn't be beat up. Of course, if the violence was unavoidable, then I simply took it and then went on with life. I was used to being abused.

She sweatdropped. "I'm here to take you to the spirit world to see Koenma."

"Okay." I didn't know who Koenma was, but I had a feeling I would find out soon.

Botan frowned. "Is that all you're going to say?" she demanded, sounding a little annoyed. Her amythest eyes watched me, her expression a combination of confusion, irritation, and disappointment.

I stared at her for a moment, wondering how much sugar she had had earlier. She was much more hyper than anyone else I had ever met, and that was saying something. She was even peppier than my old school's cheerleaders. Quite a feat, to be sure. "Perhaps."

"Fine, let's go." She pulled me onto her oar, and then we were off, flying through the air much faster than I would have thought possible.


Botan and I landed in front of a building, which turned out to be an incredibly busy place. I was reminded of an office building that was a year behind on its paperwork. Instead of people, humanoid creatures in all different colors raced about, carrying huge stacks of papers here, there, and everywhere. It was almost chaos.

My eyes blank, I followed the peppy girl through the mess and into an office. The office was a little more organized than the rest of the place, but not by much. The single desk was piled three feet high with papers, which completely covered up whoever was sitting in the chair behind it all.

"Koenma sir, I've brought Myra to see you," Botan stated.

"Myra?" a young voice called out from behind all the papers. "Oh yes, the one with the case like Yusuke's. I remember now." Small hands parted the stacks of papers, revealing a toddler with a pacifier in his mouth and a big blue hat on his head.

"Why am I here?" I inquired, feeling a little bored. The people weren't making any sense, and I just wanted to know what was going on. Of course, I would probably be smacked for my idiotic question, but I was already dead, so what else could they do to me?

"You weren't supposed to die today," Koenma informed me, somehow clearly talking around the object in his mouth. Interesting. I couldn't help but wonder how he did it.

"Okay." I accepted that fact easily. More than likely, I was supposed to live longer so they could prepare a place outside of heaven and hell for me where I could live out eternity by myself. That would be my luck, sadly enough.

"The little girl was supposed to be taken as a hostage and then later released. The bank robbers would have been caught within twenty-four hours. Your interference was not necessary," the toddler stated, voice calm.

I nodded my head. "Okay." It wasn't the first time my actions had proved to be worthless, and it probably wouldn't be the last time. I rarely ever did anything that proved to be worthwhile.

The ruler sighed, probably exhausted with my attitude just like Botan. "So, I want to bring you back to life."

"No thank you," I replied. "I'd rather stay dead." Why would I want to return? It wasn't like my life had actually had a purpose. My mother had hated me, no one at school had even really tried to befriend me, and I had killed my father.

"I don't think you really mean that," Botan commented firmly. She sounded so sure of herself. Too bad she had misjudged me. "Yusuke said the same thing, but he quickly found out differently."

I turned to the blue-haired woman. "I don't want to go back."

"Why?" Koenma inquired.

I shrugged. "There's no point." I had no purpose, no loved ones, and no friends, so life had no meaning for me. Besides, I deserved death.

He sweatdropped. "You've got to be joking."

"I don't joke; I can't joke," I informed him calmly, my eyes blank. If they wouldn't believe me, then I would just have to convince them another way that I did not want to come back to life. "And you can't bring me back to life anyway. The top part of my head was blown off. I can't re-inhabit my body."

"I know that!" Koenma exclaimed, sounding a little annoyed, which meant he would hit me soon. My mother always became violent whenever she was angry or even the tiniest bit annoyed. "I have a different body picked out for you."

Botan just about fell over. "What?!" Obviously people weren't given new bodies every day. Though whether that was a good or bad thing, I didn't know.

"A young demoness just died, and her body has been well preserved for you," the toddler said.

"That's nice, but I would rather stay dead," I replied. What good would coming back to life do me? None, that was what. Worthless people, like me, needed to stay dead.

Koenma hung his head. "Botan, do you think you could fetch Yusuke for me? I think it might do her some good to talk to him."

"Alright. I'll be right back." The bubbly girl left, leaving me alone with the toddler.

I really didn't know what to do, so I just leaned back against a wall and waited.


Fifteen minutes later, Botan walked back into the room with a teenage boy. He appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen with greased-back black hair and chocolate brown eyes. He was wearing a green school uniform, and he didn't look all that happy. He obviously didn't liked being dragged around by Botan, not that I could blame him.

"What's the deal? What'd you have to drag me all the way here for?" he demanded, crossing his arms as he glared at everything around him. "What's pacifier-breath want with me this time?"

"Yusuke, I would rather you not call me that," Koenma stated. "And you're here because of her." He pointed at me. "She sacrificed herself to save someone, just like you did, and she has a chance to come back to life. However, she keeps saying that she wants to stay dead."

Yusuke looked at me, his brown eyes gazing into my blue ones. He didn't have one of those soul-piercing gazes, which I believed was a good thing. I didn't want the sight of my ugly soul scarring him for life. "Why don't you want to come back to life?"

I shrugged. "I just don't want to."

"I'm sure your friends and family would love to see you again," he stated, sounding sincere. He believed in what he was saying. Good for him. Too bad it didn't apply to me. "I know that mine were happy to see me."

It was almost amusing how he assumed people would want to see me again. He obviously knew nothing about me, which would probably turn out to be a good thing in the long run; however, it seemed I would have to enlighten him a little just so he would give up. "I have no friends, and my mother could care less about me," I informed him.

"That's what I thought, but I learned differently," Yusuke told me. "Moms love their kids, whether they show it or not."

"Okay." I shrugged, not really caring what he said. I wasn't going to change my mind, mainly because I knew the truth. My mother had hated me with a neverending passion.

Botan stepped into the conversation at that moment. "Perhaps you should go to your wake, see what people say about you."

"Okay," I replied. It wasn't like I was allowed to argue all that much.

Yusuke scowled at me. "I'm really beginning to dislike you. Don't you have emotions?"

"No." I could tell that my simple, neutral answers were getting under his skin, but I didn't know what else to do. I never became angry, I didn't cry, and I hadn't laughed in over thirteen years. For emotions I was left with detachment, fear, confusion, and surprise.

He growled. "I'm going with, just to see her proved wrong."

I shrugged. "Okay."

Koenma finally noticed just how angry Yusuke was becoming with me, because he ushered us out of his office, telling Botan exactly what he wanted her to do before shutting his door in my face.




CotA: *sitting on Zebez's lap in front of the computer* Yea! I finally posted a new YYH story. *claps hands* And one of my friends has been giving me so many ideas for this.

Zebez: It should be pretty good then, especially if I help you too. *hugs CotA around the waist*

CotA: After a while, I'll introduce another new character, but that's a little bit in the future. Also, if any of you can figure out what genre I should put this in, please tell me. I don't have a clue. There's going to be some action... eventually. As well as some romance... eventually. *sighs*

Zebez: Don't forget the humor with the chef's hat and the shopping trip. *grins* Those are going to be great scenes.

Sess-chan: *walks into the room* Perhaps you should merely leave it under general until you come up with some kind of idea.

CotA: That's a whole lot of help.

Sess-chan: Get rid of the half breed and perhaps I'll help more.

CotA: No. He's my new muse. *sighs as the two demons begin to argue* Grande Dios sobre. I'm gonna go work on a new chappie while they duke it out. Hope everyone enjoyed the first chappie! *walks out of the room*