Chapter 3
Unknown Dimension
I had wandered over to the window seal and watched the rain wash down. Sam hovered next to me.
"But…how can you be dead if you're not even born yet?" I asked quietly, not wanting to wake Jim.
"I have been born. I am from the future, and I was sent here to warn you," he explained.
"What age did you die?" I asked, the words seeming to cut a hole into my chest.
"Fifteen," he answered. My head snapped up to look at him and my brows furrowed. He didn't look fifteen. He looks as though he was in his mid-twenties.
"But you don't look fifteen," I insisted. "Your ghost is supposed to look like how you died," I said, furrowing my brows farther.
He stared at me and then looked down.
"This is going to be a lot to take in, but please just keep an open mind," he asked, looking back up at me.
"I have been through enough, my mind is wide open," I told him, smiling slightly.
He sighed before he began.
"There is a middle parallel between life and death. It's called the Unknown Dimension. In this place, ghosts can age for thirty years until they have hit their max growth. Ghosts who have died but need to return to the past to warn someone live in this dimension until it's their time to leave," he explained slowly, making sure I understood everything.
"What do you mean by leave?" I asked, still staring at him.
"Ghosts like me exit the Unknown Dimension and return to the living parallel to warn whoever they need to warn," he told me. "In my case, it's you. We can't go to the dead parallel until we have given our warnings," he said. I hadn't realized that he had stopped talking.
"Well, since you have warned me, are you able to go into the light?" I asked, looking back out the window.
I heard him laugh slightly. "It follows me around everywhere ever since I first told you in that store. I see our family waiting for me," he said. But, suddenly his voice fell into sadness. "I can see everyone but you waiting for me and I am so confused because of that. I was told that you were going to die giving child birth but for the future light, you're not in it," he said, going quiet.
"Does that mean that I don't die?" I asked, sort of hopeful.
"The warnings are always accurate. You die, but it could be for only a short while before you are brought back. I am not completely sure, but I have put a lot of thought into it."
"I have one more question. You said you died at age fifteen…is that really going to happen? If I stay alive?"
"Mom, it's my fate to die. Nothing can stop that from happening," he told me. I nodded slowly.
"How?"
"It was a complete accident. I was going on a boys scout camping trip and I left by myself to the river early morning to do some fishing. I hadn't seen the bear until it was too late. I was shoved into the river and I hit a rock at the bottom. I didn't feel anything as I drowned, I just woke up in the light," he explained.
For some reason, I could picture it perfectly. I could see Sam at age fifteen standing at the edge of a river and a large grizzly coming up behind him. I shook my head and deleted the memory before I could watch him die.
I brought my legs up to rest my head on my knees. I realized that if I died, there was no way I could save Sam from dying also. Jim would be left here alone on this planet. And what if I couldn't cross over? There was no one else here that could help me.
The very thought of Jim's pain inflicted enough pain on me to know how it would feel for him.
"You need to cross over, Sam," I told him, not exactly sure if he was still there.
"I can't just leave you here," he said, appearing next to me on the bench.
"You're not leaving me, you're right here." I curled my hands around my stomach and smiled. "Soon, I'll be the one leaving you," I teased, looking back out the window.
He didn't seem to take it as a joke. I looked over at him and his back was turned.
"I guess I'll see you soon, mom," he said. He looked back at me then at Jim before he vanished into the light.
I sighed and sat on the bench for a moment. Then, I stood up and returned to my bed.
That night, I had a nightmare of Sam. I dreamt about the scene of his death over and over. Every time I woke and drifted to sleep again, it replayed in my head like a movie.
Soon, when it was six o' clock in the morning, I gave up on sleep.
There had to be a way to change fate.