Status: Going to be short :3

Left Behind

Chapter 2

“Should we talk about this?” Oscar asked as he handed me a mug of hot chocolate. The sleeve of my borrowed shirt rode up a little to reveal a black rose on my wrist. I withdrew my hand, casing Oscar to almost drop the mug.

“What the hell is that?” I screamed, yanking the sleeve up higher to make sure my eyes weren’t fooling me. “That wasn’t there before. Oh my god, I’m going crazy,” I breathed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“That’s your death mark,” Oscar explained.

“My what?” I asked. Had I heard him right?

“You almost died, but you didn’t. You can see it and others who are dead or almost died can see it, too.” He shrugged. “Alan has one just like yours.”

“How do you know what they look like?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” he admitted, hand behind his neck in an sheepish manor. “I kind of died.”

“You’re kidding.” It was a statement. This had to all be lies or I was going to lose my mind. A ghost walking the same earth as me? “How did you save me then? And hold that mug?”

“You’re so cute when you’re skeptical.” He grinned. I gave him a flat look and he put his hands up in surrender. “Okay,” he started, “I know there are lots of theories about us ghost folk, but here’s the truth. There’s no God, but there is an after life and it’s right here. Dead people can see other dead people, as well as people like you, who have had a near death experience. Anything else?”

“Yes. What happened to Alan?” I asked. Oscar’s grin dropped and he bit the inside of his cheek.

“Well, doll face, that’s not my story to tell.” And the grin was back on.

I leaned back into the couch, sighing in thought. This was a lot to take in, especially today. It’s like everything I’d ever been taught about life and death was a lie. What’s next? Was I going to have to have a conference with the Grim Reaper next? He must exist in the crazy, new world. New to me at least.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to stress you out,” Oscar said, coming to sit next to me. He leaned forward to look at me and I gave a dry smile.

“It’s not your fault my life sucks.” I shrugged.

“Do you want to talk about it?” He asked for the second time.

“Nope,” I replied casually. Grabbing the hot chocolate off the coffee table, I took a long sip, but immediately spit it out.

“You don’t like it?” Oscar asked, a few soft chuckles following. He knew. “Alan was always the cook.”

“It’s okay, I can’t cook to save my life,” I adjoined, laughing. But I soon realized my word choice wasn’t the greatest when Oscar’s smile fell again. That scared me, the way his face went completely blank and he no longer looked amused, like I’d blown out his candle. “But you saved my life, so at least you have that.”

“Are we discussing our feelings?” Alan asked as he reentered the room, putting an odd stress on the word ‘feelings’ as if it felt slimy and disgusting on his tongue. He had a big wet spot in the middle of his t-shirt, which I don’t think he noticed. I held a hand over my mouth to conceal my forming smile.

“No, we were saying bad things about you behind your back,” Oscar volleyed sarcastically at his brother, smile intact again.

“You made her hot chocolate?” He asked, ignoring the jibe. “You just saved her and now you’re trying to poison her?”

Oscar stuck his tongue out at his brother. I couldn’t help but smile at the siblings’ exchange. Even though today had to be one of the worst days of my life, somehow being around their love and joviality gave this feeling I’d never experienced before. But I felt like I wanted to just kick back and laugh until my stomach hurt.

I wanted to ask Alan about his death mark, but I knew that would definitely kill the mood. It seemed he was finally warming up to me, too.

Here I was, hanging out with the supernatural, no big deal.

“Well, I’m going to bed.” Alan announced, eyes flicking to mine only once. He mock saluted Oscar and turned sideways to march off to this bedroom like a soldier. How old were these guys?

How old were these guys?

“How about you? Are you tired yet, sweetie?” Oscar asked.

“Yeah, I am,” I responded, really only just noticing how heavy my eyelids felt. “Guess I should get going.”

“I’m not kicking you out,” he informed, sounding a bit put off that I’d think such a thing. He leaned in closer, but not uncomfortably close, and said “Look, I’m just going to assume your home life sucks, so I’m offering you a place to crash.”

“I can’t¾ But I¾ You don’t¾,” I floundered.

“Don’t hurt yourself now, sweetheart.” He smiled. “I’ll go get you some blankets and a pillow.”

“Thank you.” I whispered as he was walking away.
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Thanks for reading this far ;D I hope you're liking it. I'm realizing that I'm most definitely not finishing this by Halloween.