"Aaah!" John screamed like a girl and backed away and almost stumbled down when he realized that he was floating!
"Oh my God! Did I scare you?" Ashley asked worriedly as she offered John a hand to stand straight up.
"Don't you come near me!" John screamed and floated away from Ashley. "Oh my God I'm floating!" he exclaimed in surprise.
"Well yeah since your earthly body is no longer with you to pull down your weight to the ground, yes you are floating." Ashley told him and tried to come near him.
"No, you stay just where you are! I'm just wearing this hospital gown!" John said and tried to ward her off by shaking his hands frantically in front of him.
"What hospital gown?" Ashley asked, she was smiling and continued towards John and when John looked at himself he was wearing white polo and white pants.
"I didn't thought this would be your reaction when you see me. I always imagined that you'd take this lightly." Ashley told him wonderingly.
"Lightly! Are you insane? You're telling me that I'm dead and you expect me to take this lightly?" John cried out loud and floated towards Stacy.
"Stacy!" he called out to her and tried to put his hands on her shoulders to shake her but his hand just went through her! "No! No way! Stace!" John cried again and tried to touch her one more time but he failed miserably. He floated towards the other side of the bed to study his dead body.
"She can't hear you or see you or feel you." Ashley told him and put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. John gasped in surprise when he felt her hand.
"But… But you were able to touch me…" John said questioningly.
"Well, we're the same now. We're just souls." Ashley told him patiently and John hung his head low. "Sort of." Ashley added as an afterthought as she thought of herself.
"Wait!" John suddenly said when he remembered something.
"What?" Ashley asked curiously.
"Was I able to tell her?" he asked Ashley.
"Tell her what?" Ashley asked again.
"Tell her I love her." John answered and floated back towards Stacy. He looked at her crying face closely and tried to wipe away her tears but stopped before he could reach her because he realized that he could no longer do that. Now he could only wish he could wipe away her tears. He was now down to wishing. John turned his head towards Ashley for an answer but Ashley just looked at her feet and shook her head.
"Damn!" John cursed out loud.
"Now Mister, you are not allowed to curse especially in the presence of an angel!" Ashley said in a would-be stern voice.
"John, you can't go! You can't go!" Stacy cried as she shook his lifeless body hoping it would bring John back to life.
"Stacy…" John called out her name in a hoarse voice. Then suddenly the door of the room opened and in came Randy in a wheelchair. A nurse was wheeling him forward.
"Why that! That Orton!" John exclaimed and tried to lunge himself to the newcomer but just like earlier, he went through him.
"Don't even try to blame Randy for this." Ashley warned him.
"Why not?" John asked angrily. "For all we know he's the reason why I'm… I'm dead!" John said and broke down.
"It was His plan… not Randy's." Ashley explained.
"I'm sorry Stace…" Randy said. He was struggling for words but he couldn't find anything else to say.
"Don't be Randy." Stacy said and wiped her tears away with one hand. She didn't let go of John's hand and tried to put a brave smile on her face. "It's not like it's your fault that the car crashed." Stacy said and held John's hand tighter.
"I… I'm sorry Stace. It's my fault. It's my fault the car crashed." Randy confessed as he remembered what had happened to cause their car to crash.
"No!" Stacy said.
"If… if I were more careful then we wouldn't have crashed and John… John wouldn't be… dead." Randy said and lowered his gaze to his knees.
"How could you! How could you do this to him! How could you do this to us!" Stacy walked towards Randy and slapped him in the face and started hitting him in the chest. She couldn't care less if he was hurting. John floated towards his friend and the woman he loves. If only he could hold her so he could stop her from hitting Randy. It had sink into him that Randy didn't planned this and he didn't want this to happen just like him.
"Stace stop it." John tried to embrace her and whispered to her ear.
"You know that's useless." Ashley said to him but was mildly surprised when Stacy stopped hitting Randy and went back to the chair and cried silently.
"How could you do this to him?" Stacy repeated between sobs. "How could you do this to me?" Stacy asked desperately. Randy raised his head to look at Stacy. John jerked his head towards Stacy's direction.
