Unknown

We walked over to the park that was full of kids between six and ten. I watched them smiling and giggling while they swung on the swings, some trying to climb on the slide. A wave of sadness hit me suddenly. These kids were too young. They'll never grow old and experience things. They wont get bullied, they wont bully, they wont experience peer pressure, drugs, sex, alcohol, cigarettes, dirty magazines, anything.

"Why would they have children here?" I said out loud without meaning to.

"Not all children show up here. They say these children were murdered, killed unexpectedly." Maggie said as if it were no big deal. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to keep out the horrid thought of someone murdering a child. Thank God, or whatever is out there, that they don't remember a thing.

"Why wouldn't they just cross over? Move on?" I pushed.

"When people die unexpectedly, their souls don't understand. That's why we're here. We don't know what had happened, and we're pissed," Landon explained. "It's fucked up and confusing. A child doesn't really understand anything."

"Sick kids understand their sick. Why someone would kill them, they don't know." Maggie spoke.

"But when they're killed," Landon added, holding up a finger, "They don't understand that. Understand?"

"I guess that makes sense," I lied. I didn't think it made any sense at all.

We walked over to a gazebo and sat on the steps, leaning our backs against the railing. I felt overwhelmed with everything. I had only been here for a few days and already I have learned a lot, and from what Maggie says, there's a lot more to learn.

I watched closely to my surroundings. Children playing, people walking along the track. I could hear the sounds of their shoes hitting the gravel walkway, the sound of the lake's fountain. I started picking at loose strands on my jeans and pretending to kick invisible rocks as Landon and Maggie went on talking.

"I think we should see a movie tomorrow," Maggie suggested. "They're actually showing The Exorcist."

"They can show those movies?" I asked amazed.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Well," I started, getting ready to state the obvious. "It's about a girl possessed, a demon. A soul? Isn't that a little, what's the word, insulting?"

Maggie shrugged her shoulders.

"Not really." I nodded in reply and went back to kicking invisible things.

"Let's go swimming," Landon smiled.

"Hell no," Maggie said.

In the midst of my interest in kicking, I felt my body lift up.

"Put me down!" I shouted. Maggie and him were laughing. I started punching his back as hard as I could, but it was no use. My body swayed with his with each step he took. I felt a push, and I was up in the air and into the water.

This wasn't right.

As soon as I was underwater I panicked. I tried to yell, but my mouth filled with lake water. When I surfaced, I screamed bloody murder. Nothing was in focus, everything was blurry. I didn't know what was going on, I just knew I couldn't be in the water.

"Mr. Harmon, please!" I shrieked. "I won't tell anyone, please!" Tears were streaming down my face, then everything went black.

I came to with Landon and Maggie standing over me, faces full of concern. My body felt heavy, like I was water logged.

"Are you okay?!" Maggie shouted. I propped myself up by my elbows and looked around, almost forgetting where I was at.

"Yeah, what happened?"

"I'm so sorry, Alex," Landon whispered. He pulled me into a tight hug. "OW! Why'd you hit me!?"

"Because you're an ass," Maggie shook. Her face looked more pale than normal. "He thought it would be funny to throw you in the lake."

"You started screaming, like you were being murdered. Literally. It was scary. Then you mentioned a Mr. Harmon?" Landon explained.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and squeezed my eye lids shut. For some reason, that name did sound familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I tried to concentrate harder, maybe I can remember, then nothing. I let out an angry sigh.

"I don't know who he is." I sat up all the way and looked at my hands sadly.

"You even cried." Maggie whispered. "I don't know how, but you did." I didn't look up, I just kept staring at my hands. Nothing made sense anymore. I was getting tired of them looking worried, and a thought popped in my head. I smiled and looked up at them.

"What?" Landon asked, eyes furrowed.

"What did you think was going to happen?" I asked. They both looked at each other as if I was a nut case.

"You could've drowned..." Maggie started, then she laughed. We sat in the same spot laughing for five more minutes, then they decided to take me home so I could shower.

**

"Mr. Harmon," I whispered. I sat at the kitchen table with a pen and notebook writing down what had happened a few days ago. I wrote down his name, and wrote down my fear of swimming.

"Maybe.." I whispered again, and started writing down my theories.

"Mr. Harmon drowned me. Mr. Harmon got mad and pushed me in a pool." I stopped and tapped my pencil on the table. What if I didn't drown? What if I just couldn't swim in my living life? It all confused me, but it was a start.

