Chapter 4: The Longest Day

Laura Andrews

I squinted at the clock in utter pain, "Hangovers suck…" My pager went off for probably the third time, "I'm late…Thank you Jack Daniels." I saluted him from my comfy bed. My brain didn't remember much from last night, but I don't think there was a lot to remember. The cold shower seemed enough to keep alert and coffee was going to do the job while I got to work. No sun today, probably the only thing I had going for me since New York is such a loud city. Car horns and angry people were crushing my skull with a pounding headache. Was it the Jack or the cancer? It didn't matter.

"Someone partied hard last night," Carlos smiled seeing me arrive, "I paged you four times, you're lucky I covered for you."

"Oh yes…very lucky girl. Thank you Carlos." I hopped in the ambulance and we started our route. We got our first call to a fire at some nearby high school so we started rushing to arrive on the scene. I looked up from the radio and saw truck lights, "Carlos truck!" I yelled but he didn't have time to react since he was checking oncoming traffic from the left and figured anyone in front of us in the intersection would see the lights or hear the siren. It hit us on the front driver side …I probably would have been fine if I had been wearing my seatbelt…but I rarely did in the bus since we had to jump out to rescue people. I could hear the breaking of the windshield as I went through it then landed with my right arm on the pavement. Warm blood came from my head and dripped down my face. I didn't dare move my arm since I knew that it was broken. Oddly enough the first thing I did was wiggle my toes…yup still moving, at least I wasn't paralyzed. My right eye was swollen closed but I could see out of my left…the driver of the truck's arm was hanging out the window. "I need to help him…" I groaned.

Carlos was on his radio for backup and reported the accident before running over to me, "Laura can you hear me? Goddamnit, why didn't you have your seatbelt on?" He left me to get some things from the bus; I closed my eyes for just a minute to rest.

When I opened them I wasn't on the ground anymore…in fact when I looked around everything seemed the same.

A hand was placed on my shoulder, "don't be afraid…" Turning around I saw a man who looked sorta like a cleaned up Johnny Depp.

"Who the hell are you?"

He laughed, "Very entertaining…Laura I'm your father." I gave him a strange look, and patted myself down…I didn't feel dead, I poked him and he seemed real. "You're right…this is bad timing but with your impending death and all it seemed perfect don't you think?" he laughed again making me wonder if this was Hell.

"Impending death?" I turned away from him and realized that we were a few feet away from the intersection. A second ambulance had just arrived and Carlos was trying to resuscitate me. "What's going on here? You aren't my father…he's some drunk living in a motel in Tucson."

The man shook his head slowly, "Lies to protect you my dear…soon you will learn the whole truth, but we have much more important things to deal with right now. For instance your calling, you are meant to do a lot more than what you have become."

I folded my arms, "I'm dying and you wanna talk about what I'm meant to do and my calling? Hello….isn't this the end of the road? I think you're a little late, whoever the hell you are."

"Ah, attitude. I like it. You get that from me as well. But you're right and you are wrong. Truth is you are dying, but I'm not going to let that happen just yet. See I have an important task for you…well its more than a task, it's a job. It won't be easy but I think you're ready for it. Give me your hands."

I had no choice really but to do what the mysterious creepy guy said, "What kind of job? Who are you?"

He grinned and took his hands in mine, they were cold. "I'm your father…and I am also Death. Now you will use these abilities I give you to collect souls for me. A device I have placed in your apartment will tell you who, where and where. With the touch of your hands you will bring death to them and their soul, separating it from their body. Now go...before it's too late."

I was in shock. Complete shock and wanted to ask more but he pushed me back with a lot of force and I woke up back in my body.

"We got her back!" Carlos announced and I put my hand on his arm to get up. Just a few seconds after touching him he fell over cold and not moving.

"Carlos?" I sat up and moved over to him, his eyes were glassed over and he had no pulse. The other team started helping him but they couldn't bring him back…They determined he must have had internal bleeding from the accident.

Looking at my hands I knew the true story…I killed him, with this power I have now. "I'm fine…" I responded as they were trying to get me into the ambulance. "Let me go!" I growled not wanting to touch anyone by accident. Standing up I grabbed my bag and took off running down the street to my apartment. I was going to grab my stuff and get away from here. They would all just think I was madly insane…even I didn't understand what the hell was going on yet.

I could hear one of them chasing after me, but he quickly ran out of breath and gave up, "She'll be back…" he reasoned with himself. I knew I couldn't go back…never…How would I treat patients if my touch killed them? Was there a way to turn this off?

I went back to my place and started packing a bag. "Damn" I cursed feeling light headed. Opening the medical bag I started treating my head wound…but then I realized something I hadn't before, "My arm, it's not broken anymore?" Moving it around I saw that it wasn't broken and I was in no pain. Brushing this off, I cleaned up the mess of dried blood and did a couple stitches, I started feeling better. It's possible that I got out of there just in time since I could hear a buddy of mine entering as I left through another door. Where was I going though? It had to be some place cheap till I could figure out what's going on.

I reached into my bag for my wallet but pulled out a phone, "I don't have a phone…" thinking back I remembered grabbing it from my kitchen table. When I turned it on there were two messages from "dad". "This is so messed up." The first message had a guy on it and I didn't really recognize him, but as I looked harder he became familiar. "That's the bus guy on 14th." I closed the phone and checked into the motel that was a few streets down. I used a fake name to make sure no one could find me there. Sitting on the bed I turned on the TV; the news was showing a report of a bus crash claiming the life of the driver. My blood went cold seeing the same face of the guy from the phone, "What the hell!" I rushed over to the phone and turned it back on. "I was supposed to take his soul?" When I opened the second message a picture of a little girl smiled at me, "No…no I can't do this." I dropped the phone and started crushing it with my shoe.

When I returned to the bed and I reached for the channel changer but instead picked up a phone...My eyes looked at it in horror. "I just crushed this phone into a million pieces! How in the world can this happen?" My eyes then darted to the closet hearing my name. Quickly I got up and headed into the bathroom with a knife, closing and locking the door behind me… someone was in there calling my name. Sitting in the bathtub I was scared out of my mind, "Who's there?" I said but it said nothing.

Then Carlos appeared in front of the door, I raised my knife up, "Get out of my room!" Carlos frowned and I realized Carlos was dead…he was some kind of ghost. "Go away!" I shouted from my frozen position and it disappeared through the door. "Why is all this happening to me?" I cried curling up in the tub and kept the knife close to me. I had taken the knife from my apartment for protection since I didn't own a gun, but I never expected to be so happy to have it. "This shouldn't be happening…I should be dead, that's the balance and I've screwed it up…that is what's happening here. I need to right the wrong."