Gone Isn't Forever

Chapter 3

The grape memory haunted me for the rest of the night. By morning I felt as though I needed an exorcist. Although, not being able to sleep gave me plenty of time to practice on Stallion, my beauty. Sleek and black in its design, with royal blue finishing, it soothed my soul and seemed to make all of my problems vanish whenever I played it.

My band mates finally got their arses out of bed and we began band rehearsal around 11:00am. Yes, in our living room. We began with going over a few of our songs that we had down pretty well, just to review. Shallow Graves was sounding amazing if I do say so myself. Shallow Graves was one of our very first songs and it was pretty beast by now. After we went over some of the old stuff, we started to work on a new piece of art.

This new song was different from our previous work we had produced. It was more … well, grooving. A lot more riffs and power chords, not to mention the mad vocals Jo unleashed on us. Maggy was pulling a Rev and going all out crazy on her drums. The moral of the story this time: play nice with strangers. Confused? It’s about a girl who trusted a complete stranger a bit too much and her faith led her to her own destruction. Sadistic? Maybe…but we only learned from the best. J

“Okay, I’m hungry guys. We’ve been at this for four hours straight now!” Jo complained, setting her microphone back in its mic stand. I listened to many similar gripes and moans in agreement and sighed.

“Alright, alright. I get it.” I called out in attempt to be heard over my many whining band mates.

“Anyone up for McDonalds?” Harper threw out the suggestion and they all jumped on board at once. With a mighty cheer and a few fist pumps they were heading out the door and piling into the van.

“Hey Mell, you coming?” Kirsten hollered over her shoulder as I sat staring at my guitar.

“Nah. Just bring me back the usual. You know, McChicken, no lettuce, and a medium caramel frappe? I wouldn’t cut you for bringing me some fries though! But take your time, no need to rush. I’mma hang back and go over some stuff here.” I told her.

“Alrighty, suit yourself then.” She sang back to me, shutting the front door on her way out.
I stared back down at Stallion and thought for a minute. I was pretty good on all of the rhythms and solos, but I guess I really just wanted to be alone. Maybe clear my head so I wouldn’t go insane. Some pretty freaky things had happened to me and I was beginning to question my sanity.

I closed my eyes, shook my head, and took a deep breathe. Walking over to the arm of the couch, I sat on it sideways and let myself fall back into the cushions. Laying there, I stared at the ceiling and began to pluck at the strings on my Stallion. Soon I found myself guitaring away at So Far Away. Got me lost in the music and my memories. Not to mention The Rev. By now I’m sure you’ve figured out just how much he meant to me.

Lost in my thoughts and the magic that was music, it took me a while for me to actually notice that there was more than just my guitar playing that filled the room. I realized that I was accompanied by a familiar sounding drum set. However, me being me, it hadn’t yet occurred to me that I was the only one there. For some reason, thinking it was Maggy, I called out, “Yo dude, you’re getting pretty bad ass! Almost Jimmy worthy!” I cooed, still playing.

The only thing that brought me to my senses was the feed back I received from a low, smooth, coaxing, gruff, familiar voice that filled my heart with overwhelming joy, yet a horrifying essence of fear. The joy was subconscious, but the fear was loud and protruded out there the most.
“Well…I’d most certainly hope so!” My eyes popped wide with shock and my freak meter sky rocketed off the charts. I felt all of the freak factorness freeze my thoughts and tense the muscles throughout my body.

Just enough to stop my dancing fingers in its tracks, breaking a string on my Stallion as it made a high pitched “bwah!” sound.

“Ahh, come on, why’d you stop? I was just warming up!” The voice spoke once more. With my heart beating a thousand miles per hour, I slowly rose up only to discover the most unbelievable thing that would be the beginning to change my life forever.

I gawked at him, my mind not knowing what to trust, my eyes or my logic. Because my logic said that there was no possible logical way this was happening, yet my eyes were telling me that the deceased Jimmy the Rev Sullivan was sitting behind Maggy’s drum set in my LIVING ROOM!

“Holy…the…the-the-the-the…Re…Re…Rev?!” I stuttered pointing a shaking finger at the marvelous being. Jimmy threw his head back and his entire frame shook with laughter.
“who’d you think it was, Patrick Stump from Panic! At the Disco?” He asked in a sarcastic tone.

“I thought he was from Fall Out Boy?” I responded. I’ ve always gotten Fall Out Boy and Panic! At the Disco mixed up. Jimmy just threw his head back, clutched his torso, and bagan to laugh even harder than before.

“Whoa…Okay wait, is this another nightmare? Please say its another nightmare. Not that it wouldn’t be awesome to hang out with the one guy I’ve practically worshipped my entire life, but I think I would rather have my sanity, thank you.” I questioned, hoping to God I was dreaming.

“Ahh, sanity is no fun, trust me.” The Rev responded.

“That’s easy for you to say. You’re The Rev. You were completely out of your ever loving mind!” I retorted. Jimmy just gave me this crazy intense stare and he quirked his eyebrow up as if to signify “oh really? Do go on!” In that creeper affect he possesses.

