Afterlife
Some people know that they are going to die months or even years before they do. They get time to get themselves used to the idea. I didn't get that. I knew I was going to die of course, I just didn't think it was going to be this soon. One minute I was alive placing a gun to my own head and the next I had been shot in the stomach and had a matter of minutes to live. I suppose it sounds a bit stupid doesn't it, but every cell in my body was telling me that the gun against my head wasn't going to kill me, and it didn't. I never really thought about what would happen to me when I died, I suppose I believed in heaven. I think that was wrong, well it seems wrong at the moment anyway, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is wrong.
Before I died my life flashed before my eyes, like a slideshow; moments of happiness, sadness, my regrets and my proudest moments. A sense of calm and understanding spread over me and I felt myself leaving my body and moving to hover over Velvet, as he laid my lifeless body on the floor and took his anger out on everything possible. I felt my connection with my brother stronger than ever. I could feel exactly what he was feeling; it was like I was in some way him, although I could tell I was still me. It's hard to explain. Anyway on with the story.
I stayed with Velvet constantly for the next few days, trying my best to console him over my death. He didn't do much, he just slobbed around the house depressed until eventually, Fiery made him get off his ass and bury me. I watched as he dug the hole and gently laid my body in it. I watched the tears fall down is cheeks as he covered my body with the soil and marked the grave with a wooden cross. I was watching as the silent tears turned into great sobs, which wracked his whole body, and then I couldn't watch anymore, I had to do something. I moved until I was right next to him, and wrapped my arms around him as I had done so many times when we were both alive. He looked up, it almost made me jump. I hadn't expected a reaction.
"Rainbow?" "Velvet?" Velvet stood up and I moved to be in front of him. "Where are you?" "I'm right in front of you." "I can't see you." "Then close your eyes." I closed my own eyes as well hoping that the link that allowed me to feel what Velvet was feeling would work for him too. I searched somewhere deep inside my sole, the part that was Velvet and tried to show it where I was. "I can see you." "I've always been here Velvet. I just didn't know how to tell you." "I need your help now." "That's what I'm here for. I want revenge too."
I followed Velvet into the tree house and waited as he called Fiery over. When she got here Velvet began explaining to here what had happened.
"You've finally lost it Velvet." "No! You've got to believe us." The argument continued on and on until eventually I couldn't stand it anymore. I decided to stop it in the way I always had when I was alive. By turning the CD player on a loudly as possible. I turned the CD to track 18 and waited for the song to start.
A hand above the water An angel reaching for the sky Is it raining in heaven - Do you want us to cry?
And everywhere the broken hearted On every lonely avenue No-one could reach them No-one but you
One by One Only the good die young They're only flying too close to the sun And life goes on- Without you.
Another tricky situation I get to drown in the blues And I find myself thinking Well - what would you do?
Yes! It was such an operation Forever paying every due Hell - you made a sensation You found a way through - and
One by One Only the good die young They're only flying too close to the sun We'll remember - Forever.
And now the party must be over I guess we'll never understand The sense of you leaving Was it the way it was planned?
And so we grace another table And raise our glasses one more time There's a face at the window And I ain't never, never sayin' goodbye.
One by One Only the good die young They're only flying too close to the sun Cryin' for nothing Cryin' for no-one No-one but you
They listened in silence to the song and by the end of it they were both crying. It was only by chance that the song I put on was so relevant.
"Rainbow? Are you really here?" "Yes Fiery, I've always been here?" She didn't hear me, she couldn't. The look on her face staring blankly at the wall showed me. Velvet heard me though. "He says he's always been here." "How come you can hear him, but I can't?" "I don't know maybe it's a brother thing." "You don't realise how lucky you are. I would give anything to hear his voice again. He was my brother too." I walked over to Fiery and attempted to wipe away the tears from her face, put it didn't work. Now matter how hard I tried I couldn't touch her. "Can you see him?" Fiery asked Velvet. "Not in the normal sense of the word." "How do you mean?" "Well I know what he's feeling. I can tell what he's looking at and thinking. I know some of what's going on in his head." "Wait a sec. You know what's going on in that freaks head? Isn't that scary?" "I don't understand that much more of it than I did when he was alive, and I'm kinda used to getting scared by him. Owwww." Velvet stepped back in pain. "What happened?" Fiery asked with concern in her eyes. "Rainbow hit me." "He can touch you." Fiery looked around the room, obviously trying to spot me to talk to me. "Rainbow, can you touch me?" I said what I wanted to say and waited for Velvet to repeat it to Fiery. "He says, He wants to, he's tried but he can't." "Where is he?" "In front of you." She reached out her hands until they were exactly in my cheeks. I closed my eyes and tried to make some kind of link with her. I felt deep into myself until I found the part of me that belonged to Fiery. Once there I thought of exactly what I wanted to tell her. "It's strange. I can hear him talking to me but I can't tell what he's saying."
