Thanks to Umbrella0326 and Maleeha x for reviewing
So… as I'm writing this it's the last day of November. I had wished to update this a bit earlier as November is Epilepsy awareness month. But I'm having the craziest writer's block ever and I hope you like this.
As I'm writing this it's December. I can spend ages on every chapter that I make…
Thinking about what day it is that I'm finishing this… happy holidays.
So, meanwhile. Here's the next chapter.
"We thought it would be okay if Ned, Delia and Rick came over for dinner tomorrow." I told Jim as he stood making dinner, the day after I had started flinching so bad I had spilled out the water. "Then, just as you know- you make the best food rather than Chinese… or anything else really."
"Is Ned coming home from school."
"Yes. But even he prefers your food over everything." Jim smirked confidently. "Is that a yes?"
"Of course." He leaned over and kissed my forehead. "I will think of something. For now- and dinner today. Can you start with chopping these onions?" He laid some onions on the kitchen counter and pulled out a knife from a drawer. "I just have to go change."
I took the knife and started chopping while my husband disappeared out of the room and I heard his footsteps continuing up the stairs. I turned back to the onions and wondered about what on earth I could do for my eyes to stop burning.
Then there came another part of this…
Suddenly I felt my whole body tense and flinch. It was so fast I could barely react to it. But I dropped the knife that fell with a bang to the floor. And it was just as I looked down to pick it up again that someone standing in the doorway caught my eye…
Frankie!
Or was it? We had never really gotten it confirmed that it was her…
I didn't have the chance to say a single word to her before I suddenly felt each of my muscles go limp and I fell down towards the floor.
I tried to sit up again, or do anything at all. But it was all made impossible when I felt my arms and legs- no, my whole body twisting and turning and shaking way more than I could have ever controlled it.
"J-J- JIM- IM."
I couldn't help the stuttering while the convulsions ran through my body.
"MEL?"
He came running into the kitchen and threw himself on his knees beside me. I would have wanted to say something at all, tell him that it that it didn't hurt- it didn't hurt. But I couldn't control my own limps and this made me afraid!
"It's okay." Jim said tenderly and for a reason unknown to me he grabbed my shirt and pulled it so I rolled over towards him. "It's just a seizure."
This was a seizure?
This feeling of having lost all control of my body was a seizure?
It wasn't like anything I had been through before and it wasn't like anything I could have ever imagined. That feeling of completely having lost control of my whole body. I tried to relax but that just made it worse. I tried to tense and hold still everything but it just wasn't possible…
Everything I could do was move my eyes and look straight into Jim's…
"It's okay." Jim soothed and stroke my hair on the side. "It's okay."
Then at last, all of a sudden the shaking stopped and I was left panting and every single muscle of my body suddenly relaxed and I was laid lax towards the floor.
"It's okay." He stroke my hair again while I tried to take deep breaths after the other. "Do you know who I am?"
"Jim."
My voice was weak and it was just barely I could squeeze the one word out. Still I couldn't understand- still knowing that if I ahd been completely out of everything I could never have been able to answer…
"Can you tell me your birthday?"
"January 27th."
Jim moved, I wanted to tell him not to but before I got the chance he had laid his arm under my back and half lifted me up from the floor. I still held my vision towards the dark- skinned girl a few meters away from us and waited, taking deep breaths until I was sure my voice was steady enough.
"Are you Frankie?"
The girl waited, and then she nodded slightly. Of course it was a relief at least knowing who she was- it always was even though it would usually take a while longer to figure who they were and what they wished for me to help them with.
I sniveled and leaned my head against Jim's chest, the onions and knife were forgotten…
"Is she still here?" Jim asked and I nodded. "Look! I don't know who you are and I don't know what you want to say. But whatever it is. Just say it and stop hurting my wife like you are."
The girl, whom already stood by the door only looked back at me looked back towards the door and disappeared, half a second later I saw her reappear outside the door.
I sighed heavily and forced myself onto my feet. I leaned against Jim for a second then slowly leaned away and took a couple of steps away.
"Mel…" Jim didn't let go of my arm. "This… maybe this is a spirit you wo… you shouldn't help… Not if she keeps causing…" He gestured, I knew what he meant.
"I have to." I didn't like the moments when I tried talking Jim into that I was doing something that wouldn't hurt anyone when we both knew that was what I was doing. "I have to… I'll be careful."
Yeah right! I would never be careful if ignoring safety was what I was doing to help a… spirit.
At least this one still stood on our porch…
"Why won't you talk to me?"
It was first when she let me come closer when I noticed she had a large bruise and open wound on the side of her head, almost covered by her head and her hair clumpy with blood.
"What happened to you?"
"Epilepsy happened to me."
"That seizure I had… was that what you died from."
"That wasn't a seizure." Frankie snorted at me. "If you had one you wouldn't be able to remember it. Your tongue would be bleeding and swollen to twice its size and you'd be knocked out for the rest of the day."
I couldn't figure anything to say…
"Is there any reason for you to have stayed behind? Should I go talk to your brother and leave a message…"
"My life's biggest purpose was one single thing…" Frankie seemed weird and I felt weirdly satisfied when it seemed that she opened up. "To spread awareness about Epilepsy and everything it can do… but it's not that simple…"
"Maybe if you tell me- I can tell it to someone else… Maybe to someone who cares."
Frankie sighed and rolled her eyes.
"They won't though. They'll look all distressed when you tell them you've had a seizure. Sometimes they'll listen if you tell them you're trying to spread more about it but… the rest of the time they just won't care."
"I'll listen… if you just give me a chance."
"How can I trust that? How can I trust you will listen any more than what people have so far in my life…"
Frankie stopped and realized what she had just said.
"It's just complicated, alright?"
"So are a lot of things people tell me."
Frankie rolled her eyes at me again. Should have known. Teenagers!
No matter how many times I had done his it never stopped breaking my heart when the spirits had been so young. Children, teenagers who had their whole lives ahead of them until all of a sudden…
Then of course, those were a big part of the spirits who came for my help- people who had died from old age after
Then something led until the look Frankie gave me before she looked away and then disappeared.
Random fact
I'm always knocked out after a seizure so I don't know if how Melinda experienced the "seizure" is correct. But it sounded right.