“In the most wonderful way of course.” I attempted to save myself. Jimmy erupted into a thunderous fit of laughter once more. “So wait, is this a dream or not?” I asked, his laughing fit breaking into serene silence as he snapped his gaze on me, his classic beautiful blue eyes lingering upon my form.

“Oh Melinda, I wish you trusted your intuition more. Despite whether you believe your dreaming or not, you’ll soon come to realize that the reality in which you live for is no longer your own reality. Rather, the reality you dream of has become you reality, and your only reality. So go ahead and question your sanity Sweetie. You’re not getting rid of me anytime soon.” The Rev crossed his arms, gave me a smug smirk, layed his right ankle on top of his left knee, and leaned against the wall.

“You. Just…blew my mind.” I replied, my thoughts scattered and I was so confused that I wanted to cry. Jimmy’s expression twisted from smug to worried in a millisecond and in a flash he was sitting right next to me on the couch. “AHH!” I yelped, startled. Once my I was sure I wasn’t going to die due to a heat attack, I turned to face him, curious now as I was.

“Don’t cry Melinda, you can’t. I’m not here to confuse you. It was just time to reveal myself, that’s all.”

“Reveal yourself?” I questioned. And how did he know I felt like crying? And how did he know that I can’t?

“What did you think that presence haunting you was?” He asked me on a serious note.

“I-”

“Or what did you think that so called comforting feeling was coming from eh?” He winked at me, giving me a cheesy smile.

“You? You were haunting me?” I asked delighted to finally know the truth, but also a little bit ticked I was being haunted period.

“Yep! But the good news is that we can communicate this way, instead of the old fashioned polterqeist way!” He almost sounded excited.

“Whoa! No, hold on. How? Why? How are you even here and why are you here?” I demanded.

Jimmy sighed and slumped back down into the sofa, one arm propping his head up.
“Chick, it’s a loooong story.” He groaned. I scooted closer to him.

“I’ve got time. Spill it Sully!” I demanded once more. He again, sighed and closed his amazing blue eyes for a second before beginning his explanation. His eyes flashed back open, staring at me and that startled me.

“ Well…you know the saying ‘you’ll wake up dead’?” I nodded and he continued. “Well, it’s true. I woke up one night after I had apparently had a trifle too much to drink, in a strange place. I was staring down at an image of myself. Then, once I decided to go take a look in the mirror, I saw myself,…but with the black wings of a crow. I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I knew I didn’t like it. And you know, there’s something about an ominous laughter, when you do not know the fuck is going on, that makes you want to fall down upon your knees and pray to God. He answered me and I heard his voice for the first time. So yes, I case you’re wondering, he is real. Anyways, he told me that I had made some not so great decisions in my life, but my heart was in a good place. So basically, in order to give me a chance for a one way ticket into heaven, I had to do that guardian angel thing. You know the cliché story that an angel has to help someone out with their lives in order to earn their wings? That’s kind of what I have to do. Except, instead of having to earn my wings period, I have to help you, to turn my wings white. It’s the only way I’m not literally going to spend my eternity in hell.” I stared at Jimmy in shock, wanting to cry more now than ever, knowing I couldn’t.

“Whoa, what? You have to help me?” I questioned so far beyond confused. “Well…I don’t understand, why me?”

Jimmy leaned in closer to me and lightly touched my jaw line with the tips of his fingers. “I chose you.” He answered. I jumped when I felt hi very cold, but solid as a human’s touch. It freaked me out that Jimmy felt real. I expected his hand to have gone right through me, but instead he felt as real as I was.

I closed my eyes, trying to process everything. My mind seemed to be going a million miles per hour with questions and I felt whoosie from his touch.
“How come I can feel you?” I asked him as I heard a response, but in the voice of Jo.

“Who the fuck are you talking to?” My eyes flashed open and I saw the girls standing just in front of the door. I glanced over to see that Jimmy was still sitting there and hadn’t moved.

“Holy crap you guys, what the hell is wrong with you, can’t you see him?!” I almost got hysterical, bolting up and waving my arms toward the Rev. They rose and eyebrow at me and gave each other the ‘what the is she on?’ stare.

“Okay what he hell are you on?!” Harper questioned. Jimmy cleared his throat and I turned my attention back on him.

“What’s she doing? What is she looking at?” Maggy asked the girls in a low voice that I could obviously still hear.

“Uh, by the way, they can’t hear me or see me. Just to let you know, bro!” The Rev spoke up. I glared at him.

“Why couldn’t you have told me this before I made a complete mental episode of myself?” I grumbled. He laughed at me and I rolled my eyes at him as he disappeared, leaving me to deal with my friends and the fact that they thought I had totally lost it, all by myself.

“You know…I like taking my crazy pills just as much as the next girl, but you seriously need to lay off of them for a bit, hun.” Kirsten said with a sarcastic tone, yet with a serious undertone attached.

“I…I’m…going to go lay down.” I replied, giving up and making my way back to my room. And shockingly, sleep actually engulfed me quite easily. Thanks to that comforting feeling once again. >.<