Okay my friends, this is the second chapter. You might have to read or re-read the first chapter to understand this one, just to say. Also, review if you want, and if you can, please be specific. That's all.
Chapter 2: A Ghost's Point of View
The Day Before...
"Angel Dumott Shunard?" said a slightly tan skinned man with short, dark hair, clad in white, with…wings and a halo carrying a thick, white binder under the crux of his arm. A real angel.
"Huh?" replied a man with lesions on his body and a pale complexion, in a hospital gown. He found himself sitting in an almost waiting room type of place. The room was colorful, there were many white doors all over the roon, and he was the only one there, other than the angel. He didn't know how he got there or anything before it. The angel smiled and walked towards him.
"Ah, Angel, hello. I'm Neil. I'm your guardian angel." The angel extended his hand out towards the man.
"…Huh? I don't understand, what's going on?" he hesitated to shake his hand.
"Well Angel…um…you're…dead, that is, your physical self is dead." Neil the angel said, with a bit of hesitation is his voice.
"What?" Angel was definitely confused; the last thing he remembered was him and Collins in the hospital and then nothing. Neil sighed.
"Why don't we take a walk?" Neil said. He led Angel to one of the doors and opened it. It revealed a long, white walkway. The traditional and peaceful atmosphere of clouds surrounded the path on the ground. "Okay, I'll say it again, I'm Neil. I'm your guardian angel. Well, at least I was when you were alive. You've been dead for ten months and I need to talk to you-" Neil got cut off.
"What're you talking about? I'm not dead, not for a long time." Angel replied, confident. Once again, Neil sighed again. He probably thinks this is a dream… Neil thought.
"Angel, look at yourself. You've been sick for years, and you can say whatever you want and deny it all, but the fact is…you're dead. You've been dead. Here," Neil said. He flipped to the end of the thick binder he was holding, took out a page, and gave it to Angel. "This page gives all the information of your death. You died on October 26th, 1990 at exactly 1:48 AM. You died of an pneumonia which was strengthened by your AIDS and your funeral was on October 31st."
Angel stopped and skimmed the page carefully. It gave so many details that people wouldn't even think to be in a...death report. He looked around the whole room, usually when he thinks he has a dream, he immediately wakes up, but in this, it seems too real. Maybe he is dead. After that realization, Angel went even paler than before.
"I'm...dead?" Angel whispered. He gripped the paper unknowingly and dropped it.
"Don't crumble that, that piece of paper is part of the profile on your entire life." Neil said, picking up the paper and trying to straighten it.
"My entire life?" Angel asked.
"Yes, every person's guardian angel is in charge to record every bit of information on that person throughout their whole life, it's important."
"Well, if you're my guardian angel, how come I had to wait ten months to talk to you?" Angel asked out of curiosity.
"We can't deal with every single person who dies every second; it's time consuming and it takes a lot of paperwork, so your soul had to stay in a suspended animation state until it was your turn for judgement. Well, actually, there was a period of time where your soul had escaped somehow and spoke to a…" Neil thought hard for a moment while putting the paper back in the binder. "Mimi Marquez I think, and that prevented her from dying last Christmas Eve, which is great, but we had to erase your memory of that because it didn't exactly count as a good deed since you were already dead at the time, but that's not important right now." Neil said, continuing to walk with Angel. What? Angel thought. I spoke to Mimi? Ugh, this is too confusing. Angel decided to stop trying to understanding and just listen.
"Okay..."
"Right now, you're here because there are some problems about giving you passage into Heaven, not that you've been a bad person, I mean, based on the information I gathered in your twenty-six years of life, I'd say that you definitely deserve to go to Heaven."
"Really?"
"Yes, in fact, from my point of view, you could be eligible to be a real angel." Angel was in awe of the idea of him being a real angel, just like his name.
"But...then what's the problem?" Angel asked that a little forcefully.
"It's about your ex-lover, Collins."
"Collins?" Angel stopped walking and Neil stopped. He nearly forgot about Collins the whole time he was talking to Neil. How was Collins doing with him gone? And what did he have to do with Angel not getting into Heaven?
"Yes, right now, he's having problems moving on with his life without you. You see, he was your soul mate, and part of your soul became his part of his soul became yours, and he refuses to let go of you and that part of your soul, instead of releasing it, like what should happen when you died. He's been in a state of deep grief for a long time. So, since he can't move on, you can't move on and that's the problem, I'm sorry." Neil sounded like he really did care about what would happen to Angel. Neil started walking along the path again and Angel followed.
