Hey people who are reading this! Well this is a new story i thought of. It's kind of like 'The Lovely Bones' meets 'My Sister's Keeper' that eventually meets the song, 'You Belong with me' meets my brain. Well, if you continue reading, please review! O and thanx for actually reading this! :)
XOXO
Haley :)
~Reese's POV~
I remember the very last words she said to me.
~Flashback~
I was sitting on the side of her hospital bed.
"Don't worry 'bout me, sis, I'll be okay, I promise..."She said from her hospital bed. She'd paused to catch her breath.
My beautiful, crazy, annoying, awesome, amazing, strong, stubborn, lazy, dramatic, twin sister had to struggle to live because of fricken leukemia. Leukemia. Of all the things, I think that's probably one of the worst. This whole journey with her disease started out with simple headaches, and throwing up occasionally, but it got worse. She started getting confused, and loosing control of her muscles. Then the seizures started and we all knew something was very, very wrong. That was when we found out that she had Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia about three years ago. She fought it and we got her chemotherapy, and the cancer went into remission about a year and a half ago, but suddenly came back about three months ago. For days now, she'd been being way over-dramatic about her life-expectancy, saying for me not to worry, and saying how I better miss her, or she'll turn into a zombie when she dies, and hunt me down, then if I still didn't miss her, she'd steal everything with a butterfly on it in our room, which was basicly everything. We both had a weird obsession with butterflies.
"Rekessa, Kessie, Kess, Butterfly, Rexie seriously, you're not gonna die, and if you do, who am I gonna share The Tree with? Who's gonna help me babysit the Morlee kids this summer? Who's gonna bail me outta jail when I do something stupid? Who's gonna talk Mom outta punishing us for stupid stuff? Who's gonna be my twin? I can't go through life without you! You. Aren't. Gonna. Die. Stop being so dramatic! You are the world's most dramatic butterfly, you know that?" I replied.
She smiled. "And you are the world's weirdest dragonfly." I laughed. "And, yes, I am gonna die. Look at me! I look like an anorexic vampire! That's how skinny and gross and pale and unrested I look!" She started coughing and weezing and gasping for air.
"See...I'm gonna die-" She was cut off by more coughing.
"No, you're not! Don't say that! Stop being so negative! If I could give you my lungs, I would, but I can't. No one can, so if I were you, I'd be telling my stupid cancer cells to high-tail it outta' my body right now."
"Reesie Cup, I know if it's not today, it's gonna be soon, I can feel it. It's so much worse than it was last time." She'd gotten her cancer back about three months ago. It had been about a year and a half since she'd gotten rid of her cancer, but then it came back, about ten times worse than before. It was like these cancer cells wanted her to die more than Hitler wanted the Jews to die. "I heard Dr. Z say to Mom the other day that she needs to start preparing herself and everyone else, because I'm gonna end soon. Me. Myself. My life. Everything about me is gonna end soon. I know you're my twin, but I don't want you to be in denial. It's just gonna make it that much worse when I actually do die. You need to accept the facts, Reese."
"I'm not in denial. I don't need to prepare myself. And you are not going to die!" I said rather loudly and grimaced. " And maybe I don't want to accept the facts! Maybe I just want to be the one person that thinks positively about this whole mess!"
"Okay, let's just move onto a less dramatic topic. Okay, Reese?" She said calmly in a hoarse voice.
"Okay. Wait! Did you just say to move onto a less dramatic topic? Am I hearing you right? Wow, these cancer cells must be spreading to your brain cells because I have never heard you say anything like that. It's always 'Let's make it more dramatic!'" She laughed. "So, has Jase come to see you lately?" I asked.
Jase Bringham has been our best friend since we were four years old. That's ten whole years. He's always had a huge crush on Kessie, and finally got the courage to tell her about a year ago. They've been together ever since. And of course I'm the third wheel. I don't mind it though. I'm just happy to see them happy.
