TITLE: The Dead and The Hopeless
RATING: T for Teen or PG-13, Strong adult themes, mild language, drama, angst, and just in case.
SUMMARY: Helga is killed in an accident, and now her ghost haunts the one person who could always keep her going. Can there be a happily ever after?
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT own Hey Arnold or anything affiliated with it. I have nothing to do with anything. I am just doing this for fun I also do NOT own any songs, books or movies mentioned in this fiction. I am not getting paid to promote them in anyway, and I'm not claiming to own them. Just borrowing so don't sue me.
AUTHOR NOTE: This story I promise while kind of dark will be enlightening, and slightly comical. Also each chapter will have ONE song I reccomend that goes with the chapter. Hope you enjoy the story, and the music.
SONG FOR THIS CHAPTER ALIVE BY BO BRUCE I DO NOT OWN IT JUST RECCOMEND IT
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ...
Helga grabbed her phone from the desk, and glanced at the number it was big Bob. She was sitting in the library during her free period in school studying for a big test coming up. Amid the stacks of books, crumpled papers, and pens was the remainder of her lunch. She turned on her phone with a heavy sigh.
"Hello?" She answered.
"Helga, are you busy?" Bob asked.
"I'm in school Dad." Helga said looking around the library.
"I need you to go pick up your mother." Bob said.
"No, I can't." Helga said looking at her open math book.
"Helga, I'll write you an excuse." Bob said.
"Dad, I have to study." Helga said in a begging tone.
"Look, We got you that car for a reason so that you can help us out. Now go get your mother." Bob said in an angry voice.
"Okay, Where is she?" Helga asked with a heavy sigh.
"She's at that bar again, the irish one." Bob said.
"McGinteys?" Helga asked.
"Yeah." Bob said.
Helga hung up, and grabbed her tattered pink back pack. She tossed her phone inside, and began shoving in her books and papers as well. Her mother always did this disappeared at a bar, and Bob was too busy to go get her so Helga had to. She was getting tired of having to pick up her drunken mother, and play babysitter. In three months she would graduate high-school, and hoping to go to NYU for her writing, but her studying was seroiusly lacking because of her mothers drunkeness. She stood swinging her backpack up, and onto her shoulder grabbing her last three books, Biology, English, and Creative Writing.
She turned around, and slammed into a hard body. Her books scattered spilling papers, and she dropped her knees her back pack sliding off of her shoulder.
"I'm sorry." She said shaking her head.
"Here let me help." The person said.
"Thank you." She said grabbing papers.
He handed her one of her poems, and she smiled looking at him finally it was Arnold. He offered her a timid smile, and she took the paper.
"Thanks Arnold." She said tucking her hair behind her ear.
"No problem." He said standing.
He pulled her to her feet, and she brushed passed him in a rush. He watched her go. She had changed a lot since they were younger. She was taller than most girls, but a full head and a half shorter than him now. She was very skinny, and her longe blonde hair was always poker straight, and silky smooth. He always watched her in class tucking it behind her ear or twirling it around her finger. He picked up a pen off the floor, and could tell by the teeth marks it was hers. He laughed sitting down in the chair she had vacated. She could have been a preppy cheerleader if she had wanted to be, she had the looks, and body for it, but she wasn't.
Much to everyones surprise Helga was a brain. She studied hard, and got good grades in almost every subject. She made honor roll more than a few times. She grew out of the bully stage, but still kept her personal life a secret in fact Arnold new absolutely nothing about her personal life. He saw in her class, and passed her in the halls every day. If he saw her outside school he might say hello, but that was as far as their relationship went. In eighth grade she plucked her eyebrow, but the rest of her looks were natural beauty. She didn't wear makeup, and her clothes consisted of t-shirts, jeans, and converse.
Arnold had grown taller than her, but was still skinny, not sickly so, but not exactly covered in muscel. He wasn't academic, or sporty. He kind of just floated around school trying to graduate so he could get out of this town. He liked his life, but he longed to go looking for his parents. He opened another book filled with foreign maps, and began once again trying to trace his parents route.
Helga rushed out of the school, and down the steps just as she heard her phone buzz again in her backpack. With a heavy sigh she began digging in her backpack as she walked. She stepped out into the street heading to her car. She heard the screeching tires before anything else. She turned her head, and everything happened in slow motion. The driver tried to stop the car, but he didn't and her body crashed against his hood smashing into the windshield. She felt her ribs cave, and the glass cut into her face. He slammed on his breaks.
She rolled off the hood and onto the pavement, but she didn't feel her body hitting the hard road. Everything was blurry in her vision, and she realized her hearing was distorted. A crowd began to gather, and she heard the driver yelling about 911. She turned her head slightly to see her backpack spilled onto the streets, and her cell phone lay on the road ringing. She could see the number was her mothers, and she instantly felt guilty.
Her mom needed her, and here she was. She tried to move her legs, and realized she couldn't she began to panic, and tried to sit, but couldn't do that either. In fact she couldn't do anything. Her first thought was that she was paralyzed, and an icy fear gripped her until she noticed the rattling coming from her chest everytime she breathed, and she could taste blood.
"Miss, Miss hang on!" The driver yelled. She gurgled something inelidgable.
She felt her body go limp, and she closed her eyes. She felt a warmth spread through her, and she relaxed letting it sink into her bones, and body. Her mom would have to find another way home. She thought of the last person she saw Arnold. Fitting, that it was him. He would be the last person she talked to, and the last person to see her alive, and she had barely spoke to him.
"MISS PLEASE HANG ON!" The driver begged.
She wished he would shut up he was ruining her death with his big mouth. She released a soft sigh, and realized this time there was no rattle, and just like that Helga let go.
White lightening shot through her body burning her veins, and making her head pound. She screamed as her body contradicted every muscle tensing. It was over as quick as it hit, and she relaxed taking a breath. It hit again, and she bit her tongue to keep from screaming.
"I have a pulse!" Someone yelled.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she turned her head beside her lay a girl. Blonde, and unresponsive. She was covered in blood, and shattered glass. It was then Helga remembered everything, and she jumped to her feet.
"I'm okay!" She yelled looking at the car, and the paramedics, but nobody acknowledged her.
She looked at the girl they were now carefully loading onto the gurney, and realized it was her. She was unresponsive, but the paramedics insisted she was alive. She saw her phone, and made a grab for it. Her hand passed through it, and she gasp pulling away.
"Can anyone see me?" She asked looking around the crowd, but nobody said anything they were watching her body.
"No, I'm alive, I'm alive..."She said closing her eyes, and trying to breathe normally.
"Get her to the emergency room!" The paramedic yelled as he closed the ambulance doors.
"I'm alive...I'm alive...I'm alive." She whispered over, and over as the ambulance roared away.
The pedestrians filed away, and the police, and fireman came and went. None of them acknowledging her as she stood there in the middle of the room watching it all. One fireman walked right through her sending a quick, cold rush through her body. As they finished, and left her alone one thought screamed in her mind, but all she could do was whisper it.
"I'm alive."
R&R