"So, what can I do?" Angel didn't exactly know what to make of the situation. If he can't go to Heaven, would he go to Hell? Would something bad happen to Collins when he dies?
"Well, since you were a very kind person in life, you have been given the option of returning to earth, as a ghost. You have to let Collins know that he has to complete this greiving period, and you can only do that as a ghost." Angel stopped walking.
"That's all I have to do? Just talk to Collins?"
"Not exactly. You'd be back on Earth in the presence of Collins, but he won't be able see nor hear you. But, he would be able to see and hear the things might do because..." Neil put the binder in the crux of his arm again. "You're gonna become a poltergeist ghost. You can throw things, make noises, and do a lot of physical activity. But what you do is connected with your thoughts and emotions so you have to be careful, okay?"
"Yeah..." Angel wasn't sure how he could talk to Collins if he can't physically talk to him.
"Angel," Neil stopped and stood in front of Angel. "When you figure out how to do so, just tell Collins that he doesn't have to forget about you, but he has to complete this phase of his grief and move on, okay?. Now, if you really need anything, just pray. Don't be afraid to ask for help." Neil spoke very sincerely, which made Angel feel more comfortable.
"Okay. Thanks Neil." replied Angel. Neil nodded back and snapped his fingers.
An Instance Later...
Angel realized that Neil was gone, and he had been trasported to a familiar place. He was still in a hospital gown and was in an apartment, near night time. There were boxes of clothes, jewelry, and other things that he knows used to belong to him all over the place. And pictures of him…with Collins...and Mimi, Mark, Roger, Maureen, and Joanne. It was in his and Collins' apartment. He walked around the whole place; he can hardly remember the last time he's been here.
A figure slowly came out to the living room. The figure was tall, very dark-skinned, and had a sad look on his face. Collins…
"Collins!" Angel shouted. He didn't respond. "Collins!" Angel shouted again, no response. He hadn't changed his expression, he was still looking down, and walking towards Angel, but walked right through him after a few steps. "What?" Angel turned around when Collins passed through him. He was bewildered and looked down at himself. He was blue. Literally. But he was transparent. He really was a ghost.
When he looked up, Collins had a picture of him in his hands and was going into the bedroom and Angel followed tried to communicate. "Collins, I'm not sure if you can hear me, maybe you can subconsciously or something, but I need to tell you a lot and..." Collins didn't show any signs of acknowledgment. "Can't you hear me?" he was getting frustrated. He clenched his fists and his jaw in frustration and began to hear a loud, slow, pounding noise. THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! Collins physically reacted to the noise, but not too much. Angel was in awe as Collins had traveled to the kitchen and he was inviting everyone to comeover for pizza. "I'm gonna get to you somehow." Angel said, determined.
He saw the picture of himself on the nightstand and tried to grab it, but his hand just went through the picture. Oh, nice Angel, great idea, just grab the picture. He turned around, trying to calm down. Frustration was taking over again. It was harder than anticipated to keep control of his emotions as a ghost. He breathed deeply, and the picture, unbeknownst to him, was shutting face-down, then when he turned around again, he saw the picture in it's new position. Well, it's a start.
When Collins' returned to the room, he noticed the face-down picture and paused, but placed it back up like it was hardly anything, then he picked up a book and started to read. Angel knew it was a feeble choice to try to talk to Collins again. "I'm gonna show you that I'm here with my...awesome power." Angel focused his eyes and concentrated on his surroundings. He didn't know what he should do, but he saw his picture on the nightstand and decided to concentrate on that. Collins might see it as a sign and know who it's from. He tried to get it to float like he saw in movies about ghosts. It started to shake, and then it levitated, but it just slowly floated to the floor. Angel sighed in frustration. "Awesome power indeed…" he said with spiteful sarcasm.
Collins looked up after a minute and noticed that the picture wasn't on the nightstand and looked around the room until he finally looked on the ground and paused when he saw the picture on the floor and picked it up and took a deep breath. Then, there was a knock on the door. Both Collins and Angel jumped up and went to it.
In came Roger, Mark, and Mimi.
"Hey!" they all shouted.
"Hey guys, how you doin'?" asked Collins. Angel couldn't help but stare at his friends in sadness. They kept talking and went to the kitchen, and of course, they walked right through Angel and sat down.
"Mark, Roger, Mimi…" Angel whispered. They were right in front of him. He wanted to talk to them, to hug them, to be with them…but he couldn't. He could only watch and listen to them.
Angel could feel the intense sadness in his voice when they were talking about him, it pained him.