I left the room there going as far away from Velvet as I could, which was only a few metres before the link, like a piece of string between us, became tight preventing me from moving any further away. Then suddenly it began to pull me back into the room. "What the hell was that for?" I asked Velvet. "We want to start planning our revenge." "I'm gonna have to do something about you being able to force me back to you. I'm sure you must be abusing the power. Surely its like 911, you only call in an emergency." "I can control what you do. I'm sure the novelty will wear out in a few.decades." He began laughing out loud, and got a strange look from Fiery who hadn't heard any of our psychic conversation. "He's here." Velvet said out loud this time.
"Lets do this then." Velvet shouted and we stormed into the building. Velvet was holding Fiery's hand to guide her through the dark corridors, and I had no choice but to follow Velvet. It was midnight and we were carrying out the first part of our plan after hours of arguing. I was the main part of the plan, and so Fiery didn't need to be there, but she insisted. Velvet led me to the room where one of MF's main guys was sleeping. He and Fiery waited outside whilst I went in. I used all of my will power to be able to pick up his knife and prick his finger with it, praying he wouldn't wake up I used the blood coming from his finger to write a note to MF.
MF, You didn't really think you got rid of me that easily. Oh Yes I'm back and stronger than ever. Have you ever seen the film "The Crow"? I'm bringing it to life. Which death would you prefer? Rainbow.
I left the note by his bleeding finger and left. I stumbled out of the room and met Velvet and Fiery on the landing. We went home and Fiery went to bed. I was sitting up with Velvet in a comfy silence. Until he spoke. "What happened in the room?" "What do you mean?" "I can feel what you do bro. It felt different while you were in there and then tired when you came out." "I did exactly what we decided to do, it just took more out of me than I expected. Whenever I go to touch something I have to use all my will power and concentration." "What happened with Fiery then, how come you couldn't touch her?" "I feel to much when I think about her. When I want to touch you I do it differently to everything else. I have to find the part of me that links me to you and tell you that I'm touching you. With everything else I use you concentration to make my hands solid enough. I try to do that with Fiery and it won't work. I can't clear my mind enough. I try to do it the same way as I do with you and there is just a block. I can't get through to her." "I know you want to bro. I know she wants you to." "Yeah whatever, just go to sleep."
Have you ever had one of those nights when, as soon as you're about to fall asleep a thought comes into your head and wakes you up again? I had one of those nights. I was about to fall asleep when suddenly my brain came up with, ".But what if Velvet stops breathing in the middle of the night. You're supposed to watch over him." "Yeah whatever shut up." "Don't you tell me to shut up." "Hey I'm the one in charge here." "That's what you think." "Jeff?" "Yeah Matt." "Shut up. You're scaring me." "Oh sorry."
