Apparition

Chapter 9: The Corpse
My mom walked into the room with a tray of soup and a glass of water like before the following morning.
“Good morning,” she chirped happily and walked around the bed. “How did you sleep?” She set the tray at the foot of the bed and sat beside my feet.
I didn’t respond but just stared at her.
She gasped and covered her mouth. “Natalia,” she stuttered and hesitantly laid her fingers on my neck. She sighed in relief.
“Jeremiah!” She called.
In seconds my dad came running into the room. He too gasped when he saw me.
Why was everyone gasping?
My mom jumped off the bed and walked to my father. “She’s fine,” she said in a low voice before my father could say anything.
“Fine?! She looks like a damn corpse!” My father hissed. “This has got to stop!”
He walked over to the tray, took the glass of water, and raised it to my lips. “Drink,” he ordered.
I shook my head subtly. I wasn’t thirsty.
“Drink,” he said again.
“Natalia, you have to get better. You need to drink, eat, sleep,” my mom said.
I looked at both my parents, the desperation on their faces.
I cracked my lips open and my dad titled the glass of water so that just a little stream came in.
“Are you hungry yet?” he asked.
I shook my head lightly.
“Baby steps, Jeremiah,” my mom said. “We’ll come by in thirty minutes and you’ll finally get some food in your stomach, all right?”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t hungry either.
They put the tray on the bedside table and left the room.
I closed my eyes, inhaled, then opened my eyes. Was I really that bad?
It didn’t take thirty minutes for my parents to come back and try to shove food down my throat. Like last time I only managed to crack open my lips and my dad poured some soup into my mouth. It felt good when the warm soup filled my shriveled and delicate stomach. After two little spoons of the big bowl of soup I was full.
“Get some sleep now,” my mom murmured and brushed the hair off my flaming hot forehead.
I shook my head.
She sighed because there was nothing she was able to do.
“Well your father and I are just going to be downstairs talking with Keith and Sarah.”
I didn’t respond.
They left the room.
A couple hours past by and I stayed in the same position as I did the night before. Every ten minutes my mom, dad, Keith, or Sarah would come up and check on me, asking me if I needed anything. Each time I would shake my head.
“N-Natalia?” Someone said from the doorframe. I was too weak to turn my head and check who it was. All I knew was that it was a girl.
She walked over to me, looked me in the eye, and waved her hand in front of my face.
I stared at her, confused. Who was she?
“What happened to you?” she cried.
I examined her. Her straight black hair, her red-framed glasses, her blue and red school girl outfit, her assertive voice. It was Alex.
She sighed. “I heard what happened with you and him. I’m so, so sorry. If you don’t want to talk about it you don’t you have to. Although with your lips it doesn’t looked like you’d be able to talk if you even wanted to.
“Lawren is downstairs. He wants to come up and see you but he’s to afraid to see the condition you’re in. Keith brought us here just in case you were wondering.”
If I was able to speak I’d say or probably scream: “Bring him up here! I need to see him!” Instead I grunted.
Alex looked at me, confused.
I had to see Lawren. I had to apologize and explain. I had to see someone that reminded me of my half-happy past before all this happened. Before ghosts happened.
I grunted again. The grunt was supposed to mean: “Go get him!”
“Are you trying to tell me something?” Alex asked desperate to help me.
“Yes!” I wanted to scream but instead I just stared at her. I hadn’t used my voice for what felt like a long time that I forgot how to speak.
I looked toward the door from the corner of my eye then looked back at her and back to the door.
“You want me to leave?” She asked.
I cracked open my lips but closed them again.
Alex sighed in frustration. “Well, I’m going to go get Lawren, okay?”
If I was able to speak I’d say: “Finally!”
She left the room to retrieve Lawren from downstairs.
“She doesn’t look exactly like herself so don’t act… horrified,” Alex warned as they walked up the stairs.
If I was capable of doing so, I’d roll my eyes. I was sick not deaf.
“Her mom already warned me,” Lawren responded. When I heard his voice I relaxed a little.
Alex walked back into the room to stand in front of me. She waved at Lawren to come inside. I looked over at him and his eyes were wide.
“What did I tell you?” Alex hissed.
“What the hell happened to you?!” Lawren cried. “I can’t even look.” Lawren closed his eyes and inhaled.
“Don’t be rude,” Alex snapped.
Lawren opened his eyes. “Natalia, have you seen yourself?”
“No,” I wanted to say.
Lawren sighed and walked out the room.
Where was he going?
“Get back here you jerk!” Alex said and ran after him.
“You have to talk to her,” Alex said.
“I know! But I’m trying to find something,” Lawren responded from down the hall. He was opening and slamming shut drawers.
“What’s that for?” Alex asked.
“She needs to see what she looks like,” he said and walked back down the hall to the room I was in.
In Lawren’s hand was a mirror. “Look,” he demanded and pointed to the mirror that was in front of my face. I looked into the mirror and my eyes widened.
I knew I was bad but not this bad. It has only been a couple of days! I think.
There was absolutely no color in my face and chapped lips. I looked pasty. The whites of my eyes were completely red as were my eyelids. I looked bugged out because of the folds under my eyes. I also looked a bit thinner. My hair was stringy because of the poor hygiene but combed out because of my mother. I looked frightening. I didn’t look like myself as a matter of fact I couldn’t even find myself in this dead girl.
I began to cry. It hurt my eyes to cry because of how dry and red they were. Lawren removed the mirror from in front of my face.
“Natalia, why are you doing this? Is it because of him? It’s not worth it!”
It felt like he just drove a fencepost through my heart. Nathan was the love of my life. He was worth everything. I began crying even harder.
“Do you think you can stop time or make him come back by torturing yourself until your death? When I see you like this it’s impossible for me to believe that these two girls are the same people.” Lawren dug in his back pocket and opened his wallet. He held a picture of me and him in front of my face. The picture was taken from what felt like a long time ago but really it was nothing more than a year ago on my seventeenth birthday. I didn’t know he kept a picture of me in his wallet.
He picked up the mirror and put that beside the picture. I looked into the mirror and to the picture and back again.
“Natalia, for me… will you please try to get better and stop hurting yourself even more?” He gently stroked his finger across my face to wipe away a tear.
I cracked open my lips. “Yes,” I croaked silently.
“She talked! She talked!” Alex yelled, running out the room.
Lawren smiled, leaned over, and kissed me on my forehead. He looked me in my red eyes. “Do you need anything?”
“Food,” I whispered
It hurt and at the same time I was relieved to talk. It hurt because my voice box hasn’t been greased metaphorically in a while and relieved because I thought I completely forgotten how to speak.
“My baby!” My mom cried as she ran into the room. She knelt down beside me, my father standing beside her. She put both hands on my face. “Are you ready to get better?” She asked.
I slightly smiled with one corner of my mouth and nodded my head.
Sarah and Keith was already in my room with a new tray of soup and a glass of water.
I was going to get better physically for the people who loved me but I knew my heart was something that would need more than just a couple words to mend.