She sighed. "Yeah. He comes over everyday." She smiled. Although I am kind of jealous because she's got a boyfriend and I don't, I'm still happy for her. I don't think there's any guy out there that would treat her better.
I laughed. "Oh, shut up, you lovesick puppy."
"What can I say?" She shrugged her shoulders.
She looks so weak...
"Kessie...are you okay?" She was being really quiet...and she looked so pale...
"I'm fine..." She said barely above a whisper.
"Hey, so-" I stopped talking because of the horrible coughing. It was the coughing of someone who was dying.
"Kessie? Kess? You okay?" I said trying not to let my panic show.
She just kept coughing.
Then the blood started coming up.
I screamed. I didn't mean to, but it was just an awful sight. My poor little sister... Okay, so she's only my little sister by three minutes, but still.
"Reese-" She gasped.
"Rexie?" I said, completely terrified. "You want me to call a nurse? Mom? Dad? Jase? Dr.Z?"
"No, not yet...Reesie Cup... I just want to tell you... one thing. Okay?" She said between coughs.
"Y-yes?"
"I..." She was coughing even worse than before...and that scared me.
She started talking again. "I...want you to...remember that on your...birthday every year-" She was overtaken by a lot of coughing.
She said 'your birthday.'. It was her birthday, too. Why was she talking like that?
Her heart monitor started beeping wildly.
"On our birthday?" I urged.
"I'm gonna send you a butterfly...A real one, a picture, something...some kind of...butterfly-" The coughing was the worst yet.
The blood was pouring out of her mouth like a waterfall now, and she was choking on it.
I franticly pressed the button that called a nurse. Then I began to panic. What if the nurse didn't get here fast enough? I ran out of Kessie's hospital room.
"Help! Please help me! I think my sister's dying, come on, help me, please!" I yelled as I started sobbing.
Tons of medical staff started running into Kessie's room. I followed close behind them.
As the doctors were trying to calm Kessie down and get the blood out of her throat so she could breathe, Mom and Dad came in. That's right, I'd forgotten, they had been in the cafeteria getting some lunch. Mom gasped in horror and started crying with anxiedy and fear, while Dad just stood there open-mouthed.
"What's going on? What's happening?" Dad demanded. When none of the medical staff answered, he looked at me.
Dad ran over to me and put his hands on my shoulders. He had a crazy look of fear in his eyes. "Reese, what happened?"
I couldn't answer; I just couldn't stop sobbing. Dad eased his hands a little; he had been holding my shoulders really tightly, and said a little more calmly, "Reesie Cup, Sweetie, calm down. Shh. Can you just tell us what happened to your sister while we were gone?"
I gulped back more sobs and said, "Sh-she just s-started cou-coughing a-alot, Daddy...and sh-she just started coughin' up b-bl-blood-" I just couldn't talk anymore; I just couldn't stop sobbing.
Mom came over and pulled me into a hug and I started crying into her shirt. Rekessa was screaming and crying and coughing in the background.
Then Jase ran in, probably because he could hear the screaming. It sounded like a horror movie, except, unfortunately, you can't turn this part off.
"Kessie!" He yelled in shocked horror. He ran over to the medical staff, trying to see what was happening to her. I could see through a gap in the group of doctors and nurses, that there was a tube being shoved down her throat, trying to get the blood out so she could breathe.
"Excuse me, Young Man, are you related to Rekessa L. Colyns? If you're not, I'm afraid you'll have to leave." A short-stacked dark woman said.
"Well, uh-" He started.
"Yes, he's family." I said quickly. He mouthed a 'thank you' to me.
"Actually, they're going to have to leave, anyway." A doctor said. "We're going to have to operate, but there's a high chance she might not make it. Are you willing-" He stopped talking when Kessie screamed.
"Help!" She screamed, although it sounded more like 'huh-lp'. And she just kept screaming and screaming. Then, the scariest thing yet happened.
Her heart monitor made a long 'beep' noise. One beep. Then it stopped altogether.