The next day we planned the next part of out revenge. We decided to do the same type of thing but to a different guy this time, but then once we had decided who we were going to do it to we changed our minds, he deserved something much worse. We set out, Fiery with us again, even though I didn't want her there. We arrived at the guy's house and camped outside until we saw the lights go off. We waited for another hour, to make sure he was definitely asleep. Velvet and Fiery waited at the bottom of the stairs whilst I crept up to his room. I was about to open the door when the link between Velvet and me began to pull me back. I sent a thought to him. "This isn't funny." "I'm not joking." I relaxed and allowed myself to be pulled back as quickly as possible. I crept into the room, wondering why I was creeping; I was a ghost like thing wasn't I? Once in the room, I immediately saw the problem, MF was there. "You know Velvet, you let me down?" "Oh darn." Velvet was in a sarcastic mood. "Careful what you say boy. I have your girl here." I looked over, suddenly aware of Fiery standing with a knife to her throat. "You wouldn't want her to follow your brother would you?" I stopped listening as an idea struck me; I sent it to Velvet who agreed. "How do you mean?" "I heard he cried like a baby as he died." "I heard he didn't die." "How do you figure that? I shot him." "My brother has always been very resilient." "His hair has don't you mean, or did that fall out as he died?" "I told you my brother isn't dead." "Where is he then?" "He's upstairs." I went upstairs using Velvet to listen to the conversation. "You've gone loopy." I knocked a bottle onto the floor. "He never could be too quiet." Velvet told me that MF had sent one of his men up to find me. I picked up the broken bottle and waited for him to enter the room. As soon as he did I hit him over the head with it and the tied him up in the bed covers before kicking him down the stairs. MF himself ran out to see what had happened and Velvet took the chance to free Fiery, next time MF would have to bring more men. Velvet held the knife to the man's throat and waited for MF to come back in he room. He entered dragging his man with him. "Damn," was all he said when he looked up. "So the tables have turned. Do you want your guy to live?" "Not particularly." "Neither do I." Velvet stated as he slit the guys throat and dropping him to the floor. I stood watching with my mouth wide open. I couldn't believe that Velvet would do that. It looked like MF couldn't believe what he had seen either because Velvet ran over to him and placed the knife at his throat before MF even moved. "Now, do YOU want to live?" MF's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. "Well.?" "Yes." The answer was barely audible. "Good answer." Velvet replied as he turned Mf to face him. "Now, are you sorry?" "I thought you said he wasn't dead." "His body is dead and to be frank, the personality left behind is annoying me."
"What's got into you bro? You're scaring me and Fiery." "Shut up." "What? You've changed bro." "Don't you want revenge?" "Not like this. Make him promise to change and leave it there." "He killed my brother." "He killed me, but I forgive him."
"Rainbow says he forgives you." MF stared at him. "Well aren't you going to thank him, for his forgiveness?" "Thank you." "What about Fiery, do you forgive him?" "Yes." She whispered almost inaudibly. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Velvet yelled at her. "STOP IT YOU'RE SCARING ME." She yelled back at him. "Poor little Fiery." He mocked. I ran over to Fiery and reached out for her arm. I didn't do it on purpose it was just a reaction, but it worked. She felt it and let me lead her out of the house.
"Later bro. You're on your own now." "You know what I'm gonna do now. I'm gonna tattoo "I'm sorry" across him forehead." I didn't reply, I just led Fiery home, the connection between Velvet and me was broken and I could leave him, so I did.
At home I put Fiery to bed and sat waiting, knowing Velvet would turn up soon. I was right, but it wasn't how I expected. He walked in looking defeated and could barely look at me. "I'm sorry bro." He whispered. "I let you down." He knelt down onto the floor and pulled the knife out for his belt. "Velvet what are you doing?" "I'm sorry Jeffro." "Don't." I tried to get to him but the link that once pulled us together now forced us apart. I could only watch as he forced the point of the knife into his own stomach, his face twisted with pain as his body doubled up. All of a sudden the wall blocking me out let me in and I ran to him. I held him as his body shook with the pain and the blood dripped out of his mouth. He looked up at me and tried to smile. "I let you down, I let Mom down, and now I've let Fiery down. I'm sorry." His eyes rolled back into his head. "NOOOOOOOOOO! You can't do this to me." I looked up as I heard footsteps and saw Fiery walking into the room looking sleepy. She looked up and saw Velvet, at once the sleepiness left her and she cried out with pain. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her. "I'm sorry, I couldn't stop him." She looked at me and nodded. "Come with me." I took her hand and led her through the streets. I led her to the hotel where I had died. Just as I had hoped Moongoose was still staying there. I knocked lightly on the door and turned to say goodbye to Fiery. I watched as Moongoose gently led her in not asking any questions, just knowing she needed help. Then I left.
I didn't know what I was supposed to do next, so I headed back to the tree house, where I found Matt waiting for me. "Come on Jeffro. Lets go." I followed him towards the light and then.well you'll just have to wait your turn, but I promise you, you'll love it.
