In an Instant

For a moment I stare at him almost confused, but then I begin to understand some of it. I smile at him and stroll up to him.

"I had this strange feeling that you would be death's assistant." I tell him, and he kicks the ground slightly and smirks in amusement.

"Yet you still ask him who it would be, smooth Delilah; real smooth."

"Like peanut butter." I laugh playing with the necklace that resides on my neck. "Unless it's crunchy peanut butter."

We just stare at each other for a little while longer, I try to figure out the next steps when I see a very sleepy and upset Stephan walk out of the room. I try to run up to him but Travis holds me back from getting to close.

"Let's go get some coffee and then I'll drive you home." Sierra says to him as they walk down the hall together, he slumps his head down and just gives out a small nod.

"I don't want to leave her." He mutters as he lifts up his head slowly and turns around, we are face to face at this point but he's only looking right through me.

I know I'm just a ghost still.

"I'm right here Stephan!" I nearly scream, knowing very well he won't be able to hear me no matter how loud my screams echo.

"You're on the other side, he can't hear you." Travis says pulling me away from him as they walk into the elevator.

"I know that."

"So don't dwell over it, we have a job to do." He tells me glancing down at the necklace that begins lighting up on my chest.

"Press the button."

I do as he says and we are transported to a different area of the hospital, I see an old lady lay on her deathbed surrounded by her close friends and family.

"What do I do?" I whisper to Travis staring at the heart monitor that shows her pulse beginning to slow down.

"They can't hear you, there's no need to whisper. Just touch her hand and she'll be gone." He explained.

"So I have to kill her?!"

"Uh hello?! Who do you think you are a miracle worker?!" Travis practically shouts at me which causes me to step back from him in surprise. "No, right now you're death. So do your job, and take her!"

"How do you know what to do? Have you done this before or something?" I ask bewildered at the confidence Travis has for what I'm about to do.

"Tick, tock her time is up!" He points to his wrist for dramatic effect completely ignoring my question. I roll my eyes at him and reached out and graze the old ladies hand slightly, and then heard the heart monitor flat line and her family members begin to sob.

"Am I dead?" I turn around to see the same old lady whose life I just took standing there looking at us in confusion and observing her empty body. I almost feel guilty for it.

"Unfortunately yes, but if you come with me now there will be free bingo on the other side!"

"Travis!" I exclaim in surprise at his lack of empathy for the dead.

"I guess I lived a long life..." She nods and takes his hand and then she disappears into thin air.

"Where did she go?" I ask and look around the room.

"The same place we all go when it's over."

"Why do I have a feeling you've done this before Travis?" I question him as we leave the room and out into the hallway.

He doesn't say anything and just wanders into another room at the end of the corridor, I follow him cautiously and see him standing next to himself on a bed, he is hooked up machines and his breathing was slow.

"Are you in a coma too?" I ask.

He nods, "Wouldn't be the first, won't be the last. Death likes to keep me around here, since I'm here so often from drug overdoses."

"You think you would have learned by now." I reply sarcastically.

"I've been through a lot of shit in life Delilah, drugs where my only escape. That's why I keep landing back here, and if one day I can't be brought back then this will be my fate for eternity." I sit down on one of the chairs at the end of the bed, and he sits down next to his comatose body on the bed.

"Tell me more then, I want to hear if your shit is just as bad as my shit."

"Darling, everyone's shit is just as shitty" He laughs and starts telling me the story of his life and how he ended up here.

*FLASHBACK*

A scared 9 year old Travis hides at the back of his bedroom closet listening for the sound of the police coming to rescue him from the fate he found himself in, he was so scared and didn't want to end up with the same fate as his parents had.

His parents are dead now.

At around 3 AM he was woken to the sound of his parents heartfelt shriek and then multiple gunshots ringing throughout the quiet house.

Travis heard the footsteps and jumped up off the bed and hid in the back of the closet just waiting for the attacker to find him. And kill him like he did to the two people most important to him. Tears stung his cheeks as he already began to miss his parents, but held back the choking sound of crying as to not catch the attention of the attacker.

He peered through the crack that was left in the closet to see that the murder was currently in the room searching for him and headed towards the closet, Travis held his breath as much as he could but couldn't stop the heavy beating of his heart.

Just then the front door opened abruptly and there was the sound of police officers pounding up the stairs. The man looks around in horror and notices the open window above Travis's bed, he leaps out the window and out into the backyard and escapes.

*PRESENT TIME*

"The man fled, the police never found him or any evidence pertaining to the killer. So, they gave up and the case went cold. I never seen his face but I see him in my dreams all the time, it really fucked me up. My uncle took me in shortly after and raised me, he did the best he could but I was too fucked up to try and fix myself and I relied on drugs and hanging out with the wrong people, I wound up arrested loads of times eventually people just gave up on me and I was left on my own to learn to survive. I guess I never learned how... considering I ended up here."