"Guys, I don't really wanna talk about Angel, it still hurts," Collins said. Collins…I hate seeing you this way. Angel was seriously tensing up again. "I'm just…I'm just never gonna get over her."CRASH! Everyone looked at the wine bottle that Mimi had brought over and saw that it had smashed. Shit… Angel thought, he had lost control again.
"What the hell?" Roger shouted. Collins started to pick the glass up. Angel really wished he could help clean it up, it was his fault. Collins suddenly recoiled in pain and screeched a bit while trying to pick up one of the pieces. It must've cut him.
"Collins!" Angel shouted. He started to rush towards Collins, but then remembered that he was a ghost. He couldn't do anything. Luckily, Mark went over to help.
"Mark, no! I got AIDS, remember?" Collins shouted at Mark.
"But Collins, you're hurt and don't worry, I'll be fine." Mark replied, defiantly. Angel was relieved to see the caring side of Mark again.
"No, just help pick these up, and I'll wrap my hand myself." Collins then went towards the bathroom, and Angel followed.
As Angel watched Collins wrap bandages around his hand, a thought occurred in Angel's mind. It was 8:40, Collins needs to take his AZT. I can't believe I still remember that. He saw the small prescription bottle on the sink and paused for a moment in thought, then he waved his hand in its direction. It started to shake a bit. He concentrated increasingly harder, just trying to move the damn thing, and slightly jerked his fingers to the right, and the bottle fell into the sink. "Yes!" Angel exclaimed. At least he did something right. Collins noticed the AZT bottle and looked at the clock next to the sink. He paused in deep confusion, but he took his pills and left the bathroom. Angel smiled at his small, yet progressive accomplishment.
He decided to stay in the bedroom after Collins left. After the little deed that was done from the bathroom, it gave motivation and encouragment to our ghost, but didn't give him any new ideas on how to complete his goal. It was just a matter of time and practice.
Angel went back into the kitchen and saw Mark, Roger, Mimi, and Collins talking.
"This is so awesome, there's a ghost here! I wonder if it's friendly." said Mimi. They know there's a ghost here already? Yes! One step closer.
"Well, Mimi, we don't know if it's really a ghost, and actually, poltergeists are mostly very angry ghosts, that's why they can throw stuff around." replied Mark.
"I'm not angry!" Angel shouted to Mark.
Collins inhaled deeply in nervousness.
"Sorry Collins, but it's true." said Mark.
Later...
"Good night Angel." Collins said to the picture of Angel.
"...Good night Collins." Angel said with a sigh. "I wish you could hear that."
A few hours later at 1:00 AM, Mark was spending the night on the couch and Collins was sleeping in his bed.
"It sucks being a ghost. You're not tired, you're not hungry, and you're just bored. Ugh, I'm starting talking to myself, no wonder ghosts are restless." Angel was indeed, bored. He could see everything with his ghost night vision, but he couldn't touch anything, or anyone, which means: nothing at all he can do to pass time.
He was in Collins' room, standing at the foot of the bed. Angel just stared longingly at Collins, still sadly dwelling on the fact that Collins couldn't even see or hear him. Angel, once again, was getting frustrated. In life, he had a very controllable temper, but under these conditions, it was too hard to keep anything under control.
"Ugh, why can't you see me? I need to get your attention." Angel just asked out of nowhere. He saw the picture of himself on Collins' nightstand. "I'm gonna have to be a bit forceful. Sorry, love." He waved his hand at the picture and concentrated hard on it. He just wanted to take the picture out, so he tried to carefully lifted it out of the frame, but he lost his mind-set for a split second and accidentally flung it at the wall. SMASH! Collins woke up and nearly jumped out of bed. "Oops." remarked Angel. "Ugh, why couldn't I have done something like that eariler today?" Once again, anger and frustration overcame. Loud noises were starting to come from the floors, the walls, the ceiling. It was like a beat Angel would perform on his pickle tub. TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP-TAP Collins was definitely frightened of the sudden noise.
Collins left the room, probably to wake Mark. Angel concentrated on the noise and made it stop, then breathed deeply. This is not what I had in mind...
Angel got out of the room and went to see what Mark and Collins were up to.
"Fine. Just tonight." he heard Mark say. He grabbed his pillow and blanket and headed into Collins' room. He passed through Angel and saw the broken picture frame and shattered glass on the floor. "Jeez, you weren't kidding, this is weird." He said. Collins then passed right through Angel and nodded at Mark. He picked up the frame and stuffed it in the drawer of his nightstand. Angel saw Mark and Collins getting into opposite sides of the bed.
"Night, Mark." said Collins.
"Whatever, Collins, just don't kick me." mumbled Mark.
Angel couldn't help but just laugh.