Some people know that they are going to die months or even years before they do. They get time to get themselves used to the idea. I didn't get that. I knew I was going to die of course, I just didn't think it was going to be this soon. One minute I was alive placing a gun to my own head and the next I had been shot in the stomach and had a matter of minutes to live. I suppose it sounds a bit stupid doesn't it, but every cell in my body was telling me that the gun against my head wasn't going to kill me, and it didn't. I never really thought about what would happen to me when I died, I suppose I believed in heaven. I think that was wrong, well it seems wrong at the moment anyway, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is wrong.
Before I died my life flashed before my eyes, like a slideshow; moments of happiness, sadness, my regrets and my proudest moments. A sense of calm and understanding spread over me and I felt myself leaving my body and moving to hover over Velvet, as he laid my lifeless body on the floor and took his anger out on everything possible. I felt my connection with my brother stronger than ever. I could feel exactly what he was feeling; it was like I was in some way him, although I could tell I was still me. It's hard to explain. Anyway on with the story.
I stayed with Velvet constantly for the next few days, trying my best to console him over my death. He didn't do much, he just slobbed around the house depressed until eventually, Fiery made him get off his ass and bury me. I watched as he dug the hole and gently laid my body in it. I watched the tears fall down is cheeks as he covered my body with the soil and marked the grave with a wooden cross. I was watching as the silent tears turned into great sobs, which wracked his whole body, and then I couldn't watch anymore, I had to do something. I moved until I was right next to him, and wrapped my arms around him as I had done so many times when we were both alive. He looked up, it almost made me jump. I hadn't expected a reaction.
"Rainbow?" "Velvet?" Velvet stood up and I moved to be in front of him. "Where are you?" "I'm right in front of you." "I can't see you." "Then close your eyes." I closed my own eyes as well hoping that the link that allowed me to feel what Velvet was feeling would work for him too. I searched somewhere deep inside my sole, the part that was Velvet and tried to show it where I was. "I can see you." "I've always been here Velvet. I just didn't know how to tell you." "I need your help now." "That's what I'm here for. I want revenge too."
I followed Velvet into the tree house and waited as he called Fiery over. When she got here Velvet began explaining to here what had happened.
"You've finally lost it Velvet." "No! You've got to believe us." The argument continued on and on until eventually I couldn't stand it anymore. I decided to stop it in the way I always had when I was alive. By turning the CD player on a loudly as possible. I turned the CD to track 18 and waited for the song to start.
A hand above the water An angel reaching for the sky Is it raining in heaven - Do you want us to cry?
And everywhere the broken hearted On every lonely avenue No-one could reach them No-one but you
One by One Only the good die young They're only flying too close to the sun And life goes on- Without you.
Another tricky situation I get to drown in the blues And I find myself thinking Well - what would you do?
Yes! It was such an operation Forever paying every due Hell - you made a sensation You found a way through - and
One by One Only the good die young They're only flying too close to the sun We'll remember - Forever.
And now the party must be over I guess we'll never understand The sense of you leaving Was it the way it was planned?
And so we grace another table And raise our glasses one more time There's a face at the window And I ain't never, never sayin' goodbye.
One by One Only the good die young They're only flying too close to the sun Cryin' for nothing Cryin' for no-one No-one but you
They listened in silence to the song and by the end of it they were both crying. It was only by chance that the song I put on was so relevant.
"Rainbow? Are you really here?" "Yes Fiery, I've always been here?" She didn't hear me, she couldn't. The look on her face staring blankly at the wall showed me. Velvet heard me though. "He says he's always been here." "How come you can hear him, but I can't?" "I don't know maybe it's a brother thing." "You don't realise how lucky you are. I would give anything to hear his voice again. He was my brother too." I walked over to Fiery and attempted to wipe away the tears from her face, put it didn't work. Now matter how hard I tried I couldn't touch her. "Can you see him?" Fiery asked Velvet. "Not in the normal sense of the word." "How do you mean?" "Well I know what he's feeling. I can tell what he's looking at and thinking. I know some of what's going on in his head." "Wait a sec. You know what's going on in that freaks head? Isn't that scary?" "I don't understand that much more of it than I did when he was alive, and I'm kinda used to getting scared by him. Owwww." Velvet stepped back in pain. "What happened?" Fiery asked with concern in her eyes. "Rainbow hit me." "He can touch you." Fiery looked around the room, obviously trying to spot me to talk to me. "Rainbow, can you touch me?" I said what I wanted to say and waited for Velvet to repeat it to Fiery. "He says, He wants to, he's tried but he can't." "Where is he?" "In front of you." She reached out her hands until they were exactly in my cheeks. I closed my eyes and tried to make some kind of link with her. I felt deep into myself until I found the part of me that belonged to Fiery. Once there I thought of exactly what I wanted to tell her. "It's strange. I can hear him talking to me but I can't tell what he's saying."
