Angel From My Nightmare

5 days had passed since Death had appeared in Jack’s kitchen, 4 days since May had come inches from discovering Jack’s secret and 4 days since him and Alex had started their search for answers. What had Death meant by warning him? Could he do something for Alex, even possibly bring him back?
Jack sat on the couch in the staff lounge at the Rockwell, a book about Greek myth balanced on his lap.
“Jack, get your butt in here!”
“What?” he looked up to see Lisa standing with her hand on her hip in the doorway.
“I’ve been shouting for you and you weren’t listening. I need you in here”
“Oh hmm sorry” Jack mumbled, putting down the book, which had come to nothing so far.
“What’s with you lately? You seem so distracted”
“Nothing I’m fine”
“Jack you were reading, you never read!”
“So what? I got a hobby”
Because Lisa could protest a customer made an order and she left to go make it. Every time she came near Jack for the rest of the night Jack made a point to leave, he’d always been bad at lying to Lisa and it wasn’t like he could tell her the truth about Alex; she was right though he’d been very distracted from anything that didn’t include Alex. It was like he was going through with-drawl systems, nothing felt right without Alex beside him anymore. No one had ever made him feel like this before; it was something he was yet to understand.

After work every day Jack has gone straight over to the cemetery, parking his car and jumping over the fence had become a daily habit. Walking through the graves without a flash light having done it so many times Jack no longer needed one to find his way to Alex’s grave.
“Hey Alex” Jack said, surprising Alex by wrapping his arms around his waist from where he was sat on the ground in front of his grave.
“Shit Jack, don’t do that!”
“Alex we’re in a cemetery, who else is it going to be?” Jack laughed.
“Did you find anything?” Alex asked.
“Pfft, not so far” Jack sighed, he’d been reading the Greek myth book all day in his breaks at work but still found nothing of use.
“Here let me have a look”
With the book balanced in Alex’s lap and Jack reading over his shoulder the boys sat in near silence, huddled up together on the grass in front of Alex’s grave, the only sound being Jack’s breathing as Alex was still as silent as the day he’d arrived at the god forsaken cemetery.
“Look at this one: Orpheus and Eurydice, he was a musician and fell in love with a dancer. They got married but not long after their wedding she was bitten by a snake and died. He was lost without her and went on a journey to the underworld to get her back, okay he didn’t succeed but that’s his own fault” Jack read.
“Jack that’s not going to work, you can’t go to the underworld!”
“I’m not saying that, can’t you see the thing that got him to the underworld? The thing that would have brought her back if he’d have fucked it up?”
Alex shook his head.
“Love Alex, he loved her so he was willing to go to the underworld to bring her back, it would have worked too if he’d done what he was told. Alex I don’t know what love feels like, I’ve always run away from my feels but there’s something about being with you that’s like nothing I’ve ever known. You never leave my mind; I can’t do anything without it coming back to you... I think I could be falling in....” Jack was cut off by a noise, in a cemetery so silent any noise is noticeable especially the noise of crawls on wood.
“What was that?” Alex asked, looking around in the darkness for any sign of life.
“I don’t know....”
There it was again, the sound of something dragging along wood then the sound of it cracking.
“I don’t like this” Alex admitted.
“You don’t like? You’re dead, you can’t die twice”
“Hey!” Alex protested only for his voice to crack as they heard it again, the sound of dirt moving beneath them.
“What do we do?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know, it’s probably just an animal, I mean what else could it be?” Alex said, trying to ignore the quiver in his voice.
“Yeah, yeah you’re probably right” Jack agreed. Both the boys sit tightly holding each other’s hands hoping nothing will come of the strange noises. Jack’s breathing just about gone back to normal when they see it. In the grave next to Alex’s a hand appeared out of the dirt, a thin bony skeleton hand.
Jack yelled jumping backward, pulling Alex with him. Both of them stared at the hand coming out of the grave, another hand join it and soon a whole body was pulling itself out of the grave.
“What... The... Fuck...”
“Jack...” Alex was pulling on his hand that was not the only skeleton to have awoken. All around them graves were opening and people crawling out. Jack didn’t need to say anything, holding tightly to Alex’s hand he pulled them both up and ran. Running back through the cemetery towards his car, a skeleton tried to grab Jack’s hand as he past but all he managed was to scratch Jack’s skin. Once the gates were in sight something pulled him back.
“What gives?” He turned around to see Alex holding him back.
“I can’t go Jack”
“Alex I can’t leave you here with them, what if they hurt you?”
“I’m dead Jack, what difference does it make?”
“Alex no...”
“Go Jack!” Alex pushed him but Jack had a tight grip on his wrist. As Jack fell into the gate Alex went straight through so he was now standing on the outside. A second passed as they both stared at each other, Jack standing inside the gates by Alex outside.
“Quick Jack, come on!” Alex yelled, as he watched the skeleton approach. Jack quickly scrambled over the gates and landed beside Alex. Jack quickly grabbed his car keys, opening the door for Alex unsure whether the boy would just go straight through it. Once in the car Jack let out something between a sigh of relief and a sob.
“What... What was that?” he chocked.
“I don’t know, can we just get out of here?” Alex asked, Jack nodded and started the car with shaking hands. Through the car headlights they could see the skeletons all lining the gates of the cemetery, all watching them get away.

Once back in Jack’s apartment Jack had calmed down some, his breathing back to normal and no longer shaking. Though still shaken up by what he’d seen, how could the dead raise like that? It was only when he had made himself a strong mug of tea (something his mum had always said helped with shock) and saw Alex sitting on his couch that it hit him what had happened.
“You escaped”
“Only just noticed? How did we do that? I’ve tried, I’ve tried just walking out those gates but there’s always been a force holding me back. I don’t understand”
“I don’t know... How can any of this be happening? We were just attacked by an army of the dead and you’re free”
“I don’t know Jack, I really, really don’t know”
Jack just buried his face in his hands, Alex put an arm around his shoulder in an attempted at comfort.
“I guess we get looking then”
Getting up Jack pulled a pile of books from the shelves on the opposite side of the room, putting a pile in Alex’s lap and a pile in his own they began. They read long into the night, looking for all they could of raising armies of the dead. Jack soon fell asleep, a blanket wrapped around his legs and his head on Alex’s shoulder. Alex lent over pulling up the blanket to cover him and placed a kiss on his forehead.
“To finish what you were saying earlier, I think I might be falling for you too”