A Gift or A Curse

“Oh boy. Here we go. What trouble did you cause now?”

“Huh?”

“You said you’re dead. Are you in trouble or something? Cause if you are, I can’t help you. I’m broke as hell, and I’m not taking any charity case into my life.”

Jimmy scratched the back of his head, not knowing any other way to explain this.

“No, Blake. I’m not in trouble. At least, I think I’m not. I’m dead. Like really dead.”

Blake stared at him, her emotion unreadable.

“I – don’t think I follow you.”

Jimmy drew closer to her, reaching for her hands.

“Feel this.”

She gasped at his touch. It was freezing as hell.

“I died at the age of 28, I think in year 2009. What year is it now?”

Blake’s heart was stopped even before Jimmy finished his sentence. Her eyes bulged in horror, her face went pale and her mouth dropped open in shock. Her breathing quickened, she was practically gasping for air.

“Hey, you okay?” Jimmy asked her curiously.

She went stiff for a while before she dropped down to the ground, and fainted.

“Blake! Oh shit!”



Jimmy paced around, back and forth. He had carried Blake’s body and settled her on a chair. He was waiting for her to wake up but she was still unconscious, her head dropped back and her mouth opened.

He drew near her and studied. A little bit of guilty conscience emerged within his unbeaten heart. He shouldn’t have come to this girl but he had no choice. He didn’t enjoy being dead for one second. After he died he wandered aimlessly and far away from his home. The funny thing was, he went to every city he and the band had been to during their tour and just watched the life of the people there. He didn’t know any of them and didn’t know why he was there. He didn’t even have any sense of time.

Just today his feet brought him here. And everything around him felt real in just a blink of an eye. He can touch things in here. He can even touch this girl.



The girl was average looking – long and burgundy soft curly hair, with freckles on her cheeks, moderately thin lips and a cute button nose. But she had the most amazing blue eyes Jimmy had ever seen.

But he wasn’t here to fall in love with anyone. In fact, he really missed his girl back home. How is she doing? How does she cope with his death? How’s her baby doing? He asked that question to himself every day. God he missed that child so much. He had no chance of saying goodbye to her, or even to the six of his best friends.

Brian, a childhood friend that stayed with him through ups and downs, thick and thin. He’d give anything to be with him again, and just fool around like they used to when they were young.

Matthew, how he missed that workaholic fucker. Matthew was the one who had always been the most patient among them, the most rational and like a brother to him.

Zacky, he missed hanging out with that kid, and become a philosophical asshole towards him. He loved seeing Zacky’s annoying reaction everytime he gave him some useless advices.

Johnny, the shortest and his most innocent friend. He missed bullying him, punching him in the stomach and hugged him after. He missed them all.

Michelle, his favorite girl. His heart broke everytime he crossed a thought about her. She and Brian went through a lot and now they had to deal with his passing. Life just isn’t fair. Well, so is death.

Valerie, the nagging mother. He missed hearing her voice so much. Waking him up, being mad at him for walking around naked in Matthew’s house, everything that bugged her, makes him happy.

Now Blake was the only person who can help him. Help him getting back.

He was about to touch her face when his eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of a newspaper on the counter. He took it and searched for today’s date.

3rd February 2011.

“Holy shit. I’ve been dead for a year already?”

******************************************************************************************************

Blake woke up with a sudden jolt. She immediately sat up straight as soon as her eyes opened wide. She scanned around. The environment looked familiar. It was her own room and she was sitting in her own bed. Her racing heart calmed down gradually.

“Thank God it was just a dream.” she muttered under her breath.

Seriously, she wouldn’t know what to do if she really did meet someone from the afterlife. She read about zombies, but they were scary. And this stranger named Jimmy didn’t look scary at all. His body was intact, there were no signs of any part of him will drop on the floor suddenly or his eyes were about to pop out or anything. He looked as if he was still alive and breathing. But then again, she thanked God that those were all just a dream.

She got down from her bed while slipping on her comfy slippers and went ahead for the bathroom. She opened the bathroom door and,

“Morning Blake!”

She went stiff, her eyes popped open, and her jaw dropped watching Jimmy sat on the closed toilet, reading a book on his hand. She wanted to faint again but this time she couldn’t.

So it wasn’t a dream. Damn it.

“You wanna use the bathroom? Okay, I’ll wait outside.” Jimmy casually got up and his tall figure towered over her. He went outside past her stiff body and settled himself on the edge of her bed, still immersed in his reading.

Blake suddenly snapped. She turned to look at Jimmy slowly then quickly went into the bathroom and locked herself in there.


“Blake, you’ve been in there for half an hour already. Are you okay?”
Blake covered up both of her ears. “This is not happening. This is not happening.”
“Blake….” Jimmy knocked again.
“Go away!” she yelled.
“Uh, I don’t want to. I’m staying here until you decided to come out.”
“I don’t care!”
“Well, you gotta come out sooner or later. You have to eat. And I don’t.”
Blake let out a grunt and just buried her face into her knees with her hands over ears.


“Blake O fair maiden Blake, will thou come out and speak to me? When will I see thy face again?”
Now he was being irritating. He practically talked like Shakespeare in front of her bathroom. But Blake still didn’t give in.


“Blake Blake Blakety Blake Blakety Blake Block Bulk Belt Belly Book Blake.”

He tried a little tongue twister this time. Blake chuckled softly. She remembered something from her past:

“What does Blake bleak bloke block with her blink blip blank?”

Blake laughed hard watching her brother looked silly, trying to cheer her up. She was failing her college class for the year and was devastated as hell that she needed to repeat the semester all over again. Her brother at the time, calmed her down and succeeded in making her smile.


She sighed heavily. Wondering where her brother had been, because they kind of lost contact after her parents kick him out of the house. She didn’t understand at the time. Her parents only explained that they were against his marriage but he decided to get on with it anyway. She didn’t have a choice but to cry every night, thinking about him.

That happened two or three years ago.

What’s happening now is, that tall strange ghost is still out there, begging for her to come out.

“Seize the day, or die regretting the time you lost, it’s empty and cold without you here, too many people to ache over…DUN DUN DUN DUN I see my vision burned!! I feel my memories fade with time…but I’m too young to worry!”

Blake had no choice but to open the door eventually because he started to yell in his singing and his voice sounded annoying.

“There you are. Are you okay?”

Blake stared at him, like she was going to strangle him to death - again.

“Could you – not sing again? It’s annoying.”

Jimmy blinked at her, not believing his ears.

“Wow, I’m so used to people compliment me, saying that my voice is amazing, I can reach high pitch and whatever. But you, you just hurt me. Ow my heart!” He grabbed his chest and pretended to be hurt in front of her.

“Are you always this weird?”

He stood up straight and smiled silly.

“Tehehe. Yeah.”

“I need to shower-”

“You’ve been in there for the longest time and you haven’t showered yet?”

“ - and open my shop in 15 minutes.”

Jimmy stopped talking. She looked serious. After a brief staring contest between them, she went into the bathroom again and this time he heard the water running.

Notes

A/N: i can't wait to update so i'll just fucking update it. :D