Over Too Soon

Chapter One

Chapter One

Kayla leaned back against the wall of the hospital corridor and stared at the door in front of her. It was only a few more steps, but she couldn’t bring herself to take them. She knew she had to go back in the room. There was no point in standing here all night. She needed to be on the other side of the door with her brother. There was no one else by his side. And wasn’t she partly to blame? How many times in the past couple of months had she told him life was tough, get over it? She took a hesitant step forward. He’d tried to go one better. He’d tried to get over it permanently.

They’d been born fifteen minutes apart, another five minutes and she would have had a separate date of birth. They’d shared a womb for eight months, a cot for a year and a bedroom for five years. With all that enforced time together, you’d think they’d have more in common than a last name, the same birth date and identical dark brown hair. She hadn’t one single thing in common with Jeff. Actually, not many people had anything in common with him.

Kayla forced herself to open the door and step into the hospital room. Her courage deserted her and she stood there, frozen. She listened to the click of the door close behind her as she stared at the floor. One of her shoelaces had come undone and trailed under her sneaker. For a moment she was tempted to stop and retie it, but instead she forced herself to move forward, her gaze on the industrial carpet. The edge of the bed came into view and her gaze slowly travelled up along the bed frame, across a beige blanket, halting when she saw a young man leaning over her brother. The palm of one hand rested on Jeff’s pale forehead.

“Hey! What are you doing in here?”

The young man straightened. “You can see me?”

“Of course I can see you.” Kayla took a step back. He might be good to look at, but he sounded like he’d escaped from the psychiatric ward. “You shouldn’t be in here.” She took another step back, unable to look away from him. If he started to run towards her wielding an axe or something she wanted plenty of warning.

“Wait. Don’t go.” He moved forward.

She turned and raced for the door. His hand captured hers before she could grasp the door handle. She faced him as she tried to pull away. “Let me go before I scream.”

“Please. I’ve been here for days.”

He stepped closer and Kayla was forced to tilt her head back to meet his dark eyes. She shook her head, trying to pull away from him.

“No one sees me. Only you. Don’t go. Talk to me. Just talk to me. Please.”

Kayla ignored the pleading tone. “Let. Me. Go.”

His grip loosened, but he continued to hold her hand. “I just want to talk.”

The door swung open and forced them to break apart so they could jump out of the way. Kayla pressed her hand against her chest as she glanced first at the nurse and then the boy.

The nurse held the door with one hand, the other resting on her hip. “Your parents rang. They want to remind you not to stay too late as you have school tomorrow.”

Kayla sent a nervous glance towards the boy. “Ahh, I was wondering…” Kayla faltered. What did she say? Can you have someone cart this lunatic back to the asylum?

“She can’t see or hear me.” He stepped in front of the nurse to wave, grinning as he faced her.

“Yes?” The nurse continued to look at Kayla, giving the boy not the smallest amount of attention.

Kayla stared then shook her head, sighing deeply. “Never mind.” She slowly walked to the chair near the bed and sank onto it. She dropped her head into her hands. It had obviously been too long a day. It wasn’t the boy who was the lunatic. It was her. Just great. She wondered if she should ask the nurse to cart her off to the psychiatric ward.

“Are you okay?”

Kayla raised her head to see the nurse in the doorway, looking at her through the waving boy, half hidden by him.

Kayla laughed abruptly, a sharp sound that made her think of a lunatic sharpening an axe as he muttered to himself. “Yeah, about as much as you can expect.” She kept the words to herself that she wanted to blurt out. Just great for someone who’s completely lost her mind. Instead, she watched as the nurse nodded and left the room. Kayla looked back at the boy who remained in her brother’s hospital room. Maybe she should have asked the nurse to bring a bed in for her too.

Although how she’d thought up someone who looked as good as him, she didn’t know. He had olive skin, short brown hair a shade darker than her own and eyes equally as dark. He looked like he’d be taller than her brother who often reminded her of a scarecrow with how tall and thin he was. There was nothing scarecrow-like about the boy she stared at. He filled his white cotton shirt nicely.

He stepped forward and held out his hand. “I’m Brett, by the way.”

Kayla stared at his hand.

“Most people shake hands and offer their name.”

Kayla closed her eyes. This was dreadful. No. This was worse than dreadful. Maybe she was hallucinating from all the drugs her brother had taken to end his life. Didn’t twins often experience the same things? That they’d never done so before didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

“You know, just because I’m dead doesn’t mean I enjoy being ignored. I didn’t like it when I was alive, not about to start liking it now.”

Kayla’s head jerked up at his words. Her mouth opened twice before she managed to speak. “Dead? As in a ghost?”

Brett dropped his hand. “Dead. As in no longer living.”

“There are no such things as ghosts.” She frowned and reached out to touch him on the arm. “You’re real. I can touch you.” She wrapped her fingers around his warm arm. “Hold you. You can’t be a ghost.”

