Two Feet in the Grave

I was waking from my not-so-eternal slumber. This was the last time I'd do this for a while, though I didn't know that quite yet.

My hearing came back first, the chirping of birds an odd, interesting noise, considering I was in the morgue, as always. Chemical smells filled my nostrils and I almost started hacking right there, but I pushed it down. I heard someone rustling outside the body bag I was in.

I stilled and waited until the noise halted and poked my finger through a tiny hole in the bag, near my head. I pulled the zipper all the way down and made my escape.

I'd dealt with this curse for seven years now. To die every, single day, from the day I turned thirteen, 'til the day I became twenty-one.

I was one month from my last birthday, where I'd die, never to come back eight hours later.

Back to the pressing matters of the semi-present.

I'd been stabbed by a mugger only hours ago, so my clothes are a bit less than stellar, covered in blood, actually. I started for a closet and snatched the first wearable thing in sight. A coat, thankfully, I wrapped it around me and ran out the building. The moon was gone, and that made the city extremely dark.

I pulled my cellphone out of my pocket, to find it had a massive crack straight through the center. Dammit. Seriously? I exhaled heavily, before turning it on and checking my messages. Nothing, as always. I stuffed it back in my pocket before thinking better of it and calling a cab service.

A light flickered somewhere near the side of my head and I jerked back from it. A man, if I were to take a guess, about thirty years old, was lighting a cigarette with a match. He gave me a confused look, almost in passing, while breathing in and blowing smoke back out.

I coughed a little, pulling the coat closer around me, before feeling a cautious finger poke into my side. I spun around, ready to smack this guy in the face.

"Holy shit... I can actually touch you." He breathed excitedly. I felt my eyebrows knit in confusion. "I knew you could see me, I just wasn't expecting- just wow." What is he talking abo- oh. It took a moment for realization to hit.

I should've known.

Because of my one-a-day death-curse, I can see things behind the veil, but this was new to me. I didn't know that I could touch them, I'd never been close enough to try it out, nor had I planned to ever be.

I wasn't going to pretend I wasn't shocked. I was, but I definitely wasn't going to shake hands with the dead. I backed away and made my exit, before feeling cold fingers wrap around my wrist and pull me back.

"Wait!" I craned my neck.

"What is it?" He seemed to flush and shrink the slightest, embarrassed.

"Well... the thing is, I haven't touched a woman in sooo long," Ew. Is this guy even serious? "and I was just thinking-" I interrupted him.

"No."

"One night!!"

"No."

"I'll put you in my will!"

"It may not have occurred to you, but you're already dead." At that, I starting walking away again. A force pushed into my back and I let out a yelp, falling into hard concrete.

A stray rock pressed into my cheek as a pressure held me down, much stronger than gravity. I breathed in to scream before realizing no one would be able to see what I was seeing. No no nononono. Invisible to the eyes of others, hands creeped into the coat and a angry shiver took hold of my body.

I just wanted him to get the hell off me. Get off!!

I heard and felt him disappear. Gone completely. What?

I'm not looking a gift-horse in the mouth, but where'd the creep go? I looked around quickly before seeing the cab that I wish had come earlier than it had. I got in the cab and went home, simply.

~x~

But aye, I did say semi-present, when I woke from that nights rest, did this story really start.