I stood up and paced a few minutes, arms crossed, staring at the ceiling. I had a dream that night as well, but I couldn't remember. All I remembered was it was so vivid, so real. As soon as I woke up, nothing. I couldn't remember a damn thing. It was frustrating.

There was a knock on my front door, causing me to jump out of my deep thoughts. I went to answer and was greeted by a smiling Maggie.

"Hey girl," She chimed, walking behind me into the kitchen. "You called?"

"Yes. I have an idea." She nodded her head for me to go on. "Anytime I have some kind of freak out, tell me exactly what I say." I lifted up the notebook. "I'm going to start writing down anything and everything.

She walked over to the notebook and read what I wrote.

"Bacon cheeseburgers? Can't cook..." She stopped and laughed. "Hates orange juice?"

"There's more," I pressed, slightly annoyed. I pointed to my recent writing.

"Oh, more of this guy."

"I think he has something to do with my death."

"Could be," She shrugged. "Maybe he was a boyfriend?"

"Why would I call him Mr.?"

"I don't know, maybe you two were freaks in the sack," She joked. I rolled my eyes and plopped in my chair. "It's a good idea, Alex. It really is, I'm just messing with you. Hey, it's better than just waiting around for something to remind you of your life."

She was right. I felt determined. As much as I love Maggie and Landon, I didn't want to be here forever. There was nothing for me. I was already getting tired of doing the same thing every day.

"Do you ever have dreams you forget?" I asked.

"All the time."

"No, like, they're vivid. They're almost real, but as soon as you wake up you don't remember anything?"

"Not really," She said, taking a seat in front of me. Maybe I really was on to something.

I looked up at my calendar, and wrote down "German shepherds. Puppies."

"Are you going to document everything?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yep."

"Well, let's document the meeting then, because we're going to be late."

**

"We have a few new faces in the crowd tonight," General Jones' voice boomed loudly in the microphone. I started picking at my nails. Occasionally I would steal a couple of pieces of popcorn from Landon, who was asleep already. Halfway through the meeting he started to snore, which gave me a perfect opportunity to elbow him in the ribs.

"What the-" He shouted. Everyone got quiet. He looked around and gave a nervous smile. "Sorry."

Maggie and I gave each other high fives.

"Was that necessary?" He whispered.

"No, but it was funny," I smiled. He shook his head and rubbed his eyes.

The meeting was boring. It was pretty much like the last one. Going over the events coming in six months, Halloween coming right around the corner and the rules of the trick or treating. He said it's the one night we can be out until midnight.

"So, do we still dress up for Halloween?" I asked after the meeting. We were walking down the street back to our usual restaurant. I felt excited for some reason.

"Yep. Nothing dead though. Because, well, yeah." Landon answered.

"I'm going to be a fairy," Maggie grinned, waving her arms up and down like she was flying.

"I'm going to be an inmate," Landon answered.

"You should be a cop!" Maggie said loudly. "A sexy cop."

"Let's go in here first," Landon suggested. He pointed to a Halloween store that I haven't seen before. I mean really, I went down this way yesterday and there was nothing.

We went inside, and there were tons of different costumes. Clowns, soda cans, nerds, everything but anything scary. As soon as we walked in I lost them. I was fine with that. I stood at the wall looking at all the make up, the wigs and false eyelashes.

"Here," Maggie grinned, handing me a plastic hanger with an outfit on it. There was a police hat, a very low cut, short skirt police uniform, and plastic handcuffs. "I found these shoes you can wear, oh and these tights." She started tugging my arm to follow her, but I was still debating on if I even wanted to be a police officer.

"Sexy," Landon said, pointing to the outfit I was holding. Maggie grabbed it, along with the knee high boots and black fish net tights, and went to the front to write my name down showing I had bought my one costume.

"I don't even know if I want to be that," I complained.

"Tell you what," He said, putting his arm around me and started to walk to the front. "Next year, you can choose whatever you want to be. I promise," He smiled. I felt my heart, or whatever was there, flutter.

"Fine." I surrendered.

We caught up with Maggie at the front and she handed me the bag. She was holding two bags of her own full of candy.

"This is going to be SO great!" She laughed, walking out of the store.

I couldn't help but feel just as excited as her.

I took out my notebook from my bag and wrote down "Love holiday Halloween."