Story:

Drabble story. Death was only the beginning, being trapped between heaven and hell is a whole other story. OCx?

Authors note:

Thanks for the follows and the review! :) I've been writing this while being horribly distracted so I didn't get it up as fast as I originally planned.

Beyond the Looking Glass

Chapter 2: Beyond Birthday

Time didn't really quite matter anymore, I died probably three hours before? But time in death was a lot slower- or we just moved a lot faster. It felt like I was awake at least 24 hours now. The man in the hospital room, introduced himself as B. Or Beyond Birthday. He was yes, quite pale. I could swear I recognized him. But he clearly did not know me, so obviously we had not met. I haven't seen him on TV at all either I was sure. I think I'd remember such a weird man.

When he walked around the room to look around for something he wanted to show me, he walked on all fours like a monkey. He couldn't find whatever it was, and walked around like a normal human being after giving his head a good scratch. Of course I found him to be a little amusing, and it was helping me get used to the new environment.

"Hmm." He glanced at me breifly. "Still don't remember?" He was referring to my name, at this point I seemed to be nameless. When I died I'm not sure what happened but a lot of my memories had holes. All I could do was shake my head to the question. "Hmm.. I see. Perhaps until then I'll call you—" He paused breifly, "Rue."

"Rue?" I repeated with a head tilt to one side.

"It's far better than most names, I even took it upon myself at one time." He gave a slight smile— at least it appeared as one. Even if it was just a slight tug at the corners, but immediatly he fell back into a very blank expression. "I think we should get moving don't you Rue?"

I was unsure of the name itself but he seemed to want it to stick to me, I didn't argue with it but it was weird I was to be nameless.

Have you never gotten the feeling of being watched, well it was today I had come to know where the feeling came from. The living and the dead were not too far from each other. It was almost like a very thin layer of skin between these two worlds as a good way to explain it, and knowing this made everything a whole lot creepier.

Every one in a while I would see a white silhouette, and normally it would be much clearer if it was standing still. From what I learned from B, the easiest way to freak someone out was to stand still yourself and try to make eye contact with them. Succeed in that and you'll start to materialize. I know it probably delivered one of the scariest moments in a persons life. But oddly enough it was a very unique experience when your dead. It almost feels like your given a false hope of being alive again. The closer you get to the person the more the world of the living materializes, but always you hit a barrier, and in the blink of an eye the world of the dead returns. Even though the skin seperating is thin, it's very strong, and pushing on it long enough will send you flying backwards- Well not literally.

I'm not certain as to how long I was with B but after a while it felt like ages, and the more I watched him interact with the enviroment. The more wicked the man seemed to become to me. Of course he didn't act this way to me, in fact he was rather indifferent with me.

I didn't realize it at the time in fact, It was when I unknowingly began to trust him did I begin to realize how fragile this realm was. Or for a better way to put it, how fragile a spirit is to another. Say for example that first ghost I came across that gave me chase. It could pass through any object that I could not. If it had reached me I'd become trapped in a very deadly cycle of a residual (like replaying a video over and over) haunting. Which probably meant suffer from a death over and over for the rest of eternity.

Now with Beyond, a much stronger entity than me. He was gaining a very deadly grip on me without my knowledge. The longer you spend time with another spirit the harder it will be to avoid them. Mind you I wasn't trying to avoid B but after months (living world time, so it felt more like a year). It was impossible to be alone for one moment. If I left a room B would be in the next room. I'm not sure how he did it sometimes, because I have escaped through a door before it completely closed seperating us— But avoiding him was impossible.

"Rue, do you see that book by you?" B pointed across the hospital waiting room one day. There was a book on the seat next to me, a three hundred page hard cover book. I couldn't make out the title at all. But when I returned my gaze to B I froze— his eyes had turned red. I knew we were both dead and all but the sudden red eye contact was terrifying, I completely froze. "What's wrong Rue?" He cocked his head innocently to one side.

Thankfully it broke me from that sudden fear, "Uh— what about the book B?"

"Can you toss it to me? It was just put down, and I wouldn't mind reading something new." He gave one of those very rare smiles in order to reassure me it was ok. But those red eyes made him menacing. I lifted it and threw it partly to please him, and also so I could avoid those eyes. The book though— it never reached him and ricocheted off of what appeared to be an invisible wall. However the brief coloration proved otherwise.

Now when throwing or moving something, it moved ten times faster in the living realm, and I didn't want to imagine how painful that book hit was. It was around that time I learned that B could see the living much better than me. He could read the names, and lifespans of them, and because there was an invisible presence of a living being between us, his eyes appeared red, instead of the usual dark grey. This was something though that was only related to the living.

But it was the one act he tricked me into doing, hurting someone. It made me really begin to fear him a little, and at that point I realized just how close we had become (in a spirit sense). The more time I would spend with him the harder things were going to become later on. And what was on Beyond Birthdays agenda... I personally hoped I wouldn't find out.

next chapter will be up soon!