I left the room there going as far away from Velvet as I could, which was only a few metres before the link, like a piece of string between us, became tight preventing me from moving any further away. Then suddenly it began to pull me back into the room. "What the hell was that for?" I asked Velvet. "We want to start planning our revenge." "I'm gonna have to do something about you being able to force me back to you. I'm sure you must be abusing the power. Surely its like 911, you only call in an emergency." "I can control what you do. I'm sure the novelty will wear out in a few.decades." He began laughing out loud, and got a strange look from Fiery who hadn't heard any of our psychic conversation. "He's here." Velvet said out loud this time.
"Lets do this then." Velvet shouted and we stormed into the building. Velvet was holding Fiery's hand to guide her through the dark corridors, and I had no choice but to follow Velvet. It was midnight and we were carrying out the first part of our plan after hours of arguing. I was the main part of the plan, and so Fiery didn't need to be there, but she insisted. Velvet led me to the room where one of MF's main guys was sleeping. He and Fiery waited outside whilst I went in. I used all of my will power to be able to pick up his knife and prick his finger with it, praying he wouldn't wake up I used the blood coming from his finger to write a note to MF.
MF, You didn't really think you got rid of me that easily. Oh Yes I'm back and stronger than ever. Have you ever seen the film "The Crow"? I'm bringing it to life. Which death would you prefer? Rainbow.
I left the note by his bleeding finger and left. I stumbled out of the room and met Velvet and Fiery on the landing. We went home and Fiery went to bed. I was sitting up with Velvet in a comfy silence. Until he spoke. "What happened in the room?" "What do you mean?" "I can feel what you do bro. It felt different while you were in there and then tired when you came out." "I did exactly what we decided to do, it just took more out of me than I expected. Whenever I go to touch something I have to use all my will power and concentration." "What happened with Fiery then, how come you couldn't touch her?" "I feel to much when I think about her. When I want to touch you I do it differently to everything else. I have to find the part of me that links me to you and tell you that I'm touching you. With everything else I use you concentration to make my hands solid enough. I try to do that with Fiery and it won't work. I can't clear my mind enough. I try to do it the same way as I do with you and there is just a block. I can't get through to her." "I know you want to bro. I know she wants you to." "Yeah whatever, just go to sleep."
Have you ever had one of those nights when, as soon as you're about to fall asleep a thought comes into your head and wakes you up again? I had one of those nights. I was about to fall asleep when suddenly my brain came up with, ".But what if Velvet stops breathing in the middle of the night. You're supposed to watch over him." "Yeah whatever shut up." "Don't you tell me to shut up." "Hey I'm the one in charge here." "That's what you think." "Jeff?" "Yeah Matt." "Shut up. You're scaring me." "Oh sorry."
