CHAPTER NINE

Signs

Chapter 8 was pretty alright for reviews. Thanks to the following reviewers:

Aunna

DrowningFromTheInside

Alexisle97

Thank you guys! You guys are very supportive in this story and I will continue til the very end! :D Oh, I keep forgetting to put disclaimers in my chapters. For all the past chapters, I DO NOT OWN The Outsiders. Only S.E. Hinton does.

::Signs::

I remembered the night of the rumble. When Johnny died and told me to "Stay gold." I was emotionless but Dally had pulled to the extreme; suicide. A tough hood like him had gone far and pulled a gun out, that wasn't loaded, and made the fuzz shoot at him.

I had a nightmare about the night they died.

"It's not loaded!" I shouted. I was running with the gang on the damp pavement. I saw Dally whip out his gun from his waistband. Why did he have to be so stupid? I panted as I heard Two bit shout,

"He's just a kid!" but the policemen's guns spit fire into the night and Dally was jerked around, making him fall to the ground. His body crumpled up and he gasped a bit. My body was feeling woozy and I heard Steve choke on a sob, Soda having to hold him back.

"P-Pony," I heard him manage my name out before he rolled over onto his back, blood pouring from his wounds and his mouth, and he died. I was suddenly being in third person. I saw me and the others. Dally's dead body on the ground and Darry yelling at the cops.

A bright light shined on Dally's body; a white light. The angel's reached out to him. Not only angels, Angels that were my mom and dad. Dallas had gone to heaven; not hell like most people think greasers like him would particularly go. I watched as my mom and dad pulled him up to heaven, where they were waiting for him. I noticed Johnny wasn't there.

But why?

I looked around and saw him.

He was standing in the background with a disappointed, sour look on his face. Why didn't he go where my mom and dad were? Where the angels were where he was safe. I didn't understand, even in my dreams I didn't understand. It made no sense to me.

"Ponyboy wake up." I heard Soda's voice ringing in my ear and I shook my head trying to get his annoying voice out of my head. I felt drowsy and shut my eyes, wondering where I'd wake up next.

"Ponyboy wake up!" Soda's voice shouted in a whisper and my eyes shot open. I narrowed my eyes at him annoyed and he grinned. It was dark out and still raining. I wanted to ask him why he would wake me but then I remembered; I was the mute kid around the house. Why start talking now?

Sodapop understood the look on my face and he answered for me,

"Dinner's ready!" he chirped before running out of the room and crashing into Steve, who had him in a headlock.

"Steve!" I heard Soda whine and I quietly laughed. I looked around and paused. I didn't hear anything or feel anything unusual. I shrugged before getting up and walking out to the dining room where dinner was waiting for me.

"Hey Pone," Darry said with a weak but hopeful smile. He was hoping I'd say something back but I didn't. He sighed a bit and I sat down to start eating. It was quiet in my mind as I ate but everyone was talking and chit chatting away. Soda and Darry would glance at me every now and then as I ate but I ignored their concerned glances. I was fine.

It then occurred to me I wanted to tell them where Dally went. He was in heaven where mom and dad, were. I got up and got a piece of paper and pen and scribbled down something on it,

Dallas is in heaven.

The gang looked at me funny and Two bit raised an eyebrow.

"How do you know that?" Two bit asked. I sighed and scribbled down again.

I saw it in a dream. The night he died. I saw his soul be taken by mom and dad to heaven.

Soda was quiet as was Darry and Steve and Two bit didn't have any remarks about that. Darry and Soda knew I was serious when I came to my dreams and nightmares; especially when they were about Johnny and Dallas.

The rest of dinner was quiet except for the sound of rain outside. Sounds of thunder and flashes of lightning occasionally occurred but that was it. I was reading a book in my room when Sodapop came in.

"Hey kiddo." He said getting ready for bed. I gave him a nod and went back to my book. I sighed a bit as I read. He took a seat next to me on the bed.

"Watcha readin'?" he asked trying to get me to talk. I showed him the book and he nodded with a sigh.

"Ponyboy why won't you talk? I don't understand." He said with a sad sigh. I frowned. I hated whenever one of the gang asked me why I wouldn't talk.

"B-Because…I just can't." I whispered feeling tears brim in my eyes. Soda wrapped his arm around me and pulled me close, wishing he could understand. He was only my brother after all. And sometimes he can't understand everything.

That night as I slept I had another nightmare, only this one, was different…

Johnny was alive.

We were at the church on the first day but something was different. I looked around sensing something not right.

"What's wrong Ponyboy?" Johnny asked me with innocent eyes. Pain free and relaxed. He didn't look angry or as if he didn't want to shout at me and blame me for his death like my last nightmare.

I shook a bit and felt something trickle down the side of my skull. My hand gently lifted up to the side of my head and gently felt what the liquid was. My fingers pulled back and I gasped. Blood! Nausea over whelmed me and I wondered where in the world it came from. No one had hit me. Johnny wouldn't dare lay a hand on me or hit me or punch me. I wasn't mean to him.

"Johnnycakes what's going on?" My voice slurred and I felt dizzy. My eyes squeezed shut and when they opened I was in a graveyard. I didn't like the looks of this at all. I trembled and my head pounded as I inched forward. I saw four graves and I looked at them carefully

Here lays the Curtis Family:

Mary Curtis

James Curtis

Darrel Shaynne Curtis Jr.

Sodapop Patrick Curtis

I swallowed hard. What were my brothers doing in graves? I turned and gasped.

Here lay the bodies of:

Steve Randle

Keith 'Two bit' Matthews

Why were my friends in graves? Why was everyone dead? My head pounded and I felt like I was going to be sick.

"This is what happens, Ponyboy." Johnny's rough voice interrupted my train of thought. "To those who don't make it to the place that is considered safe and where they say god is." Johnny's faded ghost appeared in front of me. He looked almost alive but yet, he wasn't. His hair was greased up and he still looked the same – but there was pain in his eyes. He was still the same, Johnny Cade we all knew.

"We stay in the cemetery, haunting the grounds of Tulsa. Trying to find the light and make our way back." I shivered.

"Why didn't you find the light Johnny?" I asked him trembling as a cold wind blew in the cemetery. Wait can I really shiver in dreams? He glared at me angrily.

"Because! I just couldn't!" he shouted angry, tears brimming in his eyes. Ghosts could cry. Even poor, little old Johnny could still cry, even when dead.

Why? Because god had let him.

"A-And you hang around our house? But, shouldn't you stay in the cemetery? Or maybe even in the hospital? Where you died? You might find the light there!" I suggested maybe giving him some hope. Johnny's dark orbs just filled with anger that flared like a match.

"No." he said darkly, a voice so dark that his voice couldn't even be recognized as Johnny's.

"No?" he nodded.

"It'll find me." He said and sighed. Johnny looked at me with calm, swift eyes.

"When the time comes, it'll find me and I won't be a bother." He said. Everything started turning white and I squinted before starting to sweat like a storm and a bright light flashed.