"We have to call it." A nurse said quietly.
"Wait! Can't you do that thing where you shock her back to life?" I asked franticly, panicing.
"I'm sorry, we can't. Her lungs can't take it. She'd just die anyway if we tried to shock her. We've done all we can for her." Dr.Z said.
"Time of death is 12:37p.m." A nurse said loudly.
"No!" Jase and I yelled at the same time.
~End Fashback~
It was now a week later, and we were all at Rexie's funeral. The funeral service had just ended, and people were free to look at the closed cascut or the headstone, or just talk to eachother and mourn. I'd already looked at the headstone.
Rekessa Lynn Colyns
April 19, 1996-July 17, 2010
Loving daughter, sister, friend, student, and employee
You will always be missed
Yes, she was a loving daughter of our parents, a loving sister to me, a loving friend to everyone she met, a loving student to her teachers, at school and at piano lessons, and yes, she was a loving employee to Hank Masters, the guy that owned the local animal shelter. They just forgot one thing. She was also a loving girlfriend. Jase was sure to notice that wasn't on her...headstone. He loved her. Everyone knew that. It wasn't even fake teen guy love. He really loved her with his whole soul, he loved her. Everything about her. I'm absolutely 100% positive that, if she'd lived, they'd get married one day. There's no doubt in my mind about that.
I walked over to her cascut, where Jase was sitting on his knees with his head down, holding, not flowers, but a very, very beautiful butterfly necklace.
I bent down and hugged him. We'd always loved eachother, but as brother and sister, whereas he loved Kessie as a lover, a best friend, everything. They were ment to be, and I respected that.
He was crying. "I miss her so much." We said at the same time.
Then it started raining, and we just sat there, hugging eachother, in front of my dead twin sisters cascut, in front of his true love's cascut.
~Rekessa's POV~
I'd been arguing with Reese for what seemed like forever about my life expectancy. I'd been right. My time of death had been sooner rather than later. Death. It was a strange thing. I thought it would be painful and scary and maybe confusing. It was all of those things. It was kind of peaceful, once you were gone for good, anyway, but the sensation of the actual moment you died was painful. It felt like being sucked away from your body at the highest speed imaginable. It kind of left you with a sensation of a combination of confusion, adrenaline, and whiplash. It was scary; you don't know what's going on til it's over.
Death isn't like what they say in the movies. You don't see a white light or anything. You're just rushing out of you're body, at an incredible speed, up and up and up, til all you can see are the clouds. Well, I saw clouds because I died during the daytime. Then, you just appear at this...window? Like the type of window that they have at a fast food place. There was a very plump lady with short gray hair behind the window; she looked like your average, nice, cookie-baking, grits-making, southern grandma. She'd slid open the window with a smile.
"Hello, Honey, what's your name?" She asked in a nice old lady voice.
"Rekessa Lynn Colyns." I answered.
"Oh, you." She gave me a look of sympathy. "Honey, don't you worry about a thing. You're in heaven now, so you don't have anything to worry about, okay?" She said sounding motherly.
"O-okay." I replied.
I hadn't noticed before, but I had felt nervous. This was something completely new, and even if this was heaven, I was still nervous; I mean, I'm all alone! The window then disappeared, and the lady was standing in front of me, smiling.
"Well, we need to get you set up, Miss Colyns." She said.
This confused me. "Set me up? Where? What do you mean," I glanced at her name tag. It said 'Grandma'. "Grandma?"
She smiled, obviously, a lot of people besides me thought it was kind of weird that her name was 'Grandma'. "Well, we need to get you a roommate, and we need to show you around, Rekessa." Grandma said.
A roommate? "Okay?" I said. I didn't know what the heck was gonna happen now but I knew it would be weird.
Grandma grabbed my hand and led me through a door a few feet away. When did a door get here?
On the other side was what looked like an apartment building complex lobby. Grandma walked up to the front desk, where a short guy in a sweater vest stood.