Brett shrugged. “I don’t understand it either. No one else can see me. Everyone walks through me. To you, I’m real. In the past nine days I’ve talked to one other person. Someone like me. Another ghost. Do you know how lonely it is when you have no one to talk to? When no one can see you?”

Kayla’s eyes narrowed. “What were you doing to my brother?”

“What do you think I was doing?” Brett asked warily.

“He can’t die. Do you understand? He’s not to die.”

“He wants to. His soul is barely holding on.”

“No!” Kayla rushed to her brother’s side and grabbed hold of his hand. “Do you hear me, Jeff? You’re not to die. I couldn’t stand to live without you. Remember when we were really little and we thought ’cause we were born on the same day we’d die on the same day? Well don’t go, in case we were right. I have heaps of stuff I want to do.” She turned to Brett. “Can’t you reach him? Tell him to come back. Please?”

“I don’t know how.”

“What were you trying to do before?”

Brett shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

“I think it does. You were trying to kill him. Weren’t you? Why?”

“What’s your name?”

“Huh?”

“Your name. I already told you mine.”

She hesitated. “Kayla.”

“Kayla, I’ve been dead nine days. I talked to some old guy who’s been dead a total of six times. That’s it. The measly bit of info he gave me is all I know about being a ghost. I have no chains to rattle, I don’t feel the need to throw things about the room, or at least I didn’t until I met you. And, I shouldn’t be dead.”

“Obviously you should be since you’re here.”

“I’m not meant to be dead. Unlike your brother I didn’t try to kill myself. I wasn’t drink driving when we went out the night I died. I had someone, who didn’t plan to drink, organised to drive. I did everything right. Ate properly, played sport, got into uni, made no trouble for anyone. I did everything right. Then bang! All over. Do you know what that’s like?”

Kayla shook her head. Of course she didn’t. She was alive. And he knew that. She glared at him. “None of that has anything to do with my brother. You leave him be.”

“He doesn’t want to be here. It wasn’t a cry for help. You weren’t meant to come home. Why did you come home?”

“How do you know?”

Brett smiled. “I heard it in his thoughts. So, why did you come home?”

“I forgot my phone.”

“It wouldn’t take much to show him how to let go so I can step in.” Brett brushed the hair back from Jeff’s forehead. “A little on the pale side and he looks like he’s never played sport, but I can deal with that.”

Kayla leapt forward and shoved Brett away from her brother and against the wall. “No.” She held his gaze. “Don’t touch him.”

“I have six months to find a new body before I permanently become a ghost. He doesn’t want his. I do.”

“You can’t have it.”

“What do you expect me to do? Let go? After all that’s happened? Die? Never live again?”

Kayla frantically held onto Brett so he couldn’t return to Jeff’s side. “I don’t know. All I know is that you can’t have my brother. Please. Leave him be.” A tear escaped and she blinked, trying to hold onto her emotions.

Brett swore and sank to the floor, his back resting against the wall. Kayla went with him, unwilling to set him free. Brett swore again then reached out to wipe the tear from her cheek. He leaned back, his head against the wall and his gaze on the ceiling. “I’ll leave your brother alone. But if he figures out for himself how to let go I’m not going to encourage him to stick around and I will take his body.”

“Thank you,” Kayla whispered.

“The first body in days I’ve felt I could take and you have to ruin it.”

“He’s my brother. My twin.”

Brett glanced between the two of them, surprise on his face. “You have to be kidding. I had you pegged as being half siblings or something.”

“I know. We don’t look much alike.” She sat beside Brett, her shoulder touching his, and let go of him. “I didn’t know things had got so bad for him. I would have done something. I don’t have a clue what I could have done, but I’m sure there must have been something. I can’t believe I didn’t realise how he felt.”

Brett took her hand. “No one can know what’s on another’s mind.”

“Yes but-” Kayla broke off as the door swung open.

The nurse stood there again, looking extremely annoyed. “You might want to give your parents a call and let them know what your plans are. I am not a messenger.”

“I’m sorry,” Kayla said.

“I understand you don’t want to leave your brother’s side. But while your friend is here he can take a turn sitting with him. Since there doesn’t seem to be anyone else willing to share the duty with you.”

“They-” Kayla started to defend her parents and then the rest of the nurse’s words registered. “My friend?”

The nurse pointed to Brett. “Boyfriend maybe?”

Kayla started to pull away from him, but his hand tightened on hers. “I… that is-”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she calls her parents,” Brett said.

“Thanks.” The nurse turned and left the room.

Brett grinned. “Did you hear her? She saw me. And spoke to me.”

Kayla frowned. “But she couldn’t before.”

Brett let go of her hand and reached out to the wall. He pressed against the wall and his hand slid through it like it wasn’t there. He pulled back, grabbed her hand and tried to do the same trick. This time his hand met a solid surface. He pulled Kayla to him, hugging her tightly. “You make me exist.”