The next day we planned the next part of out revenge. We decided to do the same type of thing but to a different guy this time, but then once we had decided who we were going to do it to we changed our minds, he deserved something much worse. We set out, Fiery with us again, even though I didn't want her there. We arrived at the guy's house and camped outside until we saw the lights go off. We waited for another hour, to make sure he was definitely asleep. Velvet and Fiery waited at the bottom of the stairs whilst I crept up to his room. I was about to open the door when the link between Velvet and me began to pull me back. I sent a thought to him. "This isn't funny." "I'm not joking." I relaxed and allowed myself to be pulled back as quickly as possible. I crept into the room, wondering why I was creeping; I was a ghost like thing wasn't I? Once in the room, I immediately saw the problem, MF was there. "You know Velvet, you let me down?" "Oh darn." Velvet was in a sarcastic mood. "Careful what you say boy. I have your girl here." I looked over, suddenly aware of Fiery standing with a knife to her throat. "You wouldn't want her to follow your brother would you?" I stopped listening as an idea struck me; I sent it to Velvet who agreed. "How do you mean?" "I heard he cried like a baby as he died." "I heard he didn't die." "How do you figure that? I shot him." "My brother has always been very resilient." "His hair has don't you mean, or did that fall out as he died?" "I told you my brother isn't dead." "Where is he then?" "He's upstairs." I went upstairs using Velvet to listen to the conversation. "You've gone loopy." I knocked a bottle onto the floor. "He never could be too quiet." Velvet told me that MF had sent one of his men up to find me. I picked up the broken bottle and waited for him to enter the room. As soon as he did I hit him over the head with it and the tied him up in the bed covers before kicking him down the stairs. MF himself ran out to see what had happened and Velvet took the chance to free Fiery, next time MF would have to bring more men. Velvet held the knife to the man's throat and waited for MF to come back in he room. He entered dragging his man with him. "Damn," was all he said when he looked up. "So the tables have turned. Do you want your guy to live?" "Not particularly." "Neither do I." Velvet stated as he slit the guys throat and dropping him to the floor. I stood watching with my mouth wide open. I couldn't believe that Velvet would do that. It looked like MF couldn't believe what he had seen either because Velvet ran over to him and placed the knife at his throat before MF even moved. "Now, do YOU want to live?" MF's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish. "Well.?" "Yes." The answer was barely audible. "Good answer." Velvet replied as he turned Mf to face him. "Now, are you sorry?" "I thought you said he wasn't dead." "His body is dead and to be frank, the personality left behind is annoying me."
"What's got into you bro? You're scaring me and Fiery." "Shut up." "What? You've changed bro." "Don't you want revenge?" "Not like this. Make him promise to change and leave it there." "He killed my brother." "He killed me, but I forgive him."
"Rainbow says he forgives you." MF stared at him. "Well aren't you going to thank him, for his forgiveness?" "Thank you." "What about Fiery, do you forgive him?" "Yes." She whispered almost inaudibly. "WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Velvet yelled at her. "STOP IT YOU'RE SCARING ME." She yelled back at him. "Poor little Fiery." He mocked. I ran over to Fiery and reached out for her arm. I didn't do it on purpose it was just a reaction, but it worked. She felt it and let me lead her out of the house.
"Later bro. You're on your own now." "You know what I'm gonna do now. I'm gonna tattoo "I'm sorry" across him forehead." I didn't reply, I just led Fiery home, the connection between Velvet and me was broken and I could leave him, so I did.
At home I put Fiery to bed and sat waiting, knowing Velvet would turn up soon. I was right, but it wasn't how I expected. He walked in looking defeated and could barely look at me. "I'm sorry bro." He whispered. "I let you down." He knelt down onto the floor and pulled the knife out for his belt. "Velvet what are you doing?" "I'm sorry Jeffro." "Don't." I tried to get to him but the link that once pulled us together now forced us apart. I could only watch as he forced the point of the knife into his own stomach, his face twisted with pain as his body doubled up. All of a sudden the wall blocking me out let me in and I ran to him. I held him as his body shook with the pain and the blood dripped out of his mouth. He looked up at me and tried to smile. "I let you down, I let Mom down, and now I've let Fiery down. I'm sorry." His eyes rolled back into his head. "NOOOOOOOOOO! You can't do this to me." I looked up as I heard footsteps and saw Fiery walking into the room looking sleepy. She looked up and saw Velvet, at once the sleepiness left her and she cried out with pain. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her. "I'm sorry, I couldn't stop him." She looked at me and nodded. "Come with me." I took her hand and led her through the streets. I led her to the hotel where I had died. Just as I had hoped Moongoose was still staying there. I knocked lightly on the door and turned to say goodbye to Fiery. I watched as Moongoose gently led her in not asking any questions, just knowing she needed help. Then I left.
I didn't know what I was supposed to do next, so I headed back to the tree house, where I found Matt waiting for me. "Come on Jeffro. Lets go." I followed him towards the light and then.well you'll just have to wait your turn, but I promise you, you'll love it.