"Hello, can I help you today, Grandma?" He asked with a huge, toothy smile.
Grandma smiled. "Yes, thank you, Thomas."
"What can I do for you today?"He asked Grandma.
"We got the Colyns' girl today, Thomas. She needs a roommate." She answered.
He smiled at me. "Leukemia, right?" He asked. I nodded. "Oh, and you're so young, too. Okay, well I'll find you a place to stay don't worry. It may take a little bit, so you and Grandma can go sit down if you want while I find you a roomie." He smiled, and Grandma and I went to sit down in the plastic chairs across the room.
I turned to Grandma. "Grandma?"
She turned to look at me. "Yes, Rekessa?" She smiled.
"What is this place? Why do I need an apartment? If we're...dead, why do we need a place to sleep and live...?" I asked.
She smiled, again. "Rekessa, heaven isn't just a place in the sky you go when you die. It's a different world; a place where you continue to live after your life on Earth has ended. It's a place where you continue living, after you've died. Everything on Earth is the same here, except there aren't any bad people, or diseases, or anything bad at all. Everyone is taken care of, and you can do anything you want-as long as it doesn't harm anyone on purpose-and if you get tired of heaven, you can always go through The Door." Grandma explained.
"Well, can I watch my family on Earth? Is that part right, that I can watch over people? And what's 'The Door'?" I asked.
"Yes, Rekessa, you can watch over your family and friends. We give everyone here a special laptop that you can use to see whats happening to your loved ones on Earth. We'll get you one when you get settled in your apartment." She smiled at me warmly.
"Oh, okay, but what's 'The Door' you were talking about?" I asked genuinely curious.
"'The Door' is a large, glowing door that appears when you want it to the most. When you go through it, you get reincarnated into someone on Earth, but once you go through it, you can't come back until you die in your new life. Going through The Door is a very big decision for those who have put down roots here in heaven, but for others it's an easy decision. I would try it out here first, though, Rekessa, just so you can see if you want to go back to Earth or not. Look at me! I've been in heaven, showing people around for ages and I'm perfectly happy." Grandma said.
I thought about everything she said for a moment, weighing the pros and cons of each choice. I couldn't find anything wrong with heaven, so I decided that I would stay in heaven, for a while anyway. Then something formed in my mind.
"Grandma? Would I remember any of my life if I went through The Door?" I asked.
"No, I'm sorry, Rekessa, but the answer is no most of the time. Once in a while someone who goes through The Door can remember their last life, but it's very rare. Then, almost all the time, when someone goes through The Door, throughout their new life, they get Deja vu, which is really just a memory that comes up from one of your past lives when you do something that you've done in one of your past lives. Would you like to go through The Door, Hun?" She asked.
I shook my head. "Not right now, anyway, thank you, but I really just want to try living here for a while and watch my family and friends on Earth before I decide I want to be reincarnated." I answered slowly.
"That's good, because I have your room ready." Thomas said from his place behind his desk.
"You can go and get you're key, and I'll show you to your room." Grandma said.
I nodded and went to go get my key, and Grandma followed. I got to the front desk and Thomas gave me a small key and told me my apartment was room 638 on the fourth floor. Grandma said she knew exactly where that was and led me toward an elevator. We pressed the 4 key and it lit up. A few minutes later, we were walking down the hall looking for room 638. Grandma looked straight ahead, but I kept looking at each door, even though I knew Grandma knew where we were going. Finally, towards the end of the hall, there it was. Room 638. I suddenly got nervous. They had said I was getting roommates. What if they were mean? What if they didn't like me? I pushed my fears out of my head. This was heaven, how bad could my roomies be?
Grandma gave me a reassuring smile and that made me feel a little bit better as we knocked on the door. Then the door opened and three people were standing in the doorway.
My roommates.
Hey! the 1st 3 people who review this get a roommate named after them!
PLEASE REVIEW PEOPLE IT WOULD MAKE ME REALLY HAPPY!
