Chapter 19: The battle within decides a person's fate
All around her was darkness. Darkness without light. Darkness without sound. Darkness without feel, smell, or taste. Was this what it was like to be dead?
She tried to remember what she had last been doing. But just when she got close, she felt a stab of pain. The furthest she could go forward without getting a jab was the day before prom...
"I don't want to go with you! I only want to go with one person, and he has been declared dead!" Julie slammed the receiver down and nearly broke it. Every guy from the head quarterback down to the class nerd had asked her to prom. And she had repeated herself time and again, every time crying afterwards. She was a complete wreck.
Her father walked in. He had just got back from his weekend training at the National Guard. "So dear, who was that? A boy asking you to prom?" He was answered with a curt groan and with a pillow.
"I don't want to talk about it!"
"Dear, I know what's happening." He said as he sat down in the loveseat next to the couch. "Your still hoping that Jedi didn't actually die, and that he will appear at that door tomorrow night with a tux on, and ask you to the big night. I hate to tell you this, but I was at his funeral. It was the only time I was able to thank him for saving you. You can't wait forever. You need to move on."
"But Dad, you don't understand. I had a crush on him to begin with. When he saved me from those.... people, I saw something in him that wasn't in any other guy that I have talked to. He had a fire to him. I saw it in his eyes. I think that he had a crush on me too, but was just too afraid to say anything. He was that way you know. He kept those emotions to himself. Or so his best friend told me."
"You can't rely on the words of a best friend to tell you about a person. That is their opinion. You need to move on. Now listen here, you already have the dress, the shoes, the car, why don't you just go on your own? Jedi will be there with you in spirit, you know that. Think of it that way dear. You have the rest of your life to find yourself a good man and settle down. Now why don't you just put Jedi behind you and move forward."
"No. I can't!" Julie got up and ran to the door. "And you can't force me to leave him out there. He gave himself fully into protecting us, and that means that we should never forget him. If I can't get together with him, then I will never marry anyone! You hear that!" She grabbed the door handle, opened the door and ran out to her car.
"Honey! Don't do this! Let's talk about it!" But it was too late, by the time he reached the door, she was gone.
She didn't know where she was going. She just wanted to go anywhere but home. How could they all think that she was capable of moving on? The last few months since that day had been trying, yes, but she had always believed that Jedi had been in a hospital somewhere, healing. He was coming back. He wasn't dead.
Julie found herself at the graveyard. She hadn't been here before, but she knew that this was here he was supposedly. As she opened the door, the annoying ringing of the reminder to take the key out of the ignition was sounded. "Stupid piece of crap!" Ripping the keys out, she slammed the door. Jedi's grave was set with a statue over it. People from the town had thought that it was the least they could do. But it was obvious that they had already began to forget what he had done. The spring grass had grown high. She bent down and moved the grass aside. The inscription read : "For those who can't defend themselves. There is always one who will."
She thought back to that day when Jedi had appeared out of nowhere, and shot those three men. The gun that he had given her was back in the glove compartment of the car. Dad didn't know about it, no one did. Julie had kept it so that she would no longer be weak. She didn't want what happened to her then to ever happen to her again. There just wasn't any way for her to go any more. There was no reason. Her eyes stung. Looking at the statue of the person that had inexplicably saved her, the tears began to flow. The statue matched him perfectly, except for his eyes, they were without life.
People had made such a big deal about the prom. About how it was the important social event of the year, about how if you weren't there, you weren't even considered a person. Well, if she couldn't go with him, then there was no way that she was going to be considered a person. Which means that she was as good as dead. Her dad had tried time and again to get her over him, but each time she was pushed a little further away from him. Mom was never around, so there was no real help there. She turned around and walked back to the car.
The country road was full of rocks, but the car's suspension negated them. Up ahead on this old dirt road was a small bridge. There is where I will go. She thought. The creek running underneath the bridge was deep with the spring rains. It was about 25 feet below. Standing next to the railing, she gave a quick prayer, asking God to forgive her for what she about to do. Got up on the railing, and jumped.
"Hmm, seems that we have another potential subject." The police radio had just reported there had been a body found, she was just barely alive, and they needed an ambulance immediately.
"Let's get going then."
She was back in the darkness. Julie was saddened by the memories. Why did she even fall for him in the first place?
"That's the least of your worries right now." In front of her materialized herself !? What was this some sort of trick her mind was playing on her? Was this a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from?
She found her voice "Who....Who are you?" Fear began to well up in her. There are times when a person can feel whether someone is good, or is evil. This was one of those times, and this thing wasn't coming for a cup of tea.
"I am you. Well, sort of. See just like your beloved Jedi. You were given a BETH unit. Now a small part of the programming gives the unit, me, the ability to take over the body of the person that it is in. Black Ghost wished for it, and so it happened. I thought that I had rooted you out entirely. But I get to have a little bit of fun before I have to go kill Jedi for good."
"Jedi... is alive? How can that be? What happened to me? What do you mean 'control'?" The questions just flowed out of her mouth, the dam had given way in her heart, and she was had found new hope.
"Yes. Because he was the first android project. And by control I mean that I have your every bodily function under my control. I could kill your body at any time if I wanted. But then I would go with the wind also, and I just don't want that to happen. So just be a good girl and die, okay?"
Die? Wasn't she already dead? Maybe she wasn't. But how? Jedi is alive! I have to go to him. I can't let her stop me. Even if it means that I come back to a world that has forgotten me. "I won't let you!"