"I just lost someone so close to me! I just lost the one I cared much for! I just lost the man I love!" Stacy exclaimed at Randy. Randy could only gape at her. John could feel his heart stop beating.
"Stace?" John muttered her name.
"I love him! I love him and I didn't get to tell him that!" Stacy cried.
"She loves you?" Ashley said from beside him that John almost shot upward when he heard her voice. He almost forgot that Ashley was there.
"She loves me." John said in voice with a mixture of sadness and happiness. Then he tried to approach his body but it was as if a barrier was between him and his body that he crashed in midair.
"Hey! What's happening?" John asked Ashley.
"You can't go back to your body if that's what you're thinking." Ashley told him.
"Can't I just possess my body for a while?" John pleaded with sad eyes. Ashley felt her heart could melt at his gaze but she knows there's nothing she can do.
"No you can't." Ashley just said.
"John come on! Wake up!" Stacy cried again. Randy wheeled himself towards Stacy and tried his best to comfort Stacy.
"Stace, calm down. It's going to be alright." Randy said. And Stacy feeling so defeated, just let Randy comfort her. She rested her head on his shoulder.
"Hey what happened to I love you John!" John asked when he felt a spark of jealousy seeing Stacy and Randy.
"He's just comforting her." Ashley told him.
"But… but…" John stammered.
"John, you couldn't interfere with them. And it doesn't matter anymore if Stacy loves you or not. You can't do anything now. You're dead and she's well, she's alive." Ashley said to him and took his hand. John saw that Ashley was glittering but not because she was covered in silver dust, she just sort of glows and glitters on her own.
"You… you glitter." He said dumbly. "Glitter beautifully." John added and he could swear he saw Ashley blushing.
"Well thank you… but John, you can't stay here anymore. That's why I'm here, I'm here to pick you up." Ashley said.
"Couldn't I just stay… here…" he asked slowly and Ashley just shook her head.
"You can no longer stay in this world with a mortal body." Ashley said and gave him a faint smile and winked at him.
"What are you saying?" John asked curiously.
"Well, you do have unfinished business right?" Ashley told him but John remained silent. Ashley sighed and continued. "You have forty days to settle that business." Ashley told him and John felt his eyes spark.
"Really?" John asked like a kid who got his gift on Christmas and Ashley nodded.
"But you can't talk to them or touch them." Ashley reminded him.
"But I can stay here!" John repeated.
"Yes, for forty days." Ashley confirmed.
"Yes! Yes thank you!" John said happily and hugged Ashley. Ashley was surprised at first but hugged him back. She closed her eyes and just let herself drift away into the sweet sensation she was feeling.
"We're floating away…" John said to her when he opened his eyes.
"Oh, oops sorry." Ashley said but didn't tell John that it was a habit of hers to float away when she feels so happy.
"Now about that unfinished business thingy you were saying?" John said to Ashley who was now trying to ignore John by looking at Stacy.
"What? Oh yeah, that. Well, you have to settle your unfinished business for forty days or else you'll no longer have another chance." Ashley answered and sat down in a yoga position in mid-air.
"But… what's my unfinished business?" John asked confusedly.
"Think of the thing that you care for much about." Ashley said.
"Stacy?" John said uncertainly after a few minutes of silence. He looked at Ashley who was smiling at him.
"Wow! She has the most beautiful smile!" John thought. "So angelic…" he added. "Idiot! Of course she has an angelic smile, she's an angel!" he mentally slapped his forehead at this and Ashley saw him closing his eyes tightly.
"Are you okay?" Ashley asked worriedly as she approached John and took one of his hand, worried that he might be sick.
"Huh? No… uh… I was just… I was just thinking about something." John said and blushed a bit.
"So Stacy is my unfinished business… Then what do I do?" John asked again. He thinks he already knows the answer but he's afraid to say it out loud. "Help her find happiness?"
"You know what to do John." Ashley said. "Don't worry you can do it… I'm here with you. I'm here to help you." Ashley said and put a hand on his cheek for assurance.
a/n: well what can you guys say? you know the drill guys! hehehe. r&r, kay? i sure hope you like it.
yanzell